What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Gaming 2018

All physical gaming, no IOS or anything like that (Otherwise Sentinels and Ascension would be in the hundreds)

1. Magic the Gathering - 129 plays. My oldest daughter and my son still love this game. I'm trying to get them to play Keyforge, Epic, and Ashes but they still rather play magic...Sigh

2. LotR: LCG - 75 plays. My go to solo game and probably my favorite solo game of all time. I even went to the first ever Con of the Rings this year and had a great time.

3. Pathfinder ACG: - 45 plays. Still enjoy this. Actually got 2nd place in the team tourney at Gen Con with my buddies. I am hoping they come out with another set.

4. Too Many Bones - 30 plays. Went all in at Gen Con this year and am not disappointed. The lack of minis turned me off for a few years but I finally decided to try the poker chip life. I have enjoyed this quite a bit.

5. Maximum Apocalypse - 29 plays. A fun post apocalyptic game in a small box.

6. Aeon's End - 26 plays. Probably my current favorite "deck builder". I enjoy the theme, the progression of the game, and the fact you don't have to shuffle allows you to set up some combos.

7. Warfighter Card Game - 25 plays. I bought the Special Forces version, which I enjoy a lot, but I wish I would have bought the WWII version instead because I like that one even more.

8. Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn - 22 plays. I like this better than magic, but as with any game that keeps adding cards, some of the combinations of cards is starting to cause issues which is annoying.

9. Hero Realms - 17 plays. My son enjoys this a lot. The campaign was OK. I backed the next campaign and am hoping it's better than the first.

9. Heroscape - 17 plays. My all time favorite game!! Wish it would hit the table more, but having maps sets up just eats up space for all my other games.

11. Epic - 15 plays. I like this quite a bit better than Magic. Unfortunately my kids don't....

12. Aventuria - 11 plays. Another fun adventure card game that also has a vs. mode, which is better than magic too...

13. Keyforge - 10 plays. Yes, it's better than magic. I like the fact the win condition is not just try and kill the opponent.

Games with 8 plays each
Spot it - Fun with the family.
Nightfall - Once again, better than magic, but my kids don't...Sigh

Games with 6 plays each
Mage Knight - A bit Euro, but I'm digging it as a solo game. Definitely not into the vs. mode.
Aliens Legendary - Best thematic Legendary game!
Marvel Legendary - Eh, Sentinels is still better
Draconis Invasion - A deck builder similar to old school Thunderstone
Tiny Epic Defenders - Would be better with minis, but still good
Marvel Codenames - Good party game
Dragon Dice - Sigh...nobody wants to play against the 5 time dragon gice worls champion any more...

Games with 5 plays each
One Deck Dungeon - Fun solo game
UNO - with the kids
Bang! the dice game - Another great party game
House of Danger - The idea was good, the execution ok, theme not my favorite
Guess Who - with the kids

Games with 4 plays each
Folklore: the Affliction - Got this late in 2018. It will definitely see more play in 2019
Descent 2nd edition - Would definitely play it more but the group of guys I am currently playing with don't get together very often.
Sentinels of the Multiverse - Play it at least 2 times a week on IOS. Best superhero game out there!
Sword & Sorcery - Once again would play it more but the group of guys that are currently in a campaign are hard to get together with.
Games with 3 plays each
Set - My brain hurts
Predator Legendary - Fun but Aliens is better
Oregon Trail Card Game - Yep you die just like in the old school computer game
Gruff - Mutant goats combat card game!!
Resistance Avalon - Fun party game
Forbidden Island - One of my go to gateway games
Dragonfire - Another deckbuilder. The campaign idea is good. The execution falls a little short.

Batman: Love Letter - Way better theme than the original!

Games with 2 plays each
Battlelore - 2nd edition. Got it dirt cheap. Fun game in the Richard Borg series.
Boss Monster - Old school graphics of an old school video game where you are the dungeon master
Checkers - with the kids
Massive Darkness - Fun game. Lots of minis.
Edge of the Empire RPG - Definitely prefer dungeon crawls
Sheriff of Nottingham - Gateway Game
Minotarus - with the kids
Fire Team Zero - Good Game, a bit on the too random side for me
King of Tokyo - Gateway game
Space Hulk: Death Angel - Still hard even after all these years
Spyfall - Party Game
Mage Wars - Better than magic, but takes quite a deal of time
10 Days in the USA - also our homeschooling geography lesson!
Clue - Old school!
Dominion - My wife's favorite game. It's just been a busy year for her.
Robinson Crusoe - Just too Euro for me

Games with 1 play each
Helionox - Interesting take on a deckbuilder. I'd definitely play it again.
Fairy Tile - with the family
Star Wars Minis - My daughter loves this game still.
Compatability - My wife and I are still the kings of this game!
Sorry - old school
Whoonu - Party game
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego - Basically Clue
Quicksand - Gateway Game
Darkness Comes Rattling - I enjoyed the theme of the game
Mill Bornes - old school
Love Letter - Gateway game
Defenders of the Realm - Better than pandemic
Gloomhaven - would be way better with dice!
Camelot - with the family
Fairy Tale - with the family
Justice League Strategy Game - My son bought this
Runebound - Found it dirt cheap. Fun, a little long.
Golem Arcana - The apps aren't kept up any more, which is sad.
Drakon - Gateway game
Apocrypha - Pathfinder ACG but modern day. I played through the base game. I haven't gotten any expansions yet.
Flash Point: Fire and Rescue - Too easy to be fun
Arkham Horror LCG: Lotr is just better
Conan - We liked it. Just have to be the right group.
Apex - Fun game solo. Not sure I liked the vs. mode.
Shadows Over Camelot - My first traitor game back in the day.
A Few Acres of Snow - An ok game. A bit too Euro.
Drako - Fun little dragon vs. dwarves game
Race to the Treasure - with the kids
Marvel Ultimate Battles - My son enjoys this
Iron Man War - My sons digs it
Axis and Allies - And yes it still takes hours upon hours
Claustrophobia - Great 2 player dungeon crawler. I think they just re-kickstarted.
Thunderstone - Another great deck builder, but I haven't played the new version
Arcadia Quest - We have fun with this one when we get a chance to get it out.

90 different games, 640 plays.

[caps]

How do y'all keep track of your plays quickly and conveniently?

[akden]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

How do y'all keep track of your plays quickly and conveniently?

BG stats is a good app for tracking. It can sync your collection and your plays with BGG, as well as tracking who you play with and where you play if you want. I can’t remember the cost, but it’s either free or pretty cheap.

[chas]

My old school method is to just keep a hand written Game Log for each game, and record the summary each time I play into it. This tells me when a game comes off the shelf after a hiatus how often I've played, who against, number of players if relevant, what the scores were, which expansions/variants we used, etc. I sometimes record things such as scenario balance and general scenario comments for games like the Commands & Colors series.

[chas]

Games Of The Heart
By Chas

Its been a long time
Getting from there to here
Its been a long time,
but PreFeds are finally near

And I can see myself in six player games
I can touch the board
And I'm not gonna leave any faction out
I'm not gonna block the sky

Cause I'll play games of the heart
Nothings gonna stop my gaming
I've got strength of the soul
With all my pals nearby

I'll play games of the heart
Stronger as I add more races
For ever I'll buy
Parts of the game!


Tomorrow I'm taking Star Trek Ascendancy back off the shelf after a while, so we can all get our chops back, in preparation for two new factions about to arrive next month in February! If you're just joining us here in Ascendancy Land, you might not know that many posts have been made about the controversial addition of the Andorians and Vulcans, which as separate factions would take us back to the PreFederation Era, when Humans only had a few ships out in space, and Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer was Captain of the first Enterprise, on Enterprise the TV series.

The simple solution if you're a purist, is of course to play without The Federation, since to the rest of the Galaxy us "Yoo-Muns" were of no account, until they formed the Federation just at the end of Enterprise. To each their own, but for me its "Play On!" with all available player factions, and with or without, on various occasions, The Borg in either of their two possible NPC intensity levels.

(From Boardgamegeek)

[Dark_Stranger]

Just played Nemesis for the first time last week. I gave it a solo test run Tuesday night to work out the kinks, and pulled through with a win. I didn't do so well when I played it with others on Friday, though--the stinkin' Soldier double-crossed me and shot me out the airlock. Definitely had fun both times, though.
Hopefully we'll have time to try out Fireteam Zero later today.

[chas]

Yesterday that very first 5 Player of Star Trek Ascendancy went 7 1/2 hours for an absolutely amazing matrix of exploration, exploitation, expansion and extermination. At the end, Taeblewalker as the Romulan had the win condition and four of us had to take it away from him (mostly Sherman Davies as the Klingons). Next Sherm conquered the Ferengi (second new player) home world for the win. Then the Federation (first time player) took that away from SD, and the Feds and I as the Cardassians would have came close to the win next turn, but TW took the win back and snatched victory from defeat at the last possible second.

Congratulations to Taeblewalker for an astonishing win, and the rest of us for the pure enjoyment of a fine Game Day, in which we could all see a victory on the horizon at one point or another, as we each used a different plays style suitable to his own asymmetric faction. As we put the components away after all that story unfolding, we noted that the game could be very different on another play, even with the same factions in the game. And we can always add the NPC Borg in one of its two possible levels of intensity!

Next month (February 2019) two new Ascendancy factions, the Andorians and the Vulcans should be out. Will we just add a new mix of factions, or go for an insane 6-7 player Convention Level game, just to prove it can be done?

***

Coming up in the second half of this month, Three Kingdoms Redux, possibly the best three play Euro ever designed, and Memoir 44 Overlord Through Jungle and Desert, with the British vs the Germans in North Africa and the US Marines vs the Imperial Japanese on Guadalcanal.

New games hopefully coming in March: Seasons of Inis expansion and Red Alert: Space Fleet Combat.

Plus more Heroscaping; see my signature line for our adventures here in The Big Apple!

[IAmBatman]

Star Trek Ascendancy has been a hit with my group as well. We used to play Civilization sometimes, but it got a bit rules bloated. Ascendancy has a bit more theme fun to it and is a bit less complex mechanically, while scratching a similar itch.

Got to play King of Tokyo, Fortune and Gory, Sentinels of the Multiverse, and Gloomhaven this weekend. Good stuff. The latter two continue to be my favorite two games. King of Tokyo is a fun little filler and Fortune and Glory is a nice, slightly less fun but 1930s/Indiana Jones flavored version of Eldrich Horror. The two aren't exactly the same, but they scratch a pretty similar itch.

And anybody who hasn't played Gloomhaven or Sentinels of the Multiverse at this point is just missing out.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Got in 3 rounds of D&D, Magic Maze, Azul, Sushi Go Party, Superfight, and a game of Resistance this week. All in all not bad. Hoping to get in some Scape tonight.

[LuckyST]

Just discovered Dixit board game and it's really cool!

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by LuckyST

Just discovered Dixit board game and it's really cool!

Where in NY are you?

[Gurei-Ornery]

Played Duelosaur Island this weekend. Really good game and better than Dinosaur Island with 2. Also finally got Western Legends to the table again. This is similar to Spurs, but seems to play more quickly. Everyone enjoyed it.

Tested out Blitz Bowl, little brother to Blood Bowl, and it was interesting. Not sure if was intended as much more than a fishing hook for Barnes and Noble customers, but it is pretty fun. I like that they give cards for many teams in the box, for those with many Blood Bowl teams already. It would never replace Blood Bowl, but it certainly fills in when there isn't time or skills available to play BB.

Also was lured into a Kill Team league. I never liked 40K much, but Kill Team's squad based skirmish rules are in my wheel house. I am painting Harlequins, Grey Knights, Necrons, and Thousand Sun. Not sure which I will play yet, though I am leaning towards the clowns.