What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Dude! That's a pretty sweet copy of Space Hulk!


We played a quick game of Princess Ryan's Star Marines, to get re-aquainted with the rules ... and died and died and died to the robo-Guard. Rough with 2p. The intent was to take it to a game night later that evening.

And then we saw that the bulk of the people who RSVP'd were gamers who loved Cards Against Humanity ... dudes husband is not a gamer and they were a lot of his friends over to celibrate. We dumbed things down by taking over the 5e starter (in case they didn't show) and Zombie Plague. It was a feux birthday party and the guy wanted to play his new-sh Sentinels of the Multiverse. I was Visionary (which I really like as a support role) while my wife was (Quantum? The speedster, whichever one that was.) The other gamer was Ra while Birthday was Fanatic. Speedester forgot her power and I only figured out the combo with Visionary late in the game. She DID almost get in a 16-point hit (against Warlord in the Martian Base.) Birthday was unhappy with fanatic, but did finish him off with that "deal startHP-currentHP damage" thing. Overall we managed really well.

We ended up playing 3 games of Zombie Plague, the replacement for Ryan. This is a free PnP that I think works REALLY well. It's super-fast to play and I think it brings a lot of tension and "Zombie Movie" moments. Turns move fast and there's a decent amount of nail biting. It's a blast and may be the best zombie game I've played.

Bought My First Carcassonne for the five year old and it's a brillant game. Easy enough for her to be able to explain it to friends if she wants, but with just enough game for an adult to have gaming fun while playing. (gaming fun being fun had from playing games, and not just the fun you have by doing something your kid thinks is fun. Which is great, by why not have both if you can).

Played Hero Quest for the first time this afternoon, and had a lot more fun than I was expecting. We lost the intro quest. I'm not sure if that means we played like crap, but it was nice to feel like we were up against a challenge. I didn't think I was going to really like dungeon crawlers, but this has made me second guess myself. I won't have regular access to that copy of Hero Quest, so what's my next step if I want to explore further? The D&D Adventure System games?

As far as in-print stuff, D&D Adventure System and Descent 2.0 would be the only offerings as far as dungeon spelunking. And Descent isn't even so much dungeon spelunking as it is a race to complete your objective.

Today I taught one of the shop guys Marvel Dice Masters. We just did the basic 10 life Cap-Beast vs Torch/Spidey. He whooped me. But he loved the game and can't wait to get his starter set having already bought up some boosters.

We then moved to Around the World in 80 Days. All of our first times playing and it was fantastic. Myself and another guy were in Bombay ready to use our Elephant cards when someone drew a storm event casing us to be delayed and miss our departing elephants. I really liked the way the game keeps you moving by ending when the second to last player reaches London and encouraging you to move out of a space because of the Inspector. Score on for the ERP and a new game for my permashelf!

After that we moved onto Valley of the Kings which is one of those small-box AEG games. The game is a deck-builder so no new ground there, but what did feel new (to me at least since I don't play a lot of deck-builders) is that you play for points at the end and you score points by "Entombing" your cards meaning you take them out of your deck. And there are some pretty powerful cards so it gets pretty interesting trying to figure out what cards you want to do without in order to net you points at the end. It plays pretty quickly and doesn't appear to be heading down the expansion-train like so many other deck-builders.

We then finished with Continental Express. A quick card-game of matching train cards to score contracts which net you points. It's a game that I'd call a time-waster. It was enjoyable but I wouldn't say entertaining. In the 20 mins or so it took to play there are a lot more other games I'd rather play, but if the guy brings it again and I have 20-30 mins at the end of a game day I'll play it.

Good game day yesterday. Started with Gang of Four, which was my request to get it off the Ultimatum List. I liked it a bunch and hope I get more plays out of it. (Yes, I know. Here's the thing: I am apparently the one dude who doesn't like Tichu, and Gang of Four removes the things I don't like about it.)

Then played Agricola, not one of my favorites. I just can't see through all the myriad steps required to do even the most basic stuff in the game. I was proud of myself for getting a bunch of cows, sheep, stone house with 4 rooms, and some vegetables, but the other players killed me with way more family members, rooms, and improvements.

After that was Mundus Novus, which is pretty much the trading from Mare Nostrum spun off into its own game. I started out well behind everyone else, since they got Warehouses right away and I just had junk. But then I started to grab ships and the multiple fleets guy and pulled in cards quickly. I was very close to the 10-card win, but another guy got me on points. Fun game, worth a look.

Finished out with a quick game of Quandary, which I love but am terrible at. Sure enough, I came in dead last, but the final round was great, as three colors got bombed out to zero and one was at 5. I got 0 points (I was in ALL THREE of the colors and didn't expect the round to end as quickly as it did; I held the 5 for two of them), the other 3 players got 10 each, hold 2 of the 5 point colors each.

Edit - wrong thread.

Legomancer wrote: Good game day yesterday. Started with Gang of Four, which was my request to get it off the Ultimatum List. I liked it a bunch and hope I get more plays out of it. (Yes, I know. Here's the thing: I am apparently the one dude who doesn't like Tichu, and Gang of Four removes the things I don't like about it.)

I don't like Tichu either. What does Gang of Four do better?

I also don't like Tichu, but liked Gang of Four when I played it.

The things I didn't like about Tichu:

1) the goofy cards that do weirdo things you have to somehow figure out

2) not being able to decide if it's a climbing game or a trick-taking game

3) having a partner whose fate is attached to me figuring this stuff out.

GOF eliminates these things. It's strictly a climbing game, so no trick stuff. The few "weirdo" cards are pretty straightforward. And it's not a partnership.

I believe Gang of Four is still available for online play at Days of Wonder's web site, including tutorials and robot players if you want to go after a couple of learning games. Super easy to learn, super clean to play. A very solid card game. It's the reason Days of Wonder exists -- the owners wanted to print Gang of Four and figured out they were having more fun and making good money making board games.

S.