The Board Game Thread

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Do you play board games?

Hells yeah! I'm a board game geek!
53
46%
I don't but would like to get into them...
36
32%
You mean, like Snakes & Ladders? :shifty:
20
18%
No way! They're for nerds!
5
4%
 
Total votes: 114
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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Victor Mildew » Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:01 am

Splendour was excellent. The rule sheet was a bit confusing at first as it explains the rules, but not how to start playing (qwirkle gave an example game which was really helpful). Once we'd got the hang of it the games rocketed by. I won both :toot:

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tragic Magic » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:34 pm

My wife finally agreed to play a game of Twilight Struggle with me today and I'm glad to say that she seemed to enjoy it. Just gonna wait and see if she suggests playing it a second time now. :)

It was cool playing it in real life.

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Hexx
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:00 pm

Arkham LCG: Path to Carcosa Scenario 2, The Last King.

Really really liked this. Definitely won't be the same if we play again - but watching the mechanics evolve (while staying close to the "gather clues under time pressure" basics) was interesting. We had no idea how to complete the act - and in the end gathered info and ran/limped away

(Mechanics spoilers follow)

We really weren't sure what to focus on - clues, clearing people to flip them etc.

By the time the Agenda advanced to starting transforming Witnesses we were starting to get a handle on it.

In the end though we only managed questioned one person. Then the Encounter deck and transformed guests overran us - hunters in such small location became brutal pretty quickly...and we had to leg it out the door. 15/23 clues picked up though.

The first scenario I've completed by all investigators resigning...I've no idea if we got a good or bad ending...which is perfect Arkham really.

We did get the Pallid Man defeated twice - so progress there :)

In our option "Go back in, Barracade or KILL THEM ALL" we chose to burn the building down with them all in.


Thematically PoC is much more "what the strawberry float is going on" that Dunwich's more basic "Stop the end of the world"...and it's great!

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:19 pm

Imperial Assault - Mission #3 (Fly Solo) and Sidemission (Vipers Nest)

Another fun session of this - but remarkably unforgiving. We won both missions - but Fly Solo felt very very lucky. And we didn't have our builds, and some lucky dice rolls, saved us. No idea how anyone else could do - Gideon and Diala are feeling more and more mandatory. It was very fun though - with no idea of victory/loss conditions at the start left us as a condundrum as to how to play.

Scenario spoilers

Fly Solo felt very Imperial weighted. From the start we were under pressure as surrounded. Our Wookie nearly died in the opening salvo (Trandoshans man). We got very lucky after activating Han that of the 4 enemies that could attack him, only 2 dealt damage due to great defense rolls (4 damage out of 12 HP though!). Han legged it. Then next round we used Gideon to Double Command Han onwards (and healed him to full from lucky supply drop), he dodged a barrage of stormtroopers (7 damage out of 12 HP) and then used his moves out. (We had Force throw on Standby if the Imp blockaded him in).


Without the heal and the 4 moves it felt like the Imperial could easily focus Han down far too easily. His White Dice just isn't that good. Still we won!


The second side missions was fairly basic in terms of mechanics - but memorable because we STOMPED Impy. Our Wookie SMASHED everything - being fed re-rolls and focused from Diala, and extra attacks from Gideon. Combined with Cleve/Brutal Clever he just stomped everything. There were turns when the Imp player had nothing on the board. We got all crates and won...

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Hexx
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Mon May 14, 2018 9:39 am

Imperial Assault when a missions going well

Image

Imperial Assault when a missions going badly 

Image

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Roonmastor
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Roonmastor » Mon May 14, 2018 12:13 pm

Started Pandemic Season 2 after a few practice games. Plays different to regular Pandemic but retains the excitement/fear of the unknown.

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Hypes
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hypes » Mon May 14, 2018 12:19 pm

You've only just finished Season 1 haven't you? No let up!

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Roonmastor
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Roonmastor » Mon May 14, 2018 10:11 pm

...Maybe

It was a wedding present we bought but they got it themselves the week before so we charitably took it back.

I was trying to get some other stuff in the collection played too, knowing we'd be on the grind til it was done but got outvoted by my group.

How times change! I was the one struggling to convince everyone into S1 and that took 2 years.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Tue May 29, 2018 10:49 am

Arkham Path to Carcosa: A Phantom of Truth and The Pallid Mask

Minh, Jim and Mark head to Europe to track down info on the King in Yellow...and did well! (Although we're looking a bit haggered)

Two more good scenarios that stretch the mechanics in interesting ways and challenge your preconceptions of how the game will play. (Mechanic spoilers. but nothing you wouldn't work out in minutes of playing)

PoT was hell for Mark. There was nothing to kill! A "survive long enough" style encounter I can't think they've done before. Basically Evade is king (and we have little) and clue hunting helped (but was limited rather than being the focus) - a nice twist on the "find clues, kill monsters" that most scenarios are built on. The entire thing working only on Doom changed the game from a race to end, to holding on long enough to survive.

TPM again was different due to it's Catacombs mechanic. Not sure I liked it (Mark, again, being dependent on others to give clues to let him move), but it was a twist on a familar premise. We did draw the big bad that and Mark got the chance to FINALLY unlock his shotgun twice to do a massive 13 damage with combo cards 8-)


15 XP from them though! No idea what to spend it on, and only 2 scenarios left...

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Hexx
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Tue Jun 05, 2018 1:18 pm

Boardgame Expo

Great fun, and they expanded the site again, so much easier traversals etc

Newspeak Went with high hopes for this (they got told it was "coming to kickstarter later in the year...). Not sure it worked. It's interesting, but seems very unbalanced and easy to snowball. Some revisions/tweaks could save it - but as it was problematic. The Rebels don't know the other codes so it's very hard to double bluff the State. And then once the state's locked you in, you can only trade to "nearby" codes. Which seems very very difficult to escape. The limited number of codes/locations in play might have made it easier for the State - but overall disappointing.

High Society Nice simple auction game, beautiful art. Got quickly bought for £15

BarenPark Tile placement, nothing fancy but pleasing. (Those Tetris skills come to hand), We played a simple version and if you can add more objectives etc to mix up points I can see it remaining solid. Picked up for £22 quid from Choas Card (should have been £28 based on other copies :P)

When I Dream

Played this before, but was recommending it for a friend present, so gave it another go. (3 other randoms joined us). Still works really well, although it's hell when you're the dreamer. Good close mix of scores. Friend picked it up (although not the one I recommended it for!)

Pot de Vin

Another beautiful game, trump based. Was very confused when first explained, but when it got going made A LOT of sense. Would have picked up if I hadn't got HS of similar price/playtime (not sure how I'd choose between the two)

Chronicles of Crime

Wanted to try this - but when we found a free table on the second day, turns out you need to book (they didn't advertise that anywhere). Got a brief explanation and I came away disappointed. It felt like other games in a similar vein (e.g. Sherlock) with the phone app (and constant QR scanning) tacked on. I couldn't immediately see a reason to play it above any others/

Samuri

Went past this and saw it was empty, so gave it a go. The worst demo guy in the world explained the rules (badly/barely. I think he was hungover). Once we got going (and he went away so we could read the rule book) had a fun time. Nothing spetacular, but enjoyable. Then looked at price £40. NOPE. Massively over priced (presumably due to minatures). Someone could pull it out to play at their house and I could have an enjoyable time - but I wasn't going to buy the game

Imagninarium

Nice little engine builder. Very disappointing that the theme played next to no part of it although the freaky art work is groovy. A strong mix of different mechanics, and lovely component quality. (Loved the tokens came in a box). Never saw this for sale (and at £35-40 quid it's on the pricey end), but could have been tempted as a big game

Imperial Settlers

Borrowed from the Library. REALLY liked this. Accidentally stomped to victory due to minor cheating at the start (misread something) and lucky card draw/choices. Thought it was fun though, and as competitive a you liked. Would worry that with only 4 races there could easily be simple stratagies for each.

Cosmic Encounters

Also library. I loved this a lot - but it did not work for 3 players. The social side of inviting allies to attack/defend is pretty trivil when there's one other person to each conflict.
Reminded me how much I like this game though and if there wasn't a new edition coming later this year might have picked this up

Deep Sea Adventure

Fun little filler game as your divers competing for treasure - but all using the same supply of air from your sub. Pick up more treasure, use more air from the communal supply. Can you (or anyone else) make it back to sub before air runs out. Dinky, cute and a solid filler game.


Azul seemed to be the big thing this year (sold out early day one). Don't get the love for it. Waited for a demo but never opened up. Also tried to play Rising Tide but was always busy (and Zman closed their demo pods for group Pandemic for 2-3 hours a day)

Also bought a Mon Cal for Armada and "The Mind"

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Tafdolphin
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:24 pm

Hexx wrote:Pot de Vin

Another beautiful game, trump based. Was very confused when first explained, but when it got going made A LOT of sense. Would have picked up if I hadn't got HS of similar price/playtime (not sure how I'd choose between the two)


:dread:

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Roonmastor » Tue Jun 05, 2018 9:28 pm

I went on the Sunday and watched competitive Pandemic. The other half also convinced our mate to buy an ex-expo gaming table so I ended up carrying the table back to the car with them instead of buying games.

Re: Cosmic Encounter. Get The Iron Throne. I'm told it is basically Cosmic but Game of Thrones which, if I didnt have Cosmic, I'd get because the theme is better for getting it to the table.

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Hexx
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:19 pm

Managed to nab a £40 (50% off) copy of Pandemic Legacy 2 in Tesco Direct's closing sale.

Wavered on £25 quid Game of Thrones, and by the time I'd done it had gone :(

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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tragic Magic » Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:44 pm

I would've snapped GoT in an instant at that price :shock: And then it would've sat on a shelf forever.

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Hypes
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hypes » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:43 pm

Tesco had Pandemic?????!!!!!

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Hexx
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:27 pm

At full price now from other sellers

https://www.tesco.com/direct/yellow-pan ... rce=others

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:39 am

Does anyone have any experience with the tabletop RPGs The Sprawl or The Veil? I want to run a cyberpunk campaign and these two seem to have the best features whilst also being Apocalypse based and therefore fairly simple to run.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:34 am

A hard no there then!

I've decided to play The Sprawl I think. It's a more standard, mission based PbtA system in a cyberpunk setting. The Veil seems a lot more philosophical, dealing with some of the big cyberpunk questions of humanity and liberty, but is a little more complex and I think the group I'm doing this with would prefer a more Neuromancer-esque jaunt into corporate espionage.

Now to decide where to set the campaign in Cyberpunk 2020's (and 2077's) Night City or come up with something collaboratively. The former would satisfy my initial want to go deeper into the Cyberpunk 2020 lore, but the latter would have greater significance for the group.

Hum.

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Trelliz
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Trelliz » Mon Jun 18, 2018 8:33 pm

Tragic Magic wrote:My wife finally agreed to play a game of Twilight Struggle with me today and I'm glad to say that she seemed to enjoy it. Just gonna wait and see if she suggests playing it a second time now. :)

It was cool playing it in real life.


Taken out of context you make "Twilight Struggle" sound like a really bad sex metaphor.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Fri Jun 22, 2018 10:29 am

Me and some friends played a starting game of Legacy: Life Among the Ruins last night and...it was probably my first real experience of bad/unprepared DMing.

The game is powered by the Apocalypse World system, which means the dice rolls are simplified and each player (and the DM) evokes certain Moves in order to do stuff. This twist here is that you're not just controlling a single character but an entire family, be they Mad Max esque raiders or stranded aliens.

Setup went well, everyone's families were well thought out, but as soon as we started playing things...fell apart.

The game is played in zoomed out (general family) scenarios and zoomed in (character based) scenarios and the DM began by asking 2 families about the former. He the forgot the remaining families (mine included) and started a zoomed in scene involving only 2 of the 4 players. For ages. He then included my family by creating my family situation himself (which annoyed me) and the last player had his character written out of the scene, again by the DM, and was assigned a throwaway 'Quick' character in my family.

We then played out a fight scene. For an hour.

It was extremely messy, with Moves being activated in name only without any adherence to the conditions of said Moves. After the fight, my character retroactively received 3 damage which was incredibly annoying as I didn't get the chance to defend myself against this, I just received them.

The final scene was based entirely around one player, with the rest of us playing Quick characters. This final scene gave the family who was already the most powerful, more power. He is now, for all intents and purposes, undefeatable. He's playing a family of farmer peasants.

It was 3 and a half hours of boredom and frustration. Ggrrr.

EDIT: Should I start up a tabletop RPG thread? This is the closest we've got to one, hence the above, but it's not exactly on topic.

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