What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

stoic wrote: Last night we played several games of Eon Cosmic Encounter. I keep feeling the need to upgrade to the newer FFG Asmodee version.

I hate people that say "FTFY".

charlest wrote:

stoic wrote: Last night we played several games of Eon Cosmic Encounter. I keep feeling the need to upgrade to the newer FFG Asmodee version.

I hate people that say "FTFY".

[Shakes cane in angry clinched fist] I generally don't like them huge multinational global corporate conglomerates….Asmodee….fooey! I'll stick with my old Mom-and-Pop garage shop produced Eon version of this game…back when a game was a game…not some fancy and colorful box. I often have to remind myself that I bought it back in the day when one could create an expansion for this game by handwriting it on an index card for a penny and bringing it to game night.

I'm the only gamer in DFW not going to BGG Con, but I did get in a lot of stuff this weekend.

Friday night I learned Pax Porfiriana. Mostly I liked it, though it ended early when the first topple card game out and someone had more enough loyalty points to win it. I dunno, I was struggling to learn it and it ended just as I was beginning to comprehend it. I think I'd really like it with a little more time.

Imperial came up next. It was my first game in a while. I was able to take France pretty far while tussling for control of Austria with another player. Mostly I was trying to keep Russia from having to fight both Germany and Austria. Germany pushed hard to attack France when they jumped ahead, just with a couple turns left. I wasn't sure how much they were going to push, so I did a dumb panicky move and took control of Germany. It was dumb because it cost me a lot of money to take the lowest country. I ended up losing by a single point. Still great to play it again.

Saturday as Dallas Games Marathon Weekend. I started with Panic Room, which I had never played before. I see how it can be amazing or terrible depending on lots of things. In our game we got to the hive before our host was able to infect anyone. We basically won without breaking a sweat. I'd try it again though.

Next up was Robinson Crusoe, the first scenario with some new players. We got no help at all from the game. We really needed some shelter to come out on the tiles, so we took at least two turns to find that. Then we kept getting thrown animals to fight, even without a lot of weapons. We also couldn't find many island tiles that gave two resources. We ended up dying in turn 7, but it was really fun to play again.

I learned Lords of Vegas with 5-6 player expansion. Kind of had a slow start, but about halfway through I got some good payouts and I was able to climb into the lead and win on the tiebreaker. I really loved this game. I'm generally a big fan of gambling games and swing-for-the-fence moves, which is basically all it is.

I ended with a four-player game of Merchant of Venus, the redesigned FFG version. It took like 4.5 hours, but I had a great time. I was never able to find a lot of fame around the board like the other players, but I set up a pretty good circuit of goods and I was able to fill up the ship and then unload things a couple of turns later. The last half of the game I was really pumping through stuff. I ended up winning on all of the goods I had been moving around the board.

Sometimes it feels like people are upset about the Standard Game even existing at all, but I really like it as a complement to the original game. I suppose it could go down to 25 turns and be shorter, but I actually think the 30 turn limit creates a nice arc of exploration, establishing routes, and then really getting an engine going. It does push it closer to adventure game territory, but there are a lot of elements that I think are actively better. I like the way it handles space stations, commissions, and ship upgrades more than the original game. The balance of some items could be questioned, but I enjoy the process enough to not really worry about it. Besides, the original game had its balance issues as well, with regard to ship types. It's long and isn't perfect, but I still really enjoy it.

While I procrastinate in assembling Shadows of Brimstone I got a couple solo games in this past weekend.

Mage Knight is always good. Was surprised after not playing for several months that I was almost able to take the 2nd city in the Full Solo Conquest scenario. Narowas was turned aside as I ran out of time with a couple enemies still alive in the White City.

Warfighter is great. A sweet convergance of Up Front, Space Hulk: Death Angel, and The DVG Leader series. I really enjoyed my two solo plays and I can see this making my top games of the year easily.

JEM wrote: Four of us at my regular meet had agreed to play Mage Knight on Saturday. Starting at 2pm, including rules explanations, we played for a bit over five hours- teams playing up to sacking the first city. Even with the time it took, I never felt like the game dragged, and I enjoyed the tough decisions that the hand management brought. One of the guys on the other team kept using his skill that hit everyone else for wounds if they used mana not of a given colour. He mostly just screwed his team mate with that, as I had the character who could burn a wound once a turn to boost actions. I would play it again for sure. I'm tempted even to buy it, but with the price I am going to see what the new year brings.

Wow, 4 players on 5 hours? My 2-player games tend to go 3.5-4 hours.

So there's a fame aspect to FFG's Merchant of Venus rules? Haven't played that one yet.

I don't mind there being a new version, but naming it the "Standard Rules" was kind of a fuck-you to an aging original designer that is struggling dementia. All I can say is that it had better be an improvement to the original rules or they end up looking stupid.

S.

You get fame for doing things around the board, like fulfilling missions and loading your ship up with improvements. It translates to 10 credits a point at the end of the game.

I agree that naming it the Standard game is really presumptuous. I'm not sure it's a distinct improvement over the original game, but I really can't decide which one I like more, so that's something.

i prefer the original rules. I was new to both when the reprint arrived. The classic rules are simpler, and i find less likely to produce AP in players. Classic is more straight up pick up and deliver and less adventure game. I tend to find it runs around 2.5 hours as well.

San Il Defanso wrote: Saturday as Dallas Games Marathon Weekend. I started with Panic Room, which I had never played before. I see how it can be amazing or terrible depending on lots of things. In our game we got to the hive before our host was able to infect anyone. We basically won without breaking a sweat. I'd try it again though.

Were you able to catch Jodie Foster?

My sister surprised me by sending me a copy of Pairs. It's a quick little press-your-luck game, where the first loser pays off the rest. Dollars, poker chips, drinks, jokes, etc. Since it was my wife, my brother, and his wife, gambling isn't going to work out. We ended up playing, "first to 10 is the Big Loser". Three hours later, my brother ended up the loser, with scores of 10-9-9-6. It took us three or so hours to get that 10th loss in.

All-in-all, it's fun, and fills the same spot that Love Letter does. I'm not going to say, "filler".

Another day at the Dallas Games Marathon. Got the chance to play a couple of games with Zev that he was considering for Z-Man. Don't want to be too specific about that, but the first one was a simple card game that was kind of fun, and the second seemed promising at first but really didn't go anywhere and seemed undeveloped.

Then I played a fun game called Onward to Venus, the latest from Martin Wallace. I never really had much interest in Wallace's games for many years... just seemed very dry and soulless to me from what I gathered, but regardless, I'm definitely appreciating his more recent offerings. In this one, you are vying for control of several planets, using a small army of rockets and infantry and tanks to influence and build factories and mines on planets. Ultimately, it's an area control game, but there's some decent interaction, a need for using your limited actions and timing effectively, and some basic combat with dice and card play. I really liked it, though apparently we got a couple of rules wrong, so I'm hoping to play it again tomorrow.

Also played OddVille, a small box Euro, vaguely reminiscent of Carcassonne. It was pretty good for what it is, I suppose.

Played like six games of Defenders of the Realm. My opinion on this game has gone back and forth over the years but I'll say it's pretty good. I wouldn't mind adding some new characters but they are OOP and are expensive for what you get.

^Yeah, sometimes I think of getting rid of the game but then I'm like... I've had a lot of fun games of it. It's an ugly design that is in a lot of ways much worse than Pandemic, but on the whole, I'd say my Defenders outings are considerably more fun than my Pandemic games. It doesn't help that Pandemic is WORN OUT for me. I grit my teeth every time I see it hit the table, but I know my friends and my wife adore the game so I end up having a good time.

metalface13 wrote: Wow, 4 players on 5 hours? My 2-player games tend to go 3.5-4 hours.

We agreed to call it after the first city. I think the scenario was intended to run longer.

Oddville is a lot of game for $12.

Hex Sinister wrote: Played like six games of Defenders of the Realm. My opinion on this game has gone back and forth over the years but I'll say it's pretty good. I wouldn't mind adding some new characters but they are OOP and are expensive for what you get.

They have many of these expansions at www.Eaglegames.net .