What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[chas]

***HOLIDAY BOARD GAME MADNESS IN BROOKLYN!***

"Ah, the Grenzers of the Night--
what beautiful formations they make!"
--Napoleon Bonaparte

And they don't drink...wine. Blah! Just kidding. But the French Emperor did steal whole regiments of these (Austrian Army) Croatian and Transylvanian light infantry for his own Imperial French Army, and two of their officers earned his Legion of Honor while in his service!

Well, what did you expect from a guy like me, whose birthday is December 24th--so his holiday season is even more intense? For a fellow who is trying to cut down on his board game purchases, its a busy holiday season for boardgames. After going nuts over Firefly The Game all this last month, and then getting 1775 Rebellion unexpectedly as a present (I just got it set up on my table for a solo try), my new C&C Napoleonics Expansion 3: The Austrian Army just arrived! Can you say...Grenzer? This new white block army has lots of new and very cool unique Richard Borg Napoleonic special nationality unit rules, and will be fun to play.

But first its time for a

BOY STICKER PARTY!!!

to get the all those blocks labelled up. With some extra Frenchies too, that's a lot of blocks to be stickered! (with apologies to Bruce Willis and his loud BOY DANCE PARTY!!! skit from Saturday Night Live).

And of course you can't have too much Richard Borg! In the next week or so I'm expecting Ninja Attack! the first expansion to last year's Samurai Battles, which features his wildest second card deck since Battle Lore! And yes, there will be Ninja units. Hey, I still haven't assembled the figures for my second box of the basic game (for later Epic double sized battles).

Glad I decided to cut down on board game purchases. Right. But its not my fault. Its the holidays, when the toy industry makes 80% of its profit for the year. Oh, well... might as well relax and enjoy it. Its good to be retired!

And just to actually talk SCAPE (remember that) for a moment: if you like Supers, check out buddy Sherman Davies and his Marvel Supers Custom Thread for a recent spate of new activity, in preparation for our first NYC Supers game in a while, coming early next month in December. SD will be bringing pre-made teams of his good and evil supers to the table. So you could say:



He's making a list, and checking it twice
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice
Sherm Supers are coming to town!



Happy Holidays, everyone!
Your pal Chas
***

[akden]

Echoing the holiday excitement. A gift from my BGG Secret Santa arrived yesterday: Krosmaster Arena! I'm pretty excited to break this one out, but we're heading to Georgia to visit family for the week, so I have to wait.

On a more positive note: my son and I played two more games of Zombicide last night. We're gradually working in the new rules.

[Hahma]

Finally got my British Red Devils Kickstarter for Sergeants Miniatures Game.

Got the soldiers mounted on the bases this morning and figured I'd snap a few pix. I just took out one of the new terrain tiles to shoot the pix on. I got 13 British paratroopers (Red Devils) and 5 Germans (already have 19, so now up to 24). The figures on the yellow bases are Adele and Courtney. They are called "guest stars" and are civilians that can help you or cause you problems depending on how the story cards come out. Adele is French underground, and Courtney is an old-timer still walking around in his WWI uniform.

The British soldier in front of the others and having some close-up pix is my custom soldier with my name on it. He is a leader figure and has 3 different ranks I can play him as, Sergeant. Major, Sergeant or Lance Corporal. Has some pretty sweet stats and action cards as well.

Also shown is one of the Hasty Positions terrain pieces that has elevation and a foxhole. I had that already. There is a new piece with the sandbags and the Halt sign.

Also showing the storage box for my new figures/cards, and then side by side with the other one with my other 19 Germans and 19 American troops.

[davidlhsl]

Must not peek. Must not peek. Must not --

Oh well.

Fantastic pics, and I love the idea of the guest stars. Stay in good cover, and give the opposition heck!

[jbbnbsmith]

Hey Chas, let me know what you think about 1775 Rebellion when you have a chance to play it. I don't know if you've played We The People/Washington's War, but if so I'd be interested to hear how 1775 compares.

[Dad_Scaper]

Finally took out Risk Legacy again last night, and caught up to KidScaper with 3 wins a piece. Various third parties have won the other games... I'd love to get this to the table more, but 3 player long-ish games don't hit the table very often.

We've been playing a *lot* of Love Letter, including with my father-in-law and a bunch with my daughter, both of whom are harder sells when it comes to games. Love Letter might have more universal appeal than Ticket to Ride, and that's saying something.

[chas]

jbbnbsmith:

I've only played 1775 Rebellion for one short solitaire game so far, but I liked it. A lot hinges on the random sequence of how the cards come out and how the turn sequence is picked among the four factions for each round. But its so short, you can just play it again. Its very elegant and tricky, so its entertaining as you try to maximize the odd situations that come up. There are particular moves to learn. I think it will have a lot of replay value. Each side has different advantages and disadvantages, which is very cool. At bgg they say both sides seem to win about equally.

Its fun to have to watch out for 15 colonies at once (including Maine, then part of MA, and two Canadian provinces). One of the good points is that because you have two factions per side, you can play with 2,3, or 4 players. It is also easier to learn than other ARW games (but not to win).

Someone compares it with We The People on boardgamegeek, which I also have but haven't played in quite a while. Didn't read that yet, but you might want to take a look there. I used to have Liberty also, the ARW Columbia block game. But it seemed less flexible, and I gave up on it. (I also enjoy Hiold the Line, which is tactical like a Borg game).

1775 Rebellion is abstract and less tactically 'historical,' yet has the right period feel to it, which is quite an achievement in design. Its sort of 'alternate history' ARW, if you will.

I'll have more to say after more plays...

Right now the only two negatives are insignificant:

1. There are Risk cubes instead of counters or minis, some of which are the 'wrong' colors.

2. It, like Heroscape, reverses the usual game terms for Round and Turn, which makes me a little crazy.

[akden]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Finally took out Risk Legacy again last night, and caught up to KidScaper with 3 wins a piece. Various third parties have won the other games... I'd love to get this to the table more, but 3 player long-ish games don't hit the table very often.

We've been playing a *lot* of Love Letter, including with my father-in-law and a bunch with my daughter, both of whom are harder sells when it comes to games. Love Letter might have more universal appeal than Ticket to Ride, and that's saying something.

And I can say I was there when it all began.

Visiting family this week for the holiday. I always bring along some games to play that can be easily taught and appreciated by the non-gamers in the family. Tonight, we played three games of King of Tokyo, which went over very well. I won two of them, but they were all close and very laughingly cutthroat. Had a great time, and we'll probably play again before we head back home. I guess I'm going to have to pick up the Power Up and Halloween expansions for this game. The whole time I played, I thought, "now, if the monsters just had different, individualized powers, it would be so cool!"

[jbbnbsmith]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

We've been playing a *lot* of Love Letter, including with my father-in-law and a bunch with my daughter, both of whom are harder sells when it comes to games. Love Letter might have more universal appeal than Ticket to Ride, and that's saying something.

We really enjoy Love Letter as well. The only downside is four players max. I've played a couple games of Mascarade which is somewhat similar but accommodates more players. I'm not sure if it as accessible as Love Letter, though.

[Gurei-Ornery]

Originally Posted by akden

And I can say I was there when it all began.

Visiting family this week for the holiday. I always bring along some games to play that can be easily taught and appreciated by the non-gamers in the family. Tonight, we played three games of King of Tokyo, which went over very well. I won two of them, but they were all close and very laughingly cutthroat. Had a great time, and we'll probably play again before we head back home. I guess I'm going to have to pick up the Power Up and Halloween expansions for this game. The whole time I played, I thought, "now, if the monsters just had different, individualized powers, it would be so cool!"

You most definitely need the Power Up expansion. Halloween is cool, but not necessary.

We played Zombicide Prison Outbreak with dog companions, Ticket to Ride Europe and princess themed Old Maid yesterday. My daughter is still working on her poker face. "I guess that that wasn't Jasmine." It is hilarious.

[nyys]

Bora Bora, Macao, and Legacy: Gears of Time over at B:T:L Matt's yesterday. A great brain burny day!

[Dad_Scaper]

Target is having a board game sale, so I did a little holiday shopping this morning & picked up Telestrations and Risk Battlefield Rogue, which was a quiet (and probably swan song) Hasbro release of a Rob Daviau-designed game. It looks like a tactical miniatures game, similar to 'Scape with a bit more of the traditional mini game mixed in. I'm looking forward to it. Apparently it's a 2 player game with room for scenario play adding 1 or 2 more, and (sound familiar?) it's played on reversible terrain tiles.

Anybody familiar?