What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Well Shellie, if Lost Cities doesn't float your distaff boat, perhaps your husband will permit you to play Flowerpower or The Queen's Necklace while he pursues more gentlemanly fare.

My suspicion is that the majority of current Ameritrash Dogmatists are relatively newer gamers who weren't around for the late-90s/early-2000s heyday of the classic German game. So many of those games are simply undeniable. Instead, they're reacting to the more recent crop of Eurogames, and science tells us that the majority of new Eurogames fall somewhere within the qualitative spectrum between "mediocre" to "dogshit fucking terrible." So I can sympathize with their overly dogmatic stance.

Lost Cities is great, sure. Thanks to BSW back in the day, the now-delisted XBLA version, and the one that's presently out on iOS, I've probably played thousands of rounds over the past 12 or so years. Unfortunately those apps have also spoiled me by conveniently updating the point totals for each played suit in real time, so I'll probably never go back to the physical game. I'd rather play Battle Line anyway.

black inferno wrote: My suspicion is that the majority of current Ameritrash Dogmatists are relatively newer gamers who weren't around for the late-90s/early-2000s heyday of the classic German game. So many of those games are simply undeniable. Instead, they're reacting to the more recent crop of Eurogames, and science tells us that the majority of new Eurogames fall somewhere within the qualitative spectrum between "mediocre" to "dogshit fucking terrible." So I can sympathize with their overly dogmatic stance.

Lost Cities is great, sure. Thanks to BSW back in the day, the now-delisted XBLA version, and the one that's presently out on iOS, I've probably played thousands of rounds over the past 12 or so years. Unfortunately those apps have also spoiled me by conveniently updating the point totals for each played suit in real time, so I'll probably never go back to the physical game. I'd rather play Battle Line anyway.

Errr...I am not a newer gamer by any means. I cut my teeth on white box D&D and SPI wargames well before GW hit the streets. Lost Cities is not great. It is entirely unthematic, trivial and over in a heartbeat and that is not a game I would EVER think of playing again. Eurogames simply do NOTHING for me unless there is significant player interaction and a good story is being told and not just pasted onto the box.

So, meet a truly dogmatic ameritrasher who doesn't fit your cute categorisations.

Classic card games also don't float my boat either. Guess why? They don't tell a story and the sessions are not memorable or repeatable to a gamer buddy. They are puzzles and that's it. No problem if you like Scrabble, Go, Chess but they are not the same as AT games and that is exactly why I play something different.

It's not about liking or not liking Lost Cities or any other games...what Black Inferno is getting at is that generation gap I talked about a few weeks ago.

But you're more of a wargamer than an "Ameritrash" gamer anyway, Andy. Wargames have always had very strong stories, interaction and even themes.

What BI is talking about is these people that got into games around the same time that FFG started to take off (2004-2005). Just like how "gaming" for a lot of people means Games Workshop, "gaming" for these people means Fantasy Flight Games with maybe a couple of Asmodee and Z-Man titles thrown in there.

Which is fine, whatever, everybody comes into it at different times, in different eras, etc...but when you've got these people that are coming from this particular period and all they're doing is literally parrotting back the AT party line _from 2007_, it really shows a lack of perspective. And it is absolutely no different than the Eurogamers slagging Talisman and DoaMs back in 2002, 2003.

Don't like Lost Cities, that's cool. Don't like Eurogames, that's cool. But the old fashioned "all Eurogames/all Knizia games/all games with wooden cubes suck" dogma is fucking bullshit that should have disappeared years ago. Especially when it's being blabbered by people that haven't even played enough games outside of the post-FFG AT genre to make such general statements.

The thing with Lost Cities is that its a 20 minute light card game that's not really better than any decent 20 minute card game with a regular deck of cards. The board is completely unnecessary as is the exploration setting. Don't get me wrong, I like it well enough (although I prefer Keltis). I just don't see anything special about it.

Oh, Lost Cities is not great in the sense you're talking about Andy. It isn't the goal of an evening in the way that a deep war game or even a heavy euro would be. Playing a game of Hannibal Rome vs. Carthage can be the point of a whole evening.

Lost Cities is like a traditional card game as you suggest. It's a facilitator. A social lubricant that allows time to be spent with other people.

It may not have theme, but it's pretty to look at. It may be over in a heartbeat but we can play until we tire of it and not feel as if we abandoned the game. Trivial in the sense that a particular game of it will not live in my memory, perhaps, but spending direct face to face time with Peggy where we aren't just watching TV is not without value.

So, what I'm getting at here is that I agree, it's not the best game nor my favorite game, but as I said I find it pleasant.

Repo has the right of it. Maybe enjoy things for what they are instead of shitting on stuff you don't like. I used to look down on people for liking certain kinds of games. But hey, if you like playing Munchkin and you have a group that likes to play it with you, knock yourself the fuck out.

Like what you like, leave everything else along. Not worth losing sleep over.

ThirstyMan wrote: So, meet a truly dogmatic ameritrasher who doesn't fit your cute categorisations.

Allow me to cutely recategorize you: the type of grizzled wargamer who, back around 2000, would sneer at us when we'd set up Ra at the table next to their ASL session. Or roll their eyes at us at the WBC circa 2001, visibly apoplectic that all these cute little German games were knocking Rumpus at Sátoraljaújhely: Romanian Perturbations Against the Hapsburgs 1703-1705 out of the Century Group. Right?

Michael Barnes wrote: Don't like Lost Cities, that's cool. Don't like Eurogames, that's cool. But the old fashioned "all Eurogames/all Knizia games/all games with wooden cubes suck" dogma is fucking bullshit that should have disappeared years ago. Especially when it's being blabbered by people that haven't even played enough games outside of the post-FFG AT genre to make such general statements.

As always, Barnes is the Truth.

It has nothing to do with a generation gap but everything to do with the online "community" hobby. It is easy to parrot the popular talking points because you'll likely not get challenged. It's much harder to come up with your own opinions and be forced to defend.

How many people came out of the woodwork with that AT GeekList? How many times did people say "You know, I do like these types of games" once someone else took the lead.

And you know what? You don't see this dogmatic crap outside of the online community, when people are talking and socializing face to face.