What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Hey that was fun! Won my first game, not even close. Plan to play a ton tomorrow night if things dont get dramatic

Doggy play date so all kinds of craziness... played two games of Splendor. Legit great game, I'm moving the rating up on BGG from a boring 7. Hits a perfect spot where the game is fast but there is real chance to go for a short or longer term strategy.

Last night we played two 6 player games of Spartacus. We had 2 new players, and the rest of us were seasoned veterans. Still, it was the first introduction to the new expansion for the group (I played it at Origins in an epic 7 player match with several Fatties.)

The first game saw a lot of coaching to the new players, and one of them ended up leading Glaber to victory. He's probably my favorite Dominus to play. I had the new Dominus, Calavius. I think Calavius sucks since his second ability is extremely limited in scope. It only fires if the Host Dominus loses influence during the Arena phase. That doesn't happen very often! I much prefer playing a Dominus who is in full control of an ability to generate influence (like Glaber!).

For the second game, the player controlling Seppius took a VERY bold run at victory on the SECOND turn of the game! He knew it wouldn't fly and only did it because he had a truly epic hand of cards and felt that not trying it would be shameful. We beat him down hard, poisoning the wine of his one ready gladiator. Then I hit him with Shameful Ludus, and the best part was that one of the new players hit him with Twist the Knife right after that!

The festival cards were well liked, and the boasting mechanic of the new expansion also went over pretty well. One player actually did lose two influence due to his boasted gladiator getting beaten. At one point I played a festival card that granted me 8 gold if the host declared a primus. I offered to split it with the host and the battle was on...

This game almost never disappoints.

Spartacus demands a lot of its players in terms of above the table activity, but if you have those players...

Second game of Cthulhu Wars yesterday, two new players and one guy owned the game and had played a few times. I had Crawling Chaos and let the others pick first. I think that was a mistake; CC definitely felt very easy to play as and has some great defensive moves if you try to target him. I was kicking ass by the mid game and the others ganged up on me but it was far too late. Total time about 2 hours and I won 41-35-30-20ish. Black Goat and Cthulhu really struggled this game. The Goat player didn't get his power engine running and didn't do much whereas Cthulhu wasn't aggressive at all early and by the late game Nyarly and Hastur could kick his ass pretty easy. Everyone seemed to like the game and I had a great time playing it. Last game I was Yellow Sign and barely had a chance to attack, as CC my gameplay was way different. I like the game but still need more plays before I decide to throw more money at it next month with the expansions. On the other hand I'm around 40 games right now and don't want to acquire more so adding more factions and neutral options to a current game seems like a good way to extend the life of it without having a new game on the shelf demanding attention.

Third game of Study in Emerald, had 5 and two new players. I was a Loyalist and two others were clearly on my side by the halfway mark. One of the new guys had trouble picking up the strat and he ended up on the Restorationist side and lost. Its a tough game for noobs but I still like it alot. The card variety is great, the different and shifting ways to scores is great, and it reminds me a bit of Glory to Rome where some of the cards and actions seem overpowered but taken as a whole there are so many great cards none of them are overpowered. Kinda long at a little over 2 hours but the player turns were pretty fast. Still a favorite.

Last game is Successors, a favorite of ratpfink here on the forums that I had a chance to play against. I first tried this about 4 months ago or so at a con where he taught it. The game somewhat aims to be a multi player Hannibal RvC and doesn't really succeed for me. I liked it alot my first play and after my second try last week I have to lower my rating. The card draws each round are pretty limited in action terms and are mostly used for ops and activating generals or building units rather then the events like in Hannibal. The royals that provide points for a possible win are stolen by some of the cards and often are extremely difficult to use effectively and are some of the better cards. Instead it feels like everyone is playing their own little game of conquering territory in one corner of the map for the first half of the game, and during the second half everyone aims to grab a couple of VP provinces from each other and maybe a handful of battles occur. For the time spent on it (maybe 3-4 hours on average) I would far rather play Hannibal itself, both for the different combat system - Hannibal uses battle cards whereas Successors uses two dice rolls, and for the greater player interaction. Successors also has the odd rule where a defeated army is permanently removed from the board and displaced until the next round of the game instead of retreating. Battles are pretty high stakes by the middle/end of the game as a result and can be devastating if you lose a general (you only have 2 main generals) early in a round. Losing a general on the map is huge and leaves your territory pretty vulnerable to all of your neighbors and the displacement rule I feel discourages fights and is not something I appreciate on a fun level in the game. It probably is accurate for the time period but it makes the game far more non-confrontational. Maria is by far a better multi player wargame for me and I suspect Friedrich is as well if I ever get a chance to play it.

Talking of Fighting Fantasy books, I just acquired The Legion of Shadow, part of the DestinyQuest series. It's exactly like FF books except its 656 pages long, reads like a novel and is the first of a trilogy set. I'm quite enjoying it. There is levelling up and boss monsters and stuff, graded quests and maps in full colour included. The writing is not bad either.

Lots of fun, I could tell you of my adventures but it would spoil the fun for newcomers. Recommended.

Played a bunch of Shadowrun Crossfire this weekend, 2P and solo with 2 runners.

I really wanted to love it, based solely on the setting, but it's really hard. It's almost like it's designed to have you lose 10 games to level up so that you can start winning.

The best part is that it has these Legacy-type stickers you affix to the player boards to level them up permanently.

I'm going to continue playing a while before really accepting that I hate it, but it feels like I must be playing it wrong because there's just no real way to win because your hand never has more than 4-5 cards, which isn't generally enough to beat an enemy card

ThirstyMan wrote: Talking of Fighting Fantasy books, I just acquired The Legion of Shadow, part of the DestinyQuest series. It's exactly like FF books except its 656 pages long, reads like a novel and is the first of a trilogy set. I'm quite enjoying it. There is levelling up and boss monsters and stuff, graded quests and maps in full colour included. The writing is not bad either.

Lots of fun, I could tell you of my adventures but it would spoil the fun for newcomers. Recommended.

We touched on these a few years back, so good to see some positive follow-up.

fortressat.com/forum/17-other-types-of-games/86907-destinyquest

Also, that thread reminded me of Wizards, Warriors and You. I totally forgot about those. I feel like they may have been the cheesiest of the lines but it think they're actually the ones I read the most...

SuperflyTNT wrote: Played a bunch of Shadowrun Crossfire this weekend, 2P and solo with 2 runners.

I really wanted to love it, based solely on the setting, but it's really hard. It's almost like it's designed to have you lose 10 games to level up so that you can start winning.

The best part is that it has these Legacy-type stickers you affix to the player boards to level them up permanently.

I'm going to continue playing a while before really accepting that I hate it, but it feels like I must be playing it wrong because there's just no real way to win because your hand never has more than 4-5 cards, which isn't generally enough to beat an enemy card

I hate to say it, but this jives with my research on the game. I'm a big fan of the 90s shadowrun ccg, and hoped Crossfire would be great. I've been told the 90s game was better. I actually know someone with the game but I haven't pushed the issue because I fear playing a dud.

For our sake I hope what I've read is wrong because I'd love a decent shadowrun game.

wife and I had a great game of Arkham Horror. 4 investigators, first game with miskatonic mixed in, and first game with the dunwich herald. Just a very close ending, back and forth with how we felt the game was going the entire time. 1 investigator devoured, others with madness and injury cards, and managing to close gates just ahead of the GOO coming out. Terror level threatening to creep up, and therefore draw the Dunwich horror out....close a gate to stop the goo coming out, get a lucky Mythos draw and two investigators come out of otherworlds, lucky rolls and seal it for the win. We wanted to setup again and go, but life gets in the way.

Starwars Risk with my daughter. no words on the cards, so she was all over it. Rebels win with a coordinated strike. X-wings, cleared a path through the Tie Fighter Screen, and B-wings drove in to attack. 2nd try and boom goes the dynamite. She planned that strike herself after a few hiccups on earlier turns. not bad for a 5 year old.