What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

BraveRats with the kids....game is not that fun but good for occupying the kids.
Love Letter...the more I play it, the less I like it.
Theseus...the more I play it, the more I like it, and the less I win.
TransAmerica...I'm tempted to make my own map and expand the game, because shit gets old when you get the same cities ad nauseum.
Cathedral....Still one of my favorite games. Love the shit out of it. Kids are starting to win, so I'm happy.
Triassic Terror...Most underrated game I'm aware of.
Suburbia...Don't ask me why, because I don't know, but I adore this game.
Emergence Event....what a fucking mess. It could've been SO GOOD if it was a little more focused. It's good, but could've been great if they added PVP and changed a few things. What a mess though.
Urbanization....Can't wait to trade this away. Horrible Euro. Smart design and I like playing it with some people who "get it" but it is dry as fuck.
ST Expeditions....still pissed they haven't made a sequel.
Livingstone....wanted it for years, and now that I have it, I can't wait to get rid of it. FUCKING BORING!


THE GOOD NEWS:
Just got Runewars, plus Banners. Also just got Village and the Eclipse expansion. And soon, Al's gem will be shipping to me!

Game night this weekend. Here's what went down...

Felix: The Cat In The Sack - We played this twice. It's still one of my favorite tiny auction games, because it provides those moments where people go all Gob Bluth on it. ("I've made a huge mistake.") I lost the first game, and then lost the second one even worse.

7 Wonders: Babel - My dislike of 7 Wonders is well-documented, but people said an expansion might change my mind. It didn't really. It's still basically 7 Wonders, though it's been made kind of wonky with environmental rules that throw the game in different directions. I guess that's fine (though it made the game complicated to learn), but the big issue with the game remains. In short, it feels like the only thing you are doing is basically picking a card over and over again. The effects of the cards remain frustratingly abstract, in that it's a game about picking cards that all score points in different ways. I'm generally in favor of games finding ways to interpret genres, and 7 Wonders at least does that. But for me it goes too far and renders the very act of playing the game kind of meaningless.

The Dice Must Flow - This is a print-and-play game, I believe a version of Dune Express. It has potential with maybe four people, but we were playing with seven. As it was, it was a bear to learn. I took a couple of turns before I was entirely clear on what I was doing. It's kind of a fun design goal to try to distill Dune to its essence, but I don't really think that essence is player powers. That's the assumption made by The Dice Must Flow, and I found myself missing the hidden information. That "wheels within wheels" isn't really possible in this game, and it was disappointing.

Star Wars: Epic Duels - This was a six-player team game, Vader/Boba Fett/Darth Maul vs. Obi-wan/Yoda/Anakin. Obi-wan and Darth Maul were both out very quickly, and Boba Fett proved very difficult to pin down as he kept rocketing all over the board. Darth Vader ended up being the tank, even though Yoda held his own. I did alright as Anakin, but I eventually was killed by my future self. One thing I like about the game is that even though the characters aren't particularly well balanced, the vagaries of card-draw means that even the strongest characters can lose on a bad day.

Stockpile - So this is a Kickstarter game, kind of a stock game for people who don't normally like that genre. There are like six companies, and one lot of shares sold for each player. Some of the shares are face-down, so even when you buy something not everyone knows exactly what you are buying. It's therefore ambiguous who is the majority in each company. There's also the market itself, which bumps up and down depending on random cards. If you really like the valuation part of stock games, this will probably drive you crazy. For my part, I actually liked it pretty well. It was pretty easy and quick. I'd gladly play again, though I don't think I'd break a sweat finding a copy in my current situation.

How many did you play Theseus with, Superfly? 2, like god intended?

I'm tempted to try Theseus with 3 just so I can check out Pandora. Haven't had the opportunity yet though.

Green Lantern wrote: Where did you get those awesome maps in your X-Wing pic, lj?

Those are GripMats, a kickstarter from a while back. I think they are for sale via webstore now.

I remember watching the pitch. Are they any good? How do they compare to others?

Gary Sax wrote: How many did you play Theseus with, Superfly? 2, like god intended?

The first time was with 3. Then I played with Mark "HotPantsGamer" with 2, and he fucked my shit up. Then I played with 2, and won by 1 point. Pure luck, really. Then I played with 3 again and got absolutely devastated. Like, 2 in space for several turns smoked. Playing with 2 again tonight, and I kind of agree that if God was interested in Theseus, he'd play it with 2.

Oh yes.... I did make SuperflyTNT my bitch....

Three games on Saturday, all pretty heavy. First up was my personal favorite Chaos in the Old World. Nothing new to say here but I still love the game at a dozen plays and still can't get a Tzeentch (blue faction whatever the name) win with the base game, but blue is by far my favorite to play. The new guy had Khorne and won by ticks of course on the last turn and needed 2 ticks. I was at 45 points and Nurgle was at 43 points with purple in the mid 30s and 2 ticks away also. Have to start telling the group to play smarter against Khorne or every new player just feeds him the wins.

Second up was Study in Emerald with 4. Fantastic game again. I had the Cultists permanent effect and started gobbling up cities as a Restorationist without making any covert actions. New guy had some card that destroyed an agent and I never bothered getting another agent other than my main. New guy took a city from a clear Restorationist to push her score to the bottom and used the card to destroy me, winning the game as a Loyalist 1v3. Even though a good friend has this game I feel compelled to buy it for the $140ish market price right now given the big changes in the second edition.

Third game was Fury of Dracula, my second time playing it. Had three and on the second event card drawn we revealed the last location in Dracula's trail - only his second location in the game. So not much cat and mouse but rather hunters vs cornered vampire. Kinda disappointed that event is so common in the deck too as I wanted some tension like Whitechapel but with more decisions other than where to search, like keeping items/using events etc. Was fun but still a bit of a letdown. Partly my own fault for suggesting three heavy games and running them all back to back.

That is a HELL of a game day.

Hex Sinister wrote: I remember watching the pitch. Are they any good? How do they compare to others?

They are 'stickier' than most other mats. Better than vinyl or mousepad. It doesn't roll out as easily as mousepad material, it tends to hold folds and wrinkles for 15-20 minutes. Not as thick a material, or as heavy. It's absolutely great for anything tile based, the surface makes them resist moving. Kinda rough for cards, as usually you are moving cards around a lot, and this resist moving them. Xwing....I like it. Again less slick than mousepad, like the official FFG ones. A little stickier than the bottom of a mousepad (ya know, the side without the fabric). Saying that....xwing minis are so lite, the best thing to do is add weight to the base...no surface is going to change them much. The movement templates do kinda lock in on the mat, which feels nice and makes playing with acrylics on the mats great.

More expensive than vinyl, but much nicer overall.

I really like them, I got a good deal on them, and now a regular part of game day setup is pulling both mats out to play on. Combat commander - I have some plexi, and we used to have problems with it moving (table, map, plexi) and having to realign the plexi with the underlying map. Now (table, mat, map, plexi) that stuff doesn't move. And the art is sharp.

Scott got anything on the trade block? I might have a copy of Study I'm willing to part with...

Check BGG user "theusuSalsuspect" for trades...I'd love a copy of Study.

Don't be shy...just because it's not listed For Trade doesn't mean I'll not part with it

@lj1983
Cool, I'll consider one of these for my next mat. I'm using felt, which is fine but... it's a cat hair magnet. Not a huge deal but mildly annoying and I do hate cleaning it. It's also starting to get kind of fonky.

I played some new game called 100 A.D. that my friend picked up from GenCon. It is sort of a politics game, but more abstract. You place your influence around the board in different facets of Roman society, like grabbing senate seats, controlling different factions like the plebs or scholars, casting votes for bills on the floor, etc. You get VPs for controlling different areas by having the most influence there.

It was pitched to us as a very political, backstabby type of game. But it is so easy to remove other players' influence that you can completely undo what they just did. It was way too swingy for me. At any point someone can completely negate your plans and you either retaliate, which doesn't help you much, or just waste more resources to get back to where you were a minute ago.

Players' reactions were mixed, so I'll probably get roped into playing again.