Board Games

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by markprior22

Yeah, this thread inspired me to buy a few starter games (7 Wonders, Pandemic, TTR)...now I've got to find some people to play. I live in a town of 120K or so but I can't seem to locate any game meetup groups locally which surprised me. I may have to start something myself this fall. While I bought the games, I've never played them so I'm hoping to find others who have played them to get me started.

Go to Boardgamegeek. Go to forums. Scroll down to Game Groups. And click on midwest. There are lots of Illinois groups. I didnt find one in Springfield, but I only scrolled through a couple pages. Post there that you are looking.
If you have a game store. Ask them if the have game nights. I go to one on Thursdays at one in St louis.

My game group is a bunch of guys from work. You may find some there.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Matthean

I just haven't found the more conflict and political space game to replace it. By estimates Exodus was suppose to, but a number of people have said you use dice rolls for so much it ends up being too random. Burning Suns has potential, but we'll see since it hasn't officially hit KS, but UndeadViking did a preview of it.

I love Empires of the Void.
But the one Im waiting for is Hegemonic. I have read the same about Exodus. And I almost backed it. Glad I didnt. Again check out Hegemonic. Its a not ready yet, but it should be around next year.

[tarcone]

And one more post.

I pre-ordered 1775:Rebellion from Coolstuff. It is $42.99. I choose the cheapest shipping. $5.49. Then i signed up for Bill Me Later on Paypal. You get $10 off your first purchase. Its like a credit card. But no interest for 6 months. Total price ended up being $38.22 (I had a little discount also).

Great price for this game. I cant wait to get it.

[Matthean]

I looked into it, but I partly halfheartedly did so. The designer even admitted that the space theme is there because the game needed on versus they started out with the intent of using that theme. They did the mechanics and tossed on the theme. I still have yet to play Eclipse so there is that. I know the expansion helps it further, but it is still an economic take on a 4x. My next 4x type of game will likely be Clash of Cultures although the combat is merely there as it is in so many Civ type of games.

If nothing else, start a game night and ask people and see who comes.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

And one more post.

I pre-ordered 1775:Rebellion from Coolstuff. It is $42.99. I choose the cheapest shipping. $5.49. Then i signed up for Bill Me Later on Paypal. You get $10 off your first purchase. Its like a credit card. But no interest for 6 months. Total price ended up being $38.22 (I had a little discount also).

Great price for this game. I cant wait to get it.

CSI has a habit as of late of getting in games shortly after I check the "e-mail me when back in stock" option. They don't do this for everything I check, but so far as of late it is like a week at most and then something comes in and it might be all of one that came in. I think they are on to me.

Previews for the Suburbia expansion look really good. The designer already had it planned out before the base game was put out which I think is going to help.

[Matthean]

People new to BGG, outside of reviews and the recommendation forum, I find various geek lists worth looking at. I always check the list for what people played during the weekend, new to them for the month, and games that have stood the test of time. A number of them come across as mini reviews with other players giving feedback.

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Hi all. I don't know much about board/card/dice games, etc... but want to find some that are generally considered good/fun and not super complex.

I've recently played Settlers of Catan for the first time (yeah I know, that's how little I've played these types of games) and it was really fun, but still pretty simple. I've also played and liked a game called Bang!... followed by Saboteur and Cards Against Humanity. I've played some other stuff like Apples to Apples (that was fun but not outstanding), and of course some popular basic ones like Monopoly and Life... but I'm thinking there are some consensus great games out there that aren't of the Monopoly/Life variety?

I haven't played most of the games Vince listed and have recently just gotten into the hobby at the start of this year myself, but if you are going for "not super complex" most of the games he listed, with the exception of 7 Wonders and Dominion, may be beyond that. With that said, all of those games are amongst the top rated games at Board Game Geek.

When looking at a game on BGG, scroll down to statistics and look at the "Weight" column. I would say anything over 2.5 starts to get into the more complex games. Another good category listed under Information is "Playing Time" as this will give you a general idea of what you are looking at as far as time commitment.

Personally, I skew more towards the 2.0-2.5 range games, something with a bit of skill but not too long or complex. Most of these games can be picked up very quickly by most audiences but there is still a level of strategy involved.

As far as getting into gaming goes, I would recommend four primary resources...

1. The aforementioned boardgamegeek.com, particularly the top "Family" games list found here. Family does not mean children in so much as it means accessible to everyone (often described as Gateway games as well). If you are going for the games along the lines of Bang! check out the ranks of "Party" games found here.

2. Wil Wheaton's web show "Tabletop" which can be found at the Geek and Sundry website or on Youtube in which they play a different game each episode, most which are either Gateway/Family games or Party games.

3. The DiceTower.com website. There are a number of excellent resources on this site, including reviews and the many top 10 lists, particularly make sure to check out Gateway Games - Part 3. Also check out the list of award recipients.

4. If you think you might be interested in a game, check out if it has an IOS App. Many games do these days (and if it does, it is also listed on BGG) and it will give you a chance to get a feel for the game play as well as check out games for a fraction of the cost to see if you are interested.

Ultimately, if you are going for that medium weight range, I would recommend the following...

7 Wonders
Ticket to Ride (and if you like it pick up the 1910 expansion)
Carcassonne (and the Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders expansion)
King of Tokyo (the Power Up expansion also adds to this quite a bit)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue

I very recently picked up Small World and Pandemic and have not played them yet but the reviews on those two are generally extremely positive as well. As far as party games go, I've heard lots of good things about the The Resistance (or the The Resistance: Avalon).

[Carman Bulldog]

Unrelated, but has anyone played Wok Star when it was originally released? I'm thinking of getting in on the KickStarter, particularly because it's a Game Salute game and with no FLGS and being in Canada, I'm concerned about accessibility.

[Matthean]

To add, 2.0-2.5 is on the lighter side. I tend to be more interested in the 2.5+ side for non-filler type of games. A 3 is around middle ground and 4 being a heavy game. The scale does go up to 5, but very few mainstream goes that high. 4-5 games are generally sub genre games like 18XX and wargames. I think a game with a weight of a 3 still should be fairly decent for a person to learn within reason. Weight also is a generic scale for number of rules and depth in decision making. I know of deeper games with four pages of rules than games with 40 pages of rules and yet the one with four pages might be a 2.5 as there the other a 4.0.

For videos, I will add Watch It Played. Rodney is awesome, and he has a very family feel to his series as he plays with his kids. He does no review, but you does a complete play through so you should be able to figure out if a game is good for you or not. I would say he leans towards American style of games. Richard Ham's Rahdo's Run Through plays most of the game. He typically does it two player filling in for his wife. He leans towards two-player euros but is opening up more and more since he's doing so many KickStarter previews. He does a final thoughts video at the end that covers him doing a review.

For reviews, Starlit Citadel probably compacts more info per minute than anybody. They are a game store so they merely give pros and cons to a game as they offer a short time 10% discount on the game being reviewed. This also means they tend to do more mainstream games. I kind of wished they went longer though.

Joel of Drive Thru Reviews is also good. He's definitely on the euro side, but I still think he does a solid job.

Dice Tower is the most known American style reviewers. I like Tom the most even if I like euros slightly more than he does. Of the Miami Dice episodes, I'll go with Sam and then Zee. Zee sometimes feels like he's there more for his comedic value than boardgame knowledge. There's a couple other viewers they have been using that I'm slowly warming up to. Ryan is their token euro reviewer, but he seems to have hardly a bone in his body to speak negatively about a game. The Dice Tower awards are very much geared towards light American styled games.

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

Ticket to Ride (and if you like it pick up the 1910 expansion)
Carcassonne (and the Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders expansion)
King of Tokyo (the Power Up expansion also adds to this quite a bit)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue

I very recently picked up Small World and Pandemic and have not played them yet but the reviews on those two are generally extremely positive as well. As far as party games go, I've heard lots of good things about the The Resistance (or the The Resistance: Avalon).

I will point out TtR: Europe is considered the better game although people might want the map featuring their own country. TtR can be the meaner of the two. If playing 2-3 players, there are games better suited for those player counts. I would like to play Cacassonne to mark it off my bucket list, but Suburbia currently has fired it for me. KoT is awesome. Not something to play a ton of, but still awesome none the less. I would say the expansion adds little though. It is something that really should have been in the base game. The Resistance is awesome. Even better with 7, but very good even at 5. I think some people had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard the last time we played.

RE: Game Salute

They do sell through Amazon in the US so I'll assume they do through Canada as well.

[tarcone]

Marco Arnaudo is my favorite reveiwer. He does a great job and seems to hit on games and stylea I am interested in.

[cschex]

Speaking of Watch IT Played, they are doing a fundraiser for Season 3 right now. Watch It Played - Season 3 | Indiegogo. Can't say enough how much I love this video series, even if I'm not always interested in the game, and it got my daughter interested in both Mice and Mystics and Legendary

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by tarcone

MikeVic, there are thousands of games. You will be able to find a multitude of enjoyable games. The questions asked by cschex will really narrow down suggestions.
Other questions might be: Do you like to roll dice? Do you like cubes or minatures? Do you like cards to be involved? Would a coop situation be something that interests you?

Going to boardgamegeek is a must. It has soooooo much info over there. Dont be intimidated by the site. It can be a little overwhelming when you first start (at least it was for me). But you will find everything about every game ever mad.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I like the interactivity and how fun Catan and Bang are. Shooting people in Bang is fun, and some of the characters/cards are really fun too. I guess I'd normally support 3-5 players.

I haven't played a dice game, but King of Tokyo seems to be one that is highly recommended (I watched one of the Top 10 lists from dicetower about games everyone should own). As for the other questions, I don't really have preferences yet... I have played Bang a few times and it was fun, but Catan really made me want to try more games.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Marco Arnaudo is my favorite reveiwer. He does a great job and seems to hit on games and stylea I am interested in.

He's on the wargame side, but he is branching out. He did recently do a paid preview of a game and said in the end it wasn't for him, which I give him props for since most paid previews come across as the person talking about the game being too scared to say anything bad about the game.

Not really a top 10 games new gamers should own, but my current Top 10 off of BGG after playing 40+ games, which is low for BGG numbers so grain of salt and all of that.

1. Summoner Wars. I'm currently sleeving the last of the first summoners. Wins the desert island contest for sheer replay ability to take #1.
2. Mage Knight. One of the best epic solo and two player games out. The co-op variants are great.
3. Suburbia. I like this far more than I likely should, and I know games will eventually beat it out, but I love how well implemented the theme is within the tiles. It plays well in any configuration. Lite on being able to screw players over. Higher amount of stuff to keep a track of, but I've had little issue with it.
4. Glory to Rome. Maybe the best pure card game going. It takes a play to wrap your head around game play but that's it.
5. Cosmic Encounter. A negotiating game via a space conquest theme. How a battle starts is random, but it is all in the interactions with other players and the endless number of alien races.
6. Hanabi. The best gateway co-op for me. Pandemic is solid but a little on the cube pusher drier theme for me. While Hanabi has essentially no real theme, I see that as a benefit for new players. The only downside is people being overly generous in clue giving.
7. The Resistance. 5-10 player filler/party game. A pure deduction game. Mostly a framework so a bit more player dependent than other games, but really shines when it does.
8. King of Tokyo. Yahtzee with monsters, and I have yet to see this not work.
9. The Castles of Burgundy. Not my token euro anymore, but a rather solid game where the randomness of the dice is mitigated rather beautifully. I wish I could get this played more.
10. Lords of Waterdeep. A rather solid game for the intended gateway that it is. I tend to figure out if I'm tapped or not on a game around 8-10 plays. It will be interesting to see how this holds up, but I plan on getting the expansion so it should go well beyond that. The rest of my gamer group enjoys it so I doubt this goes away anytime soon. I know this will get bumped lower, but I don't regret the buy. For newer gamers, this is a terrific pick. It was my gateway into worker placement games.

Some of the usual suspects, Pandemic, Flash Point, Survive: Escape from Atlantis, 7 Wonders, etc are in the next ten. Games like San Juan, Dominion, Catan, and Legendary have fallen into the 30s. All still solid rated, but I would rather play something else at this point until further notice.

EDIT: 7 Wonders does need another play.

[tarcone]

Some games I would throw out:
King of Tokyo-- Fun dice game. Very light.

Formula D-- Racing game. 2 variants in the game. One is real easy. If you like racing games, this is a good one. I want to try Jamaica. Race game with a pirate theme. Looks fun.

Empires of the Void-- Yes I know you will want the expansion. But alone its a pretty easy conflict game. I really enjoy it.

Pandemic-- This is cube pushing. But it is intense. A great coop. You really have to work together to win. Forbidden Island is by the same designer. I believe someone in my group just purchased this. So I will get a chance tomorrow during game night to play it. This one looks fun also. FI is also very cheap. Around $15.

Tammany Hall-- Want an area control game? This is a great game. It also includes back stabbing. A very fun game. Should be played with 4 or 5.

Dominant Species-- This is a heavier game. Euro style. Lots of decisions. This is becoming my favorite.

Sentinels of the Multiverse-- Another coop. But a card game. It is a tough game. Has lots of expansions.

Cards Against Humanity-- I enjoy this game. But it can get old without new cards. It is an adult version of Apples to Apples. Do not play with anyone under 18. Its great for a laugh. But, again, it does get old fast. Light filler.

Attack!-- You like Risk? You will love this game. I spent a bunch of money getting it, though. The base is still available and maybe the expansion. But you want the Deluxe expansion which oop. I dropped a bunch of money on that. But it was worth it. Game takes 8 hours to play.

Game if thrones 2nd ed.-- Awesome game. Lots of great mechanics. One of my favorites. But works best with 6. Less people unbalances it.

These are the games I have played that might of interest.

Good luck with you new found hobby. Its a great one.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Can anyone recommend a good board game for a 3 year old? I looked at some of the top children's games listed on boardgamegeek, and most seem pretty good. Does anyone have experience playing them with kids that young?

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old (both boys), and I've tried a couple times to introduce them to some kind of board games. It hasn't really worked yet, but I'll keep trying.

My first attempt was a few months ago with Animal Upon Animal. You basically stack little wooden animals with a very easy rule set based on results of a dice roll. My kids enjoyed playing with and stacking the animals, but they couldn't be bothered with the rules. I still pull it out from time to time just to stack animals with them, but we haven't bothered to try playing by the rules again yet. Maybe soon, the older one might be ready now.

My second attempt just recently was Snakes & Ladders. I got them to play for about 2 minutes before it devolved into the little one refusing to give up the dice and the older one just wanting to skip straight to the top of the board. The older one grasped the idea of rolling the dice, moving his piece the number of squares the dice said, and the snakes and ladders, but couldn't get the idea of going back and forth up the rows. It all ended after about 5 minutes with all of us yelling at each other for various reasons.

Just tonight the older one came out of bed and caught me playing Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. He was really intrigued by all the super heroes of course, and asked if he could watch me play. I started to show him what I was doing but he wouldn't really pay attention to anything except to ask when we would be playing a Captain America card. I finally just gave him one to look at and sent him back to bed

[Passacaglia]

Thanks! I saw Animal Upon Animal, and thought that would be a good one. I think now it's between that, Hoot Owl Hoot, and Gulo Gulo. There might have been another one I was looking at, too.

[Matthean]

FYI, Michicon is this weekend in Rochester. I'm not going to due to running my own game night and school.

http://metrodetroitgamers.files.word...-flyer-pdf.pdf

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Matthean

To add, 2.0-2.5 is on the lighter side. I tend to be more interested in the 2.5+ side for non-filler type of games. A 3 is around middle ground and 4 being a heavy game. The scale does go up to 5, but very few mainstream goes that high. 4-5 games are generally sub genre games like 18XX and wargames. I think a game with a weight of a 3 still should be fairly decent for a person to learn within reason.

Yeah, medium weight by the BGG definition was probably not the right word there. I wouldn't necessarily call it light either and it probably falls somewhere in between. I think I used the term because as far as mainstream (or quasi-mainstream at least) games go, it's a step up from Monopoly, Clue and The Game of Life, but it's a level below Agricola and Puerto Rico.

Regarding TTR, I'm split on that. While I like the European map better, I'm not as keen on the Tunnels and Stations and don't really like either of those options. Each is it's own unique game for that reason.

I really like the Power Up! expansion for King of Tokyo but I agree that it definitely should have been there to begin with. Playing without it though, makes every monster feel the same. With the expansion, it gives the monster's some personality and you can tailor your approach in the way you play to your monster's ability (ie. attacking, energy cubes, victory points, etc.). It also provides incentive to roll hearts when in Tokyo or early in the game. For those reasons, I think it adds a ton to the re-playability.

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Thanks! I saw Animal Upon Animal, and thought that would be a good one. I think now it's between that, Hoot Owl Hoot, and Gulo Gulo. There might have been another one I was looking at, too.

Check out Loopin' Louie too as it really surprised me. I thought it was just Hungry Hungry Hippos but it's quite a bit better than that. You can also pull it out and play a game or two with just adults as a quick filler and it's still fun.

[ColtCrazy]

Watched the Dice Tower video, very informative. I'm trying to branch out into all this. My gaming experience is with mostly strat-o-matic and statis pro games. In high school, I did a lot of Axis & Allies and variants. Would like to get back into war games and gaming in general. I do have to ask. What exactly is a cube pushing game? Got a few games on order, Ticket to Ride, Gemblo, and No Thanks. They all looked interesting.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Watched the Dice Tower video, very informative. I'm trying to branch out into all this. My gaming experience is with mostly strat-o-matic and statis pro games. In high school, I did a lot of Axis & Allies and variants. Would like to get back into war games and gaming in general. I do have to ask. What exactly is a cube pushing game? Got a few games on order, Ticket to Ride, Gemblo, and No Thanks. They all looked interesting.

A cube pusher is generally a euro style game that has a number of cubes acting as various resources which players move around for whatever reasons so you are literally pushing cubes around. The complaint here is that the cubes hardly look like the intended resource so the game gives off a vibe of being less than ideally thematic and more on the dry side. Compare something like Axis and Allies to 1812: The Invasion of Canada, which uses cubes to represent troops. By all accounts 1812 is a solid gateway type wargame, but it's cubes on a map versus dudes on a map.

I like No Thanks! Wargames are a separate ramble as there are many directions to go.

[Danny]

Fwiw, games that have stuff other than cubes as resources are still often referred to as cube pushers. It's really just a way of labeling a euro game that has very dry mechanics of collecting and moving around resources that are in no way tied to a theme

[tarcone]

When Mathean mentioned 1812 having cubes I ahd to post this. Because it is flat out awesome. Guy buys 1775: Rebellion and then pimps it out. And wow is all I can say.

Glenn's Tropical Games: 1775: Rebellion - BIG!

[ColtCrazy]

Thanks. I've been looking up lots of solo games and solo variants as well. My wife isn't a gamer at all, but my 9 year old might be open to them (he took an interest in Statis Pro Basketball), so I'm hoping games like No Thanks and TtR open up some family possibilities. My opportunities for heftier games are few and far between but luckily my new neighbor is a big gamer so I'm hoping that opens some doors.

As far as in print sports games, I did order Second Season football. Will bust into that this weekend.

[Matthean]

I'm not fond of the Command and Colors system, but you can try out Memoir '44 via Steam and see if you like it. While Memoir '44 gives you the miniatures, I think the best version of the system would be in the Napoleon version. Battle Lore is another highly regarded candidate that uses miniatures, but there is the issue of cost as some of it is out-of-print.

There are some other gateway level wargames. Manoeuvre has a modular board, 8 different armies, and some card play. Hold the Line has no cards as everything is based on action points and dice rolling. It is basic enough to where you could use the advanced rules. The board is the same modular type system as the Command and Colors games. It does use chits that I'm not fond of, but they are big enough to where they are lesser of an issue. The previously mentioned 1812 and it's follow up work as well. There are some block games that might work with a 9 year old, but I would have to look at the age ranges. The C&C block games might work better since they skip on the fog of war aspect so they aren't technically actual block wargames but merely a wargame that uses blocks. I so wished I liked the C&C system because C&C:N would be an easy pick up since the components look so good. Thankfully Sekigahara exists and is near getting reprinted.

[MikeVic]

I've narrowed my selection down to a few games and will find some local store that sells them, then pick one at random (although likely Dominion and one other). Thanks!

I had a question about one of the games recommended... Agricola says 1-5 players and it's an IOS app... does it work well with playing by yourself? I haven't seen that before. And is the IOS game worth it?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I've narrowed my selection down to a few games and will find some local store that sells them, then pick one at random (although likely Dominion and one other). Thanks!

I had a question about one of the games recommended... Agricola says 1-5 players and it's an IOS app... does it work well with playing by yourself? I haven't seen that before. And is the IOS game worth it?

I have heard really good things about Agricola as an IOS game and as a single player IOS game. It's been universally praised pretty much.

I enjoy the boardgame and will likely but the IOS version at some point.

[Matthean]

Game night. Sour note of the night is there was a new guy showing up. We play at my church and there was a wedding reception taking up the area where two of the three main doors are at. I was walking around the other one. Somehow we never saw each other and he went home.

We played three games of No Thanks! I'm up to 14 plays, and I don't see this game ever really going away unless I find another super quick filler, and I have no desire to do so. This might be the definitive "playing a game and shooting the breeze" game.

Next up was Lords of Waterdeep. There definitely felt like an early vibe of an unspoken rule of gang up on me. I was doing terrible through much of the game, but once I got my last mandatory quest out of the way, I stream rolled ahead. My last turn used four workers to complete 3 quest and buy a building that had 8 VP on it. I won by a single point. I have lost twice in this game so far. Once was by a point and the other time was ending up last when my friend played and only played his mandatory quest on me since he wanted to be nice to the people he didn't know. Thanks dude.

We finished up with Survive: Escape from Atlantis. I am terrible at this game and finished last. I think there is once and maybe twice where I haven't finished last when playing this game. Again, there did seem to be that unspoken team up on me rule.

[tarcone]

Last night we had a game night a friends house. $ of us present.
We started the night with Smash Up. This was my 2nd play. Its okay. But really random. As mist card games tend to be. I finished last. Which set the tone for my night.
We jumped to Game of Thrones with the Feast for Crows Expansion. This is a great expansion. I was Baratheon. My main objective was hold Dragstone and Kings Landing for one VP. 1st turn I went after Lannister in Kings Landing and won. Got my VP. Lannister came right back and not only won the battle for KL, but dropped 3 swords on me and wiped out my entire army and crippled me the rest of the game. I had one footmen and 2 boats left. I was done in that game. It was brutal. Arryn did nothing but sit there and Stark eventually won. Brutal game for me.

Next was Forbidden Island. Great, light game. I like it better then Pandemic. We beat the game. That was my lone win.

Next up was Dominant Species. I got smacked around all game long. At one point I didnt have a single species ont he board. It was brutal. I finished last again. And by long way. A real long way. It was horrible.

Long night of butt whoopins for me. But there was beer. So It wasnt a total loss.

[Matthean]

I need to play AGoT to find out if it is worth getting it and the expansion so I have a better chance of getting it played. Just the base game means it will be sitting since getting 6 people for it is difficult.

[tarcone]

The expansion makes it very playable. And quicker. Since you are trying to get objectives as opposed to getting castles and strongholds.
It was the first time we have played it in awhile, as we have a hard time getting 6 together. But I really liked it with the 4 player expansion.

[Warhammer]

I really feel many players play Dominant Species the wrong way. Tanking one species is not a good play, hit them enough not to be a threat and move on to the next one.

[Matthean]

I know who I'm inviting for game nights.

CNN Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

[tarcone]

Nice. I wonder if I could get my wife to play games with me with those rules.

I wonder if Worst Case Scenario gets a bup in ratings on BGG.

[ColtCrazy]

Nice story with my experience with Plaay.com, the makers of Second Season.

Got the game. Found out I was missing the football and yardage markers. No big deal to me, I quickly improvised. But I did email them just to let them know. Didn't expect anything at all. Got a package today with the markers, and a set of Great Games cards. 10 different matchups from the 1950 championship to the second 49er-Bengal Super Bowl. Very impressed.

As for the game, it plays very well and surprisingly quick since you use a chart book to figure up plays. Pretty fun game and very good solitaire ability. Will buy a full season of cards after I return from vacation.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Saw this at one of the Delphi forums (not sure if the "Deacon" there is our own ntndeacon or not, so apologies if I'm stealing his find by posting here)

Before Football, Jets’ Ryan Mastered Table Baseball - NYTimes.com

edit to add: Okay, so the headline doesn't show up with the link
Before Football, Jets’ Ryan Mastered Table Baseball

his game of choice is Strat baseball

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Nice story with my experience with Plaay.com, the makers of Second Season.

Keith has always struck me as one of the best of the best in the genre.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Nice story with my experience with Plaay.com, the makers of Second Season.

Got the game. Found out I was missing the football and yardage markers. No big deal to me, I quickly improvised. But I did email them just to let them know. Didn't expect anything at all. Got a package today with the markers, and a set of Great Games cards. 10 different matchups from the 1950 championship to the second 49er-Bengal Super Bowl. Very impressed.

As for the game, it plays very well and surprisingly quick since you use a chart book to figure up plays. Pretty fun game and very good solitaire ability. Will buy a full season of cards after I return from vacation.

Second Season is a great game.

[PadresFan104]

Nice to see PLAAY Games and Keith get a mention on this thread. I'm "Padresfan" on the Delphi Forums and had a teeny hand in the testing, card creation and final polish of History Maker Baseball, his latest game. I highly recommend it for those of you who already enjoy his Second Season football game, and think anyone who enjoys a good tabletop baseball game should at least check it out.

HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Big League Baseball Board Game

Al

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I really feel many players play Dominant Species the wrong way. Tanking one species is not a good play, hit them enough not to be a threat and move on to the next one.

We got Dominant Species to the table today for the first time. I'm absolutely in love with the game's mechanics. Unfortunately we had a guy who is notoriously AP prone, and combined with the fact that we were all learning the game, it became excruciatingly slow. I ended up getting completely wrecked by failing to protect my grub element on the last turn, and literally lost all of my dominance and had my entire animal wiped off the map on the last turn. It was still a blast though, and I'm really hoping my roommate (who gets fairly impatient with the AP guy) will give it another shot. Everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves, so I'm optimistic.

[sachmo71]

Letters From Whitechapel is a good games for non-gamers. You are trying to track down Jack the Ripper in london. Tons of fun!

[PurdueBrad]

Along with some of the love for Plaay, I can't recommend enough Red, White and Blue Racing. I NEVER would've thought you could pull off a good table-top racing game and, honestly, it's one of the best table-top games I've played. In fact, a couple of my relatives have now picked it up since playing it once and not even being racing fans.

Face to the Mat wrestling is very good as well, kind of a table-top version of the Adam Ryland PC game. I find Face to the Mat easier to manage and enjoy but that's likely just personal preference.

And yeah, Second Season is simply amazing.

[Warhammer]

DS is a great game, you of my favorites, but AP prone players can be brutal.

[tarcone]

Game day today.
We started with 4 of us, so Empires of the Void got the nod. Great game. I had a great starting point. But I didnt capitalize on it. I whad Moths and Fire bugs. But didnt attack enough. Im a conservative player. which in this game is not good. The player to my right Ledt a planet he conquered open and I snuck in and allied with it. Built a space port. It was a great position. But the techs I followed werent beneficial as I learned at the end of the game. The guy to my left had researched culture to have a -1 coest for tactics. Plus one extra action and one free culture card. It is on the variant I picked up (The tech tree).
He ended up running away with the game. Love this game.

We had a 5th show up and played Tammany Hall. I threw the 1st election. Dont want to be Mayor on the 1st go. Made sure I had an immigrant advantage and one of the 1st 4 ward. I got an extra immigrat and a couple other wards the 1st election. Which got me 2nd on the VP track. But I had the most English and Germans. And that got me lots of Influence chips. I continued with the strategy of dominating the English and Germans. Paid off. We had to end after the 12th year. One of the guys had to go. After all was said and done I won the game.
That was my 1st win in about 6 game days. I needed it.

[Autumn]

Had a fun game night the other night with a couple games of Glory to Rome and then a long, long game of Age of Steam. Managed to win both games. I love the mechanics of Glory to Rome. And I am starting to love Age of Steam though it's a lot ofcalculating in yoru head, I probably drive everyone crazy.

[Warhammer]

AoS where someone can be eliminated in R&D 2. I love it. Don't like all the crazy maps though.

[Matthean]

Played Summoner Wars again and I think I had a brewing epiphany about the game and card games in general. It seems like I'm seeing just how much card games can be driven by the card draw issue. This game really felt like it was driven by the decks more than I have noticed or maybe I was storing that kind of info in my head, and it finally came to the forefront. I still really like the game, but I'm going to change up tactics when I do play it to see if I can change up something I'm noticing. I do think I need to take a break from card based games unless it is something like Glory to Rome, card driven wargames, or other card games where cards have multiple purposes. I had thought Summoner Wars with the ability to use cards to build magic was a nice system, but the game still seems a little too dependent on the deck draw if my suspicions are right. I'm taking Sentinels of the Multiverse down some notches on the wishlist and moving Flash Point up because of this. I fear The Vindicators may suffer a similar fate of not meeting what I want to in a game.

I wished I had the right people to play epic games without AP being a factor. The people who I play with most are definitely on the lighter side of games as I'm pretty sure even playing Lords of Waterdeep is a bit much for one of the players. My one friend who I see a couple times a year has huge AP issues even though we both love playing epic games, but we can't get done it seems in under 7+ hours. Because of this, his family and extended family hardly plays with us even though they show obvious interest in what we are playing and that bugs me. I think I'm only showing him quicker stuff from here on out.

[Fidatelo]

Looks like my copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse (and the Shattered Timelines expansion) will likely be arriving today!

2013/07/19 07:58 WINNIPEG Item processed at local delivery facility

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Looks like my copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse (and the Shattered Timelines expansion) will likely be arriving today!

2013/07/19 07:58 WINNIPEG Item processed at local delivery facility

Enjoy - still play it solo at least once a week!

[tarcone]

I think Im about done with card driven games. I played Smash Up last week, And I just couldnt get it going because of the way my deck was put together. When the game ended I was just getting to the cards that would have helped me out.
I really had no chance to win. There was not much I could do.