What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

My wife loves Pack 'n Stack. It's definitely kind of a dumb game, but it's not without its charm. It's really easy to teach, and consists of precisely one split-second decision every round. I'm more positive on it now than I was when I first played it back in 2008.

I had the chance to play Dutch Blitz recently, which is a game you pick up in Amish gift shops. It's in the Spit/Spite & Malice line of things, where you're playing for speed by stacking cards on common piles in the middle of the board. I had a lot of experience with those games as a kid, so the hard-wired memories of the concepts let me just blow away my two opponents who were new to the concept. A great game with teenagers or at the beach, though you might not want to play with long-nailed opponents.

This is good gaming. It runs about four minutes per round and generates good story after each, and you have time between to grab a pretzel and a swig of beer. It doesn't get the respect it deserves because it's sold in the wrong kind of store but it's worth a shot if you see it. About $8.

S.

Gary Sax wrote:
Yeah, that was too long and I shouldn't have posted it in the forums where it will get lost instead of the front page.

I AGREE, SIR.

Sax asked for it, and I'm delivering. Kemble's Cascade. Solo two player game game last night.

First of all, this is the best board game box of all time. The retro arcade cabinet art RULES, it looks and feels authentic down to the fonts and color choices. Then you open it, and the INSIDE of the box is printed with a blue starfield. NICE touch. The manual is printed in three colors (blue, yellow and black) and it fits the aesthetic nicely.

Now, the game. It is not what you are thinking at all. Do not expect this game to be a pew-pew shoot 'em up. Do not expect this to be something simple and direct like Battle Beyond Space. It's actually...kind of complicated. Tons of cards, symbols and abilities. But more than that, what makes it complicated, IMO, is that this is one of those WTF games that feels like it's coming from out of nowhere, not from established mechanics. But yes, it does really simulate a top-down shmup...it's just surprising how much rules and overhead it takes to do that effectively.

There are three core concepts at work here. One is ship energy. You get to move one and shoot one every turn, but you can pay energy to overcharge. But energy is also your health, so pushing the limit can be risky. The second is threat, which simulates bullets flying at you. Bad guy ships generate threat usually by being next to you, but some have longer range or can hit you anywhere on the board. On your turn, you have to move as much as your threat to dodge the bullets or you get hit and lose energy. That is actually pretty brilliant. The third is the scrolling "screen", which it does almost exactly like the classic kid's game Up the River/Race Through Space. Five rows of cards in trays. End of a round, you remove the bottom tray, dump the cards, and refill it up at the top. Which means there is actually "scroll pushing" in the game.

In some ways,it's a very Vlaada kind of design- quite elaborate, but purpose-built to express a particular concept with lots of space built in to create tactical/strategic situations. There's a lot more going on than I expected, with buying upgrades, various hazards, and other elements. The attention to detail is pretty great- love that the main weapons are your standard bullet/missile/chain shot/laser options.

But it _may_ be on the long side and I think the lack of immediacy/"twitch" gameplay might put some off it.

The truth of it is though that I actually had a concept in my mind for a shmup board game about three years ago and these robbers completely stole it from me. Their burgled design actually has a number of things that I wanted to do, but their idea for simulating enemy fire is WAY better than my idea was. But I also had a much simpler scrolling method in mind- the first time I played Thunder Road, I thought "this is the foundation for a shmup board game".

But the complexity actually makes the game feel like there's some depth to it, and I'm thinking I might like that there's some heft to it and it's not just a pew-pew game. It is completely distinct from X-Wing and other spaceship titles. And it is very specifically about shmups, it would not work without that core conceit.

Regardless, there is nothing else like this out there and that says a lot. It's exactly the kind of game I like to see from Z-Man.

Shit. It's on. I'm on board. Sounds like an awesome, unwieldy game that will probably sit on my shelf but I do not want to get rid of. That is odd thematically, my immediate instinct is that the theme it's simulating calls for a pretty rapid fire decision game. Thanks dude!

How's the solo game, btw?

We kicked the Cursed Island's mysterious myst's ass last night in Robinson Crusoe, after a getting a thorough thrashing the week before. Roll on the next scenario, here we come Jenny!

Too bad this next one doesn't feature some kind of alpha male fighting over the damsel in distress type of politics. Guess the game's hard enough as it is, and the characters can also be female.

Started with a couple of 2 player games of Coup. This is not the way to play this game.

Then a 3 player game of Warhammer Diskwars. This is also probably not the way to play this game.

Ended with a 3 player game of Marvel Legendary. This was my first try at this, and I liked it more than I expected I would. I would really like to try the Alien version.

After sitting on my shelf for a year, we finally played Hanabi for the first time. I thought it was an interesting psychological experiment in non-verbal communication amongst apes having only a limited two sentence vocabulary: numbers or colors. I enjoyed the gaming experience because the most interesting part of the game was seeing how the others players would respond to the limited vocabulary/information, get frustrated, and, then resort to using subtle non-verbal communication.

Local meetup group had an "Epic Game Day" where most games were of semi-epic nature when it comes to playtime and those games were prearranged via signups. It's primarily a eurogame group so anything that runs 3 hours is considered "epic" - not the definition I would typically use. So I left the house signed up to teach a 4-player game of Android - not because I know the game great but because the person who was going to explain got sick and had to bail. I've played a few times so I mostly know what's going on. On my drive to the event, two people that were signed up bailed to sign up for Power Grid. Fuckers. So I tried 2p Android with a guy who had never played. It went ok, we used 4 suspects because 3 didn't seem like enough and we both tried to bluff a bit on those. I played Rachel so I figured I would try to kill one of the two suspects I didn't have in my hand. So through dumb luck, I ended up killing the suspect he was obsessed with, which was the only reason I won because he destroyed me using Caprice on everything else. HUMAN FIRST! But, it mostly works as a 2p, so maybe I can find a few more opportunities to get it to the table now that I know.

Then played a filler game of Innovation and scored 1 point because I could not get anything going.

Next was a 4-player game of Clash of Cultures which I am souring on because of how fiddly it is. I just can't remember every little bonus for the techs I bought, so if I forget to scan my tech bonuses when I do something, I invariably end up being that dude that goes "hey, I forgot to take my Idea for a science advance, so I'll do that now." and I watch other people make similar mistakes in not taking bonuses or paying the wrong resource or whatever. Cool game, but that shit is better tracked by a computer.

Last game of the night was my first game of Snow Tails which I thought was a pretty great racing game - quick, simple but with just enough tactics and hand management to make it interesting. I checked out the game on TOS and was surprised to see multiple complaints about a "runaway leader problem" - that's the fucking point in a racing game! I was even more surprised here given there's a catch up mechanism built into the game!

I have now 608 games of Netrunner under my belt. Cult of the new, ha!