What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Played Justice League: Axis of Villains. It's a Target exclusive that is now on clearance for $12.49, so naturally I had high expectations. It's okay-ish. Came prepunched, which is probably worth 49 cents. The components are nice, so I'll give that $6. Came in a box too, so there's a dollar right there. I'll probably keep it around for a few more plays, but I figure Target owes me five bucks. I'm gonna demand they pay me in beef jerky at the service desk or else I'll take my future business to The Walmart.

I only played one game worth writing about over the weekend, and that was Power Grid The First Sparks. For those that don't know, this game takes the basics of Power Grid and puts them in the time of prehistoric man. So instead of getting money, you get cavebucks in the form of herbs, mammoth pelts, fish, berries, and bear skins. Each of those FIVE currencies have their own values and keeping track of them is tedious. When you expand you pay a set price plus one additional cavebuck per each player in there after you've placed. This makes for some really hard to grasp addition. It's not that it's hard addition, it's that literally nothing is ever "the same" so you need to calculate the cost and then add it to the previous costs. Also every turn 1/3 of your cavebucks rot, I bought a technology that prevented this just so I could ignore that part of the game. So, there's all this added complexity I've mentioned (I haven't even mentioned "virtual mammoths") but the game is not even close to as deep as power grid. In First Sparks it's a simple race to 13 territories. Even the auctions are gone!

This is an awful game, an obvious cash-in on the PG name and FF's general celebrity.

Had the gang over last night for a quick night of gaming... we started the night with Desparados of Dicetown. Dice chucking game with a bit of screwage as you try to free you gang of outlaws out of jail, while shooting up and bankrupting other players. Great fun and plays in about 30 min. A keeper for our group.

Then, we finally got Pax Porfiana to the table. Holy shit - why have we waited this long to play this game? Great history, a nice dose of economics with screwage (and game with banditos in it is a keeper for me) and while daunting at first, once you get the handle of it, the game flys by. Loved how going into a depression just kills your economics and lost one of my most lucrative banks to "nationalization". I am pretty sure we made some rule mistakes, but some how one of the guys finagled his way to a revolutionary victory. The mark of a great game in my book is one that you think about the next day - which I was doing during boring status/staff meetings today. Definitely a keeper and will be a staple of our game days in the future.

Next week - Thunder Alley!!

Steve G.

gorm wrote:
Then, we finally got Pax Porfiana to the table. Holy shit - why have we waited this long to play this game? Great history, a nice dose of economics with screwage (and game with banditos in it is a keeper for me) and while daunting at first, once you get the handle of it, the game flys by. Loved how going into a depression just kills your economics and lost one of my most lucrative banks to "nationalization". I am pretty sure we made some rule mistakes, but some how one of the guys finagled his way to a revolutionary victory. The mark of a great game in my book is one that you think about the next day - which I was doing during boring status/staff meetings today. Definitely a keeper and will be a staple of our game days in the future.

Welcome to the fold, brother.

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

gorm wrote:
Then, we finally got Pax Porfiana to the table. Holy shit - why have we waited this long to play this game? Great history, a nice dose of economics with screwage (and game with banditos in it is a keeper for me) and while daunting at first, once you get the handle of it, the game flys by. Loved how going into a depression just kills your economics and lost one of my most lucrative banks to "nationalization". I am pretty sure we made some rule mistakes, but some how one of the guys finagled his way to a revolutionary victory. The mark of a great game in my book is one that you think about the next day - which I was doing during boring status/staff meetings today. Definitely a keeper and will be a staple of our game days in the future.

Welcome to the fold, brother.

I'm on board too. Last week I got lucky on a trade and got Bios Megafauna. Played that a few times and finally decided I needed PP immediately. Unless some stupid shit happens I'll be the proud owner of one of the last two remaining copies. No box or rulebook but I don't give a fuck. Eklund's games have so much good flavor. I even like his shitty font use.

Bull Nakano wrote: I only played one game worth writing about over the weekend, and that was Power Grid The First Sparks. ... This is an awful game, an obvious cash-in on the PG name and FF's general celebrity.

I love Power Grid. Don't know why, but I do. And I haven't liked any other Friedemann Friese game I've played, including other ones with "Power Grid" in the name. Granted, I learned this under terrible conditions (at a gaming convention, when I and others were distracted and stuff) but I just didn't see the point in anything that was going on.

Re: Power Grid: The First Sparks

Here's a session report of my one and only game of this turd:

I purchased the Fire technology.
I expanded my clan.
I expanded again.

And that was it. I was literally unable to do ANYTHING for the rest of the game after the first round. I started with 1 VP, I ended the game with 1 VP. Without having purchased a Tool technology in the first round to gather food, turns out I was only able to maintain one clan member (the other two quickly starved to death). And I was unable to purchase technologies to get me out of that hole because I didn't have a Tool to build up some cash/food beyond what I needed to sustain that first dude. I actually just left the table ten minutes into the game and it made no difference.

(Yes, I'm the dummy who did those actions, but I'd like to think a professionally published game couldn't be broken five minutes after a newbie sits down at the table. Pretty lousy play-testing on this one.)

bfkiller wrote: Re: Power Grid: The First Sparks

Here's a session report of my one and only game of this turd:

I purchased the Fire technology.
I expanded my clan.
I expanded again.

And that was it. I was literally unable to do ANYTHING for the rest of the game after the first round. I started with 1 VP, I ended the game with 1 VP. Without having purchased a Tool technology in the first round to gather food, turns out I was only able to maintain one clan member (the other two quickly starved to death). And I was unable to purchase technologies to get me out of that hole because I didn't have a Tool to build up some cash/food beyond what I needed to sustain that first dude. I actually just left the table ten minutes into the game and it made no difference.

(Yes, I'm the dummy who did those actions, but I'd like to think a professionally published game couldn't be broken five minutes after a newbie sits down at the table. Pretty lousy play-testing on this one.)

A very similar situation happened on turn 2 of our game, A player had 4 people and income of 4 berries, so he was, by the rules, literally out of the game.

Now, sure, I like a tight, unforgiving game where your actions can make or break you, but this isn't that at all. This is a beginner's trap and nothing more. I say this because you can avoid it easily if you know the game, but there's nothing about the paths that lead to this state that look bad until you're there. We called some rules on the fly to let him get back in the game, since it was 10 mins into a 90 minute game, but this is just sheer poor development.

I like First Sparks because there are lots of people who will play FS that won't play the original: People who find the original too mathy, thematically unexciting, etc.

I agree 100% about the beginners trap, though. No possible expansion of your tribe = you lose and suffer severe mockage. It happened to me in my first game, in fact.

We warn new players that taking Fire can cause this to occur, and we find a way to let them back into the game if they screw up anyway.

Edit: As a side note, First Sparks has some of the worst mass-market rules that I've read in a long time. Friese rules are often poorly translated, leaving players mystified.

I've never played First Sparks, so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. But it sounds like there's almost a "required" opening move, and whenever that happens I wonder why the designer/developer didn't just include that in everyone's starting set.

Gregarius wrote: I've never played First Sparks, so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. But it sounds like there's almost a "required" opening move, and whenever that happens I wonder why the designer/developer didn't just include that in everyone's starting set.

Yes! That was my thought exactly.

One game to rule them all

For all the talk of late here about reacquistion of old euros and whether this or that game is obsolete, War of the Ring is one I'd never sell. i can count the amount of times I have played it on both hands, yet each time has been nothing short of awesome.

Played with a newcomer today (he was rhe shadow) and the fireworks on the Pelenor fields were incredible. The right strike cards and a fast play to get Aragorn and four friends to Minis Tirith stopped three waves of Mordor guys until he gave up that on the front. First time got to play the dead men of dunharrow card with a six rolled decimating his eastern army.

Course he came back. he had the dwarves and horse lords under siege; he killed every last elf in Middle Earth. Frodo and the others were too slow getting their asses to Mordor (they were just reaching the Moranen (?) when the shadow killed the last man standing in the Shire for a military victory.

Three hours, didn't even brush up rules; did we make mistakes or forget to make use of some special powers? probably. Chalk it up to fog of war.. This game is still tops.

War of the Ring is on my forever shelf with a bullet. I absolutely hope that this is one of those games I pull down when I'm an old fart and say "Yeah, they don't make 'em like this any more." I still remember that one game where it played out exactly like the movies, with Wormtongue coming out early and seriously screwing with the FP's plans. Or the time I tricked the SP player into leaving Saruman all by himself in Isengard while I had two Ent cards in my hands. Or the time Aragorn got crowned early, then spent the rest of the game sitting on his ass in Minas Tirith while the war raged in the north, with Gimli leading the dwarves and Northmen.

Speaking of, I really need to track down a copy of Lords of Middle Earth. Can't believe I didn't grab that when I was getting my second edition upgrade kit.

its hard to get 2 player games played at library game night so we went early. he just quit working a 2nd job, as well as has a new baby so he hasn't played really anything for a while. He's the guy who got me into X-wing, he bought it at GenCon and everything. Last time he played X-wing was with me, nearly a year ago. So now that he has some time, he wanted to kick it back into gear.

Jan Ors, 2 B-wings with Fire Control and a rookie x-wing vs Boba Fett and a mini Howlrunner swarm. he quickly realized his mistake of allowing the buzzsaw bs getting into range one of Fett. plus the dice gods smiled on me. at least twice I rolled natural 5 hits(Jan Ors + Range 1) and didn't need the re-roll from the fire control target locks. He's normally a rebel player, so tomorrow hopefully we'll get some more x-wing in now that he's back in the saddle. I think I am going to buy the transport and sell the transport itself to him for use with his SWRPG campaign he's running with his church youth group.

I think i'm going to buy rebel aces...and maybe not any of wave 4-5.

Played some Marvel Dice Masters....which was interesting. I've never played Quarriors, but this actually has sparked interest for me in quarriors. I don't really like the whole building synergies out of your cards. I didn't like the KO-> prep area mechanic. but i can see how some like it. I'll try it again, but I'm not buying in.

Other group played Elder Sign while I was finishing dice masters, which I've never liked other than on the tablet. I had a copy for a while but it always felt too easy.

then finished with 6 player Magical Athlete. I looked on Amazon and its for sale for $80? holy shit. my board is torn in half, and one of the characters was chewed by my son. what a dumb game. Troll and Siren kept beating each other up. Gladator making a magic run to the front by challenging and winning against 4 different characters in a row. Druid floating to an easy win because the demon player kept using his power. Cupid(who never seems to work) actually hitting 6 or 7 times in a race, but the philosopher wasn't going to let it happen.

scissors wrote: One game to rule them all

This game is still tops.

You're not kidding. You know you have something special when I'm on the edge of my seat reading game session reports. It's amazing in every sense. Thanks for sharing.