What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Played games for the first time in a few weeks yesterday. Just haven't really been interested lately.

Started out with Tigris and Euphrates, always a good time. I was lagging behind and then made a completely boneheaded attack that made no sense and pushed me further back. Still, I enjoy the game.

Then Steam. Again, a favorite. Two things happened in this game I have not seen happen often, and I did both of them. First, the "go first" tile was taken. I absolutely had to Urbanize on the final turn, so I took "go first" on the penultimate turn. Then, when I saw how that turn shook out and realized I didn't have to Urbanize to have two 6-link deliveries, I picked it anyway and opted not to do it, saving myself cash and keeping it away from others. This only got me second place, but still.

After that there was a filler game of For Sale, which I again came in second on, by one point.

Then Roll for the Galaxy, which has really grown on me. My second-place streak was broken, thanks only to the tiebreaker.

Finally, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which I came in second at (of course), but considering I am terrible at it and usually lagging far behind, that was an improvement.

So I guess I'm back on the board game thing again.

Played Baseball Highlights 2045 with my wife yesterday. One of the few games released this year that I've been really excited about. I'd played it with my brother previously. It's amazing how it combines deckbuilding with back and forth play to let you play an entire three game series followed by a full best-of-7 World Series...in roughly an hour. And yet you don't feel like you've lost a ton in the translation.

At any rate, She quickly went up two games to none in the mini-series, always seeming to have the right cards to shut me down. I tried feebly improving my defense by drafting some gloves, but it just wasn't working. I was able to squeeze out a win in the meaningless third game of the mini-series. I think I'd decided to go more offense, but these things take time.

She had home field advantage and won the first two games of the World Series. The second game was pretty brutal, I think I lost 7-3. I did draft "Barry Sosa" (Yes, the names of the future players are all tributes to players of the bygone era). When we went to my stadium for game 3, I was able to battle back in a slugfest. Game 4 was very similar, and I was able to even up the series. I was carefully taking more fast runners and big hits.

I thought my play had backfired big time when I drew no defensive cards in Game 5, and she made me pay for it. She was able to shut down my important batters but all I could do is watch her runs stroll across the plate. To add insult to injury, she'd put a "Cancel all hits versus a Natural" in the On Deck spot (think of it as a pocket card, that can be played in emergencies if you chuck a card with the pitch hitter icon) so when Barry Sosa strolled to the plate for some late game heroics, he was shut down completely.

So I'm down 3 games to 2 and headed back to her home turf. Doesn't sound good.

Thankfully, the fast runners and big hitters were starting to add up, so I was able to hang in another slugfest in game 6. I was behind for most of the game, but her defensive cards finally ran out and I pushed five runs across with my final two card plays. I'd forced a game 7!

Game 7 ended up being a little anti-climactic as I drew into a good mix of power hitters and one Glove and one Double-Play. With those, I was able to limit her runs, while I swarmed the fast runners and big hits. To redeem himself, Barry Sosa showed up as the final batter and smacked a Grand Slam's worth of runners in.


I thought she'd have enjoyed this a ton as she's generally a big fan of deckbuilders, but this got the "eh, that's an ok game" when the series had concluded. I think I should have pulled a Roger Dorn and tanked that last game after all. D'OH! She said she'd gladly give it another chance, though.

You know, Bradford, I liked you better when you were just a ballplayer. If you want to be an interior decorator that's your own business.

I had a long post but it was eaten and I hate the internet right now so all I'm going to say is I played Forbidden Stars and Runewars in the same weekend.

I also happened to play Homeland, Spyfall, Roll for the Galaxy, Boss Monster 2, and Prototypes.

Good thing GenCon's in three days as I clearly have been deprived of gaming.

Dr. Mabuse wrote: Super write-up but, c'mon man, you gotta make this a blog post filled with pictures.

I GOTTA HAVE M'PICTURES!!!

It never occurs to me to take pictures. Maybe I could attempt some courtroom artist sketches...

bfkiller wrote:

Dr. Mabuse wrote: Super write-up but, c'mon man, you gotta make this a blog post filled with pictures.

I GOTTA HAVE M'PICTURES!!!

It never occurs to me to take pictures. Maybe I could attempt some courtroom artist sketches...

Can we play something besides The Resistance this time?

I played a four player game of Forbidden Stars, which was fun. I'm wondering if we did something wrong as there were only a few command level 2 units on the board (all land raiders), when the game ended with 4 objectives. The game played 4 rounds with 2 players nearing victory in the same round. Seemed tightly balanced but not much incentive to spend on cities etc...It was only one game but has anyone else experienced this type of game?

Not my experiences with FS. Our game last week went 7 rounds as we typically gang up on the leader and block him from objectives via Warp Storms, which drags the game out. We all had 2-3 cities. Those high level combat cards are crazy good.

Ok good. I need to get a few more plays in as I really like the gameplay. Combat felt a little clunky at first but moves along once you get the hang of it.

Played a game of Star Trek: Fleet Captains today. It's been a couple years since I played this and I absolutely hated it then.

Today certainly has not made me into a super fan by any stretch but I didn't hate it quite as much. It's got some ok stuff going on with the different missions and the ability to focus your deck of cards based on the sets you choose. However it has a very high level of randomness to the extent that it is impossible to make any meaningful plans or strategies. So turn by turn tactical decision making limits its strategic depth.

Also, the utterly shit quality of the components is inexcusable. Wizkidz should have been ashamed to have released something this chincy.

I have been playing Elysium for a review, and I don't much like it. It has all these cards that look like they should be able to combo together, but the game throws all these impediments to actually putting anything together. The focus is obviously much more on set-collection than anything else. Of course, there is still mounds of text to internalize before it really takes off. It seems like a solid design in the abstract, but the cards either need to be less complex, or there need to be fewer constraints there. As it is it's pretty disappointing.

So I guess I'm back because I'm posting about this killer two-player night I had last night.

Space Hulk - I've been meaning to teach this to my Texas friends, but last night was the first opportunity. That means we did Suicide Mission, and I was the Space Marines. It was a lot of fun, even if the outcome was kind of a foregone conclusion. I might have had a shot, but I had some terrible luck on the command point chit pull, which somehow got even worse once my sergeant died. I also failed a crucial killing role when my flamer tried to clear a space. Still, it was good to play again.

Twilight Struggle - My TX friends have all gotten into Twilight Struggle since I've moved down here, and so it's become one of those games where it is very easy to find an experienced opponent (as in, they know the rules and the cards). I was the US. I had a bad first turn, and it looked dire. But I got a very good draw in the second turn, and then again in the third turn. By the end of the early war I had the entire Middle East sown up, and was essentially even in Europe and Asia. I kept on getting good draws into the mid-war, until I finally got to 20 points in turn 6. I just kept seeing hands full of white and neutral events, with only a couple USSR events to contend with. After I won we looked at the cards that had been removed from the game, and half of them were USSR events, compared to maybe 6 each from me and neutral cards. The deck was getting watered down in my favor. At one point I also had the single best rash of realignment rolls in history. I was able to empty France, Iran, and Sudan of influence, and knock a couple more off of Cuba.

The thing I love about Twilight Struggle is that even though it is a strategic game with lots to think about, it is just as much an experiential game. It evokes a lot of great thematic moments, and it is has so many exciting twists and turns. I'm still surprised it's held on to the top spot on BGG for a few years now, because it feels like the sort of game that could never get the consensus needed to make it that high.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation - I have had a copy of this hang around for a long time, and had only played a couple times. Last night we got in two games, and it was a blast. The Darkness won both games, though in different ways. In the first game I probably needed to be a little more bold and try to bump into the Dark territory a little more to clear a path. As it was I dithered a bit too much and allowed the flying Nazgul to nab Frodo, even after he had made it out of a couple scrapes already. In the second game, Frodo (now my opponent) made it all the way to my end of the board, but died trying to attack the Flying Nazgul in Mordor. His hand was forced because I very nearly had a third person in the Shire. I always KNEW the game was good, but last night was one of those moments where I saw it in action. I could have played three or four more games.

So yeah, best two-player game night ever.

I've got to agree, Nate, that looks to be the perfect two player evening.

You've got a minis game, a wargame, and a 'light', quick playing game.

Those are great titles to boot. Though one could switch some titles out, say Hammer of the Scots for Twilight Struggle, or Battle Line for Lotr: Confrontation, those would be lateral moves at best.

That's a hard night to top.

Were all games against the same opponent?

Yeah, it was all one guy.

I have Hammer of the Scots, and I would have played it last night, but I haven't played in a year, and I didn't feel confident to teach it.

Twilight Struggle is still my favorite game. I got a game in early this week against my usual opponent and by turn 7 I conceded the game as the Soviets. Turn one I had middling cards plus scoring for all three regions. By turn 4 I was down 3 or 4 points and had domination in Central, South, Africa, Asia, and Europe was a stalemate. My opponent as the US played the card that allowed him to draw from the deck 5 cards and discard any he didn't like...he discarded scoring for Central, South, and Africa. Next turn I was Red Scared and my average card value before the scare was a 2, and I had scoring for Asia and ME and by then he flipped Asia. I did make some bad plays that I learned from, but that was the worst run of scoring cards I've ever experienced in that game.

My only problem is I wish I knew more people that enjoyed playing the game. Too many people are turned off by a game that both takes 2-3 hours to play and that they will lose guaranteed for the first handful of games against someone more familiar with it. I really only have one opponent and he still wins 90-95% of our games and 100% of Hannibal RvC, just wish I had a few other opponents.