Board Game Philosophy Club

You guys are all way off. If you asked Eugene what his favorite game piece is, he'd obviously say THE BOX.

Especially if it's a nice, linen-textured one in the standard size. The art should be in some soothing earth tones and show a clear picture of the guy you're trying to impress. He should look confidant and mean so you know he is serious business. And the box should have a number on the side so you can tell where it goes in the company's series. The lid should NOT be too difficult to take off, or the entire internet will hear about it.

(Second-favorite piece: a nice insert.)

Black Barney wrote:

My friends, family and I really like El Grande. A couple weeks ago (after 2 years of playing the base version) we finally tried a foray into the expansions. First step: Intrigue & The King.

WHAT A PILE. In the course of 1 game, we had about 13 questions we couldn't really answer. I think there was like zero playtesting of this game. Ugh

I had the opposite reaction and I don't want to play the game without that expansion now. We had only 1 question, which was answered in the rulebook FAQ.

There's a great way to avoid any confusion the EL GRANDE expansion may cause- don't play it or the base game ever again. It's amazing, but after I stopped playing EL GRANDE I never had any further rules questions about it again.

Best response to EL GRANDE ever- sometime back in '96 or '97, whenever it was we first played it at Dragon Con, a friend of mine says in the middle of the game "What is this, fucking MANCALA?"

dysjunct wrote:

You guys are all way off. If you asked Eugene what his favorite game piece is, he'd obviously say THE BOX.

Especially if it's a nice, linen-textured one in the standard size. The art should be in some soothing earth tones and show a clear picture of the guy you're trying to impress. He should look confidant and mean so you know he is serious business. And the box should have a number on the side so you can tell where it goes in the company's series. The lid should NOT be too difficult to take off, or the entire internet will hear about it.

(Second-favorite piece: a nice insert.)

Don't forget the box fart.

Michael Barnes wrote:

There's a great way to avoid any confusion the EL GRANDE expansion may cause- don't play it or the base game ever again. It's amazing, but after I stopped playing EL GRANDE I never had any further rules questions about it again.

Well yeah, that doesn't make sense to you? The rules made no sense to us even with the FAQ. No one had a good time so why would we play it again when we were having so much more fun with the base version?

We probably play board games for different reasons I'm thinking

Michael Barnes wrote:

Best response to EL GRANDE ever- sometime back in '96 or '97, whenever it was we first played it at Dragon Con, a friend of mine says in the middle of the game "What is this, fucking MANCALA?"

Not having played El Grande ever, I have to wonder, is it Mancala? Maybe Mancala, "dressed up", on "steroids", "dripping with theme", and having the elegance of creamed hamburger with an auction thrown in for good measure? A solid seven?

I kind of like Mancala; does El Grande "scratch the itch"?

Aarontu wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote:

Best response to EL GRANDE ever- sometime back in '96 or '97, whenever it was we first played it at Dragon Con, a friend of mine says in the middle of the game "What is this, fucking MANCALA?"

Not having played El Grande ever, I have to wonder, is it Mancala? Maybe Mancala, "dressed up", on "steroids", "dripping with theme", and having the elegance of creamed hamburger with an auction thrown in for good measure? A solid seven?

I kind of like Mancala; does El Grande "scratch the itch"?

Yes. If you like mancala or sevens, you will like El Grande. Buy it NOW, my Lord.

I rather like it. It's a strong 7 in my book. I haven't played it yet.

Schweig! wrote:

I rather like it. It's a strong 7 in my book. I haven't played it yet.

I'm afraid I have to rate it a weak 7. The shrink-wrapped box is slightly too large for my shelves.

And I suspect it will be hard to open.

I rate it a 5...It took me at least 30 minutes to open the damned box. Then someone got cheeto stains on it. there should be a coating on it to prevent Cheetoh stains....

I'd like to rate the following posters here:

Mikoyan: Tentative 7

Schweig: Lukewarm 7

Mad Dog: Flaccid 7

Black Barney: Rigid 7

mikoyan wrote:

I rate it a 5...It took me at least 30 minutes to open the damned box. Then someone got cheeto stains on it. there should be a coating on it to prevent Cheetoh stains....

Wow that's bad. If I were you, I'd start MULTIPLE threads on the poor production quality there, and then maybe shoot the company an email a couple weeks later.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I'd like to rate the following posters here:

Mikoyan: Tentative 7

Schweig: Lukewarm 7

Mad Dog: Flaccid 7

Black Barney: Rigid 7

I have enough self-loathing to rate myself a 7.

gah! I can't tell if "rigid" is good or not. I'm gonna guess yes.

Oh, take it from ONE WHO KNOWS. Black Barney ain't no rigid 7.


Wait, what? Did I say that out loud?