What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Trying a new thing on my blog, On the Table , where I talk about what I've been playing.

Covered this week: Smash Up, 3012, Mysterium, Zaubercocktail, Arkadia, San Juan, Cockroach Poker, Mission: Red Planet.

yeah I had an opportunity to replay Smash Up yesterday and decided not to. It's ok.

Legomancer wrote: Trying a new thing on my blog, On the Table , where I talk about what I've been playing.

Covered this week: Smash Up, 3012, Mysterium, Zaubercocktail, Arkadia, San Juan, Cockroach Poker, Mission: Red Planet.

Like your new format, Dave. I, for one, appreciate the photos a lot. You should add a "Gray Matters" section where a mutual friend and yourself talk about how a certain other mutual friend complains about bad games, or better yet, co-ops.

I think I want Arkadia based on the toys alone. Never even heard of it.

Legomancer wrote: Trying a new thing on my blog, On the Table , where I talk about what I've been playing.

Covered this week: Smash Up, 3012, Mysterium, Zaubercocktail, Arkadia, San Juan, Cockroach Poker, Mission: Red Planet.

Please let us know here or in a blog post whenever one of these goes up, I enjoyed it.

Legomancer wrote: Trying a new thing on my blog, On the Table , where I talk about what I've been playing.

Covered this week: Smash Up, 3012, Mysterium, Zaubercocktail, Arkadia, San Juan, Cockroach Poker, Mission: Red Planet.

I should have suggested playing Mission: Red Planet last time I was up at Fat: Thursday. It's my 2nd favorite Area Control game after Struggle of Booze.

Bring it to Trashfest.

I totally get that Chaos in the Old World is a really good game. I just cannot wrap my head around it. Every time I play it, I feel like I'm utterly incapable of doing anything that would lead to me winning.

Of course, it doesn't help when the dice hate me. In the game I'm playing now, I just watched the Khorne player wipe out four of my cultists in one turn with a single figure rolling two dice. He wound up rolling a total of five hits. Then he did something similar two turns later.

Chaz wrote: Of course, it doesn't help when the dice hate me. In the game I'm playing now, I just watched the Khorne player wipe out four of my cultists in one turn with a single figure rolling two dice. He wound up rolling a total of five hits. Then he did something similar two turns later.

Nah, the dice simply love him... but you just happened to get in the way this time.

Chaz wrote: I totally get that Chaos in the Old World is a really good game. I just cannot wrap my head around it. Every time I play it, I feel like I'm utterly incapable of doing anything that would lead to me winning.

I have the same problem. I have played Chaos in the Old World a half dozen times now, and only came close to winning once. The rest of the time, I struggle with a sense of disconnect between setting and mechanics that makes every move seem counter-intuitive. It seems well-designed, but I just don't get it.

I'm with you. I'm not a fan of Chaos. I love the ~idea~ of it but it's just so fucking chromey that I can't really grasp how to play it effectively. Just not me cup'o'tea.

I played Chaos one time. It was around 11PM one Gen Con night after playing two Heroscape tournaments (10 hours) during the day. It was all of our first time and the game plus rules explanation took 3 hours. It was miserable. I haven't played it since, but I can see that it could be a good game. Because of this I refuse to learn new complicated games on Con nights. It's just painful. Codenames was great, and learning new prototypes is pretty much the only time you can do it, so I do it, but new stuff hot off the floor that people don't even know the rules for? Ugh. Pass.

Not that I've played it for a few weeks, but I put up a review of Dead of Winter over on BGG.

More Tragedy Looper and Pandemic for me lately. Girlfriend still loves both. Got her mom to try Pandemic too, and I guess she's asking to play it again. For Tragedy Looper we'll be doing the 7th scenario next, and she'll probably try her hand at being the Mastermind. I first tested her with Hanabi, but she's liked just about every game I've put in front of her, save for Impulse. I don't think I really cared for it either though!

It's a good review, Jexik.

Black Barney wrote: yeah I had an opportunity to replay Smash Up yesterday and decided not to. It's ok.

Yeah, it's a game I don't really need to play again. It's not awful. It's just not particularly fun or original, like those mash-up T-shirts.

Smash up is Heroscapey in theme, which should've worked better than it did, but it's absolutely boring the third play and beyond.

As for the review that you did, that's the best fucking review of DOW I've ever read. It's absolutely outstanding, and if you don't post it HERE AS WELL, as a front page article, you're doing yourself (and selfishly, us) no favors. That's what criticism is all about, and I am so happy to read someone's honesty, especially someone who is so close to Colby and Co.

Personally, I could take it or leave it. I think that Battlestar is substantially more intense and exciting, and it does virtually everything better than Dead of Winter. As a Zombie game thats semi-cooperative, I'd play City of Horrors 10 of 10 times over it. Where Dead of Winter is "do we have a betrayer", City of Horrors is "everyone is going to try to fuck my eyes out". And that's what "end of the world" reality is: self preservation above all else. DoW isn't a bad game by any standard - it's very good, but it simply pales when you compare it to BSG, and it does not stand up to scrutiny after the OMG ZOMBEEZ CO-OP BUT NOT REALLY THO LOLZ CAN I HAZ FOODBURGER OMG CROSSROADS! hype. Like you said, it's like Eldritch Horror where I just get SO TIRED of seeing the same shit repeatedly.

I've played DoW enough to feel I have a good handle on it, and it's good, but not great. Where BSG is on my forever shelf, DoW is on my trade pile, despite it being very good.

yeah, can u post it here? I can't see that other site from work. I've played Dead of Winter twice now and my thoughts are all over the place about it. I really feel like the traitor aspect is tacked on and dislike it. I like the co-op part especially cuz my friends and I are all around the same zero experience level with the game so it's TRUE co-op.

I hate BSG, btw.

I like LNOE the best I think for Zombie games. I always loved being Mr. X in Scotland Yard and it's fun having everyone against you.

City of Horrors sounds interesting

SuperflyTNT wrote: As for the review that you did, that's the best fucking review of DOW I've ever read. It's absolutely outstanding, and if you don't post it HERE AS WELL, as a front page article, you're doing yourself (and selfishly, us) no favors.

I'm not quite sure how to do that since the site changed. I'll have to look into it tomorrow. I'm heading off to work and my evening is packed.

I give permission for any mods to post it if they want.