What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Hahma]

Some of my buddies just brought up an upcoming board game called Batman: The Boardgame. The minis look awesome!

It's based on the same system as Conan, by Monolith.

One friend kickstarted Conan, but hasn't played it yet. He mentioned that he just got some new rules sent to him since the original ones seemed like they needed fixing.

Did you get/play Conan @chas ?

[chas]

I played one game of it before a pal gave it to his brother. The system was okay, but the introductory mission seemed impossible to accomplish.

[Hahma]

Well hopefully they work some stuff out for the Batman game. Seems like it will be one person playing the bad guys and the other person/s playing the good guys.

My buddy Brian is a big Batman (and Star Wars) fan, so he was mentioning it.

[Ranior]

I've been playing tons of games lately. I also attended gencon and had a fantastic time. Acquired lots of new games and played a bunch. I'll go through what I played pretty quickly but if anyone wants a few more details about anything just ask and I'll gladly provide a bit more.

Wednesday night we played a few quick games in our hotel:

Tsuro x2. -- This is a pretty well known and simple game where you place a tile and follow the path. Trying to avoid running off the edge of the board or into another's piece. A very simple pleasant looking game that was perfect after a long day of travel.

Joking Hazard X11 -- I don't really like this one that much but it's alright. It's basically Cards Against Humanity in comic book form. Occasionally the jokes are funny but usually I just find everything kind of dumb. Ah well.

Then during the convention we played:

Go Nuts for Donuts x2: This is a new game from Gamewright with similar art style to Sushi Go. It's also a set collection game but instead of drafting you're all trying to get cards from the center. In a 4 player game there are five cards revealed during a round. Each player secretly chooses which numbered donut (1-5) that they want and then everyone reveals their selection. If you picked a donut no one else wants, you get it! Else you discard it if more than one person picked the same donut. It's an alright game but I'd much rather be playing Sushi Go. I don't really like how largely random the game is with picking donuts you want but think your opponents don't.

Hot Tin Roof X1: Demoed this at Mayfair and hated it. You're cats trying to connect over the roofs of buildings and can build catwalks and homes along the way where your opponents have to pay you. I absolutely hated the graphic design of this one as the colors for each player were not clear at all and so it was impossible for me to tell which pieces belonged to each player. I don't know what the publisher was thinking on this one but I couldn't get into the gameplay at all due to this problem.

Bang! The Dice Game x7: Demoed this and bought it. It's been out awhile but I've never had the chance to play before. I own and enjoy Bang! But this is better in my mind. It plays much quicker and is still zany fun. A great dice game for 5-10 minutes that's super interesting to teach.

Super Mario Level Up! X1: I bought this for cheap at CSI's ding and dent sale. I love super mario and hoped the game was good. It....is alright. It's not great but it's at least not awful. Every player has a card of 6 characters they will score points for at the end. They want those characters on the higher leveled platforms. Once someone moves to the top platform a vote is held amongst all players. A single no vote will get that character removed from the game. Each player is given 3 no votes at the start of the game. So there is some strategy surrounding leveling up characters towards the top and voting no to remove them from the game while trying to get a character you want at the top when everyone is out of no votes.

New York Slice x2: We all really enjoyed this one. You flip over 11 slices of pizza for the round and then split them up into piles, one per player. The player who slices the pizza picks last so you're trying to make sure whatever slice you're left with you'll be happy with. There's some set collection going on with each slice of pizza for scoring points at the end. The theme is really cool on this one though as it even comes in a box shaped like a pizza box and the rule book is laid out like a menu.

Photosynthesis x2: This is probably my favorite of the convention. I managed to get one of these on Thursday. It's a gorgeous game with lots of cardboard trees. Essentially you're trying to grow trees to collect sun which you spend to grow more seeds and trees and get larger trees. In the end you collect points for growing trees to the largest size and spending some sun to kill them off. (I can't remember the term the game uses, maybe harvest? Basically your tree got big and old and it died). The game is simple to learn, plays pretty quickly, but has lots of interaction. Can't wait to play this more.

Kingomdino x7: I had played this before the convention but grabbed a copy. I really like this fast game, very worthy of winning game of the year (Spiel Des Jahres). Hahma did a good job explaining it below. Blue Orange Games (the publisher) had a free raffle at gencon where you could enter to win a giant version of the game (basically everything is tripled in size roughly). My boyfriend Cory won a set which was super cool! We even got to meet the designer and have him sign it right after. Probably the highlight of the convention for us.

Dark is the Night x2: This is a relatively simple 2 player game that plays quickly and is fairly compact. One player is a monster that uses hidden movement to move around the campfire. The other player is a hunter trying to kill the monster. Cory really likes hidden movement games and we've been looking for some quick 2 player games so this should be a good one for us.

Happy Salmon X1: Demoed this. Literally takes about a minute. Each player has cards like pound it, or high five and needs to perform that action with another player who has that card. First to run out of their hand of cards wins. It was pretty zany fun. Probably would be great with a group of kids.

Hostage Negotiator x2: I've been looking for another good solo game. They had a deal at the convention where you could get everything for relatively cheap so I did so. Turns out I was the 50th customer at their booth for GenCon 50 so I also won a free copy of another one of their games. We certainly had a lucky convention with winning stuff!

Imhotep X1: In this game players put stones onto boats and then sail those boats to monuments that are under construction such as the pyramids or obelisks. Players get points in various ways at each of the monuments. The twist is that any player can sail a boat as their action, so you can really screw over your opponents at times by sending a boat to a relatively poor place for them. But doing so means you're not putting a stone on a boat on your turn, so you'll score less points total probably. A really simple but smart game. Happy to own this now.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf x6: Played this a bunch before but we all went to an event billed as the ONUW world championships. The designer was hosting it and they even had live music for the nightime phases which as super cool. Will gladly do this again, was a great event.

Unlock! X1: This is one of the newfangled Escape Room in a box type games. I haven't played any yet, but we grabbed on and gave it a go. We had an awesome time with it and went back and bought a few more the next day. It does kind of suck that you can only play them once and then need to gift them to someone else or resell it, but the 15 dollar game was essentially an escape room in a box and so for four people it's relatively cheap entertainment for an hour still. (Doesn't compare to regular board game's price per hour of enjoyment, but eh compares great to if we had all paid to actually go to an escape room).

Galaxy Trucker X1: This is an older game but we just all played it for the first time and really enjoyed it. You're constructing a space ship out of all these junk parts and then flying it through missions where it's likely asteroids and other things will shoot parts off which may cripple your ability to succeed at the other missions. Zany fun.

Walk the Plank x4: This is a simple programmed movement game. You select three cards and then in turn order you go around revealing them. You're trying to shove the other players off of the ship, onto the plank, and then of the plank. But you can sometimes wind up having to just move your pirate off the plank with no benefit. So you have to be kind of careful with what cards you're choosing. We all had some fun with this simple and quick game.



There were a few other games that we played or demoed but that's most of what I played. I did also pick up a copy of Le Havre but we didn't get around to playing that. But that's alright as I've already played that game quite a bit in the past and know I like it, just wanted a copy for myself now that it was reprinted. We had a great gencon and have lots of fun new games that I'm sure we'll keep playing throughout the winter. Some of the standouts to me were Unlock!, Photosynthesis, New York Slice, and Kingdomino.

[chas]

Played a 2 Player game of Iki, the rare Japanese game I just got, for the first time. Its about the Edo Bridge of Japan (Nihonbashi) Marketplace, where the non-samurai Japanese are going about their live, trying to create a life with the most Iki or Chonindo (as opposed to Bushido); the grace of life for regular people!

I usually don't do pure Euros or economic games, but this one has no trading (oddly enough), simple math, a great theme, good graphics, and works for me very well. After my opponent lost a key stall through a fire we thought he'd lost the game, but he came back very strong at the end to win. It only took 2 hours, which is short for a game that I own.

Now that I know how to play, I look forward to trying it with 3-4 players.

[Targanth]

I'm looking for some help and ideas.

I'm building a fantasy adventure game scenario. Currently in the scenario the 'monsters' are skeletons and goblins. Originally I was expecting that the 'monsters' were somehow being controlled by a powerful figure that kept the skeletons and goblins from fighting each other. I'm thinking that it is unlikely that the goblins would keep the company of skeletons without some sort of controller.

So I'm looking for some ideas. If I no longer have a controler, but I want to have two different types of humanoid / semi-intelligent creatures that tolerate and maybe even cooperate at bit. I'm looking for some alternates and suggestions as to which creatures might work. The only ones that spring to mind would be goblins and orcs, but I don't know if I want to have orcs in this scenario. Any ideas?

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by Targanth

I'm looking for some help and ideas.

I'm building a fantasy adventure game scenario. Currently in the scenario the 'monsters' are skeletons and goblins. Originally I was expecting that the 'monsters' were somehow being controlled by a powerful figure that kept the skeletons and goblins from fighting each other. I'm thinking that it is unlikely that the goblins would keep the company of skeletons without some sort of controller.

So I'm looking for some ideas. If I no longer have a controler, but I want to have two different types of humanoid / semi-intelligent creatures that tolerate and maybe even cooperate at bit. I'm looking for some alternates and suggestions as to which creatures might work. The only ones that spring to mind would be goblins and orcs, but I don't know if I want to have orcs in this scenario. Any ideas?

Is this a Heroscape scenario? If it is, you can use C3V's Skeletons of Annelentia. They have some synergy with Lords, Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses (all Vampires in Heroscape).

If you are not talking about Heroscape, then you might want to include a Necromancer to keep the skeletons in line.

[Targanth]

Thanks, @Taeblewalker . Right now its not for Heroscape. You've hit on my problem in that the Skeletons will only work if I have a bad guy control the skeletons. At this stage of the scenario I might have either Skeletons or Goblins confront the heroes, or possibly both at the same time. So rather than introduce a controller for the skeletons, I'm thinking that it would be better to swap the Skeletons out for a different foe. But who would get along with the goblins? Or what two monsters might tolerate each other to cooperate against the Heroes?

[Taeblewalker]

I think orcs would work. Bugbears and hobgoblins too.

[Raider30]

You could always take the stat structure the skeletons are based on (i.e. Use their hit points, strength, damage or spell tracks) and then "re-skin" them with a description of your choice. That way you can make up any humanoid type creature you want and give them whatever reason you want them to have for hanging out with goblins and not try to shoehorn in a pre-made creature.

Get creative!

- Raider30

[Targanth]

@Taeblewalker
Thanks for the suggestions. I will play around with those. The bugbears might be what I need.
@Raider30
For the scenario I'm working on, I really can do most of what you've suggested, and probably will. The stats are not the problem in this case. I can have Goblins and Hooziwazies, but I was first trying to see if there were any more traditional 'monsters' that did not come to mind that might somewhat be able to co-exist without a strong hand forcing them to do so.

[Porkins]

How about a "cause" that unites them? Or a common goal...a jewel or treasure...a political motivation...a desire to destroy humanity...the search for some magic item.