Board Games

[ISiddiqui]

The 2-4 hr play time also seems to be a bit daunting. I wonder if the Android or PC game will allow for 'saves' whether against the AI or a friend.

(I think if I were to get it, I'd spring for the Android app and play it on my Nexus 7... though it may be alright on a PC as well... though the video didn't actually show any graphics they are thinking of using)

[albionmoonlight]

I am going to be playing Twilight Struggle next week. Only played it once before and got my butt kicked.

I am going to look for strategy pages this weekend, but if anyone here had some good hints/tips/thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

[tarcone]

I got my Father's Day gidt yesterday. I told my wife I wanted a board game. We were in Iowa City for a basketball camp for my daughter. There is a little game shop that we visited. Its a one man shop. My wife bought me Axis and Allies Europe and Pacific 1940. The games connect to make a 6 foot long board that encompasses the European and Pacific theaters. There are different factions as well. Italy is playable as is China.
I havent cracked them open yet. But there is some rule tweaks. This is supposed to be a really fun game. I really like A&A, and am looking forward to looking into it tomorrow.

[Matthean]

Cardhaus is having a Summer sale. There's some stellar deals in there.

Link

[Matthean]

Forgot to mention I got a couple plays of Takenoko in during game night to much success. Game night has been so hit and mostly miss to where there hasn't been much to update and now one of the people is engaged, and I assume moving to where the guy lives.

[ColtCrazy]

Managed to snag a copy of Hold the Line: Frederick's War from CSI before it went out of stock again. Looking forward to getting it on the table.

For those that like War of the Ring, I saw the same company is coming out with the Battle of the Five Armies. Looks amazing and should be out by GenCon.

[britrock88]

Oh, Takenoko... a fun game, except the panda objective cards are really overpowered, in my opinion.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Oh, Takenoko... a fun game, except the panda objective cards are really overpowered, in my opinion.

Probably in general. It also depends on if you play with the one rule where objectives already completed are discarded. Tile base objectives can be really easy to do. Yes, the farmer ones can be a pain, but we had a set up where I pulled off some early and jumped to a huge lead. I didn't change up enough to pull through though.

Also interested in BotFA. I don't really have a definitive tactical miniatures game so I'm still waiting. I have Hold the Line, but haven't played it. It will be interesting to see how much I like it now that Memoir '44 finally clicked for me even though I still give it a 6.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Oh, Takenoko... a fun game, except the panda objective cards are really overpowered, in my opinion.

It's a horribly unbalanced game that's very very luck based, but even so, it's a fun, light hearted game. We break it out every so often when we're in the mood for something quick and easy.

We've been on an Eldritch Horror kick lately. I *HATED* Arkham Horror, it's big brother - it just drags horribly. Eldritch is such an improvement.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I am going to be playing Twilight Struggle next week. Only played it once before and got my butt kicked.

I am going to look for strategy pages this weekend, but if anyone here had some good hints/tips/thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

There's some good strategy out there on the web. It really depends a lot on what side you're playing. Typical strategy is for USSR to coup first and therefore block the U.S. out of Europe, at least. You're going to concentrate on battleground states and try to keep track of what scoring cards are coming up. Biggest thing I had to learn was to grit my teeth and play opponent events. Sometimes it's best to just get them out of the way.

[ColtCrazy]

Got a chance to play Paths of Glory for the first time tonight. Absolutely a brilliant game.

[tarcone]

Played the Front Nine today. Really a fun game. It plays really fast (about an hour) and has some decisions to it. You have to plan ahead or it will make you pay.
I played with my daughters. And the beat me. So its not difficult. Im glad I am one of only 50 owners of this game in the entire world

Nick Case designed and self published. He is getting a preliminary feel for a 2nd printing. There is a thread on BGG. I highly recommend this game.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Got a chance to play Paths of Glory for the first time tonight. Absolutely a brilliant game.

I have been thinking of P500ing this at GMT. I have no WW1 games. Looks like a great game.

Was it easy to learn?

[SirFozzie]

So Grantland did an article on Diplomacy, the board game most likely to end friendships/relationships.

The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds «

The only game that I can think that has that affect in the modern age is Munchkin.

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I have been thinking of P500ing this at GMT. I have no WW1 games. Looks like a great game.

Was it easy to learn?

We played the first 3 turns because half the group hadn't played it before and then we will start over next week fresh. If you have any CDG experience, I don't think the learning curve was that hard. By the 3rd turn, I was getting the hang of it pretty easily. Only the force losses take some time getting used to.
I would say the difficulty isn't in the rules but in the number of things you have to think about. Each card gives you four options, but you can do only one. I played the CP and made a huge push into France, but neglected to work on your war readiness factor. At certain levels, you get more cards in your deck. My opponent took the beating, and I had him pushed back to Paris. But he knew what he was doing and his war readiness got him to Limited War quickly which adds another 20-25 MUCH more powerful cards to his deck. By the time we stopped, he was getting a ton of reinforcements. I still had the slight advantage but my western front push had to stall because he had built up such a huge Russian force.

You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. It's a helluva game and a great 2p experience I would think.

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

So Grantland did an article on Diplomacy, the board game most likely to end friendships/relationships.

The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds «

The only game that I can think that has that affect in the modern age is Munchkin.

Interesting article. There are too few long form articles that relate to board gaming.

As an aside, I've never played Diplomacy but have been tempted a few times to suggest getting a play by email game going here at FOFC.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Got a chance to play Paths of Glory for the first time tonight. Absolutely a brilliant game.

How accurate is the 8 hour play time? That is one thing that kills it for me. Well, one within the list.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

Interesting article. There are too few long form articles that relate to board gaming.

As an aside, I've never played Diplomacy but have been tempted a few times to suggest getting a play by email game going here at FOFC.

I dont own Diplomacy, but would buy it if this were to happen.

Game day tomorrow. There will be 5 of us. The odd number. I like it better with 4 or 6. But I wont complain. At least I get a game day in.
One guy suggested a risk game with a space variant. It plays with 5. And he said it plays quick. I hope so.
Looking forward to it, I will report back.

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by Matthean

How accurate is the 8 hour play time? That is one thing that kills it for me. Well, one within the list.

Well after an hour of putting away the last game, running through the rules for the new players, and setting up the game…we got through 4 turns in about 2 hours. BUT, we were double checking rules and discussing strategies and such. I could see it being shorter once you got the rules down…maybe to 5 hours give or take.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

As an aside, I've never played Diplomacy but have been tempted a few times to suggest getting a play by email game going here at FOFC.

We've tried a few games here over the years, I think only one of them was completed, and that one ended reasonably quickly with 3 people declaring a shared victory. That article got me thinking about looking for a game online as well. If one were to start here, I'd participate for sure.

Originally Posted by tarcone

I dont own Diplomacy, but would buy it if this were to happen.

There is software available to track moves and sort things out. Though it is my favorite board game so I wouldn't discourage anyone from owning it.


I loved the Grantland story.

[Warhammer]

Also, even if we don't get a full 7, there are enough variants out there we can find a map for how ever many we get.

[dzilla77]

Thought the Grantland story was cool too. I've played a half dozen games so far, but haven't played in a few years.

One factor in game time (FtF) is the amount of time allowed for negotiations.

I'd be up for an email game here.

[ColtCrazy]

I don't own Diplomacy either and haven't played it since high school, but I would definitely buy it to try out a play-by-email game.

[Matthean]

Getting stuff from Amazon third party is weird. It takes extra long to get sent out, but it beats any estimate on when it gets actually delivered. If all goes well, I get Haggis tomorrow, but it might be Monday which would still beat either estimate by 2-3 days. Of course, it took 5 days to ship out in the first place and that was my only item in the order.

[tarcone]

Just finished game night. We played The Front Nine ( I didnt, its 4 player, so I taught it), Rish:Mass Effect, DC Deck Building game and Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
Overall a real fun night. Risk was ok. Not a bad variant. Good victory conditions.
The group really liked The Front Nine. Lots of "I thought this would be bad." When I broke it out, but they really enjoyed it.
I was obliterated in the DC game. My deck was terrible. But I like that game. Its a real fun one.
Betrayal was a good one too. I like playing it a lot.

Overall, just a fun night.

[britrock88]

Put me in the "interested" camp for Diplomacy.

Now I just wish the Advanced Civ games hadn't petered out...

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'd be in the 'strongly interested' camp for Diplomacy, but my schedule is brutal this summer. How much time investment would we be looking at for a game? I guess the better question is how long would we want between moves?

[ColtCrazy]

Through the Ages (BBG #2 game) is being reprinted on Kickstarter. They have a lot of goals that seem to be lower grade games, but some of the add-ons are pretty good (Conquest of the Empire; Roll Through the Ages the Iron Age).

[tarcone]

I see a Diplomacy game with these guys involved: tarcone, Radii, Warhammer, dzilla77, ColtCrazy, britrock88. Vince, Pt.2

Lets do this. I dont own the game and have never played. So I will ned to purchase it and read the rules.
Because of inexperience, I dont think I should moderate. Anyone else up for moderating?
We could put results and stuff in the dynasty forum.

[chesapeake]

I'd recommend using an automated online Diplomacy judge one of those for your game. Then you don't need a live human to moderate. You can find more information on online judges at the Diplomatic Pouch -- diplom.org.

[Fidatelo]

On Wednesday my oldest son (5) had a 'meet & greet' with his future kindergarten teacher and class mates. Upon leaving he was presented with a little bag of goodies, including a pencil, scissors, paper and some standard dice. He and his little brother (3) both took to the dice, so I decided to let them have a look at my big box of gaming dice. They have spent the past several days rolling dice, spinning dice, sorting dice, etc. It's been awesome.

On the weekend my wife was out of town so it was just us boys. They were being really good so on Saturday afternoon I decided to give them a treat and took them to a gaming store and let them pick out a couple dice of their own to have. One picked out a giant 20-sided 'character level counter' that set me back $8. The other picked out a handful of normal gaming dice that he thought looked cool. Selfishly I wanted to look at the games, so we did a quick lap around the store.

That's when the kids spotted Formula D and asked what it was. They immediately thought it looked super cool with the little cars, and it came with lots of different dice! I had vague memories of people on here talking about it but couldn't remember anything specific at all. I was a bit disappointed to see the "14+" on the box but then I figured that I could just invent whatever rules made sense for the boys, even if it was basically just 'pick a dice, roll it, and move your car'. On that whim alone I added it to the purchase and we took it home.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The kids love the little cars and the dice. The 3 year old was too excited to follow even basic instructions (put your car on this spot so we can start) so ultimately I just let them spend the evening playing with the pieces, driving them on the track, sorting them, etc.

That night a couple of my buddies came over and we decided to give the game a try. So fun!!! I now have visions of leagues and series and oh my god I wish I was 14 again and could spend all summer playing this game.

[ColtCrazy]

Count me in, but I do not own the game either. I'll get it ordered and have it soon which works for me. My wife goes to New Orleans (lucky her) for a conference this week so I doubt I'll have much time to play it till she gets back this weekend anyway.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

On Wednesday my oldest son (5) had a 'meet & greet' with his future kindergarten teacher and class mates. Upon leaving he was presented with a little bag of goodies, including a pencil, scissors, paper and some standard dice. He and his little brother (3) both took to the dice, so I decided to let them have a look at my big box of gaming dice. They have spent the past several days rolling dice, spinning dice, sorting dice, etc. It's been awesome.

On the weekend my wife was out of town so it was just us boys. They were being really good so on Saturday afternoon I decided to give them a treat and took them to a gaming store and let them pick out a couple dice of their own to have. One picked out a giant 20-sided 'character level counter' that set me back $8. The other picked out a handful of normal gaming dice that he thought looked cool. Selfishly I wanted to look at the games, so we did a quick lap around the store.

That's when the kids spotted Formula D and asked what it was. They immediately thought it looked super cool with the little cars, and it came with lots of different dice! I had vague memories of people on here talking about it but couldn't remember anything specific at all. I was a bit disappointed to see the "14+" on the box but then I figured that I could just invent whatever rules made sense for the boys, even if it was basically just 'pick a dice, roll it, and move your car'. On that whim alone I added it to the purchase and we took it home.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The kids love the little cars and the dice. The 3 year old was too excited to follow even basic instructions (put your car on this spot so we can start) so ultimately I just let them spend the evening playing with the pieces, driving them on the track, sorting them, etc.

That night a couple of my buddies came over and we decided to give the game a try. So fun!!! I now have visions of leagues and series and oh my god I wish I was 14 again and could spend all summer playing this game.

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed it, Formula D has been a great find for me and my group as well this past year.

[Vince, Pt. II]

As for Diplomacy, depending upon the pace of play I might not be a good add. I'm insanely busy this summer (and completely unavailable during work hours, which for me is Tuesday through Saturday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM PST), so I don't know how much I'd be able to participate.

[Matthean]

Hour long Fire in the Lake tutorial by the designers. This is the fourth game in the COIN series and covers Vietnam. Needless to say it is highly anticipated.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

As for Diplomacy, depending upon the pace of play I might not be a good add. I'm insanely busy this summer (and completely unavailable during work hours, which for me is Tuesday through Saturday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM PST), so I don't know how much I'd be able to participate.

If you can get emails in during the evening, it shouldn't be much of a problem. With my current travel schedule I will likely be after work hours as well. I've played games with the judges, they work rather well.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Cool, I'm all in then.

[tarcone]

I own Cuba Libre which is the 3rd in the COIN series. Its a great game. Much tighter then that one. A lot less provinces.
The designer is working on an Irish revolution COIN game. But i heard he is tinkering with the design a little. We will see.

[tarcone]

In for email Diplomacy so far:
tarcone
ColtCrazy
Vince, Pt2
Warhammer

3 more to hear from.

[dzilla77]

Originally Posted by tarcone

In for email Diplomacy so far:
tarcone
ColtCrazy
Vince, Pt2
Warhammer

3 more to hear from.

In as well. I might need some one to send me a pdf of the rules as I am in the midst of a move (should be done by late July).

[Alf]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

On Wednesday my oldest son (5) had a 'meet & greet' with his future kindergarten teacher and class mates. Upon leaving he was presented with a little bag of goodies, including a pencil, scissors, paper and some standard dice. He and his little brother (3) both took to the dice, so I decided to let them have a look at my big box of gaming dice. They have spent the past several days rolling dice, spinning dice, sorting dice, etc. It's been awesome.

On the weekend my wife was out of town so it was just us boys. They were being really good so on Saturday afternoon I decided to give them a treat and took them to a gaming store and let them pick out a couple dice of their own to have. One picked out a giant 20-sided 'character level counter' that set me back $8. The other picked out a handful of normal gaming dice that he thought looked cool. Selfishly I wanted to look at the games, so we did a quick lap around the store.

That's when the kids spotted Formula D and asked what it was. They immediately thought it looked super cool with the little cars, and it came with lots of different dice! I had vague memories of people on here talking about it but couldn't remember anything specific at all. I was a bit disappointed to see the "14+" on the box but then I figured that I could just invent whatever rules made sense for the boys, even if it was basically just 'pick a dice, roll it, and move your car'. On that whim alone I added it to the purchase and we took it home.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The kids love the little cars and the dice. The 3 year old was too excited to follow even basic instructions (put your car on this spot so we can start) so ultimately I just let them spend the evening playing with the pieces, driving them on the track, sorting them, etc.

That night a couple of my buddies came over and we decided to give the game a try. So fun!!! I now have visions of leagues and series and oh my god I wish I was 14 again and could spend all summer playing this game.

Formule Dé is indeed a very enjoyable game. I played live years ago and I also played in an online league using a java client. No idea if this still exists.

There were "planned" leagues (like the Monday evening league for example) or "free to play now" races that were started once the required number of pilots were there.

Edit : after a very quick research, I couldn't locate any Formule D online anymore (pity)

[Alf]

dola, found this : Play Formula D on a 3D virtual board : boardgames but this is not the stuff I was talking about

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Alf

dola, found this : Play Formula D on a 3D virtual board : boardgames but this is not the stuff I was talking about

I had found that client as well. I'm not sure any kind of real-time option will work well for myself or my group over a sustained period. As it is we haven't managed to get more than 3 of us together in a room at the same time for over 6 months.

I believe there is also a Vassal mod however I haven't checked it out yet and I've struggled to use Vassal in the past. I've actually been kicking around possible ideas for creating my own simple website for my friends and I. Something very simple that would show the board and each player's gearbox, track state over time, and possibly allow for dice rolling (nothing 3D, just random number generator). On a players turn they would get an email notification, they could hit the site, change gears, roll, and move their car manually to a place on the track. I would just log all the changes so that other players could review them, no actual rules implementation or checking. When done they could hit 'finished' and the next car up would get an email.

I'm not sure if I'll get around to doing it, and it would likely take me months to do because I have so little time these days, but it sure has my interest piqued at the moment.

[ColtCrazy]

Well, I may have a new favorite game. Finally got my copy of Clash of Monarchs on the board. It has the intenseness of Paths of Glory because there's something constantly going on, but I generally like the time period better. Lots of different strategies you can employ and Frederich is a pinball constantly bouncing around to keep Prussia going. Wonderful game. Yeah, the rules are a bit of a sloppy mess, but luckily there's a strong group of people on BGG that clear some things up.

[Warhammer]

If you can get 4 people together Freidrich is a wonderful game. Even though it is ostensibly 1 v 3, each player has their own agenda so it doesn't play out as a true 1 v 3.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I am going to be playing Twilight Struggle next week. Only played it once before and got my butt kicked.

I am going to look for strategy pages this weekend, but if anyone here had some good hints/tips/thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

Probably too late for this, but here goes. This is one of my favorite games, so I've developed a few things that I try and rely on. It's hard to give specific strategies, since they depend on what is going on within the game, and which side you are playing as, but here goes.

If you are playing as USSR, you should always try during turn 1, AR1 to coup Iran. If you are able to headline something like Suez Canal, or Arab-Israeli War, with a little luck you can knock the US out of the Middle East on the first turn. Also, try and play CIA early. It does much less damage early than later.

As the US, just the opposite. Try and spread out in the Middle East while you can. It is all about survival early on. Also, make sure your last turn causes problems for the USSR. For example, you could move up into Malaysia if Asia is still undecided. Or you could move into Columbia. Both of these moves force the USSR to decide on their first turn if they are going for the normal battleground coup, or if they want to deal with your last move.

Another newbie mistake is over-relying on the space race. I don't use it often. Most of the time, the bad effects of the card aren't so bad, and can be recovered quickly. As the US, space Decolonization and DeStalinization. As USSR, Grain Sales, Voice of America, and maybe Puppet Governments are space candidates. Also, anything that drops you below DEFCON 2 is obviously space material.

Also, for these deadly cards, try and hold them after the shuffle, which will happen turn 3 and usually turn 7. That way, they are out of the deck for a while.

I posted a play-by-play of a game I played to give some thoughts to my daughter, so that may be of some help too. I made a couple of mistakes in the game, but I tried to describe my thinking as I played.

Exciting game with details and thoughts (long post) | Twilight Struggle | BoardGameGeek

[Vince, Pt. II]

Played Splendor tonight for a quick few games and really, really enjoyed it. Quick game that is easy to learn, short on rules and long on strategy. It's an engine building game, a la Race for the Galaxy or 7 Wonders, but it's infinitely simpler than both. Plays 2-4 players, we played with 4 (twice) and 3 (three times). The five games took perhaps an hour and a half total.

There are three components to this game:

1. 'Gems' - the currency of the game. They are represented by poker chips that are beautifully designed. I seriously wanted to just hold them and play with them. The brilliant thing is that they are color specific (there are five colors and one 'wild' chip) and very limited: there are only seven of each colored gem, and only 5 wildcard chips. Everyone starts with zero gems. In three and two player games, the stockpile is limited even further: five of each color in a three player game and four of each color in a two player game.

2. Cards - these are the 'engine' of the game. Each card has three components to it:

• Resource production: Every card produces one (and only one) gem of a specific color each turn (only usable on that turn, no carry-over).
• Point value: Worth anywhere from 0 to 5 points.
• Cost: How many gems (and of what color) it takes to purchase the card. For example, a 0 point Green Gem card may cost 2 white gems and 2 blue gems, while a 1 point Blue Gem card might cost 1 white, green, blue and red gem and two black gems.

There are three different decks of cards, and each deck has progressively more expensive cards - but ALL cards, even the expensive ones, produce only one resource per turn. Deck one has cards that are worth 0-1 point and there are 40 cards in it. Deck two 1-3 points each with 30 cards in it, and deck three 4-5 points with 20 cards. At any given time, four cards from each deck are face-up on the table and available to purchase. Whenever a card is purchased, it is immediately replaced by the top card on its specific deck. So if a deck one card is purchased, it is replaced with a deck one card.

3. Noble Tiles - Essentially long-term goals. They are worth three points each, and are earned when you have accrued a certain number of cards of specific colors. As an example, one has a requirement of 3 each of white, red and green cards. At the end of your turn, if you have three different white, red and green gem cards in your playing area, you win that noble tile (and the three points it is worth). There are 10 noble tiles in the game, and you play with one more noble tile than the number of people playing the game available. Noble tiles are not replenished when they are taken. If, at the end of your turn, you are eligible for multiple nobles, you may only take one per turn.

On your turn you have three options:

1. Gather gems - you can take either two of one single color (as long as there are four or more of that color left in the supply) or one each of three different colors (not wildcards). You may only have 10 gems in your collection (total) at any time. If you end your turn with more than 10 gems, you must discard down to 10. At all times, players must leave their gem collection visible to other players.

2. Purchase a card - pay the specified amount on the card from your stockpile and then place the card in play in front of you. You now have as many points as that card is worth, and on every subsequent turn that card will produce you one gem of its color (that doesn't carry over...so no stockpiling gems). The card purchased is replaced immediately with the top card from the same deck.

3. Reserve a card - you can take a face-up card from the table (or the face-down top card of any of the decks) and place it in your hand to play later. If you do this, you also get to take one wildcard chip. If there are no wildcard chips remaining, you may still reserve a card, you simply don't receive a chip. Reserved cards are also replaced immediately with the top card from the same deck.

The game is played until one player has accrued 15 points total. At that point, finish the current round and whoever has the most points wins. Ties go to the player with fewer cards in their play area.

---

The only random element is the flipped over card to replace a purchased card. And if you're waiting on/relying on that to win...you're probably screwed anyway. The brilliance is in the fact that all of the information is open. Everyone can see how much currency you have, what gems you just selected and every card you've purchased at any time. Since the long term goals (Nobles) are also public knowledge and they never change throughout the game, it's easy to see what someone is building up toward and alter your strategy accordingly to thwart their plans.

The limited resources and the hand size limit not only do an excellent job of making you plan your strategy out in advance, but they really make you pay attention to what your opponents are doing, because they're definitely not going to let you get all the juicy cards for yourself. In our third game, my neighbor and I both realized that all four bonus tiles had red as one of their color requirements. We each battled hard for every red card to hit the board, while my roommate was content to take almost any other card she wanted unopposed. She beat us handily because we were both too busy busting each other's strategy all to hell. I found myself debating between multiple options and strategies on a regular basis, and in particular late in the game I had to make tough choices: with none of the colors I'm looking for on the board, do I take that off-color card that I can get for free? Sure, it might help my production...but what if that card that replaces it is the black gem card that my opponent and I have been looking for going on three turns now? Decisions, decisions...

I had a great time playing, and I can't recommend the game highly enough. It plays quickly (15-20 minutes once we figured out the basics), is incredibly easy to pick up (the rules are literally one page long. One page.), yet the game allows for lots of strategic depth and requires you to adapt on the fly to changing conditions. The only knock I can possibly see on the game is the relatively thin theme; there's not much story here, and you could easily replace the gems with apples, puppies or hot air balloons and not notice any difference.

[Matthean]

Also currently the highest ranked game from 2014. It won't hold, but it is going to be a solid lighter game.

[Thomkal]

The Boardgamegeek gang just did a play through of Splendor, looks fun:

Splendor - GameNight! Se2 Ep13 - YouTube

[Matthean]

Played the Shadowrun CCG back in the day. I know of a number of Shadowrun games coming out so I looked into them and tossed the info to my friend. His favorite mechanic is deckbuilding so I figured he would be stoked about it, but he said he got so burnt on the CCG aspect that any card game would be a hard sell. The deckbuilder looks good enough from what I have seen that it is kind of disappointing that he doesn't seem to want to investigate into it. We have enough games to play so it won't be missed. I still might pick it up after some reviews come out.

There's a Shadowrun take on LoW. I have LoW, but he seemed to be more interested in that one.

We both however are way overly excited about the tactical miniatures game. I literally deleted 5-6 games from my wish/tracking list after reading about it and can see trading some other games when it comes out, and it has a pulse in terms of quality. The people behind the game make the stuff for BattleTech so hopes are high.