What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I don't like scoring tracks because I'm a klutz. My buddies keep their score in their head when their marker is on my side of the board.

S.

Played Lewis & Clark last night. I was already in a grumpy mood because of one of the other guys there, but man, this was slow and boring. I wrote this about it:

There's stuff I should have liked about this. I like the theme. Artwork isn't bad, though there's an inexplicable use of the infinity symbol on some cards and the usual Euroglyphics are annoying. I like that they used real people (including a dog!) and you can read about them in the rulebook. The red Native Americans are a sadly unfortunate choice, but I do like that the game emphasized just how much help the native population was.

But good god this game is boring. Just the same thing, over and over, the same Agricola-like thirty-steps-to-get-a-horse bullshit repeated ad nauseum. Get one AP player in there and you better bring a book. It's tedious, the promising theme is under-utilized, and you can almost pinpoint the exact space on the board where you stop caring.

I just don't have the stomach for this kind of stuff anymore. I've done all this. Maybe not in this particular fashion, but still. It's well produced, with great little historical notes, but there's no heart in it, you just do what's best for you to do at any given moment. Nothing unworkable or off-putting about it but I just don't care. It's there with Tzolkin, Village, Russian Railroads, Trajan, Keyflower, and all that other stuff being churned out now. A few years ago I probably would have flipped for this game, but it just doesn't do anything for me anymore. I would seriously rather play Settlers of Catan, Tikal, or Planet Steam, games I already have, than this.

Where's the love for Steam? Great game, and no clumsy board mess. And Morgan's expansions are excellent.

@Hatchling: I'd play Steam, Age of Steam, or RotW. I might drag my copy of Steam to Origins, if CABS doesn't have it.

RotW doesn't get the rep that AoS and Steam do, but you can kill yourself on the first turn in RotW just as easily as you can in the other two games. It feels friendlier, though, and you don't realize you screwed up in 'Railways' until a few turns in.

Hatchling wrote: Where's the love for Steam? Great game, and no clumsy board mess. And Morgan's expansions are excellent.

Steam is fantastic. One of my all-time favorites.

Hatchling wrote: Where's the love for Steam? Great game, and no clumsy board mess. And Morgan's expansions are excellent.

It's one of my favourite games of all time. I've played it more than 60 times and I still want more. And I agree Morgan's expansions are excellent, really great stuff.

I went to a local board game cafe and played two rounds of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. I hadn't played the game in years, but I always liked it. I contacted some local players and setup a meeting. I watched one game as a refresher on the game mechanics, and played two. I won one, but got slaughtered on the second.

I used one of the guys decks during the two games I played, but am inspired to make my own for the next time, even though I have a limited pool of cards. A cool game, probably my favorite card game in recent years. I like the mechanics of the game and the narrative you can create in the game. Lots of interesting combos and combinations. Just gotta pick up a few more of the bigger expansions and I'll be happy!

My wife and I played COSMIC ENCOUNTER with a couple friends last week. It was awesome; I love that game.

Three nights, three games.

Played LoTR Confrontation. First time I ever played this and I was the dark forces. Really fun game. I like it better than Stratego. Stratego is a game I want to like more than I actually do because the premise seems so interesting. Confrontation gives me enough Stratego with a setting, card play, and special abilities that I like. Now I kinda wish I had picked up the deluxe edition.

Nuclear War followed by Weapons of Mass Destruction, which is basically the same game. This is my kind of game. Easy sit back and blow up your friends type of game. Goes well with beer and threats. I picked up Nuclear War, Escalation, Proliferation, WMD, and a full set of the boosters for $15 total and I'm pretty happy about it. Now I can't decide if I want to mix up the decks or not.

Risk: Godstorm, which was awesome, is awesome, and will always be awesome. I won again, because that's kind of what I do.

Mix 'em up. But you're going to want to edit the warheads and missiles. And cut the propaganda WAY down.

We used to play with everything, even those stupid "booster packs" they did.

For F:AT Thursday we played the Mummy game with the magnets. You move your pieces on a verticle board while the mummy player moves their's from the opposite side. And it all comes together with the magic of magnetism. The real name is something in German. It was cute and the finish was much closer than I thought it would be. I imagine this game would be fabulous with 3 kids as the explorers and an adult as the mummy.

Then we played Wrath of Ashardelon. One of those games that you know is good but you forget just how good until you play it again. Really one o if nit the best dungeon crawl.

And we had shots of whiskey from the Globe Bar. That's two weeks in a row and is thus a Secret Lair ritual now.

Played The Ares Project last night, which a friend picked up recently. This is what I said about it:

This one is a real head-scratcher. I don't know what to make of it. In a way it's kind of like Neuroshima Hex: Das Kartenspiel, but that's not really too accurate. We played with the advanced (regular) rules, which was probably a mistake, as the besic construction and combat rules present in the starter game are wonky enough without adding the other layers. It also was a bad move because they really do mean "advanced". I was playing the Space Wizards and there's a lot to consider and manage that is very hard to do if you've never played at all before. Still, there's something there, and while I feel that exploring it further is going to result in a game that's not really my thing, I'd like to see more.

I think I'd like to try the baby game at least once before heading back in.

I've always been intrigued by the Ares project, I just know it wouldn't get any play around here. The asymmetry looks awesome.

Put a beat down on my buddy in Twilight Struggle. I'm starting to think that 2 player games (esp. wargames) are my favorite type of games... really had a good time with beers and a thinky game while talking bullshit.

Gary Sax wrote: Put a beat down on my buddy in Twilight Struggle. I'm starting to think that 2 player games (esp. wargames) are my favorite type of games... really had a good time with beers and a thinky game while talking bullshit.

I wish I had some excuse to come to Lubbock so we could play this. Still my favorite board game.