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Thread: Board Games

  1. - Top - End - #1
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    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Board Games

    Here in phoenix, there is a game store which pushes the envelope when it comes to board games. With over 1000 different board game titles in stock, and a giant wall of demo board games and supporting a "board game night" twice a week as well as support two different board game groups, I have been exposed to games I have never played before every week for the last 2 years.

    Noticing a lack of talk about board games on this "gaming/other" forum, I just wanted to see if there are any other places like this out there and maybe discuss new board games that have come out that others might enjoy.

    This week I played a newish expansion to a game called viticulture, a worker placement game where you race against each other to make wines and fulfill orders. The game is fairly long (about 3 hours) but fun. The expansion added new rules and split up the seasons much differently. I liked the changes (mainly because I won heh.)

    So let's hear some interesting board games from people.
    Last edited by Calthropstu; 2019-10-03 at 06:43 PM.

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    Lizardfolk

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    Default Re: Board Games

    My old list:
    Dominion
    Diplomacy
    Risk
    Twilight Imperium
    Settlers of Catan
    Thunderstone
    The Arkham games
    Warhammer 40K
    MtG

    Very heavy on strategy and rules, not very new player friendly.

    New List:
    Ticket to Ride
    Rat Poker
    Coup
    Secret Hitler
    Settlers of Catan
    Red Dragon Inn

    More about reading players and less about reading rules where I can get away with it. Really rules dense strategy games that take a long time to play are best with a small, dedicated group. I play with a lot more people now, and getting to know knew people is a large part of the game.
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    Rynjin's Avatar

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    Default Re: Board Games

    I used to work for a board game store (Marbles the Brain Store), but the entire franchise went bankrupt a few years back; that gives you a bit of an idea of the sadly still niche level of popularity board games are still working under, even though they're in a bit of a renaissance these days.

    But some fun ones to give a try: King of Tokyo, Dead of Winter, Exploding Kittens, Dominion (a classic), and Seven Wonders.

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    GreenSorcererElf

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    I have 3rd edition Twilight Imperium with both expansions and have a game day set up for it next weekend. Great game, very fun. I have played all of the games you guys mentioned except king of tokyo, and enjoyed most of them. I have a friend who is SCARY good at Dominion. She and I compete in numerous games amongst our group. Very often she or I are the winners of the games we play. We are both quite competitive and it's really fun to play with her. The rest of our group is also quite fun to play with as well.

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    Troll in the Playground
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    I own a small collection that includes Room 25 (survival / escape-the-dungeon game with a "traitor" variant), Sheriff of Nottingham (bluffing / negotiation game), Neuroshima Hex! (a tactical board game with lots of addons), Munchkin (although I can't stand it anymore) and Citadels (this competitive town management thing where you pick the Witch and win).

    After playing Azul for many hours at a convention, I'm buying that too.
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    GreenSorcererElf

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    Quote Originally Posted by Winthur View Post
    I own a small collection that includes Room 25 (survival / escape-the-dungeon game with a "traitor" variant), Sheriff of Nottingham (bluffing / negotiation game), Neuroshima Hex! (a tactical board game with lots of addons), Munchkin (although I can't stand it anymore) and Citadels (this competitive town management thing where you pick the Witch and win).

    After playing Azul for many hours at a convention, I'm buying that too.
    Azul is a good one. Sheriff is one I have been wanting to try, but haven't heard of room 25 or Neuroshima Hex. Munchkin is fun with people you don't know. Great to play at conventions.

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    DwarfClericGuy

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    Default Re: Board Games

    A overlooked niche is cooperative board games. Games where it's the players against the board or time rather than each other. They can be more enjoyable, particularly for players of mismatched ability, or only 2 players. Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert are easy entries into this. Island is easier/simpler, but both are similar. You have to loot some treasures from a sinking island and escape before it floods and the treasures are lost. Pandemic is a step up strategy/difficulty wise but more fun as well. Players are specialists working for the cdc and have to cure 3-4 different strains of plague before it wipes out the world.

    Alternatively, the epitome of rules dense competitive games is probably Twilight Struggle. A 2 player game where the United States and Soviet Union compete for influence using historical event cards. And that's probably as much detail as I should say due to board rules.
    Last edited by Thomas Cardew; 2019-10-03 at 11:14 PM.

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    GreenSorcererElf

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Cardew View Post
    A overlooked niche is cooperative board games. Games where it's the players against the board or time rather than each other. They can be more enjoyable, particularly for players of mismatched ability, or only 2 players. Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert are easy entries into this. Island is easier/simpler, but both are similar. You have to loot some treasures from a sinking island and escape before it floods and the treasures are lost. Pandemic is a step up strategy/difficulty wise but more fun as well. Players are specialists working for the cdc and have to cure 3-4 different strains of plague before it wipes out the world.

    Alternatively, the epitome of rules dense competitive games is probably Twilight Struggle. A 2 player game where the United States and Soviet Union compete for influence using historical event cards. And that's probably as much detail as I should say due to board rules.
    Unfortunately the group I play with prefer competitive games. And pandemic can be straight up unbeatable which puts people off. It can also be too easy all depending on cards drawn. Most co-op games are entirely luck based and many dislike that.
    However, I am quite fond of mysterium which is much less luck based. It's a game where one player is a ghost trying to tell its story through a depiction of cards handed to each player. Each player has a different story and you are trying to unravel it individually. At the end you have to figure out what story is correct. Great for mid sizegroups since it can take 8 players.

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    I recently played the Trogdor board game, which is a cooperative one that's appropriately fun and silly.

    Another game I recently played is Railroad Ink, building little transportation grids out of dice rolls. Quick, simple, but fun.
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    GreenSorcererElf

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    Played an interesting game last night called space base. It's controlled by a series of dice rolls and a mat that you place different types of cards numbered 1-12. You roll 2d6 and use the numbers either individually or added together to activate the cards in appropriate numbers. So say you roll a 5 and a 1, you could activate the 1 and the 5 or just the 6.
    It gets fairly interesting.

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    Default Re: Board Games

    I'm going to plug Onitama here. It's a bit like chess, but you determine what moves your opponent has available.

    Here's how it works: You have a 5x5 grid, with a dojo in the center spot at each end. Each player starts with a sensei in their dojo and four students, two on each side of them. You win either by capturing the enemy sensei, or by moving your own sensei into the enemy dojo.
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    Here's the trick, though. You see the five cards around the board in the picture above? Each of these cards represents a set of moves that each of your pieces can make. At game start, you shuffle the deck of about 30 possible move cards, and deal out two to each player, and a fifth to the side. When you move a piece, you take the card you used to move that piece and set it to your opponent's right. You then inherit the fifth card, and it becomes one of the two move cards you'll be able to use on your next turn. I'm probably failing to explain this very well, but it's a lot simpler than it sounds.

    Either way, it sets up a really interesting dynamic where you're thinking ahead to not only what you can do with this move, but what will happen if you give your moves to your opponent. For instance, you want to hold onto a card if it gives you a powerful advantage in terms of controlling the board, and choose very carefully when you want to use that move. After all, once you use that move, it's going to go to the side of the board, and after your opponent makes his next move, that's his powerful board control advantage.
    Last edited by Balmas; 2019-10-09 at 01:56 AM.
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    Lizardfolk

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    Highly recommend Scoville if you see it or have a chance to play it. I’ve never seen a game that uses the same kind of mechanics, and it’s super interesting. The theme is chili-pepper farmers at a chili competition. All the players share the same growing board to plant the different colors of chili’s. You have your meeple walk between plants, collecting the resulting offspring of the two plants you walk between. There’s a few more bits than that, but that’s more or less the gist of it. Different quantities and combinations of chili’s are needed to complete recipes that serve as victory points. More complicated recipes get you more VPs. It’s a lot like a tableau engine building game, but everyone shares the engine so your planning can often go e trembly sideways.

    The game also utilizes a turn order then reverse turn order for round phases that helps solve some of the first player problem. Being first in one part of a round means you go last in another. This to me is representative of a lot of the game: it’s simple mechanically but absolutely full of interesting decisions. With the overall focuse on shared play space, it strikes a great balance on planning and the sudden need to improvise when things don’t turn out as planned.

    Besides the mechanics, the actual physical pieces and board are quite nice as well. The chili colors are vibrant and easy to pick apart, the cars and tiles are different sizes and shapes so you don’t mix them, and the board itself tells you exactly how to set it up once you have a game or two under your belt. Beyond that, you also get sweet farmer meeples. While it isn’t like Blood Rage or Scythe or Gloomhaven in terms of having great looking stuff, Scoville has really excellent hardware for the game it is.

    Essentially, it’s an extremely well designed game with a central mechanic I really haven’t seen repeated elsewhere. It’s very simple to play but with a ton of depth to it. The pieces and board are surprisingly good as well. It’s very tough to find anything to complain about with it.
    Last edited by houlio; 2019-10-09 at 01:16 PM.

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    DwarfClericGuy

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    I played Villianous for the first time this weekend, reasonably fun. Everyone plays a Disney villian trying to accomplish their goal. For example, as Yzma I had to find Kuzco and defeat him using Kronk. Scar needs to succeed as King. Maleficent needs to curse a bunch of people/ places. The other villains can distract/ interrupt you by using fate cards against you or using heroes to block you. Not a particularly deep game, but gives plenty of opportunities to make bad puns, sing songs, and quote favorite lines. Worth a look of your group of friends is fond of Disney movies.

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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Robinson is by far the best cooperative game I've played. Really recommend that one

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    DwarfFighterGuy

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    Quite surprised none of the games I play are mentioned much here. Here's my list:
    Root: an extremely asymmetric woodland-themed risk. Each faction handles entirely differently, from the Avian Dynasty which has to make promises to its people every round or collapse to the Riverfolk Mercantile Guild who rent out soldiers and sell their cards for points to the Woodland Alliance who wants to bait people into attacking them so they can inspire the common folk. Very well balanced, very well tuned. I highly recommend it because each additional faction adds even more chaos to the already swirling pot.

    Mysterium:An excellent cooperative game unlike any other. One player (the ghost) tries to indicate who murdered them through a series of "psychic visions", which in this case means abstract art pieces. Since everyone interprets the cards differently, each new ghost is a whole new style of play. Very, very cool

    Eldritch Horror: Long, complex, and silly. The world is coming to an end and the lovecraftian mythos are afoot, but you can't do anything about that because you've been mugged by your creditors again. In this cooperative game you try to thwart the apocalypse, but RNG is an absolute killer. Very entertaining though!

    Betrayal at House on the Hill (also Betrayal at Baldur's Gate): Another solid cooperative game that comes in two phases. Phase 1 you explore a haunted house, trying to get as much power as you can while not dying. In Phase 2, depending on what items were found in what rooms, an endgame is chosen (out of about 200 options) where one or more of the players turn evil and try to kill their teammates/achieve their evil schemes. The endgames vary widely in quality, but there's some real gems in there.

    Gloomhaven: One of the best cooperative games out there, if you're willing to dedicate a year of your life and a table for permanent setup. It's a slightly deck-builder style dungeon crawler, but with a complete narrative that truly branches at certain points. Extremely good, but a massive time investment.

    Battlestar Galactica: You're all trying to escape Caprica but at least one of you is secretly a Cylon. I prefer it to Dead of Winter, but they are pretty similar in a lot of ways. A game that's about reading your opponents as much as reading your cards.
    Last edited by NRSASD; 2019-10-15 at 12:02 AM.

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    GreenSorcererElf

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    Quote Originally Posted by NRSASD View Post
    Quite surprised none of the games I play are mentioned much here. Here's my list:
    Root: an extremely asymmetric woodland-themed risk. Each faction handles entirely differently, from the Avian Dynasty which has to make promises to its people every round or collapse to the Riverfolk Mercantile Guild who rent out soldiers and sell their cards for points to the Woodland Alliance who wants to bait people into attacking them so they can inspire the common folk. Very well balanced, very well tuned. I highly recommend it because each additional faction adds even more chaos to the already swirling pot.

    Mysterium:An excellent cooperative game unlike any other. One player (the ghost) tries to indicate who murdered them through a series of "psychic visions", which in this case means abstract art pieces. Since everyone interprets the cards differently, each new ghost is a whole new style of play. Very, very cool

    Eldritch Horror: Long, complex, and silly. The world is coming to an end and the lovecraftian mythos are afoot, but you can't do anything about that because you've been mugged by your creditors again. In this cooperative game you try to thwart the apocalypse, but RNG is an absolute killer. Very entertaining though!

    Betrayal at House on the Hill (also Betrayal at Baldur's Gate): Another solid cooperative game that comes in two phases. Phase 1 you explore a haunted house, trying to get as much power as you can while not dying. In Phase 2, depending on what items were found in what rooms, an endgame is chosen (out of about 200 options) where one or more of the players turn evil and try to kill their teammates/achieve their evil schemes. The endgames vary widely in quality, but there's some real gems in there.

    Gloomhaven: One of the best cooperative games out there, if you're willing to dedicate a year of your life and a table for permanent setup. It's a slightly deck-builder style dungeon crawler, but with a complete narrative that truly branches at certain points. Extremely good, but a massive time investment.

    Battlestar Galactica: You're all trying to escape Caprica but at least one of you is secretly a Cylon. I prefer it to Dead of Winter, but they are pretty similar in a lot of ways. A game that's about reading your opponents as much as reading your cards.
    Played most of these and I believe mysterium was mentioned earlier.

    On a further note, I played paladins a few days ago. Had an interesting mechanic whereby you built up 3 different color abilities by using the other 3 color abilities. It was interesting how many synergies were involved.

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    Pixie in the Playground
     
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    If you like strategy, deceipt, planning and very high tension, i strongly suggest Twilight Struggle.

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    Twilight Struggle is highly rated on BoardGameGeek. I got the computer version from Steam and it's quite challenging.

    RoboRally uses maneuver cards (Ahead 1, Ahead 2, Turn Left, About Face, etc). Draw nine cards, chose five and lay them out in order. Your little robot will then execute those maneuvers...even when you realize you wanted Left instead of Right, or another bot shoves you off track, or you didn't notice there was a wall there. A race around a hazardous factory floor (with lasers, pits, conveyors, etc) to capture several flags in order. If you get upset about "I just need to turn left and I win, but my cards are two rights and seven forward, argh!", then it's not for you...although it would be perfect for your friends.

    Ironclads is an out of print wargame depicting battles between Union and Confederate warships, generally with each player commanding a single vessel. You all write your movement orders in secret, then carry out that movement (and any ramming or collisions) and fire guns. What makes it interesting is that many of the battles take place on rivers, so you have a narrow channel to maneuver in, your vessel can only turn so quickly, and you have to figure out how to maneuver to avoid running aground or colliding with your friends while getting the enemy in your sights. Probably more rule-heavy than most people want, but I ran my D&D group through a game and everyone was very enthusiastic about the "plan your movement secretly" mechanics.

    Power Grid has your power company competing to supply electricity to the most customers. There's an auction for new generator tech, a supply and demand mechanism for fuel, and competition for use of transmission lines to connect your grid.

    Terraforming Mars is popular with our group.
    Betrayal at the House on the Hill is interesting although I feel it's too often unbalanced--once the traitor and scenario are chosen, one side is often pretty helpless to prevent the other side winning.
    We haven't gotten Pandemic but several of our guys like Cthulhu Pandemic, in which you play Investigators trying to wipe out cultists and shoggoths and seal the eldritch gates before Cthulhu descends. Cooperative and challenging.
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  19. - Top - End - #19
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    NecromancerGuy

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    Default Re: Board Games

    I also have Twilight Struggle on the PC; it's handy to have the computer taking care of the bookkeeping rather than constantly switching out the influence tokens.

    Cthulhu Pandemic's all right, I feel, though a bit too hard for my tastes. I've got some of the spin-offs; Pandemic: Iberia is pretty close to vanilla Pandemic and is a lot of fun, Pandemic: Fall of Rome is also pretty fun. Haven't gotten Pandemic: Rising Tide to the table yet.

    I succumbed to the Kickstarter bug a while back, and I've started to get games I backed; I spent an hour at game night just unboxing Suburbia: Collector's Edition. I've played the base game before, and I'm looking forward to playing it with the nice components.
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    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Board Games

    I'm playing board games last night that's is nice games

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    Here's a few that we have and play kinda regularly:

    Deception

    This game is kinda like clue, in a sense, but rather than having a board you just have cards.
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    The more people you have, the funner and harder it is.
    There is one clue giver, who cannot say anything, all they can do is place a marker on a "clue card" which could be like "Time of Day: Noon, Morning, Night, etc" or "Victim's expression: In Pain, Calm, Disfigured, etc"

    One person is the murderer, who is blending in with the forensic scientists, who are trying to find the murderer.

    Each person is given "evidence" and "Murder Weapons" and the FS need to find out who did the murder (based on the Clue Giver's clues) and have to guess the exact weapon and evidence. If you guess one right and one wrong, you are out of the game and have to turn in your badge.

    For larger games, there are a Murder Accomplice and a Witness.
    MA knows who is the murderer and how they murdered, so they are trying to lead the FS away from guessing the murderer.
    The Witness knows who the Murderer and the MA are, but not which is which, or what tools they used (I think, we don't often have a witness) and is trying to lead the FS towards one of them.

    The game is over when either the murderer escapes or gets taken to jail

    This game takes probably 30-60 minutes to play, sometimes quicker.

    Boss Monster

    The dungeon building card game where you are the boss monster and trying to collect the soul of adventures.
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    Boss Monster is a 2-4 player game (with one of the mini expansions you can have more) where you control a "Boss Monster" and trying to build up your dungeon to make sure no hero can kill you.

    All (or most) of the cards are references to other games, movies, franchises, etc. Example would be Angstigoth (Boss) is a parody of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7.

    Each boss has a special ability that activates once you have built 5 rooms to the left of the boss.
    There are trap, monster, advance trap, and advance monster rooms.
    Each room has a treasure: Sword, Relic, Money, Book, which is what is used to lure a hero into your dungeon. Fighter, Cleric, Rogue/Thief, and Mage are the corresponding heroes to the treasures.
    You can build an advance room on top of any other room, as long as the room you are building on top of has at least 1 treasure of the advance room you're building on top of it (makes more sense when you play it)

    Game is done when you either have collected 10 souls or suffer 5 wounds
    I would say it's kinda similar to Munchkin

    There are some different ways to play, such as seeing who can get the most souls and use all the hero/advance hero cards.

    This is a fun and easy game to play that takes about 20 minutes


    Tales of the Arabian Nights
    Based on the One Thousand and One Nights stories, this is a Paragraph based adventure game, where you are trying to become Sultan.
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    You control one of many characters from the OTaON like Aladdin, Alibaba, Sinbad, Scheherazade, etc.
    There are different events depending on where you are, what time of the day it is, what skills or items you have, and whether or not you are male or female.
    What makes this game fun is that there is so many different outcomes that can happen, even though they are all "technically" predetermined.
    Think of it like Black Mirror's Bandersnatch, chose your own adventure.

    You see someone trying to steal from a market stall, do you fight them? Do you help them? Do you try to seduce them?
    If you fight them, and they have a knife, are you proficient with knife fighting? If you help them, do you know how to disguise? If you seduce them, are you male or female and will it actually work?

    A bit hard to explain it, but one game, I went from being poor, to stalking a vizier multiple times, killing said vizier, and becoming a vizier.

    Another game I was buried alive with my sudden wife, but something came and saved us because I had something on me (and yes, you can die in this game)

    Anyways, a lot of fun, check it out.

    Games can take 2+ hours, kinda like Risk or Catan, so if you play it, you'll have to be dedicated to it for a bit

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    My copy of Dune just arrived. I won't be able to play it anytime soon, since it's been more than half a year since we last played anything, but I just had to have it.
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    I find the lack of San Juan in this thread disturbing.

    It's like you people don't know what fun look like!
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    A few of my favorites:

    Spoiler: Andoid: Netrunner
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    A 1v1 PvP card game that uniquely uses different cards whether you're the Corporation (Defense) or the Hacker (Offense).

    The unique part about it is the massively different playstyles it allows. You could build towards a powerful combo that has a lot of risks and even more rewards. You could lay traps in expectations of your opponents' next move. You could attempt to outlast them by draining their resources and building a powerful board state. Overall, highly complex and very interactive.


    Spoiler: Deathbattle: The Card and Dice game
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    Based off of the Youtube series, this game is originally designed for 1v1, but more cards/modifications can allow others to join in. The game effectively revolves around gathering resources and building up combos for a big clash at the end of the round, while simultaneously trying to interrupt your opponent's attempts to do the same.

    The good thing about it is that most cards have a lot of risk when played near the end of the round (like if a particular resource its supposed to give you has ran out), or they build up for a combo that you telegraph early on. This gives room for players to adapt to what their enemy is doing. And because of the fact that the clash at the end is a big dice roll (and the entire round is just trying to improve your odds), it can still be very tense with varying levels of players.


    Spoiler: Star Realms
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    A multiplayer deckbuilder PvP game, designed by Magic the Gathering pros. Star Realms is very simple and is quick to pick up, but it allows good players to stand out by properly prioritizing the next best action. Gameplay revolves around buying cards to add to your deck, which either may have been purchased for defensive means, offensive means, countering an opponent's strategy, purchasing benefits or increasing the efficiency of your future moves. Could technically support a near-infinite number of players, with enough cards.
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    If you liked Star Realm, check out Hero Realm.

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    Default Re: Board Games

    Quote Originally Posted by Cikomyr View Post
    If you liked Star Realm, check out Hero Realm.
    I tried it, but it didn't have the same "strategy" element to it. Because of the fact that damage was increased in HR, you don't really have time to create good setups or combos. Red (Necromancer/Machine Cult) decks that focus around making your deck more efficient don't have the same amount of value in shorter games, and they ALL are shorter in HR.

    It almost felt like the goal, at any stage in the game, was stacking as much damage as you can, as fast as you can, in HR. In SR, it felt like there were a number of priorities you had, whether that was determining the tempo of the game (whether to gain wealth or gain combat potential), or determining the right counters to your opponents' plays (Bases > Health > Damage > Bases).

    Star Realms felt more like a strategy game, and so it stuck a bit more with me.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

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    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Cikomyr's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Montreal
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    Male

    Default Re: Board Games

    I agree, but I feel it makes the Red decks less of an absolute priority in Hero Realm compared to Star Realm.

    When I play Star Realm, I play either Red/Blue, Red/Green, Red/Yellow, or Red+, depending on what the cards offer me. Exception when the game just won't cooperate and dish me out nonreds all the time.

    I don't have such a straightforward approach to deckbuilding in Hero Realm.

    Also, the class starter decks add a zany twist to the gameplay experience. The coolest game I had was Wizard v Priest.

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    Banned
     
    GreenSorcererElf

    Join Date
    Jul 2016

    Default Re: Board Games

    Played Agricola last night. It was fun.
    I play a lot of worker placement games, mainly because one person in our group really likes them. I beat her last night and that is a rare treat. She usually destroys me in worker placement games.

    In other news, we also finished a 3 saturday long game of twilight imperium 3e. I won my first 3e game. It was fun, if a bit back stabby at the end. Very intense finish. It came down to turn order.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    EvilClericGuy

    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Indiana
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Board Games

    I like Lords of Waterdeep and it's expansions. My sister and I play it when we get together on holidays. We try to get other people to play but one of us usually wins. I think we are taking way too long on our turns though because the game takes us hours to complete if we have anyone other than the two of us playing.

    I'll also back Settlers of Catan. I prefer to play it with Cities and Knights.

    I've played Dominion a few times and it's fun.

    I haven't used all of the expansions that I have yet but I like Carcassonne as well.

    For social games, and if there aren't any kids, Cards Against Humanity seems to be the default in my circle.

  30. - Top - End - #30
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Inside

    Default Re: Board Games

    Borrowed Photosynthesis from local library (yes, our library has board games, which is awesome!). It's really pretty, with 3d cardboard trees and bright colours. I liked the gameplay, which consists of growing your seeds into small trees and those to bigger trees. There's a sun which travels around the board and creates shadows and illuminated areas which affect how many light points (actions) you get every turn. It's nice how the rotating sunshine makes one player stronger in some turns, and weaker in other turns.

    There are no random elements at all, except players themselves.
    Well that was awkward.

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