New and Improved Board/Card Games Thrad

[LadyShea]

I saw a suggestion to take a picture of the table prior to shuffle starting. Also, the two minute timer is a good friend.

[LadyShea]

I watched Unspeakable Words on Tabletop and it looks awesome. I am also interested in Steam Park (Kiddo likes steampunk )

Also, April 5th!


http://www.tabletopday.com/

[Crumb]

A lot of folks seem to like Steam Park. I have not tried it.

[erimir]

Random note: You can play Dominion online for free.

I'd be up for playing whoever from here sometime, just let me know.

[Crumb]

If you like to play board games in real time online for free check out Board Game Arena: Play board games online! • Board Game Arena

Of the games there, I recommend Takenoko, Can't Stop, Stone Age and Seasons.

[Kael]

We picked up Firefly: The Game, and we are quite pleased with it. We are somewhat picky on boardgames, because it's often just two of us, and there are plenty of really fun group games that are pretty boring and predictable with just two players, like the Small World games, but we still want them to be fun with more players for when we have company. Firefly fits that bill pretty nicely, and even has a solo mode, though it does cap at 4 players. My only small quibble so far is that the star crew are all considerably better than most of the B- and C-list characters (and faceless goon types) that make up the other possible crewmen, though it's hard to assemble the entire main crew without being crazy lucky or camping at one of the worlds where you can shop for so many turns you fall behind on other things, so usually they end up spread out among the players. Anyway, it's great fun, and we're looking at picking up the first expansion soon. It's just a small one that adds some extra cards, but there's another one coming in another month or so too.

We also picked up Robinson Crusoe just yesterday, so we haven't really had a chance to play it yet, but at first glance it looks good, and looks like it will also be good even with only one or two players. The biggest stand-out about it so far, without having actually played it, is that it's cooperative, not competitive. A bit like the Arkham Horror series in that it's everyone vs the environment, which is also good for us, because we both hate losing and like to gloat a bit when we're winning, which is sometimes a bad combination…

[LadyShea]

I picked up Set on a whim, and it is actually really good, and more difficult than you might imagine. You can play solitaire or however many players you want. We changed up the rules a bit, so that we take 2 minute turns, rather than racing each other to see a set. Makes it a little more fair in my family.

[Crumb]

If you like cooperative games, I recommend Yggdrasil, Pandemic, and Flash point: Fire Rescue. Of those, I think Pandemic plays best with 2. It can also play up to 4.

[fragment]

Originally Posted by Kael

We picked up Firefly: The Game....... Anyway, it's great fun...

Excepting I always seem to lose, but good times.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by crumb

I suggest trying a cooperative game, they are a very different experience than a normal competitive game. For beginners I suggest: Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert or Hanabi.

Originally Posted by Kael

The biggest stand-out about it so far, without having actually played it, is that it's cooperative, not competitive.

We let Kiddo choose a game last week for being awesome, and we now have Forbidden Desert, which is a cooperative game (our first). The game killed us dead of thirst, but it was really fun and interesting...talking out strategy is right up our alley as a family so that was great. We haven't had a chance to play again, so we will see. Some reviews complain that it is too difficult to win ever.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by Demi

Wits and Wagers is another fun board game that takes your opponents into account.

We got this recently too! The party edition was on clearance for 5.00. We've played a few times and had a blast.

We also do puzzles, and just got this one for only 5.00

[Crumb]

Forbidden Desert is difficult, but winnable. I guess Forbidden Island would be more family friendly, but I bet you guys will figure it out.

If you are interested in the Titanic there is a titanic themed cooperative game based on the Klondike style solitaire called SOS Titanic. It looks really interesting.

Finished up my first play of Lewis & Clark: The Expedition last night. Wow is that a great game. Quite a brain burner, but I can't wait to play again.

[LadyShea]

We played again with a 4th person, and though we came very, very close this time (had all the pieces and were just moving to the leave point), we still lost to thirst. It can be won, you say?

[Crumb]

[LadyShea]

Tabletop Season 3 - With Wil Wheaton! | Indiegogo

They want to go independent

[curses]

Bamp.

I finally joined 1995 and bought Settlers of Catan. Looks a lot like Sid Meyer's Civ series in ways and now I await my chance to get some folks together to try it out.

[Kael]

It plays a lot more like Age of Empires with the resource-gathering and the stuff-building and the stuck-in-medieval-times-ness than it does like any Civ game. I saw a Star Trek TOS Catan set that I really wanted to get, but we haven't played the version we do own in ages and there are things I could spend the money on that I would actually use... it's on my "have it just to have it" wish list though.

I can recommend the Cities & Knights expansion quite heartily, I think it adds a lot to the base game. I haven't played with other expansions enough to have an opinion.

[Crumb]

A lot of folks swear by the C&K expansion and won't play Settlers any other way. I've never tried it with any expansions.

Board Game Arena just went asynchronous with their online board games (they used to be all real-time) and they put up Through The Ages: A Story of Civilization. I am learning TTA for the first time online there and it is really cool. It is a full civilization building card game. The real game can take about 3-4 hours though. So I am still debating whether it would be a game I should buy. I'm not sure if I could find anyone willing to play it with me.

[LadyShea]

For some reason, when it first brought up in this thread, Hanabi was like 30.00 on Amazon. I don't know if they had sold out a whole printing or what, but that was ridiculous.

Now that it is 10 bucks, I will buy it. Is it fun?

[LadyShea]

Also, I need to decide on our family present...I am thinking Scotland Yard. It was a blast playing it here, it is cooperative and involves strategy, and it works for our game group's size.

Thoughts on that?

[BrotherMan]

I'd like to help but I'm not so much a tabletop nerd.

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

For some reason, when it first brought up in this thread, Hanabi was like 30.00 on Amazon. I don't know if they had sold out a whole printing or what, but that was ridiculous.

Now that it is 10 bucks, I will buy it. Is it fun?

Hanabi is fun. You need to have strict rules about giving illegal hints out. It is a very unique game. The play will vary a lot from group to group based on how much communication they allow. If you play repeatedly with the same players you get better as a group in how you use clues. Certainly worth 10 bucks, not 30 though.

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Also, I need to decide on our family present...I am thinking Scotland Yard. It was a blast playing it here, it is cooperative and involves strategy, and it works for our game group's size.

Thoughts on that?

I have only played Scotland Yard a few times. How big is your group? I know for smaller groups the players control more than 1 detective. That can either make it more fun for a player, or too much for them to handle. It is harder when everyone controls a single detective though because then they have to work together more.

Also, of course you need people who are willing to be the odd man out and play Mr X (or whatever they call him now) and play against all the other players.

This is one of those games (like Mr Jack) where no matter which side I am playing I feel as if the odds are stacked against me.

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by Crumb

A lot of folks swear by the C&K expansion and won't play Settlers any other way. I've never tried it with any expansions.

Board Game Arena just went asynchronous with their online board games (they used to be all real-time) and they put up Through The Ages: A Story of Civilization. I am learning TTA for the first time online there and it is really cool. It is a full civilization building card game. The real game can take about 3-4 hours though. So I am still debating whether it would be a game I should buy. I'm not sure if I could find anyone willing to play it with me.

TTA update. Finally got to play the full game a time or two on BGA and there are a lot of things I really like about this game. It is a great set of mechanics for civilization building with cards. I can see why it has a strong following.

But it has one fatal flaw for me. The war mechanics just don't work for me. Once you get a little behind militarily your whole game will start to break down and there seems to be no way to get back on track to defend yourself. So very early on you can get behind militarily and never catch up in what is a very long game. And I don't just say that because I was slammed militarily. I also felt very bad pressing my own military advantage against others when I had it.

Too bad. I'd love to see a similar game without the warfare.

[LadyShea]

We routinely play with 5 people