What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Gurei-Ornery]

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/1544...rd-game-gencon

Anyone seen Aristeia? Look familiar? Infinity meets Heroscape. We are having a demo day Sunday, so hopefully I will be able to sneak away from company that is in town to check it out.

Played Ethnos at lunch yesterday. Pretty fun with 6. Not normally something I would choose to play, but fun nonetheless. Was hoping to play Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game, but it only plays 4.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Gurei-Ornery

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/1544...rd-game-gencon

Anyone seen Aristeia? Look familiar? Infinity meets Heroscape. We are having a demo day Sunday, so hopefully I will be able to sneak away from company that is in town to check it out.

Played Ethnos at lunch yesterday. Pretty fun with 6. Not normally something I would choose to play, but fun nonetheless. Was hoping to play Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game, but it only plays 4.

Yeah, I've been following Aristeia for a little bit, as I subscribe to Beasts of War and they showcase a lot of upcoming games and miniatures games I'm into. They showcase Infinity often, so Aristeia has been shown on there some. I like that it's a more entry level, accessible game in the Infinity universe. I have too much other stuff going on an money tied up for them at the moment, but maybe next year I may pick this game up.

I hope you get to try it and report back what you think of it.

I've played Ethnos a couple times and like it. It seems to hit the table often with my game group. It's very accessible to all types of gamers and has enough variety in set up to keep it fresh.

[IAmBatman]

Not crazy about Clank in Space from my one play of it. It has the clothing of a deck builder, but there's really not much deck building to be done. It played (for us anyway) more like a pretty simple race game in which the teleporter is super powerful and the first person to pick up and deliver the most valuable package pretty much runs away with the win.

A Euro I played last night that I liked much better is Dice City with a couple of expansions in it (not sure which ones, since it was a buddy's game). It felt a lot like an old favorite in Kingsburg except that everybody rolls dice on their own little play area and builds them up to do different things. I see a lot of potential for engine building in that one and I feel like I just got a small taste.

Rounded out the evening with a four hour game of Sword & Sorcery. We're still having fun with this one four or five quests in, but a lot of the story elements are super laaaaame with their nail on the head references. Just eye rolling stuff for us that I'd almost rather they skipped so we could get right to the bashing. I still find the gameplay pretty fun, but for the overall immersive experience of story, mechanics, and leveling, this can't touch Gloomhaven (which is also in my collection). So I'll probably be playing Gloomhaven rather than getting a Sword & Sorcery expansion any time soon once we move through the initial seven scenarios in the base game of S&S.

[Hahma]

@IAmBatman , I'm about to start a Sword and Sorcery campaign on Saturday the 11th. I had painted the heroes and a couple big bosses for it a few months ago, but it's taken thus long for our group to finally nail down a start date. I hope they don't all go 4 hours, as I only have about 2 1/2 hours available that first intro game before I have to leave my buddy's house. Though being co-op, they can finish playing my character.

[Tornado]

Can you read the rules for S&S or Gloomhaven online?

I am curious about the mechanics. Is it like a 'choose your own adventure' board game?

Is that catching on right now? Sounds like a fairly brilliant bridge of RPG and tabletop (something I have been trying to work on).

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Hahma

@IAmBatman , I'm about to start a Sword and Sorcery campaign on Saturday the 11th. I had painted the heroes and a couple big bosses for it a few months ago, but it's taken thus long for our group to finally nail down a start date. I hope they don't all go 4 hours, as I only have about 2 1/2 hours available that first intro game before I have to leave my buddy's house. Though being co-op, they can finish playing my character.

I'd say two and a half hours is more typical, especially for earlier scenarios. This one was particularly long. The intro scenario is on the short side, but you'll need time for rules explanation. And set up for the game is similar to Gloomhaven.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Can you read the rules for S&S or Gloomhaven online?

I am curious about the mechanics. Is it like a 'choose your own adventure' board game?

Is that catching on right now? Sounds like a fairly brilliant bridge of RPG and tabletop (something I have been trying to work on).

They're both very much RPGs in board game clothing.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'd say two and a half hours is more typical, especially for earlier scenarios. This one was particularly long. The intro scenario is on the short side, but you'll need time for rules explanation. And set up for the game is similar to Gloomhaven.

Well my friend Jeff actually already had it set up for next Saturday's game

The same five of us had played through the campaign of the outer space themed version of this game called Galaxy Defenders, that came out a few years ago. So some of the mechanics should be familiar but I'm sure there is some new things to learn.

[quozl]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Is that catching on right now? Sounds like a fairly brilliant bridge of RPG and tabletop (something I have been trying to work on).

The best hybrid I've seen is Frostgrave.

[TREX]

I like frostgrave better than sword and scorcery and massive darkness. Both s and s and md felt way too easy to beat without houseruling things. Another I thought was ok was darksouls but still like frostgrave better. I think if there was a cooperative frostgrave that would be most fun. Like dnd without a master. Im working up some coop scenarios right now.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by quozl

The best hybrid I've seen is Frostgrave.

Originally Posted by TREX

I like frostgrave better than sword and scorcery and massive darkness. Both s and s and md felt way too easy to beat without houseruling things. Another I thought was ok was darksouls but still like frostgrave better. I think if there was a cooperative frostgrave that would be most fun. Like dnd without a master. Im working up some coop scenarios right now.

Yeah, I agree with these guys, Frostgrave is a great example of bringing an RPG to the tabletop. Gloomhaven is great in a way, but it's more Euro with the card play and hand management, as well as a built in timer so to speak. But you get to customize your character's personal deck and choose cards to bring to certain scenarios. It's good for sure and has a neat story element, but for me, Frostgrave is more fun and immersive. Your characters can actually die or get badly wounded that will affect the rest of your campaign. You get to level up and adjust your stats or lower the casting rolls of your spells or learn a new spell from a grimoire you found or bought.

While I haven't played Sword and Sorcery yet, I have played through it's previous version Galaxy Defenders. It has a loose story element and the leveling up was kind of random with some dice rolling at the end of a game. You did get to customize your character over time with different loadouts and such, and your weapon could jam or run out of ammo. It was fun, as I expect S&S to be, but in a sense of a dice chucking fight fest with not so much RPG to it.

[Tornado]

EDIT: Is Gloomhaven hex based? If so, are they Heroscape sized hexes?

For Frostgrave, the RPG element is mostly character creation and development?
The game play is pure combat correct with a 'capture the flag'/'treasure grab' theme?

General question: How important are the minis to the game experience? What is their fun factor?

TREX: For coop, are looking for two vs. a random element or more of a 2v1 or 2v2 setting?

Thanks for feedback gentlemen!