What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I finally played Twilight Struggle after having purchased and traded copies at least three times. I sat down with a friend and we learned the game together. It took about 2+ hours for us to get through two turns, but it was still fun and now we sort of know how to play. So many cool little design choices with mechanics that reflect the Cold War. The pressure to use the military while not exploding the Defcon track. The possibility of winning Europe and winning the game. The Asia score card showing up and both of us fighting over countries. The deep cost of trying to wrest control of a country. Looking forward to playing a full game.

A not bad game day yesterday.

Started with Five Tribes, which I was worried would be a typical Euro, but I actually really enjoyed it.

This very popular game has been played near me for a while, but for some reason I was never in any of those games. I finally played it and was pleasantly surprised; I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I like a game that claims to have multiple paths to victory and actually does, and I thought the action selection mechanism was interestingly done. This could very well have been just a point salad mish-mash of mechanisms, but I think it comes together very well. Also, we played with the Artisans expansions, which seemed to integrate into the base game just fine.

Then I finally played my copy of Survive! Escape From Atlantis, which is a dumb random game that I enjoy.

Then Neuroshima Hex with Borgo, Doomsday Machine, and Steel Police. We were fairly evenly matched and I had a slight lead but then Borgo got out that son of a bitch who nets you and punches you three times and crushed me. Got kicked out of the game by him (in addition to the punching, his net made my steel net go away, which let the guy I'd had locked up fire the finishing shot at me.) Then Borgo got out ANOTHER one of those guys and punched his way through the Doomsday Machine.

Finally, Bremerhaven. Hoo boy.

I never really paid attention to this one because it looked like Agricola and Le Havre, two games I'm not super crazy about. It turns out I may be good at pattern recognition.

It's been a while since I hated a game as much as I hated this one. I am amazed that the average eurogamer will put up with it. It's got the kind of interaction where the penalty is "ha ha you do NOTHING." You can easily get shut out of multiple actions per turn and if you are, you just don't do anything at all. Fun! Or you can concentrate your bids on the things you really want and still do poorly because it has those delicious Rosenbergian nano-turns where you use your action to complete 1/20th of what you need to do to get something worthwhile accomplished. Nothing like paying a ton of cash to get to do the building action so you can pay even more cash to build...a bollard. Because otherwise the other action you were allowed to take will be wasted. Also joyous is that when I finally got to actually fulfill a contract, the other players could also just jack around the prices simply to screw me out of literally one extra buck. Rename this game Bastardhaven and throw it in the damn sea.

That said, I'd play again if Ron (the owner of the game) wanted to because I was a sore loser and a grumpy player and I'm sorry and I owe him a better play experience.

More Zombicide with a Prison Outbreak mission from the website. I think these missions with switches and more puzzle elements are more enjoyable. There's always some kind of puzzle especially when mixing zombie types but I can see how the original base set (no weird zombie powers, fairly basic missions) would seem flat.

Risk: Star Wars Edition. We need to split our team on this as the two of us who know the game won pretty convincingly (as the rebels this time).

Valley of the Kings: Afterlife. Either this or the base set, both are excellent small deck-building games. What I love about it is that it seems like you always want to do one more thing than your cards allow, and you have to make tough decisions every turn.

Star Realms with Colony Wars. I got beaten down 2-1, need to get my head back into the strategy, still enjoy it, and would like to try one of the bigger team games.

1775 Rebellion in which I effectively played alone vs two Colonial opponents (because the other guy on my side has this habit of not paying any attention at all to any game he is sitting at). I pulled back a 6-3 deficit to tie the game at 4-4 and turn us all into French Canadians.

Millennium Blades and Kodama were the two main things I played the past few days.

I've played a few games of Millennium Blades and I'd put this right up next to Rebellion as the top releases of 2016 thus far.

It's interesting because of what it captures - a CCG touranment season in one huge board game. You do a real-time deck-building round where players purchase blind packs from the store, sell to the aftermarket, and can make deals. You're trying to build an amazing deck for the tournament phase to light up your opponents and score the best.

This process of deck-building in real-time, then turn based tournament play repeats three times before the game ends (about 2 hours for a complete game). It's satisfying because it's emotional. You get that rush of a blind booster, the tension of analyzing combos and evaluating cards against a timer, and then possibly a huge payoff as you put your deck through the gauntlet and compete.

It works and it's truly unique.

At the same time it's not perfect. It's fiddly with lots of stacks of messy cards all over the table. The tableau building tournament game isn't amazing and only succeeds due to the context of the deck-building phase. It can also be a bit long and unforgiving if you're not into it. The game really puts you up against it if you fall behind in terms of deck competitiveness and a player lacking strategy and focus can fail to compete.

Huge fan though.

Kodama was better than I thought it'd be. There's just something about building something that's visually extremely attractive, and the creative way the branches splay out is great. Combine that with a solid bit of strategy (on the level of a competitive family game) and you have a winner.

I'm still playing a ton of X-Wing. I got in four games this weekend, mostly playing as Rebels, but some Scum in there too. I faced Imperials every time, because that's what my regular opponents want to play the most. There's a bi-weekly group about 20 minutes away that meets on Saturdays. I'm going to dip my feet in there next weekend and see what happens, probably playing as Imperials myself because I prefer their maneuverability and swarming. I enjoy flying T-70 X-Wings and A-Wings too. I thought I'd play Scum, but I really don't care for their clunkiness and emphasis on large ships. I don't know, maybe I'd like the large ships better if I had Engine Upgrade, and maybe I'd like IG-2000 because he comes with Boost, right? I've not been as excited about a [minis] game since I started playing Heroscape back in 2007. And I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan! I'd be lying if I said I don't think the TIEs look cool and have great paint jobs. I like the emphasis on positioning and how you pick your maneuvers simultaneously compared to the typical IGOUGO kind of thing. I'm getting to the point where I'm much better at visualizing where my ships are going to end up, as well as usually knowing what distance I'll be firing from before I pick up the range stick. It's the most fun I've had on the tabletop in a long time.

On the other hand, there are a couple things that really annoy me about it. The first is the setup time. Much as I've stopped playing Heroscape because of this, I could see this becoming a huge issue. I'm usually looking at 15 minutes minimum to start a game, then the play could go on for awhile if neither side decides to concede. I've got my stuff organized very well now, but that also means it then takes a little longer to put everything back in the right place. If things keep going as planned I'll probably have an infant around in 3-5 years... I don't even want to think about all of those little clear plastic pegs, and I figure it will be a lot harder to set aside 2 hours to play a game like this. The second is cost. $10-15 per small ship really adds up. It doesn't sound too bad when you can basically field whatever 100 points worth of ships you want for about $50-60, but where they kill you is the upgrade cards. It often seems like a ship I hardly want could be the only ship that has a certain very useful upgrade.

I have a Box.com account with like 2TB of space left - if F:ATties want to request cards and whatnot I can set up a folder so that you don't have to buy the useless USS Spiro Agnew model to get the Nixon-class Disruptors (or whatever)

Ah, back on track. Just finished playing Boots on the Ground.

I'm a little mixed on it. It's like a wargame-light sort of thing, and it really should've been a miniatures game.

Jexik wrote: I'm still playing a ton of X-Wing. I got in four games this weekend, mostly playing as Rebels, but some Scum in there too.

On the other hand, there are a couple things that really annoy me about it. The first is the setup time. . It doesn't sound too bad when you can basically field whatever 100 points worth of ships you want for about $50-60, but where they kill you is the upgrade cards. It often seems like a ship I hardly want could be the only ship that has a certain very useful upgrade.

Pre-make your list using xwing-buider or another builder site. We don't even use the upgrade cards any more. It saves time and also saves money buying upgrade cards (don't tell FFG).

The size of IG88 make them pretty clunky with lots of asteroids. But I love the Heavy Laser Cannon 4 dice and the IG88's 3 evade dice. Make sure you fly 2 IG88 with the IG-2000 so you can get both special pilot abilities. The biggest weakness is that it can only take 16 damage with no R2 unit or any other way to regain shields. I've been running IG88 B and C but I'm actually thinking of running IG88 A and B just so I can regain a couple of shields.

craniac wrote: I finally played Twilight Struggle after having purchased and traded copies at least three times. I sat down with a friend and we learned the game together. It took about 2+ hours for us to get through two turns, but it was still fun and now we sort of know how to play. So many cool little design choices with mechanics that reflect the Cold War. The pressure to use the military while not exploding the Defcon track. The possibility of winning Europe and winning the game. The Asia score card showing up and both of us fighting over countries. The deep cost of trying to wrest control of a country. Looking forward to playing a full game.

Twilight Struggle has been one of the top rated games for the that last 10-15 years for all the reasons you mentioned. And you're playing the best way to possible by sitting down and discovering the game with friend who's also new to the game. Enjoy the journey and get excited when you finally crack into the late war deck.

Last night was my first game of Stronghold 2nd edition (thanks Michael). My opponent was also a first-timer. I had prepared by reading the book and watching the how to play video twice. It's really not a hard game to play, but it's definitely not something you'll play well right away.

I was the invader, and managed to win on the last turn. It was really fun, we both liked it and will definitely play again soon. One rule we wondered about, and it's entirely possible I just missed it, several times. When you "remove" a unit from the Barracks, does he immediately go to the courtyard, or can you place him anywhere? We didn't see a clear answer anywhere.

Hooked up at Emerald Tavern in Austin for some games. My arch-rival and I played three games of DreadBall in 4 hours. Amazing game. If there's anyone here who misses BB leagues but is intimidated by their length...you need to get into DB. All the fun of a sports league but a fraction of the time. It's not a BB replacement for me, but I really dig it. Anyway, I played the alien monkey clones, the Zee, and we teed up against the insect like Zzor. I ended up losing all three games even after signing MVPs John Doe and Number 88 under contract. John Doe got "knocked out" on the very first turn, then rode the pine for half the match. Post game video analysis revealed he dove and took the Zee sponsors for a fools. Easiest 8 million credits he ever received. Bastard...



Then we had two others join us for 1775: Rebellion. I was already three pints into it, so a game of this weight was perfect. I've really enjoyed this series (yes, even 1812) and have been eagerly looking forward to the next one, but haven't seen anything in awhile so I'm not sure if the plans for the French & Indian War or the Invasion of Britain games have stalled or what.

Finally, we stepped next door to SLAB (Slow Low & Bangin'), a hip hop inspired joint, for some BBQ and Condotierre. BBQ, nerd games, and hip hop...what a combo.

Fireteam Zero is garbage. I had it out with some friends sunday night and it was SWEPT. The ultimate doom for a board game. About halfway through a mission- which was basically walking to spawn points and searching, hoping to draw one of the objective cards, and fighting the same monster over and over again- one of my friends said "am I alone in thinking that this game fucking sucks?" At which point the box was placed at the end of the table and I did the honors of sweeping it all in, unsorted.

I'm selling it for $50 if you just have to see for yourself. SOB retails for $100. THANKS BACKERS!

But the Conflict of Heroes solo expansion thing definitely does not suck. It's kind of brilliant. It overhauls the entire activation system in the main game, doing away with unit action points and the IGOUGO. You activate a unit and do something with it, then flip a card to see if the AP expenditure causes it to be spent. Then, you draw an AI card that has a triage on it, but it is quite a bit more complex than you usually see with these kinds of automation systems. It provides a set of prioritized criteria with which to activate an AI unit or possibly take counteractions or special mission actions. It uses certain conditions to create a sense of "intelligence", like you might have an AI unit target a piece that just activated or the weakest piece...or the one with the lowest defense DRM, so it's not firing into cover disadvantageously. It takes a few turns to get accustomed to sorting out the emergent logic of the cards, but once it gets going it actually simulates playing against someone live quite well. Which is something of a feat in this kind of design.

The first scenario is kind of a "try it out" thing, the second one starts to get serious. It's still pretty simple- three T-34s moving toward a village where a German wagon convoy is moving through. You've got a couple of pioneer units, one tank hunter unit, and a mortar team to guard the wagons. I got destroyed. I thought I was going to be slick and run these pioneers into a stone building and wait for one of the tanks to come by to get the close combat bonus on it and then drop a couple of potato mashers on it. I'll be damned if the tank didn't roll right up next to them (thanks to the AI cards, of course), and then proceed to deliberately swivel that turret around and blast them, suppressing them once and then blowing them out of the roof. I laid mines ineffectively and squandered the Mortar team's ability to lay smoke. Very excited to try this setup again.

Since I don't really have a regular wargaming partner apart from my rarely available buddy Mike, having a functional AI is kind of a godsend. There's only ten scenarios in the solo firefight book, but I just picked up the random firefight generator. I think I'm all in on this. I liked CoH back when it first came out, but the newer edition is definitely an improvement.

Now I'm eyeing Heroes of Normandie and trying to decided if I really want both. There are things I like better about HoN, but the solo playability might be a deciding factor.

You should try that expansion with Forbidden Stars, I hear it's something yet unheard of.

Animals On Board may win the Spiel this year, and it would be totally justified. Kind of a streamlined zooloretto, it has that trademark German Euro thing where its easy to teach and can be played very lightly, or it can be very thinky and mean to some degree.

Piratoons has some cool elements (the Galaxy Trucker speed thing), but overall is just fine and not great.

Kodama impressed again. I lost by 1 point (113 to 112!)

Also played an upcoming thematic game from Grey Fox (prototype) that was very interesting but the end game isn't there.

Heavily into Geekway planning for next week. Millennium Blades, Fief, StarCraft, Sons of Anarchy, and Two Rooms And A Boom are all scheduled.

Soloed a game of Runebound 3rd ed. I just played the monsters to my best ability during combat and it was actually quite good. I don't get the same amount of connectedness as 2nd ed had (where, for instance, defeating the Mother of Ferrox would enable you to defeat another Ferrox encounter), but I really dig the levelling up part of the game. And the quest system is nice giving you a reason to visit different parts of the map.

I haven't tried it with more players yet, but I think that with more stories this will be better than second edition. Yes, even without dice.