What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Red Eyed Jedi]

I played Worst Case Scenario last weekend. It's a trivia game where you answer multiple choice questions about several different, you guested it, worst case scenarios! It has questions about different types of animal attacks, medical stuff, how to survive in harsh climates and other misc. With each correct answer you move your pawn across the board a number of spaces depending on your d6 roll, trying to get to the end before your opponents do. If you answer incorrectly though your opponent that went before you gets to move instead. My gaming group and I had a good time with it, and even learned a few things! I found it in Wall-Marts discount isle for about 10 bucks.

[akden]

I had a co-op game fest over the last few days. In addition to playing Forbidden Island with my daughter, I played a game of Elder Sign with my wife. We rolled horribly and couldn't seem to catch a break, so Azathoth broke free and ended the world.

Yesterday, I played most of Day 1 of Zpocalypse with my son. We had a fun time, and although the zombies are knocking on the door of our bunker, we've managed to whittle them down appreciably. I've read a lot of the negative reviews and the various concerns with this game, but I think I'll end up liking it. The rules are a little fiddly, and some of them aren't very clear, but the theme is great, and the idea of scavenging for resources and building fortifications to slow the zombies down is awesome. We'll definitely plan on playing more.

[robbdaman]

I played 3 rounds of Carcassonne last night. A two player game which I won and a couple four player games which I came in second and third. Definitely need more tiles to use for more players as games go pretty quick, though I don't want to do the level of crazy that Scapemage did a few weeks ago.

Also got in a 3 player RoboRally game on a couple boards, took a while but finally won by getting to the second flag.

[1Mmirg]

Originally Posted by akden

I had a co-op game fest over the last few days. In addition to playing Forbidden Island with my daughter, I played a game of Elder Sign with my wife. We rolled horribly and couldn't seem to catch a break, so Azathoth broke free and ended the world.

Yesterday, I played most of Day 1 of Zpocalypse with my son. We had a fun time, and although the zombies are knocking on the door of our bunker, we've managed to whittle them down appreciably. I've read a lot of the negative reviews and the various concerns with this game, but I think I'll end up liking it. The rules are a little fiddly, and some of them aren't very clear, but the theme is great, and the idea of scavenging for resources and building fortifications to slow the zombies down is awesome. We'll definitely plan on playing more.

That reminds me of playing Elder Sign with Richard Launius (the designer) at the Dice Tower Con. He had a pimped out set that included unreleased expansions that are designed to make the game more challenging. Holy crap. It was a challenge. We got toasted!

But it sure was a fun way to die.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by robbdaman

I played 3 rounds of Carcassonne last night. A two player game which I won and a couple four player games which I came in second and third. Definitely need more tiles to use for more players as games go pretty quick, though I don't want to do the level of crazy that Scapemage did a few weeks ago.

Like this?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by akden

Yesterday, I played most of Day 1 of Zpocalypse with my son. We had a fun time, and although the zombies are knocking on the door of our bunker, we've managed to whittle them down appreciably. I've read a lot of the negative reviews and the various concerns with this game, but I think I'll end up liking it. The rules are a little fiddly, and some of them aren't very clear, but the theme is great, and the idea of scavenging for resources and building fortifications to slow the zombies down is awesome. We'll definitely plan on playing more.

I demoed this game at GenCon last year with the designer and it seemed pretty cool. Of course it helps to have the designer tell you how to play and not worry about figuring out the rules. A buddy in my game group got the game recently, so we'll be sure to bust it out one of these nights.


I just ordered Guildhall today. It looks like an interesting little card game with a good bit of interaction with other players.

[robbdaman]

Busted out Carcassonne again tonight for a 5 player game. The randomness of the tile draw makes it a hard game to make work for you but farming still seems the most effective point grab option. Played with the Builder and Trader tiles to add in some extra fun. Just traded for the Inns and Cathedrals and the Mini Expansion so next game will have even more fun stuff to add in.

Also played Conquest of Planet Earth which was a chaotic fun ordeal. The random card draw and dice rolls make the game more of one of chance but there are many games far worse. I really like this game as it offers a great deal of interaction between players. Each alien ability makes for unique strategies. One of our group got terrible draws for resistance forces having to fight many tanks, fighter planes and artillery plus Captain Fantastic at least once.

[IAmBatman]

Didn't get around to posting this before, but on Tuesday we got in a game of Kingsburg (which I finally won again! The bottom row is just sick if you can get it built quickly and get the free bonus points coming in every season. Both of my opponents went for the farms and they didn't do as well. I did lose a building in the last year, though, and ended up winning by only one point. Rolls of 5 and 6 in Year 5 really hurt me too!).

We also played 7 Wonders, which was a lot of fun even coming in third, because it was close all around and my buddies are really starting to figure out the strategy of it.

And then we learned Tooth and Nail: Factions and played it for the first time. I really enjoyed the mechanics of it. It took a bit to figure out what I was doing, but after I started grasping it, I really enjoyed the choices involved each turn. The direct combat aspect of it gives it a different feel than other card games we tend to play as well, which was a nice change.

[1Mmirg]

Played Batman again last night. We've played a few times now. Last game we tried some of Paolo's own variants to speed the game up. This time we used one of his and added one of our own that we liked quite a bit.

We're finding the game is still longer than 60 minutes, but it doesn't have that drag that some players have found it to have.

The variant that Paolo added to his own game that we like is

Originally Posted by Paolo Mori

For levelling up purposes, you can exchange infos with money and viceversa with a 2:1 ratio. So if you need $10 to level up but you have only $8, you could cash 4 infos to take the $2 missing. This could help in speeding up levelling in later stages of the game.

This is a nice little boost that keeps things moving.

The variant we added is:

Originally Posted by Mmirg's Household

When collecting income from an area you control (i.e. the top part of a card), you can collect one additional resource if you have at least 1 figure on that space (i.e. having your villain and/or henchmen in key places can help increase your income, just a bit).

We found this really helped the game, making it more interactive. Having more reason to move your figures. And allowing the tempo of the game to increase subtly, but noticeably, since income were just a bit higher.

--

Paolo's other suggestions haven't worked for us:

* Removing cards can be good, but we have actually finished the game with cards left over anyhow.

* Leveling at turn ends really takes away the board control aspects and allows a player to get a lead with much less opportunity to cut them or stop them.

* Having three threat always = ruling a space also cheapens the area control aspect for us.

--

He did, just today, add a note about having Level 8 be the game WIN in 4-players games, and I think we may try that next time we have 4 players.



Anyhow, all in all, we are enjoying this game. It's a little flatter than I hoped, but still solid and with a couple tweaks it really sings!

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Didn't get around to posting this before, but on Tuesday we got in a game of Kingsburg (which I finally won again! The bottom row is just sick if you can get it built quickly and get the free bonus points coming in every season. Both of my opponents went for the farms and they didn't do as well. I did lose a building in the last year, though, and ended up winning by only one point. Rolls of 5 and 6 in Year 5 really hurt me too!).

We also played 7 Wonders, which was a lot of fun even coming in third, because it was close all around and my buddies are really starting to figure out the strategy of it.

And then we learned Tooth and Nail: Factions and played it for the first time. I really enjoyed the mechanics of it. It took a bit to figure out what I was doing, but after I started grasping it, I really enjoyed the choices involved each turn. The direct combat aspect of it gives it a different feel than other card games we tend to play as well, which was a nice change.

I've only played Kingsburg once and enjoyed it. Hopefully it will recirculate again soon in the group's rotation.

I have played 7 Wonders a lot, but only with 6 or 7 people. I've played the base game alone and also with Cities and the Leaders expansions. I imagine there's a bit more strategy when playing with fewer people because you can affect a majority if not all the other players rather than just 2 others out of 7 total.

Glad you liked Tooth & Nail: Factions and that the 3-player game wasn't off balance. That's really good to hear and hopefully I'll get to try that sometime with 3 or 4. So far only 2-player.

[nate the dawg]

My Saturday night group has been getting in quite a bit of Pandemic lately, but to no avail...the only game won was a two-player. Also, on the one weekend per month that we play board games exclusively, we've been going at Arkham Horror, but we've lost horribly twice now!

During week nights, the wife has gotten into Legendary pretty hardcore, so we've gotten in more than a few games of that as well. In this one, having just two players is such an advantage!

Think about it; if the 'lose' condition is say 40 turns away (whether it be a specific number of scheme twists, escaped villians, etc), it doesn't matter how many players are involved - you'll lose the game if you haven't defeated the mastermind before 40 (or however many) turns have elapsed. In this example, if five people were playing, each would only get to take eight turns to build their deck for taking out the mastermind/villains. However, if just two people are in it, each would have twenty turns to shape their villain-stomping deck.

Either way, here lately I've been getting in some great playing time with friends and the wife, so let's hope for more.

Also, throughout the week I can pretty much guarantee that someone will want to play some Guillotine.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Hahma

I have played 7 Wonders a lot, but only with 6 or 7 people. I've played the base game alone and also with Cities and the Leaders expansions. I imagine there's a bit more strategy when playing with fewer people because you can affect a majority if not all the other players rather than just 2 others out of 7 total.

Yeah, I imagine the military is a lot more important with just three players. My friend who won, for instance, won the military against both of us the second and third rounds and had like 16 points for military as a result, whereas we had negative points. Probably harder to pull off that swing in a larger group.