What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Received Splendor over the weekend, and it has proven to be a big hit with my wife. I've played one three-player without her, and three two-player with. It scales very well.

I think this is the strong lead for the SdJ this year. The game is very simple, yet engaging. It has a bare-bones trade-this-for-that sort of game play, but that simplicity is its strength. It's easy to grasp and quick to play.

The components are very nice, but the box is way too large. I wish they had put it in one of those Kosmos two-player boxes.

So last Friday we got together for our now very irregular nights of Rock band, which is basically an excuse to share big bottles of microbrews and shoot the shit. Also doubled as my birthday bash. First time new dad got to hang out in 3 months since his daughter was born and I hadn't even seen him since before Christmas. We were 6 so decided to pull out board games rather than do the rotation thing.

Played two games of Dixit Odyssey. After I destroyed them in the first game, one of the girls suggested we try a dirty version for game 2, every one agreed, why not? By this point I was probably the drunkest of the lot, but I couldn't let my domination at this fine game be threatened. Highlight was when new dad's turn came up and he said "German". Of course there was the usual South Park movie reference, then cards were revealed and votes were tallied. I couldn't believe that FOUR of them voted for my card (which had little toy soldiers walking out of a metronome), while none voted for new dad's (the weird picture of mop monster besides a bucket of brownish slop - cue the above-referenced South Park)! Hilarity ensued and I was literally rolling on the ground and laughing and crying my eyes out (no kidding). I went on to confirm my supremacy and won the second game as well.

Then a short 4p game of Perudo where my brother won with all 5 of his dice.

We did wrap up with 30 minutes of RB: Beatles. Such a good game.

Pathfinder card game tonight!

I WANNA PLAY! Where do you live, Bob? If you need a good guitarist/bassist for RB, I'm your man! RB: Beatles is a blast too. I miss playing those games so much.

I would love for Harmonix to launch something for the new consoles but I dread the idea of more plastic instruments everywhere.

I'm in Gatineau, we usually play at my buddy's in Orléans (Ottawa east end), roughly 40 minutes away. Long drive for you though.

He's been playing Rocksmith lately and enjoying it, even making money buying the guitar kits on sale and reselling them for 100% profit.

what's your buddy's name gamertag? I used to play Call of Duty with this francophone guy who became insane at Rocksmith (he played lots of RB3 too).

I used to go to Orleans all the time at Kool Kards Haven back when I used to compete at CCGs. The guy that runs that shop is insane. He threw my friend out once and threatened to call the cops.

There was a card shop in Gatineau I went to once for a sword tournament (these LOTR tournaments back in the day) and i won a Sting replica. I wore it once at Halloween when I dressed up as Frodo downtown and got stopped by the cops cuz it was a real sword and sharp as hell.

wadenels wrote: Had family in town over the weekend. Sat out on the deck and played about a dozen games of Crokinole, some 30 hands of Pairs, and at least a dozen hands of Cheaty Moth. Great fun was had, and much beer was consumed. Drunken Wade is a good cheater, but a piss-poor Guard Bug.

What the hell is Cheaty moth? I googled it and got nothing? Sounds like something I want to play. Card game?

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105593/mogel-motte

My last gaming until Origins so I had to make it count. Unfortunately, only 3 of us showed up.

First, we got in 2 games of Wiz-War with the Malefic Curses expansion. Awesome as hell. The new spells were chaotic and wonderful. I ended up winning the second game by throwing down a Prismatic Mist and then beating around the other Wizard and knocking him back and forth through it, causing him to get torn up and lose all of his spell cards. Brutal.

We then finished with a game of Manhattan Project also using the expansion. I won this but it was a close game. I only had 5 buildings all game, but was able to take advantage of my Nations power often enough (Soviet Union). North Korea and South Africa went down hard.

Played Fealty last night and Feudo tonight.

I had played Fealty once before and was luke-warm on it. This time it clicked more and I really liked it. It's very abstract in kind of the same way that Kingdom Builder is abstract. It's also that kind of brutal where experience pays off. It's plenty mean with blocking and your placement options diminish as the game goes on. I like it a lot. I don't typically get into abstracts much but this is one I'll happily play.

Feudo is cool. My first time playing it, and we played with just 2 players. I like how critical positioning and planning are in setting up successful attacks as well as defending yourself and your claimed cities. I love the randomness of the Plague too, even though it generated a fair amount of cussing on a couple occasions. It's a great example of a game that does just enough to be good without getting too complex. It also gives rise to some funny situations. One of my knights spent too long in the convent after being plague-stricken and converted to a life of religious service. Don't need soldiers with weak bloodthirst in my army anyway, says I. Milady came on to my Baron but the plague struck her before she made her way into my camp and my noble Baron -- despite a long and weary campaign -- didn't go for that poxy look she was wearing, discerning bachelor that he is and all.

I'm a little surprised I haven't heard more about Feudo around these parts. Looks like Drake/InfinityMax panned it in his review, but I found it to be pretty solid.

Played the Korean War, by Victory Games. This rocks, probably my favourite hex and counter to date. Quite a bit of over head and the rules whilst not OCS are not simple but it is a very good game. Both sides get to attack, there is a great wider narrative, counter density is low, and there is a lot of room for manoeuvre. We played the first 4 turns. I managed to hold onto Inchon and making early landings there preventing NATO from being driven into the sea.

Tash Kalar - i hated my first game of this. I played one card in a 30min team game and did sod all. It requires good pattern recognition skills, a fair amount of luck and forward planning. I did a little better in the second game and managed to get a few cards played, we actually won, which i was rather surprised by. The game snowballs quite a bit without the flare cards (read catchup cards) and also has quite slow scoring. IN the first game we had lost after the 3rd turn but didn't actually lose for another 20mins. THe second game was tighter but the slow scoring creates this. Imo for an abstract to succeed it generally needs to be a low chaos game with simple rules that lead to complicated solutions. I don't think Tash really delivers on this.

Played Railroad Tycoon with a group of friends. It kind of tanked. It's interesting the kind of issues that gamer types will overlook but just are a lead balloon for more casual gamers. I don't blame them but it was a bummer. Specifically, Railroad Tycoon has two big component/rules problems. They are real, but I get over it without much trouble. These people couldn't:

1) The rules for crossing a river (which is more expensive) are unintuitive and don't fit with reality that people have in their heads. I explained precisely what the rules are but people just couldn't get over it.
2) Much bigger issue, and I sympathize, is the horrible board. Specifically, blue, purple and black all look very similar in good light. ESPECIALLY purple and blue. Blue is a shade of dark purple. It bit a couple people in the ass early and it (rightfully so) irked the shit out of them.

I still love Railroad Tycoon. It has a wonderful game arc that is satisfying as hell, and ends at just the right time, right when you're near the end of your routes humming along, with cubes getting scarce. It's all about peaking at exactly the right time.

I really feel like they almost did it on purpose, Gary, to make the red cubes pop more so people would pay more attention to trying to get the meat distribution between chicago and the West more compelling. I always notice the red cubes right away and feel drawn to link up Chicago with the West. I wonder if it's on purpose.

I like the player cards too with the reveal of which rail baron you are to take advantage of your special powers.

I traded for Age of Steam but have never played it. My wife and i like Railroad Tycoon but the board is just way too big

Played a solo round of Gears of War - China Shop with Marcus.

Most of the mission went well, Marcus was able to shake off Locusts left and right, and managed to seal two emergence holes. Ammo wasn't an issue as several rooms were filled with ammo (most likely from the poor souls who suffered a horrible fate at the hands of the big bad berserker).

It wasn't until the last room that Marcus got into trouble. He was able to handle the two ambushing drones, but not without suffering two wounds. With the Berserker closely following, Marcus picked up the Hammer of Dawn and was able to injure the Berserker the following turn. He tried to run off to some kind of cover, but the Berserker wouldn't have it. In a last ditch effort, Marcus went into a defensive position in hopes of shaking off the attack, but the Berserker hit hard and left Marcus bleeding out.

I had a great time playing through as one COG, it forces you to make some agonizing decisions on whether to stay put or keep moving. The Berserker helped me a few times by killing her own, but damn she hits hard...

Gary Sax wrote:

2) Much bigger issue, and I sympathize, is the horrible board. Specifically, blue, purple and black all look very similar in good light. ESPECIALLY purple and blue. Blue is a shade of dark purple. It bit a couple people in the ass early and it (rightfully so) irked the shit out of them.

Off the top of my head, I think they fixed that on all the Railways of the World boards.

I've had to teach Railroad Tycoon a few times, and I try to point out that the colors are screwed up on the map. It doesn't help, though.