What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Jim]

Played a four player game of Martin Wallace's new Aerpolanes. Once we managed to decipher the not-well written rules, it went fairly well. I came in second. I might play it again but I don't think it's on my "must own" list.

[Dad_Scaper]

Is this his first game since A Few Acres of Snow? I met a gamer who told me how disappointed her buddies were because that game was broken. Something about the "Halifax Hammer."

[Jormi_Boced]

I got another play of Zombicide tonight and beat the second first mission. It was a lot of fun again and I can't wait to play again.

[robbdaman]

Cheapass is relaunching with Unexploded Cow on Kickstarter. It is a fun game if you've never played it, I suggest checking it out.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Is this his first game since A Few Acres of Snow? I met a gamer who told me how disappointed her buddies were because that game was broken. Something about the "Halifax Hammer."

Yeah, Acres of Snow was found to have a broken tactic after someone played it like 100 times. Honestly if you don't seek out the tactic and use it then you'll probably never know it exists until you play it 100 times.

[Jim]

Yeah, what robdamman said.

[Gurei-Ornery]

Played 2 games of Robo Rally and Flash Point: Fire Rescue.

I really like Robo Rally. I picked up an older version mainly for the game boards. I now have a copy of the new version on order.

Flash Point what can I say that hasn't already been said. It's a great game. My wife played this time and I think she liked it. The house came crumbling down on us, but only because the last POI was the cat and my daughter asked me to leave the cat for her to save. With father of the year still up for grabs, I had to let her. Two explosions later and the cat is under a burning pile of rubble.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Three player throw down tonight (a rare treat compared to most of my game nights, though hopefully the new norm).

x2 Dominion with Hinterlands, Seaside, and the base set (I went 1-1)
x3 Race for the Galaxy with the first two expansions (I went 1-2)

So pretty even and lots of fun all together.

Embargo is crazy for Dominion.

Look at you with the 3 player throw down. Go Bats, go Bats, go Bats


Played a couple solo games of Tooth & Nail:Factions to get the hang of the rules before teaching the game to others. It's a pretty easy to learn game and pretty quick, though there are decisions in game as to how to use your action points most efficiently and whether to load up in the war zone or command zone, whether to use command abilities or faction abilities and sometimes both.

Since victory comes when a player's deck is reduced to 0 cards, you have to decide to use certain abilities that cause you to discard cards into your discard pile (which can sometimes be retrieved by powers) or discard cards from the game.

There are powers that steal cards from your opponent to put into your deck, force the opponent to discard cards from their hand or zones, take a card from one of their zones to put back into their hand which will cost them a valuable action point to put back into play, retrieve your own cards from your discard pile to give you more to work with, and many more powers and abilities.

I like that it comes in a small box that is easy to carry around and it's a fun quick game. You can play with 2 players with straight up faction vs. faction. You can mix factions together in a 2 player game. You can play straight up 3 player game. You can play a 4 player game that is 2 players vs. 2 players. So there is a good variety of ways to change things up and get different feels out of it.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Three player throw down tonight (a rare treat compared to most of my game nights, though hopefully the new norm).

x2 Dominion with Hinterlands, Seaside, and the base set (I went 1-1)
x3 Race for the Galaxy with the first two expansions (I went 1-2)

So pretty even and lots of fun all together.

Embargo is crazy for Dominion.

How is Race For The Galaxy? I was considering picking it up, and went searching for a YouTube video but didn't find any particularly good ones.

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by robbdaman

Yeah, Acres of Snow was found to have a broken tactic after someone played it like 100 times. Honestly if you don't seek out the tactic and use it then you'll probably never know it exists until you play it 100 times.

Bringing the topic in a neat little circle, this is why I stopped reading about tactics for *anything* on BGG, but a bit too late for my enjoyment of Dominion, as I mentioned to Jim a long time ago.

Speaking of BGG...

Originally Posted by Scapemage

How is Race For The Galaxy? I was considering picking it up, and went searching for a YouTube video but didn't find any particularly good ones.

Race for the Galaxy is *the best* two player card game I know. I have never played it 3 player but I suspect it shines at two.

It's not a complicated game, either, despite the protests of many people who say otherwise. What it does have, that's intimidating and tricky to learn, is complicated iconography. You have to learn how to read the cards and the cards have lots of symbols on them.

Basically a turn has seven phases, but in each turn you only play the parts of the turn selected by the player. If one player selects "Explore" and the other player selects "Produce," then the only phases of that turn will be Explore and Produce. Once you understand that (it works just like Puerto Rico, if you're familiar) the rest is easy.

What sets Race for the Galaxy apart is that there are *so* many ways to win. It also plays very fast, once the players know what they're doing and understand the little symbols, and it is different every time.

Why is it different every time? Because almost none of the cards are duplicates in that giant deck. Which means it's more fun once you know what you're doing but it's intimidating for a new player, who really needs to understand the language of the little symbols, because there's a good chance he or she won't see the same card twice in one game.

Which brings me to the down side of the game, which is that it's hard to get people to play. I've taught a few, but not many, who want to play a second game.

Coming back (look! another circle!) to BGG, there used to be a free RftG download at BGG that let you play against the computer. I have that and like it, but I'd heard they might be working with it to make it something they can sell so it may not be there anymore. I don't recommend that until you have the game anyway, but it's a good learning tool.

You don't need any expansions. We have the first and I think that was a good place to stop.

Happy gaming!

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Bringing the topic in a neat little circle, this is why I stopped reading about tactics for *anything* on BGG, but a bit too late for my enjoyment of Dominion, as I mentioned to Jim a long time ago.

This was discussed at game day this past Saturday. It was agreed that we don't want to play games with someone that regardless of how they learned (either by reading it on BGG, playing 100 times online or whatever) that knows the exact path to victory and has it nailed down. That's not fun. Part of playing games is the experience of learning neat strategies/tactics, as well as just having fun. If someone sits down and acts machine-like with knowledge/skills learned either from BGG or online play, that sucks the fun out of it for others and I can't really see how that would be fun for that player. Fist pump for yet another victory gained in this manner should be embarrassing.

[IAmBatman]

DS covered my thoughts on Race for the Galaxy pretty well. I like the second expansion as well, though (though I don't do the takeover rules), but that's just because I love all the Rebel military cards it adds. I love going military.

[Dad_Scaper]

@ hahma ~ when I see card X from the base game, you know which one, my mind's eye sees the nuclear waste symbol. Either I use it - rarely, and then only to demonstrate - or I don't. Either way it feels dirty.

This, by the way, is where Race really shines. There are so many winning strategies, and I Do like the extra military and rebel goodies from the first expansion. Still, the one expansion is enough for me, with its little boost to military.