What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Over the last couple of months I've played a few games of New York 1776 . New York 1776 is a light (8 pages of rules) short (90 minute) block game.

Here's the link to my BGG review Review of 1776

Because I like to stay on the cutting edge of gaming, I played Alien Frontiers for the first time last night. It was pretty good. Certainly better than Kingsburg. I hear this game was bank rolled by the people through something called Kickstarter. I've got a feeling this "crowd funding" thing is going to be huge.

Seriously though, the game was good but not the ultra super fantastic pinnacle of games it was acclaimed to be at the time of its release.

I had a big response about Alien Frontiers, but then I kicked it to its own thread.

I had a terrific game night last night. I almost didn't go, because all of my plans to play Cosmic Encounter fell through, and I didn't feel like plopping down just anything. But I went anyway, and I'm glad I did. I had a chance to play some new stuff I've been wanting to try, and make some new friends too. I even have a tentative plan to get another game of Duel of Ages II in a couple weeks.

Here's what I played:

Origin - This is a new game from Matagot, where you take early man and evolve them from Africa to form tribes all over the world. It's like an EXTREMELY abstracted civ game, though it was able to find that same arc of people spreading all over the world. It was pretty simple, playable with non-gamers. Some people here might balk at the abstraction, but I think it actually falls into that Knizia/Sackson kind of thing where it still feels like the different elements of the game are driven thematically. So it's got the themes without a lot of the detail, which is something I enjoy. It also looks TERRIFIC. I liked it a lot, and I would gladly play again.

King of Tokyo - I hadn't realized it, but it's been ages since I played this one. Still one of the best games out there. I was especially impressed with how it adapts to how different groups play, and still manages to be really fun in the process.

Kolejka - After Sag and Legomancer talked about this one, I've been looking for a chance to play it. I really liked it, though it was a little simpler than I was expecting. It truly nails the theme, from back to front. It's a solid design too, with some good planning and screw-you moves to make. I question how great it would be after like 10 plays, since the variety seemed just a little thin. But 10 good plays is more than most games can manage.

The Resistance - First game of this one in at least three years. I was one of the spies, and though we had opportunities to throw each of the first two missions we let them slide through. It ended up paying off, as we dropped the last three missions to foil those dirty Resistance players.

I've had my eye on Origin for a while. The game looks so beautiful. I've been tinkering with a blind purchase as I haven't heard shit about it. Thanks for the positive impression!

Alien Frontiers has been an interesting story since it first came out.

It was the earliest Kickstarter game of any note, published by an average joe so it had that aura of authenticity to it.

A good game, it wasn't available for awhile which of course magically transformed it into a great game.

Then the designer went to the dark side by using Game Salute to publish, which apparently is like slapping every gamer on earth across the face in front of their children. A game that everyone had to have when it became unavailable became a subject of boycott when it became available.

Quite the journey.

S.

I'll second Origin. Just a nice, beautiful game.

Finally got around to Battle Beyond Space. Wish I had gotten around to it a lot sooner.

Things I like:

• Really rules-light and intuitive.
• Really bloody.
• Quick-playing.
• Nails the chaotic space dogfight scene.
• Really fun special powers.
• My wife, being a BSG fan, likes it because of the ship designs.

I've been looking for a space shoot-em-up for a while. Exile Sun wasn't it. Space Empires wasn't it. GDW's Imperium wasn't it (although that's a cool game in its own right).

The closest thing to what I was looking for has been Twilight Imperium 2E, but that game has a lot of overhead with politics and tech trees, building and research, planetary landings and leaders, etc. I really like TI2 but I don't play it often.

I intend to play Battle Beyond Space often. It's super simple to teach and a lot of fun. We had a lot of trash talking, pleading, cursing, and laughing. Carnage everywhere. Self-destructing fighters, asteroid-swinging capital ships, etc. Really wish I had found out about this game sooner. Why has this game been under the radar? What strange cloaking technology is it using?

I told you so...

Man, I want Origin...

My son and I played our first game of Theseus: The Dark Orbit. We played the introductory first game using Space Marines vs. Aliens. We made a few rule errors though that made the game longer than it should have been, but, our next game will iron these out--we should have read the rules more carefully. We forgot that in the pending card phase that when you play one of your cards and insert it into a sector slot you then also replace it with another of your cards in the pending card slot. Of course, we also forgot that you could place a card in any sector. This game is a lot of fun and so full of potential. I can't wait to try out the other factions and the advanced cards.

There may be something better than HeroQuest being played with painted miniatures on Dwarven Forge terrain, but alas, at the moment I can't think of it.

This is what my 12 year old and I are planning on, later. Sadly, I've packed up most of my miniatures, so the minis will likely be stock, unpainted models. Still, adventure awaits.

TONIGHT'S MAIN EVENT at the Circus Hangout: Tomorrow. I plan on annihilating Russia.