What Board Game have you been playing? ARCHIVE

Local gaming con this weekend. With a 10 month old at home, I didn't spend as much time there as last year, but I still got to play some good stuff with friends I seldom get to hang out with (some I only see at this yearly event).

Eldritch Horror on friday night. See my thoughts in the EH thread.

Got there a bit after noon saturday.

Had a little over an hour before the start of some tournament, so looking for a short game to indulge those who would be participating. We pulled out Knizia's Samurai. Oldy but goody, no bullshit semi-abstract german majority game from the master, done in 45 minutes.

Was about to try out Legends of Andor when some others roped me in for Game of Thrones - Feast for Crows expansion. This is the four player game where the regular capture the castles objective is replaced by personalized objectives as well as some secret objectives we can try for every turn. I loved this part. I got to play Baratheon and managed to capture King's Landing on turn 2 and hold on to it for the rest of the game. However the Arryns got almost wiped out by Starks and Lannisters early on, thus leaving all their lands wide open to the Starks who managed to snag the win after 6 turns and less than 2.5 hours of play. Great expansion! Love the new objectives and shorter play time.

Then went back home (10 minutes away) for supper and to put the kids in bed. Felt already tired, but still went back for the obligatory epic game of BSG, this time with the new Daybreak expansion. Our 6 player game featured Lee Adama in his political leader role who loves to give Executive Orders, Tom Zarek as a military leader and chief mutineer, one of the new cylon leaders, Kat, Starbuck and myself as the pious Gaius Baltar in his new guise as a spiritual guide.

Our objective was to reach the Earth at a whopping distance of 10. The new Demetrius ship board was a huge help to reach this distance however. The new Treachery deck is EVIL. The humans eaked out a win while excluding the sympathetic cylon leader. Only a single cylon (Kat) got to infiltrate our ranks, which is a good thing as our Fuel and Population were both down to 1 (losing 5 population in a single round to a FTL jump and a civvie ship destruction really hurt!).

Had some quality family gaming time as my brother and his wife came over Saturday night. They're game for anything, but I usually break out the lighter fare so I don't bog them down with rules.

Cargo Noir - Family games night are the reason a game like Cargo Noir has a place on my shelf. It is easy to teach, has excellent artwork/components and doesn't last too long. Within 10 mins everything was explained and I was able to quickly answer any questions that came up.

For a pure bidding game I really love how Cargo Noir plays. The key is that you send out your ships each round, but you don't get anything until your next turn. This means if you don't bid enough in a particular port, then you essentially wasted one of your moves. I also like how you can go for upgrades instead of trading in cargo for Victory Points. Being able to get more ships or hold more cargo increases what you're able to do in a given turn. The thing is...the game only lasts 10 rounds so you have a very short time to score big points. Focus too much on upgrades and you'll miss out on VPs.

After about 4-5 rounds everything clicked and things got good. Everyone began to understand the importance of blocking other players and the bidding got intense. The last two turns in particular were very cutthroat. I managed to have a huge turn because my fiance chose to ignore two of my ports and helped herself instead. This led me to get a 40 point VP card that essentially won me the game. I like as the game goes on people are begging/pleading for you to not outbid them. It was really comical. In the end my brother and myself tied with 70 points, but since I had the highest VP point card (40) I ended up with the victory. I really enjoy Cargo Noir. I understand that it doesn't bring a shitload of new ideas to the table, but I like that it's boiled down to the essence of the bidding mechanic. It's easy to teach, looks gorgeous and feels like your choices have meaning. I like it alot.



Takenoko - A saccharine sweet, adorable game about a giant panda bear and the bamboo gardener that he pisses off. This game is visually alluring one the table. The pastel colors, the painted minis and wooden bamboo chutes attract people like moths to a flame.

The ruleset is very simple and most things make thematic sense...so things are easy to remember. You explain how the objective cards/actions work and you're off. This is one of those Euro games where you always want to do one or two more things than you're allowed on any given turn. Not being able to normally do the same action twice can drive you nuts (in a good way). I decided to go for Panda objectives in the beginning (eating bamboo). This didn't really work out and I fell behind. In an effort to catch up I flooded my hand with objective cards and begin growing, eating and placing plots for a plethora of VPs. The objectives where you have to form patterns with the tiles tweaks that spatial reasoning part of my brain and drive me a bit nuts. However, thanks to some timely weather die rolls I was able to fulfill all my objectives first...snatching victory from my fiance. This game was well liked and people seem to go gaga over the components. I foresee it being a popular family game for years to come.

Last night my wife and I played my first game of Ogre. This is in the form of the 1987 Deluxe Edition, a generous donation to the San Il Defanso collection from the VonTush foundation.

It took maybe 30 minutes for her Ogre to steamroll my command post. In retrospect I played some terrible defense, and it didn't help that I rolled like crap too. I mostly just put my guys wherever, which is how your learn the game, but certainly not how you win it. Also, I don't think I quite understood that the Ogre has multiples of each weapon. As in, he has four secondary guns (in the Mark III form) that can EACH take a shot. We goofed that pretty hard, but it didn't matter because I lost anyway.

But here's the thing. The game was simple enough that my wife figured out how to play it very quickly, and was very open to playing again. But I spent the ENTIRE REST OF THE NIGHT thinking about what I could have done differently, and how best to utilize the different units. That's something a game hasn't given me in a long time, and I'm really excited to dig into this one.

IMO, this is the version to own (cardboard standees, correct?). Small footprint, thin box, great late 80's/ early 90's art and doesn't mix so well with all of the expansions. It's very self contained, but you get all the Ogre fix one needs.

Yesterday's game day was Terra Mystica, Ginkgopolis, and Lords of Waterdeep (w/ Skullport).

My second time on Terra Mystica and I just don't know how I feel about this thing. I like it, even though it's pretty themeless and low-interaction. I liked that in our second game I had no chance of winning the sprawl award but still had other ways to gain points. But, as with Eclipse (which I was wrong to compare it to originally), the whole feels unsatisfying. The cult tracks seem tacked on and pointless, as they don't do anything other than be a thing to do.

My pre-order had been cancelled and I could order it again, but I don't know if I really need to own this. I'd certainly welcome more plays of it, but then again, if it never hit the table again, I wouldn't miss it.

Jeff White wrote: IMO, this is the version to own (cardboard standees, correct?). Small footprint, thin box, great late 80's/ early 90's art and doesn't mix so well with all of the expansions. It's very self contained, but you get all the Ogre fix one needs.

Yes, that's the one. I think it's the right choice for my Ogre needs, but I do wonder how I can integrate G.E.V. and Shockwave if I ever get around to buying those ones on the aftermarket. It looks like they were never released in the same edition. I mean, I COULD just use the little box versions with tons of chits, but it wouldn't look quite as cool.

Glad that it is getting some play San! It was just sitting lonely in my basement, and got very jealous when the Deluxe Ed showed up.

I played a game of X-Wing. I build a two B-Wing and one Y-Wing Proton Torpedo build against a five Tie Swarm and Vader. Overall I should have done a lot worse, but the guy I was playing against still isn't used to maneuvering the swarm, so after the first pass he got my Y-Wing down a bit but then the swarm scattered and lost its efficiency. I was able to move around, get shots here and there to pick off the Ties and then Vader managed to kamikaze into an asteroid which helped a lot.

Then we played Pandemic, and I think I like the game as a solo puzzle to play every so often, but with a group it is alright at best. We feel one action short if one player had five instead of four we would have won. But we lost due to black cube exhaustion. I honestly took a very passive approach to the game and just did my thing as the medic and I think everyone just let black go by the wayside.

We wrapped up with Hanabi. I was not sold on it...Very "Oh, so that's the game. Ok."

all the Ogre fix one needs.

I swear, Jeff White is like the puritan of game. His moderation is almost infuriating.

Heh. The essence of Ogre is one bad@$$ tank vs an army. You start shuffling in expansions like GEV with multiple units on a side and you're moving into a straight up conventional wargame with a sci-fi theme, of which you could be playing anything at that point.

THIS IS OGRE!


EDIT: For those new to Ogre, we're referring to the 'Deluxe Edition' from the late 80's. The one with the awesome nuke cover. Buy it if you can find it!

We played two games of Ghost Stories Saturday. That bit in the rules about "Don't be surprised if you lose the first few games," is no lie. As in, you die pretty quickly. I bought the iOS version, and can now die quickly in the privacy of my own home.