Games You Bought Because of F:AT

Corn Hole II

A lot of my games choices came from BGG geeklists. I can't really say if the games I have now are from BGG recommendations or F:AT, but these ones, I'm sure.

Cutthroat Caverns - kicked ass for a bit, is now gathering dust on the shelf, but only because we're on a DoaM rampage

Leaping Lemmings - zzzzz, on the trading block

Yomi - pretty good, fast filler

Summoner Wars - awesome!

I'm not sure if Runewars counts, because I think I would've gotten that even without F:AT.

Warrior Knights - was thinking about this for a long time, and the WK vs AGoT Trashdome pushed me over the edge


A Game of Thrones - bombed, traded away

Risk 2210 AD - bombed, traded away

Lifeboat (the card game) - ditto

Tales of the Arabian Nights - was fun, but games like this are too casual for my group

I want to find a good Japanese samurai era themed game. Shogun sucks right? I can't find a decently priced copy of Samurai Swords. Any more modern games? DoaM is preferable. Saw more pics/reviews of Samurai Swords on TOS. Why is this game not getting reprinted yet?

God, I'm such a new game whore, there's probably so many:

Magical Athlete - finally broke and bought this. May have to play it again without the drafting as that seems to slow the game down (we discussed using a more Citadels type drafting approach.)

Chaos Isle + expansions - they were cheap and I was drunk. Still unplayed, but sitting there taunting me.

Irondale, Irondale Expands, Politico, Insyllium - and I want to get more of Clowdus's games. Man's a genius even if his games don't quite get there.

Summoner Wars - a future classic. Clever design and approach to expansions. Everything a card war game should be.

War for Edadh - haven't got past the most basic game yet, but it seems to have a lot of potential. Need to trap someone into going through the campaign with me.

Circus Train + Expansion - still unplayed, but desperately, desperately want to play it. Seems like my sort of game. Might have to pimp up components.

High Frontier + Expansion - pretty sure I first read about it here and pre-ordered it. Took off like a rocket (sorry!) with my games group so we have to get in more games this year when everyone's back.

Mythgardia - acquired through what turned out to be really tragic circumstances. The game itself should be snapped up by Hasbro or Z-Man and reissued with solid components - it's a near perfect family-level fantasy adventure game.

Space Hulk - I wasn't going to buy it, I wasn't going to buy it - then something snapped when I saw it at Games Workshop in a local mall and realised we probably wouldn't see its like again.

The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Pendant - or Louvre Hulk as it's been called. Brilliant, light yet strategic, action focused game. And a theme my wife loves. Need to play it more often. An unheralded gem.

The World Cup Card Game 2010 - if I couldn't afford the board game, I could at least get the card game version. Still sadly unplayed.

you guys have been really bad for me.

kookoobah wrote:

I want to find a good Japanese samurai era themed game. Shogun sucks right? I can't find a decently priced copy of Samurai Swords. Any more modern games? DoaM is preferable. Saw more pics/reviews of Samurai Swords on TOS. Why is this game not getting reprinted yet?

Samurai Swords shouldn't be too hard to find or expensive if you're a little patient. If you want a DoaM samurai game it's the one to get. You need a couple hours to play.

There's another samurai game kalled Katana- I've never played it, but it's out there for you to consider. Samurai Swords is very good though.

Starcraft: Brood Wars expansion, because I wouldn't have known about the FFG clearance sale otherwise.

Magical Athlete

F:AT was probably a big factor in my decision to pony up $100 for the Space Hulk pre-order. Without F:AT's influence, I probably would have hesitated before pulling the trigger.

I bought Marvel Heroes because of Maka's high opinion of the game, but I've never played it.

Do video games count? If so:

Red Dead Redemption
Snoopy Flying Ace
Vanquish
Metro 2033
Borderlands

Why do I keep listening to you people?

Puzzle Strike
Yomi

I was interested in them for awhile, but Ken B.'s praise put it back into my consciousness and helped me go for it. They just arrived yesterday and I'm super excited. Played PS once already, and want to play more.

I feel like my tastes are somewhere between Ken B. and Tom Vasel's.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I bought the Neuroshima Hex app after Mad Dog recommended it, and I have played it about ten trillion times.

Also bought the Neuroshima Hex App solely based on this site.

Hm, let me see.

BOUGHT:
MEQ - bought on a whim because I was looking for 3 player adventure game and Barnes's review convinced me. The game itself was quite a disappointment and I have since stopped reading Barnes for what to buy, but do still read him for what to avoid. I also became quite vary of "brilliant" FFG designs, especially those with big price tag and coffin box. Now I lately realised (thanks to some comments on my whining about the game at TOS) that I might have misjudged a game looking for immersive Arkham Horror-like experience when the game is really a strategy game. If I ever get a chance to convince my group to try this again I'll test this hypothesis. I do however think that the game is way too expensive for what it is and that the "dolls" are utterly unnecessary (I preffer chits which are cheaper and usually better looking as well), lack of box insert or plastic bags unforgivable at this price tag and that FFG effort could go a bit more into playtesting and design than eyecandy.

Tales of Arabian Nights - well Scott Nicholson might have more influence on my purchase, but still as a Barnes's test if I'm in the hobby for the right reasons it belongs on this list. I was disappointed at first, but the second time when played with right crowd and the right house rules (thanks Uba) it clicked and we love it ever since.

Chaos in the Old world. Read Barnes's review. Waited a month (this was after MEQ buy), read some other stuff, asked my FLGS staff and finally decided on a purchase. Love the game, but unfortunately we have hard time consistently finding the fourth player who could stand this complexity (I mostly play with nongamers).

Twilight Struggle (de luxe). Unplayed, but have high hopes for it. My FLGS got it by mistake with FFG stuff - they don't stock wargames and never had GMT titles. They got some refund and I could get it a bit cheaper.

Cyclades. I think it was Barnes who said: "half the price of Runewars and probably better". There was also a very positive Matt Drake's review. It's the game that made me love the french, ehm, designs and publishers (not French people in person, I still think they're arrogant nosy bastards). We actually had an incident at this game as the abrupt endgame shift into backstabbing and direct warfare from the euro-ey build-your-own-thing beginning, can be too shocking for some. Good stuff.

Claustrophobia Again French production - half the price of Space Hulk III, though simpler but with painted miniatures. Bought as a "girlfriend game" and it's succeeded wonderfully in this. Also bought from a very nice store in the outskirts of Hamburg for a very good price and hope I'll have a chance to come back. (I'm a freelance artist who looks for FLGSs while touring, been to Germany 4 times this year).

Cosmic Encounter Took a while to pull a trigger on this one. I had a suspicion that american gamers are biased towards this one as they have some sort of nostalgia with it from college/university/high school days. Also my FLGS staff didn't like the Avalon Hill edition. But infamous Barnes's "10 games you must own or else!" list made me rethink as I came to conclusion I like negotiation games and games with random factor. Definitely one of my best purchases this year (from a weird store in Munich). Not for everybody in my gaming circle, but the core group loves it.

AVOIDED:

Civilisation. I was very much looking forward to this one, but low interaction level put it into the "meh" group. Thanks to: Barnes's warning article.

Dominant species. Looked forward to this one as well before the hype even started, but "it's basically 3 hour worker placement with area control and even though it's cut-throat it's still an euro", put it into "no thanks". I have trouble with convincing friends to try heavier games and said hell with it and bought Android instead (because of my TOS's "geekbuddies", many of whom are F:AT members as well).

And probably some other titles I forgot.

I've also saved some money because some of the games recommended here are a bit harder to get in Europe (I don't shop online) - Summoner Wars, Innovation, ...

There are a lot of games that this website got me excited about, but that I probably would have played/bought even if I wasn't on here as much. The biggest ones are Battlestar Galactica and Cosmic Encounter.

However, there are several games that would never have gotten a second look if I hadn't been here.

- Magical Athlete: Just recently bought this one, and we're having a ball with it. If you can't enjoy a game of Magical Athlete every now and then, you are probably not a very fun person.

- Tales of the Arabian Nights: Don't get this to the table as much as I'd like, but it's provided some great times, and I'm a big fan of it.

- Mare Nostrum: This one doesn't enjoy the rep on BGG that it enjoys here, so when I saw it in a math trade, I was pretty excited about it. Turns out that F:AT won that round too. It's a really great game, one of my favorites.

- Twilight Struggle: Really loving this one. Super tense and surprisingly straightforward, even if the strategy makes my head hurt sometimes. Before my days on F:AT, I was convinced that this game was way over my head. Nice to know I was wrong about that.

- Space Hulk: The excitement for the 2009 reprint was pretty infectious, and when I received it as a gift, it was one of the best gaming presents I think anyone has ever received.

- War of the Ring: Played about four times, enjoyed it, and never played again. It ended up being a very expensive space-filler on the shelf, so it got sold.

- Middle-Earth Quest: Like WotR, never got played. Also, I got Arkham Horror in a trade shortly before this, and that game was more what I wanted MEQ to be in the first place.

Notahandle wrote:

Southernman wrote:
" and to add insult to injury I bought the Broodwars expansion recently because it was soooo cheap."
You bought direct from FFG? Please let me know the total you paid, after the customs fee. I'd like to know whether I made the right choice in not buying during the FFG sale.

No - from eBay, a ding'n'dent buy for £16. The guy was local too so no postage.

Wow, a good buy. Hope I can get lucky and find one at that price!

Two games that I love that I mainly learned about on F:AT and aquired with the help of generous FATties:

Space Hulk 3rd edition (purchased with dysjunct's help)

Cosmic Encounter (purchased from dan daily)