What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Jim]

Originally Posted by A3n

That looks like a really interesting mix box of games. Was it just done for a Black Friday sale or a convention or other?

They started doing it this year, with the intent of it being an annual occurrence. It's a very Limited Edition, only available from an FLGS (so no online ordering/discounts), and the contents are not announced ahead of time. The only things we knew were that it would have an already released game (Trains), a new release (the Maximum Throwdown expansion/standalone), and some re-themed games (the rest), and that the value would be well over the $50 MSRP.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Jim

They started doing it this year, with the intent of it being an annual occurrence. It's a very Limited Edition, only available from an FLGS (so no online ordering/discounts), and the contents are not announced ahead of time. The only things we knew were that it would have an already released game (Trains), a new release (the Maximum Throwdown expansion/standalone), and some re-themed games (the rest), and that the value would be well over the $50 MSRP.

Cool marketing idea. I just found an on-store here in Oz that has it for order. It's $70 plus postage which appears to be only $5. So 4 games for $75 seems like a good deal. I have heard Trains is a good game. And Guildhall - is it the full game?

[Jim]

Originally Posted by A3n

Cool marketing idea. I just found an on-store here in Oz that has it for order. It's $70 plus postage which appears to be only $5. So 4 games for $75 seems like a good deal. I have heard Trains is a good game. And Guildhall - is it the full game?

Guildhall is the full game, but it has been rethemed to Seven Seas (Pirate), so if you were to ever get the expansion, the card backs won't match. Just the base game though is a great game.

[Dad_Scaper]

I love Guildhall. I wish someone other than my father liked it, because we only game a few times a year, but it's great. I've never felt like I needed the expansion.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by spidysox

After cleaning up Descent, we moved on to Dead of Winter. This has been one that I have been drooling over for a while and I'm so glad I finally had the opportunity to get a chance to play it. I'm going to echo what most people who have reviewed have said. It's fantastic! While the zombie theme is starting to get overdone, they handle it beautifully here. The zombies just feel like a backdrop to a great, story driven game. We played one of the scenarios where we just had to survive for a few rounds (can't remember the name of it). I had accomplished my secret objective fairly early in the game and was just working on keeping everyone alive. Things looked good for at least a shared victory for me when Tom showed his true colors on his very last turn and betrayed us all! While he was unable to complete his betrayer conditions, he kept us from winning as well. What a great game and I really, really want to pick this up.

After that we moved on to Splendor. This was a nice change of pace from the co-ops we were playing. I guess you'd call it a set collection and victory point game. You choose your resources (colored gems) at the beginning of your turn then, when you have enough of them you buy cards that represent those gems (mines etc...). The more resources the card takes to purchase, the more experience points they are likely to give. First person to 15 wins. I felt like I was doing pretty good, but Tom swooped in at the end and pulled out the victory. A fun, quick game that I would definitely play again and would be a good one for family get togethers.

We ended our great day of gaming with Sheriff of Nottingham. Another fun new game that would be great for introducing new people to the hobby. I managed to eek out a win over Tom by two points thanks to a great end turn where I was able to pick up 5 chickens.

All in all, we had a fantastic day playing a lot of great games. I just wish we could do this more often.

Lots of good stuff there Spideysox. I enjoy all of those games. Only a few plays so far of DoW, a few plays of Sheriff and tons of plays of Splendor.

Originally Posted by Ixe

Next was Sheriff of Nottingham, another first for me. I have a pretty good track record of winning games the first time I play them but not last night, although I did come in second again at least (Oddly enough, I don't necessarily win that often replaying games. I try exploring different strategies a bit more and mostly find how they don't work). I did enjoy the bargaining and bribing in this game and I must say that most of the fun is tied up in those little bags and the load snap they give when you open them. The person who won (and handedly at that) just ended up getting monster hands of 4 or 5 goods and played truthfully. He kept getting called on it which just gave him more free money and was able to seal a majority on a few different fronts to launch him further into the lead in the end. I may have been a little too liberal with opening bags when I was the sheriff and paid for it probably more than I should have.

Sheriff is a really fun game where the fun is in setting up people to open your bag when you want them to in order to keep them from opening it when you don't want them to. It's also fun to see someone go on a run of certain items over several turns and you keep thinking, "they can't have 4 bread in the bag again!" and yet they do.

Originally Posted by davidlhsl

Sergeants: D-Day

I backed this Kickstarter, and the shipping has begun. I'm awaiting my copy, knowing that I'm likely at the end of the shipping queue due to the fact that the known universe constantly conspires against me. You'll hear more from me on this game once it arrives and I pull everything together. Having played it's bigger brother Sergeants Miniatures Game, I'm curious how the system plays with the more compact design. It's basically the same game play as the Miniatures version, but you have smaller tiles for a smaller table footprint, stand-up figures instead of painted miniatures, and movement by tiles instead of by inches.

Look forward to hearing what you think about D-Day Sergeants David. Hopefully it ends up being really good and more accessible than regular Sergeants and can bring more people over to the Sergeants side.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I love Guildhall. I wish someone other than my father liked it, because we only game a few times a year, but it's great. I've never felt like I needed the expansion.

You know I love Guildhall too DS. Really fantastic game IMO. The expansion Job Faire is a standalone game, so having either one is fine and having both isn't necessary. My friend has Job Faire, so if I get the itch for that one, I can ask him to play it. Too bad you can't get others to play it besides your dad, lots of people are missing out for sure.

[1Mmirg]

Had a great holiday weekend--had a Heroscape family mini-tournament (which my wife won--curse the Ashigaru!). Played Dead of Winter, X-Wing, Dice Masters, and many others.

Got to introduce Avalon, Good Cop Bad Cop, Spot It, Om Nom Nom, and 7 Wonders to a good friend.

Went to the Dice Tower's MiniCon (at the Cool Stuff Hollywood store) and, for under $100, bought about 20 new games from the Flea Market (Tom was selling good games for $5-$10). Won as raffle prizes Draco Magi and Hive. And had to support the store (and Small Business Saturday) and so picked up Cyclades: Titans--now I have to wait until Christmas, though...

Missed a jump and failed to defend my South Florida PitchCar champion status--but had a blast playing, either way.

While at the minicon I learned Salmon Run, Thunderstone (yes, I missed this until now), Go, Goblin, Go, Ninja Dice, and Roll For It.

And then yesterday my work took me down to Tom's parts, so I stopped in and helped him playtest for his review the new Saint Petersburg reprint (while a fairly generic euro in theme, etc., a really engaging set of mechanics--I liked it much more than I thought I would).

Been a great long weekend of gaming!

[IAmBatman]

Got in my third and fourth plays of Dead of Winter yesterday! I'm a big fan, but my game group seems iffy on its punishing nature. We've survived 2 of 4 so far, but not everyone's completed their objectives in the "wins." No traitors yet, but I can't imagine winning if there is one!

[1Mmirg]

Over the break our game of Dead of Winter was our first with a traitor in which the rest of us one. In fact, it is the first game we've had where every non-exiled player achieved their victory conditions. It's a great game. I'll admit that I wish it could have been a bit more streamlined, just takes a little longer than I'd like it to. But it's worth it.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Got in my third and fourth plays of Dead of Winter yesterday! I'm a big fan, but my game group seems iffy on its punishing nature. We've survived 2 of 4 so far, but not everyone's completed their objectives in the "wins." No traitors yet, but I can't imagine winning if there is one!

Win or lose, the experience and roleplaying during the game is fun for me and my group. I think if people just play it as if it were "just another game" then the winning and losing aspect might be more bothersome.

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

Over the break our game of Dead of Winter was our first with a traitor in which the rest of us one. In fact, it is the first game we've had where every non-exiled player achieved their victory conditions. It's a great game. I'll admit that I wish it could have been a bit more streamlined, just takes a little longer than I'd like it to. But it's worth it.

Yeah, great game and worth the time to me.

[Oliver Upshaw]

I have been having some fun with the Ars Victor game that I got a couple of months ago. It’s hit the table at least 10 times now. If you like the Command and Colors series of games by Richard Borg like Battlecry & Memoir 44 you should check it out. It’s a Sci-Fi setting which Borg has not done to it fills that niche rather nicely. The game play itself reminds me a little bit of Heroscape as ranged units will usually get off at least one shot at a unit that lacks range before they close. How you manage this is very important. If done correctly you can survive the fire and close in to fight. So far my wife is giving me a run for my money in our games and she has been winning her share of them.

[Gurei-Ornery]

Dead of Winter is a really fun game, glad you guys are enjoying it.

Got my first solo game of Shadows of Brimstone in with a Preacher and a Rancher and it was really good. Its one huge negative is it takes up a ton of table space, but I'll live with it.

[davidlhsl]

Originally Posted by Oliver Upshaw

I have been having some fun with the Ars Victor game that I got a couple of months ago. It’s hit the table at least 10 times now. If you like the Command and Colors series of games by Richard Borg like Battlecry & Memoir 44 you should check it out. It’s a Sci-Fi setting which Borg has not done to it fills that niche rather nicely. The game play itself reminds me a little bit of Heroscape as ranged units will usually get off at least one shot at a unit that lacks range before they close. How you manage this is very important. If done correctly you can survive the fire and close in to fight. So far my wife is giving me a run for my money in our games and she has been winning her share of them.

Ars Victor has been on my radar for quite some time, but I keep getting pulled away by the horrible artwork. I don't mind cartoony designs (I used to love Advance Wars on the Nintendo, which I think has terrific artwork), but the art in this is pretty bad. Still, I think there are some fantastic game design ideas in this, so I'm still considering it.