What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

the problem then, is how different is that from descent?

Played some Blood Bowl: Team Manager last week, first game with the second expansion: Chaos Dwarfs, Gobbos, Wood Pansies and Orcs. My Chaos Dwarfs ran away with the victory - that fouling skill can be pretty brutal (sent back 2 trolls, including a SP, to the bench in the same turn...poor little goblins! also the orcs' Morg 'N Thorg at one point and also had it played on me) - although the elves were right behind me, the other two teams far behind. Had that upgrade that gave me points for every downed player if one of mine was still standing, that's worth gold for a heavy hitter team!
We're thinking the wacky balls from Sudden Death might give more of an advantage to finesse teams such as the elves.

Also started the Pathfinder card game campaign for Skull & Shackles with Witch, Swashbuckler and Half-Orc War Priest, so far so good and it felt nice to go back to this game after a few months.

After half a game on the easy setting, I got cocky and dived into a game of XCOM on the normal setting. I lost. A lot. I had almost no soldiers, just a few interceptors, and maybe a grand total of two researched techs when a UFO onslaught forced three continents into panic. They really should have sent me more money.

Eclipse. Well, IOS Eclipse, but Eclipse nonetheless.

What a neat game. The damned thing is the kind of game that WHITE HOT pisses me off for not allowing me one or two more turns. That's the sign of a game that needs to be played.

Play about 6 games of A Fistful of Dinero tonight, four games with 4 players and two with 3 players.

Fun game, went over really well with the people that played it. The throwing mechanic seemed to get the most cheers and laughs, and the few complaints about ways the game can be unfair (bad weapon draws to start) didn't get much traction since the game plays fast. The highlight of the night for me was watching someone try and toss a stick of dynamite on my corpse (to damage the other two players and not himself) miss the throw, and blow himself up and out of the game.

This one is going into regular rotation.

You're my new favorite FATTIE Ocho (sorry Gary)

I made the decision to buy it based on the way your tastes in games aligns with mine. Was not disappointed.

Since I have your attention, I'll ask the one rules question we had: does the Jam card trigger on the next person who fires a gun, or at the discretion of the person who has Jam in play? We went with the latter because it made the card more appealing, but I can see it going either way.

You did it correctly. Great to hit a person sitting next to you with if they're wielding something like a Sawed Off and you're trying to win on money/chips.

Ochobee wrote: I made the decision to buy it based on the way your tastes in games aligns with mine. Was not disappointed.

Since I have your attention, I'll ask the one rules question we had: does the Jam card trigger on the next person who fires a gun, or at the discretion of the person who has Jam in play? We went with the latter because it made the card more appealing, but I can see it going either way.

I played two more games of Tragedy Looper as the mastermind this week.

The first was a two player game against just my girlfriend who has played very few newfangled board games. (So far we had played Chess, Cards Against Humanity, Skull, Hanabi, Red7, Resistance: Avalon, One Night Ultimate Werewolf... and that might be it). I gave her 3 loops to complete the first scenario, but she survived on the second loop. Early on in the second loop, she not only thwarted what I was trying to do on my first turn, but she also gained a critical piece of information. I was scrambling to achieve a loss condition and she did a good job of forbidding my movements at critical junctures. It only took an hour to teach and play that first script, which really surprised me. She really enjoyed it and said she wants to play it again.

Tonight I played a 4 player game of the second script, with one second time player and two first-timers. I got a telephone call from a family member mid-rules explanation and the guy who had played before explained some stuff when I was out of the room, but I think I missed an opportunity to adequately stress how exactly incidents occur (and how they're separate from the roles, but there is a specific culprit for each one), as well as talk enough about how goodwill refusal works (the guy doing the goodwill action is the one who refuses stuff- not the target of the effect). One of the new guys also said we should make it hard on them and go with no table talk except between loops. The game ended up being hard for them and that same guy seemed to think this script was impossible to win as the protagonists, even though if I had one less paranoia on the culprit of an incident, I would have lost.

As the mastermind, I think I almost enjoy losing more than winning, despite normally being a very competitive player in games. The enjoyment I get from outfoxing and bluffing the other people at the table seems considerably less than the collective enjoyment of a group of people getting their "aha!" moments and finally surviving a web of interconnected danger and mystery. I don't think I'll go as far as to throw a game though. I also think that if it's anyone's first time playing in the group, that table talk should be set to on, unless you're in some weird situation where the only newbie is the mastermind. I'm still really curious to get someone or a group ready for the "Basic Tragedy" set (scripts 3-10) and see how those play out. Maybe this is one I'll just end up playing with my girlfriend the most. If so, the rumored expansion set to be translated and released at GenCon might come at just the right time.

I also played a 4-player game of Race for the Galaxy where I won 48-46 against the second place player who went military and had both the 8-point alien world and the 9-point rebel one. I went with Diversified Economy and whatever the 6-cost development is called that is basically Diversified Economy part II. (Galactic Markets?) I only Consume x2'd once, but got 10 points from it, and I was drawing 6 cards per produce step. I'm at the point where I'll never suggest RftG, but I also won't turn it down. I win almost every time against the people I know, but like Chess I know there are much better people out there.

Agricola last night. Despite having a very large house, I could not procreate past the component limit.

That's because you were playing Agricola.

Neuroshima Motherfucking Hex. Back on my table after five years. Check it out.

At a game night recently we flipped a coin to decide what 6 player game to play: Thunder Alley or Viticulture. I lost.

On the other hand, someone asked for Skull & Roses and no one brought it so I grabbed a deck of poker cards and had "Red Cards Black Card" set up in about 10 seconds. And now I see we've been playing that game wrong due to bad rules explanation a couple weeks ago. FUCK. LASER RAPTORS!!!!

ratpfink wrote: At a game night recently we flipped a coin to decide what 6 player game to play: Thunder Alley or Viticulture. I lost.

On the other hand, someone asked for Skull & Roses and no one brought it so I grabbed a deck of poker cards and had "Red Cards Black Card" set up in about 10 seconds. And now I see we've been playing that game wrong due to bad rules explanation a couple weeks ago. FUCK. LASER RAPTORS!!!!

Did you play Thunder Alley?

I just wanted to say that there's another cool way to play Skull & Roses that I've done as a motorcycle ride poker-run like game. You visit six bars in a row, have a drink at each bar. While at each bar you swipe four drink coasters [they'll give them to you for free if you ask ]. Each of the six bars provides a different suit of four coasters. Take a Sharpie and draw a skull or an "X" on the back of one coaster in each of the six sets of coasters. Thereafter, play Skull. Drink more….LIVE FREE and RIDE!

Two more 5-player games of Cthulhu Wars. Still feel like I can be done with it. Too bad my friends don't feel the same. When I mentioned that it made me want to just play Chaos in the Old World, one guy just said it made him feel the opposite. So I guess I'll be stuck playing it some more.