What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Played it with four tonight. Really liked it. Other thoughts in Sag's thread.

Wrong thread.

F:AT Thursday tonight featured Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

I stopped by Myriad Games in a Manchester NH yesterday when I had to tow a car up to Concord and they had a copy on the shelf. It was a Ystari edition of the game and the components are really nice. I was quite pleased with it.

It's sort of a multiplayer "Choose your own adventure" type game where you or your team decide when you've learned enough to solve the crime and answer some questions. The thing is, that you are being graded by Sherlock himself and if you take more time than he did then he looks at you somewhat disappointedly and Tsk Tsks you.

We played two of the mysteries tonight. The cases of The Munitions Magnate and The Tin Soldier. There was Uba, Engineer Al, Cranky Dan, myself and a special guest appearance by my Mad Scientist Wife who rarely games with me.

We did ok on the first mystery. Nailing the correct perp but for all the wrong reasons. However we smoked the second one and scored an even 100 and thereby matching the Holmes himself.

I thought it was great fun and my wife had a good time playing as well which made the victory complete.

We've been playing The Convoy. So far I've played thrice as Moloch because my son won't abandon the Outpost--I don't know when I'll get to play that side. We've worn out the rule book though, paging back and forth for rule clarifications. I really dig the post-apocolyptic Neuroshima theme so I'm a sucker for these games. I don't like the artwork on The Convoy compared to 51st State, but, it isn't that bad. Overall, I prefer 51st State, New Era, and Winter, but The Convoy plays quicker. Has anyone played the new Ruins expansion yet?

Last night I ended up at my new game group's house. Battlestar was the main event, and I still have yet to be a Cylon. We lost. We would've lost sooner because the Admiral was a very clever Cylon, but he was new and didn't know he had to nuke our civilian ships BEFORE revealing.

Great fun. No dickheads, APers, or boring people at this group.

Next up was One Night Werewolf. Probably the single most inane game ever, but they are huge fans of party games and Werewolf especially, so it was fine. I tolerated it well and didn't complain.

Then came Shadow Hunters. Fun little short game. I was at a huge disadvantage because you really need to know the item cards to be any good at it.

Then came 3 rounds of Coup. Holy shit, how do I not own it? Well, I do now. Game is an outstanding pure bluffing game that lasts 5 minutes with 5 players. Really sneaky fun. 3 rounds played and I ended up getting the Assassin and Duke two times, and the Assassin and Captain another.

All in all, a very good night.

A couple games for the first time last night, both 2-player with my wife.

Star Realms: It's good. It doesn't do anything particularly novel for a deckbuilder, but what it does do it does extremely well. If feels like a space battle, much in the same way that Arctic Scavengers feels like a post-apocalyptic survivor game. I'm a bit over deckbuilders that are just a collection of mechanics with a twist, and Star Realms doesn't bother with any of that. I also appreciated that there's no restricted order of combat, purchasing, and playing cards on your turn. I've found that I don't like a rigid turn structure in deckbuilding games because those structures sometimes force me to think in a sequence that I don't find intuitive. Star Realms let me lay out my cards, attack if I want to, see what happens, then decide what to purchase. Or do it in reverse. Or do whatever else I can on my turn in the order I want to do it. Big thumbs up if you like streamlined deckbuilders.

Impulse: A space combat/mining/refining/trading game from the guy who did Glory to Rome and Uchronia. There's definitely some GtR/Uchronia DNA in this one. I like it, but it's going to take more plays before I'm any good at it. We mostly fumbled through the first half of the game but it got a lot more interesting towards the end. Anyone who gets a review copy of this game is going to have to put down a half-dozen plays to write anything really meaningful on it other than comparing it to the designer's other games. Unexplored space sectors are face-down cards, and when you explore a sector with a ship you pick up the card and play one from your hand face-up (which may be the one you picked up). So you can sort of tailor the map, which gives you a lot to think about. The player interaction is all threatening and combat with Cruisers, which patrol cards and get in fights and blow up Transports. Players use their Transports to activate cards on the map. There can be a lot of planning in how you move your Transports to string together actions in a meaningful way. The trading part of the game is overstated; you never trade with other players, instead Trading is just a way to get rid of cards for points. Like GtR each player has a play sheet with an area on the left for materials/minerals, and those minerals can both boost card effects and be refined for points. The right side of the play sheet has an area for your Plan. Normal game play is a string of 3 cards called the Impulse and you add a card to the bottom. You'll execute all four cards (if you can/want to) in sequence and then remove the oldest card. So when you put a big powerful card in the Impulse other players will get to use it too. Your Plan is a place to put cards that only you can use, but they're a one-time use and then discarded, which also gives you a lot to think about.
The basic actions, like GtR, are simple. Effective chaining of cards is difficult to do. The spatial aspect of it, with moving Transports and Cruisers in a meaningful way is tricky (at first). The direct combat and the map lend themselves to more of a threatening metagame than GtR. I imagine with more players (the map is the same size regardless of player count) the game is going to require you to make some alliances and such. I'd be afraid of being sandwiched between two combat-inclined players.

Stoic, I am a huge New Era fan (I ditched 51st State after I saw that TNE was a complete re-do, and a better one in my opinion.) I have Ruins and it's good. It adds some nifty cards to the mix, including two more leaders and some new production locations that opponents can send multiple workers to. If you like TNE and Winter, definitely get Ruins.

I'm looking forward to Imperial Settlers at GenCon, which is the basic game engine from 51S/TNE adapted to some kind of non-Neuroshima colonization game.

I've only played The Convoy a couple times, and I liked it. I need to play it some more.

Last night was Marrying Mr. Darcy, bitches!

It's a card game based on Pride and Prejudice and it's hilarious. You are all women trying to win your ideal husband by leveling up your characters and beating out your rivals. It's random as hell, but so cleverly written that it's a blast. (There's no board, but it's kind of Pride and Prejudice and Talisman).

I was Jane Bennett and it looked like I was going to run away with it. I was fat-packed with Beauty and Friendship and had some Wit and Reputation as well. Mr. Bingley, my ideal, was going to be mine for the taking! However, an event card had him go off to London and not return! Mother fucker! When the Proposal round came, I had almost zip for cunning, so all the sweet-ass beaus were all gone when it came to me and I was going to have to settle for Mr. Collins, but then the son of a bitch turned me down. I became an Old Maid, and the worst kind of Old Maid at that. I died bitter and alone (yet Beautiful and Friendly) and tied for last place with the guy who got force-hitched to Mr. Wickham.

This was the first of only a few games I've Kickstarted, and the first I've received so far. I backed it because it was ideal: amateur female designer doing an unusual but interesting theme, nice artwork, reasonable price. I'm glad I backed it; it's a lot of goofy fun.

Website

I actually played games this weekend! 4 games of Hive with my buddy followed by 3 games of King of Tokyo with him and his wife. After that we played 3 games of Las Vegas.

I do a variant that I really like for King of Tokyo. Everyone gets dealt one Power card that's a keeper. Then they get the difference between 9 energy and whatever that card cost. It makes dice manipulation and random stuff happen far earlier in the game which makes it so much more fun.

That sounds like a fantastic variant, I really want to break out some KoT now.