What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Interesting, I only had the base set and played very casually.

A few recent games after a week hiatus on "vacation" staying with...in-laws.

Maria with one new player. New players should probably be given France automatically. Unfortunately in this game we gave him Prussia/Prags and he lost his Prussian supply train twice. Austria had a field day with some poor movement from Prussia and was able to focus beating down France, me. And the Prags also beat down France. It was a tough game to enjoy as France given how little pressure Prussia placed on Austria. We ran out of time by hour three and almost done with the third year of four, but Austria only needed another couple of points for the win. I couldn't do shit all game as France with both opponents hammering me. Still a great game but for each side to have fun the players have to understand the basic strategy and how the Prussian/Prag player really is in charge of balancing the other sides.

Fourth game of Cave Evil, another four player attempt with everyone new except me. I think next time I do a 4 player game with noobs I'll ask if they want to try 2v2 teams. I felt compelled to use the Darkest Evil Bitch as the game end condition so I could guarantee it would end after 3 hours. Seemed like the other guys enjoyed the game, the art, and the awesome creatures but I'm not sure if they would all play it again. It is too defensive with 4 players, everyone sits back, digs tunnels to find stuff, and eventually sends a few monsters out to the middle for some minor skirmishing. Not as much interaction as I would've hoped for - maybe playing with teams would fix that. I was the teleport 5 spaces necro and destroyed my neighbors crystal, knocking him out of the game after about 2 hours. I had a stacked squad with my necro, 2 other small creatures and 2 trinket creatures so my stats were pretty tough. I didn't kill anything else in the game and once the Bitch went active she teleported to me and I won. Great game but way better with 2.

Second game of 7 Wonders, had 7 players and played with I think all the expansions. Decent game after playing Cave Evil for 3 hours. Not something I'd ever be excited about though but at least it is fast. I didn't think the iconography was that bad either as a new player, and strangely enough I won with 57 points going big on military/culture and a sweet guild that gave me points for grey buildings my neighbors built. I think I like this better than Among the Stars after playing that game only twice.

I just hosted my annual game weekend (RepliCon). It was a lower key event this year because many of my friends who would normally come were unable to attend. Still loads of fun (and this year I made it into a mini-fundraiser for the local food bank / women's shelter and raised $200 for that cause).

Here's what I partook in:

Sushi Go! I enjoy this one. It's 7 Wonders (which I don't particularly like) except shorter, simpler, smaller, cheaper and cuter. My wife won; she typically does well in 7 Wonders, too.

Hyperborea I tried this for the first time a few weeks ago and now have 4 plays of it with player counts ranging from 2 to 5. It scales pretty well and it doesn't overstay its welcome (at least not when using the "2 of 3" endgame condition). I finished middle-of-the-pack with the red squad, despite a pretty kick-ass combo of technologies that allowed me to teleport (Long Journey from the promo cards) and double attack.

Battlestar Galactica This hit the table after a few years hiatus. It became a shelf toad after I bought the Pegasus and Exodus expansions because a fairly simple game became convoluted and intimidating. I utilized the Pegasus ship, Cylon Leaders, all of the characters, and the Treachery cards. As I suspected, the additions added complication without adding the fun, mainly because it's such a pain in the ass trying to reference rule changes. I need to print off a good consolidation of the rules. Plus, there were 7 of us so the game was at times like herding cats. Cylons won a close one. I was a Cylon Leader sympathetic to the Cylons but wasn't able to share in the celebrations since I was wanting us to be a wee more genocidal.

That's Life! A very fun push-your-luck game that I think is overlooked (or at least I never see mention of it), probably because it's a) out of print, b) has zero theme, and c) has weird comic art for no reason.

Terror in Meeple City / Rampage Not a fan of this one. The basic idea of it is better than the execution.

Summoner Wars: Alliances I played two games of this in which me and my opponent swapped races (Deep Benders vs Jungle Shadows). Jungle Shadows won both games, but my win was largely due to my opponent coming down with a bad case of shit rolls.

Jambo I hadn't played this since my first game, about a year and a half ago. I played the same opponent as then, though he'd played a few times since then. I was up 33 to 5 at one point, but I didn't have much of an economic engine going. He caught up and blew past me for the win.

Red7 I tried this filler, winning a best 2-out-of-3 against my Jambo opponent. Cool game. I like that it's small, cheap and simple, but decisions on how to play your cards are never easy.

The Hobbit Card Game Not a fantastic trick-taking game (that would be Kaiser), but not bad. The theme is actually a nice addition; it's not just pasting some Tolkien characters on the cards.

Deep Sea Adventure A push-your-luck game from Japan available through the BGG store. Super fun. I loved it. This game brought the most laughs all weekend. I need to get myself a copy.

Letters from Whitechapel Fury of Dracula is the game that got me into the hobby of fancy-pants games. I absolutely love it and it remains one of my favourites. Letters from Whitechapel, though, is the superior cat-and-mouse game. It's distilled down to nothing more than what is the best part of this genre: the hunt. So much tension, especially when playing as Jack the Ripper. This game actually took over 4 hours (which is waaaaaay too long for this one; most sessions should take about 2 hours) but none of us were bored for a second. Jack lost after his final murder of a wretched after we investigators were able to set up an impassable net, cutting him off from his home.

Sons of Anarchy My first try of this GF9 game. I don't think it's as successful as their other games I've tried (Spartacus and Firefly) but it's still quite good. I was the Lin Syndicate and absolutely crushed the other 4 players. Not sure how I did that, though, so I won't be able to repeat that success.

Gumshoe A few of us played through the first three days. LOVED it. It's at least as good as Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, but I think I prefer this one. The writing is great, the San Francisco detective theme is wonderful, and I like the rules changes, such as having to manage your time and being able to split up from the other detectives to chase leads. And autopsy reports, crime scene analysis, fingerprint identification... simply fucking awesome.

All in all, it was a great mix of quick games and lengthier, meaty fare; I got to blow the dust off a few shelf toads as well as try out a few I've been itching to play; some money was raised for people in need; and I shared lots of laughs while drinking beer and chucking dice with friends I haven't hung out with in a long while.

Super write-up but, c'mon man, you gotta make this a blog post filled with pictures.

I GOTTA HAVE M'PICTURES!!!

Got in the first game of Kingdom Builder last night with the wife.

Having just seen it on Tabletop, I thought it'd be a hit given my wife's enjoyment with Dominion and TTR (and familiarity with Settlers) and was proven right! I like it for what it is - quick and simple with a little bit for us to think about. Perfect end of day game for us.

Played games for the first time in a few weeks yesterday. Just haven't really been interested lately.

Started out with Tigris and Euphrates, always a good time. I was lagging behind and then made a completely boneheaded attack that made no sense and pushed me further back. Still, I enjoy the game.

Then Steam. Again, a favorite. Two things happened in this game I have not seen happen often, and I did both of them. First, the "go first" tile was taken. I absolutely had to Urbanize on the final turn, so I took "go first" on the penultimate turn. Then, when I saw how that turn shook out and realized I didn't have to Urbanize to have two 6-link deliveries, I picked it anyway and opted not to do it, saving myself cash and keeping it away from others. This only got me second place, but still.

After that there was a filler game of For Sale, which I again came in second on, by one point.

Then Roll for the Galaxy, which has really grown on me. My second-place streak was broken, thanks only to the tiebreaker.

Finally, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which I came in second at (of course), but considering I am terrible at it and usually lagging far behind, that was an improvement.

So I guess I'm back on the board game thing again.

Played Baseball Highlights 2045 with my wife yesterday. One of the few games released this year that I've been really excited about. I'd played it with my brother previously. It's amazing how it combines deckbuilding with back and forth play to let you play an entire three game series followed by a full best-of-7 World Series...in roughly an hour. And yet you don't feel like you've lost a ton in the translation.

At any rate, She quickly went up two games to none in the mini-series, always seeming to have the right cards to shut me down. I tried feebly improving my defense by drafting some gloves, but it just wasn't working. I was able to squeeze out a win in the meaningless third game of the mini-series. I think I'd decided to go more offense, but these things take time.

She had home field advantage and won the first two games of the World Series. The second game was pretty brutal, I think I lost 7-3. I did draft "Barry Sosa" (Yes, the names of the future players are all tributes to players of the bygone era). When we went to my stadium for game 3, I was able to battle back in a slugfest. Game 4 was very similar, and I was able to even up the series. I was carefully taking more fast runners and big hits.

I thought my play had backfired big time when I drew no defensive cards in Game 5, and she made me pay for it. She was able to shut down my important batters but all I could do is watch her runs stroll across the plate. To add insult to injury, she'd put a "Cancel all hits versus a Natural" in the On Deck spot (think of it as a pocket card, that can be played in emergencies if you chuck a card with the pitch hitter icon) so when Barry Sosa strolled to the plate for some late game heroics, he was shut down completely.

So I'm down 3 games to 2 and headed back to her home turf. Doesn't sound good.

Thankfully, the fast runners and big hitters were starting to add up, so I was able to hang in another slugfest in game 6. I was behind for most of the game, but her defensive cards finally ran out and I pushed five runs across with my final two card plays. I'd forced a game 7!

Game 7 ended up being a little anti-climactic as I drew into a good mix of power hitters and one Glove and one Double-Play. With those, I was able to limit her runs, while I swarmed the fast runners and big hits. To redeem himself, Barry Sosa showed up as the final batter and smacked a Grand Slam's worth of runners in.


I thought she'd have enjoyed this a ton as she's generally a big fan of deckbuilders, but this got the "eh, that's an ok game" when the series had concluded. I think I should have pulled a Roger Dorn and tanked that last game after all. D'OH! She said she'd gladly give it another chance, though.

You know, Bradford, I liked you better when you were just a ballplayer. If you want to be an interior decorator that's your own business.

I had a long post but it was eaten and I hate the internet right now so all I'm going to say is I played Forbidden Stars and Runewars in the same weekend.

I also happened to play Homeland, Spyfall, Roll for the Galaxy, Boss Monster 2, and Prototypes.

Good thing GenCon's in three days as I clearly have been deprived of gaming.

Dr. Mabuse wrote: Super write-up but, c'mon man, you gotta make this a blog post filled with pictures.

I GOTTA HAVE M'PICTURES!!!

It never occurs to me to take pictures. Maybe I could attempt some courtroom artist sketches...