What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[rym]

I actually prefer it to Mice and Mystics.

The flight mechanics are solid and the actual birds pivot on their stands (to show veering left, veering right, takeoff, etc.). I, too, am an avid X-Wing guy, and I thoroughly enjoy Plaid Hat and their selection of games. I was fortunate enough to playtest some of the Summoner Wars factions, and enjoy DoW. Seems like you and I are in similar boats as far as game selections go, so I think you'd like TF.

Once you play it a time or two, and you have the mechanics down, you can do campaign style missions, or create your own, and there are squad building rules in the game as well. Coming up with lists in X-Wing is one of my favorite aspects of that game, and there is definitely some of that in TF with the squad building.

Hope that helps.

[nate the dawg]

Recent game nights have seen Splendor and Arena of the Planeswalkers hit the table quite a bit. We're also enjoying Dead of Winter and its Long Night stand-alone expansion.

Last weekend (playing DoW) one player pulled the 'crossroads' card which pits the chimp against another player. Dude spent nearly the entire game giving that damned-dirty-ape all of his food to avoid a beating! While I sometimes find the whole crossroads mechanic cumbersome, this card was so rich in theme that it more than made up for it.

Battlestar Galactica was played for the first time in years (and only the third time overall - we had a bad experience last time due to a player getting all butt-hurt over the outcome...). I'm awful at this game! On consecutive turns, players that I'd just helped to bail out of the brig outed themselves as Cylons. Sheesh!

Oh, and we got in some games of Sentinels of the Multiverse for the first time in what seems like forever. We used the core set and the Rook City expansion and for once actually had rough go of it. I like the game, but it seems that we beat the villain more often than not.

[chas]

CRY HAVOC BOX FLAVOR TEXT
By Chas

***

COMMANDER: Who are we?
TROOPS: WE'RE-THE-SPACE-MON-KEYS!
COMMANDER: Where are we from?
TROOPS: GOOD-OLD-EARTH!
COMMANDER: What are we here for?
TROOPS: TO-KICK-SOME-ALIEN-ASS-ES!
OOH OOH, AAH AAH! SPACE-MON-KEYS!

--Space Monkeys Unit's battle cry

***

Man, what a crappy planet this is. Basically, everything here is trying to kill you. Last month, we were frying our balls on the shore of Meralas. Now, they've thrown us into the middle of a jungle somewhere in Sendero, with bugs so creepy I want to scream. Oh, and how can I forget the frozen deserts of General MacCommon's offensive? We almost froze to death!

Damn, I never thought I'd miss the academy, but here we are. Even our crappy barracks are better than this planet!

--excerpt from a private correspondence

***

It's always the same with the Trogs. You come across their war party, you have a fight, and you kick their coarse asses. Just when you think you have the area under control, their nests start to grow, one after another, hidden in the chasms. Soon, you have their troops popping out of nowhere. They show up in great numbers, like ants, causing a general headache for the command. They parallel the immune system: the more you push them, the greater response you get.

--from Cadet's Manual

***

So, we found the Machine's transporter wreck right there, in the middle of a frickin' salt desert. A perfect hideout, you'd say? That's bull! They forgot about having a crew years ago! The shuttle was packed full of scrap. You couldn't even stick your nose in it. Passages too narrow to walk, no place to step. Zero air conditioning... They should have kept some space for their masters, shouldn't they?

--overheard in a canteen


***

13:15 (DA17): Oh my God, its full of stars! So...so beautiful!
13:15: (CQ): Corporal Dawson, report!
13:16 (DA17): They're coming over here. I can hear their voices. Its like...like a chorus.
13:16 (CQ): Corporal, we need you out of there. Do you hear me?
13:16 (DA17): My goodness...Did you hear that?
13:17 (CQ): Corporal, retreat! That's an order!
13:18 (DA17): [unintelligible]
13:18 (CQ): Corporal, report! Dawson! Dawson!

--a transcript of a contact with the Pilgrims

***

[chas]

Hooray for active gamers. After picking up my brand new copy of Cry Havoc at my FLGS, bringing it home, inventorying the pieces, punching out/basing/otherwise setting up components, and preparing a first solo game to get familiar with the system for my first play with live opponents tomorrow, I draw a starting Random Event, and immediately need a minor FAQ answer!

Although there is a short Official FAQ up, I know they usually are behind the wave of questions that come up when a game first comes out. And in fact it does not contain the answer. So I check out an Unofficial FAQ from the Files section on boardgamegeek (answers by reps only collected on the forum). Sure enough, there's the answer I need.

And now, "moving right along..."

(Edit) To be fair to the designer, it turned out I'd set up the game wrong and didn't need the answer yet.

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

Today, my son and I had at it at each other with Zendikar vs. Eldrazi, the fourth set in my duel deck collection*. This set he gifted me for my birthday last month.
It was a decent match with him playing black/red Eldrazi and me with the green/white Zendikar. Two of his Emrakul's Hatchers plopped down three little 0/1 token creatures. My slowly-leveling Caravan Escort, Frontier Guide, two ever-boosting Graypelt Hunters and a host of other creatures eventually had to attack to remove that fence of token creatures. It left me open to attacks from Hatchers, Runed Servitor, Forerunner of Slaughter, and others.

My forces could manage for a while, but once my son got out the one Bloodrite Invoker from the deck, there was not much I could do.


*
Heroes vs Monsters
Blessed vs Cursed
Speed vs Cunning
Zendikar vs Eldrazi.

...anyone have a cheap Knights vs Dragons to sell me!

[chas]

Only Taeblewalker showed up to play Cry Havoc, so we were restricted to the Two Player version. However, the game is so reasonable in length that we played four games of it, rotating among the three player factions and the number of Skills allowed to each faction, trying out all three levels of allowed skills as well. It was a lot of fun, although I think its better with more players, based on my previous Three Player solitaire game!

[Gurei-Ornery]

Had an awesome Star Trek game day Saturday. Played Frontiers, Ascendancy, and Fleet Captains, all 3 player. We played the same factions in each game to be able to compare the gameplay with more clarity. I rate them Ascendancy, Frontiers, Fleet Captains, but it was tough to pick a favorite really, they are all very good. I genuinely thought Fleet Captains would never be topped. Now there are 2 games that are arguably better. For the record, the other 2 players picked the other 2 games as their favorite, but with the same difficulty of picking a favorite that I had. They also agreed all were very good. The gameplay is extremely different with varying interaction levels. I give Frontiers a slight edge because it plays solo, but Fleet Captains captures the theme a little better.

Also played some Heroclix as a warm-up. Frustrating game in that I don't play enough to have the color coded special abilities memorized, so it is a constant rules reference game for me. I could see it being fun if played more regularly. Still can't replace Heroscape, but it is way faster to setup and they release new stuff all of the time.

[Ranior]

Plenty of gaming this weekend between game night on Friday and some 2 person and solo gaming happening throughout the rest of the weekend.

Lotr LCG x3

Continuing to just have more and more fun with this now that I've got a wider pool of cards to try out and make several different decks and play against many different quests. I still have almost a dozen quests to tackle which means lots more plays for me before things start feeling stale, and even if they do there's tons more packs I don't have given I'm several years/cycles behind still.

Tzolk'in the Mayan Caldendar x1

Had fun with this one. The wheel/gear mechanic is a bit of a gimmick, but it is fun still. I'm glad I got to try this as I've contemplating purchasing it but now know I don't need to. While the gear thing is cool, the gameplay underneath is simply good, not great. I prefer Caverna for heavy worker placement and don't see me often reaching for Tzok'in over other things I have.

Love Letter x2

Always a good simple one to play between others.

Kingdom Builder x2

Got to play this 2 player some. I think I actually prefer this at 2 player since the time between turns is minimal and the total game length is acceptable for how much luck I still think there is in it. I pretty much hate playing this at 4 as the game can really drag on for well past an hour and I don't have fun. Still not even sure how much I like this one though, but it's enough fun for a play here and there.

Power Grid x1

I love Power Grid still and wish I could play more often. I think I will try to get to play a few more times this winter. This one was a close three player game with people powering 17, 16, and 15 cities in the final turn. Just such a smartly designed game, and the double sided game board is a nice touch I wish some more games were able to do.


Played a few other random fillers here and there, none of which I thought were that good and I don't even remember the titles for some of them. Overall though had a great weekend filled with quite a bit of gaming.

[rudyvalentine]

Originally Posted by Ranior

Power Grid x1

I love Power Grid still and wish I could play more often. I think I will try to get to play a few more times this winter. This one was a close three player game with people powering 17, 16, and 15 cities in the final turn. Just such a smartly designed game, and the double sided game board is a nice touch I wish some more games were able to do.

I got to play Power Grid for the first time last weekend and really enjoyed it. We played a four player game and had a very similar experience with three of us getting 17, 16, and 15 cities powered in the final round. The last place player fell behind early, but surged late to get to 12 at the end.

I definitely want to play it again. It feels like a very unforgiving game as you have to be so efficient with your money and resources each turn, but there were enough options even when someone got the power plant or connection you were hoping for to keep it interesting and tight until the end. We played the U.S. side of the board just for familiarity sake since it was our first play, but I was definitely impressed with the double-sided board to add variety to the base game.

Played Ascension with my wife tonight before moving on to Cat Tower and Happy Salmon with the kids.

[Ranior]

Originally Posted by rudyvalentine

I definitely want to play it again. It feels like a very unforgiving game as you have to be so efficient with your money and resources each turn, but there were enough options even when someone got the power plant or connection you were hoping for to keep it interesting and tight until the end. We played the U.S. side of the board just for familiarity sake since it was our first play, but I was definitely impressed with the double-sided board to add variety to the base game.

Power Grid is a very good game indeed. You can't afford to be inefficient and really have to figure out how to maximize what you can--but like you note, luckily nothing can really hose you that badly either. Even if you plan doesn't quite go through, typically it will only cost you a few more electro to work around it. And while I know some do not like it, the turn order jockeying is very clever and helps to keep the players close to each other (And I cannot imagine how bad of a runaway leader issue there would be if they didn't have the turn order like they do!)

I hope you'll be able to get in more plays soon. I used to play this fairly often at my board game club in college. That was a few years ago and I haven't played much since. I'm hoping I can get a few more people into it so I can play it somewhat regularly along with some of my other favorites like Puerto Rico, Caverna, Agricola, etc.

Been playing even more LOTR LCG x4 so I think I'm clearly too addicted. Probably will put quite a few more packs on my wishlist for Christmas.

Also, delivery date of Thursday for Seafall and Dead of Winter Long Night for me. Too bad I'm busy this weekend, but will be very ready to get to them on October 14th.

[Gurei-Ornery]

Originally Posted by Ranior

Power Grid is a very good game indeed. You can't afford to be inefficient and really have to figure out how to maximize what you can--but like you note, luckily nothing can really hose you that badly either. Even if you plan doesn't quite go through, typically it will only cost you a few more electro to work around it. And while I know some do not like it, the turn order jockeying is very clever and helps to keep the players close to each other (And I cannot imagine how bad of a runaway leader issue there would be if they didn't have the turn order like they do!)

I hope you'll be able to get in more plays soon. I used to play this fairly often at my board game club in college. That was a few years ago and I haven't played much since. I'm hoping I can get a few more people into it so I can play it somewhat regularly along with some of my other favorites like Puerto Rico, Caverna, Agricola, etc.

Been playing even more LOTR LCG x4 so I think I'm clearly too addicted. Probably will put quite a few more packs on my wishlist for Christmas.

Also, delivery date of Thursday for Seafall and Dead of Winter Long Night for me. Too bad I'm busy this weekend, but will be very ready to get to them on October 14th.

I was really looking forward to Seafall, but the reviews have not been that great. Will still play it at some point, but it is on the backburner now. If you like DoW, then you will definitely like Long Night.


Hopefully squeezing in a game of Star Trek Ascendancy tonight.

[Ranior]

Originally Posted by Gurei-Ornery

I was really looking forward to Seafall, but the reviews have not been that great. Will still play it at some point, but it is on the backburner now. If you like DoW, then you will definitely like Long Night.


Hopefully squeezing in a game of Star Trek Ascendancy tonight.

I too have seen the tepid reviews, but I don't really care. I'm still super excited and will experience it for myself. I will admit the early reviews about downtime do have me wanting to only go with 4 players though to keep things moving a bit quicker. Our group tends to play relatively briskly anyhow though.

I'm also not sure how much stock to put into the reviews as very few seem to even be more than 1/3 of the way into the game. I love the idea of legacy aspects, I've read the rules and am in love with many of the mechanics presented there. I dunno. I'm still super excited. I can understand why some others won't be though and that's fine too.

Everything I have read about the Long Night has me thinking it will be easy to get many plays in. We've played Dead of Winter plenty but did find some things a little stale. This expansion seems like the perfect way to not only refresh our experience (helping to not know what the secret objectives might be, or exactly what we will find at every location, or playing the same main objective again), but also add in a few modules to fundamentally add a few new choices so the decisions will feel fresher too.