What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[caps]

... in other, less exciting news, I played Descent for the first time; the 2nd Edition. I liked it. Since I'm a more experienced gamer, the Overlord let me run 4 heroes instead of 2 and then threw the hardest monsters available for the intro level at me. I barely made it through.

I chose Leoric the Runelord, Syndrael the Knight, Grisban the Berserker, and Ashrian the Soulshifter. I needed to light four beacons and keep him from killing four civilians. After lighting the first two beacons I ended up getting pinned down inside the first room (the second area of the map)--he had a shadow dragon at one door that I just couldn't take out, and a steady stream of Merriods kept knocking Grisban out at the other door. Syndrael was useless against the Shadow Dragon, with such low odds of simultaneously rolling a surge and enough hits to matter, so I eventually moved her over to help Grisban with the Merriods. By then I was down to only two civilians, but I had them where he couldn't hurt them. Finally he got tired of our semi-stalemate (I was actually slowly losing through attrition, but I think he also felt bad) and pulled his two Shadow Dragons back in hopes of baiting me out.

I took advantage of the opening to run Ashrian around through the rubble in the third area and light the third beacon. After his Shadow Dragon dropped Ashrian, I managed to finally finish the bugger off. Ashrian got back up, so his Shadow Dragon minion came after her in the corner of the third area, leaving the entry to the fourth area open. In one turn I used Syndrael's Feat to move Leoric twice and activate the fourth beacon. If things hadn't lined up just right, I would have been in a bad way. The Shadow Dragon was already back on the board and would have blocked off that entrance on his next turn, and I don't think I could have got through him.

Altogether it was a fun game, although our one encounter took much longer than it should have. We were going to do the second encounter, which goes with it, but it was just too late but the time we finished.

[Jim]

Moved the M:tG game posts to their own thread because it probably would clutter this one way too much.

To drive your interest, here's the picture:

[chas]

Tornado,

The pieces and production values are particularly great on Age of Conan. For example, the 'towers' stack on the 'forts' to make 'cities' by locking in place to form a very fantastical Conan looking combined structure, although they can also be deployed separately. Tthe mini sculpts are different for each of the four nations. Even the cards are barbaric in their own way! And you get to pull chits from a cool cloth bag! The rules are unusual, and take a while to get, but they allow great options to the players, like making a military or a diplomatic conquest of a Neutral, which each have different advantages and disadvantages, defending Neutrals from other active players, etc.

I've always found Italians to make the best looking games in general, not to mention lots of other physical manifestations of art. I guess their superior craftsmanship (very evident if you visit Italy) goes back to the Renaissance and even earlier. When we have to repair old stone buildings here in NYC today, we have to call them over from the old country, since no one here knows how to do what they can do anymore!

And of course, its heartwarming to have a discontinued game project come back to life--right, guys?

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by Jim

Moved the M:tG game posts to their own thread because it probably would clutter this one way too much.

Thanks, Jim. I would have started my own thread with it - I thought about it - but I wanted to make an entrance that people would see.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Thanks, Jim. I would have started my own thread with it - I thought about it - but I wanted to make an entrance that people would see.

I added the picture to my post to keep your thunder.

Here it is again.

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Originally Posted by chas

Tornado,

The pieces and production values are particularly great on Age of Conan. For example, the 'towers' stack on the 'forts' to make 'cities' by locking in place to form a very fantastical Conan looking combined structure, although they can also be deployed separately. Tthe mini sculpts are different for each of the four nations. Even the cards are barbaric in their own way! And you get to pull chits from a cool cloth bag! The rules are unusual, and take a while to get, but they allow great options to the players, like making a military or a diplomatic conquest of a Neutral, which each have different advantages and disadvantages, defending Neutrals from other active players, etc.

I've always found Italians to make the best looking games in general, not to mention lots of other physical manifestations of art. I guess their superior craftsmanship (very evident if you visit Italy) goes back to the Renaissance and even earlier. When we have to repair old stone buildings here in NYC today, we have to call them over from the old country, since no one here knows how to do what they can do anymore!

And of course, its heartwarming to have a discontinued game project come back to life--right, guys?

I think the people that made Wings of War are Italian. The artwork on the cards is excellent.

I got a bunch of Terminator CCG cards today. They only had the rights for the first movie. It's funny because some of the Skynet cards are just background minor human characters with red glowing eyes and a name like T-803 Infiltrator. So far I've seen a dancer from the Technoir dance club and even the little Mexican boy that charges Sarah $5 for her picture at the end of the movie represented this way.

[chas]

"Best card game I ever played!"
--Kolakoski

"After this first game is over, I'm going up to the front of the store and ordering a copy for myself."
--Mogrebla

"How much will you take for your copy?"
--Son of Griznakh (I didn't sell)

At LIScape's meeting yesterday, I finally got more than four players for my brand new Quartermaster General (Griggling Games, 2014). With that many players, the two five player games took only 90 minutes or less each, as advertised! Its almost the only game I ever played which plays faster with more people--because then everyone only has to play one country each (lacking a final sixth player, we doubled up only on Germany/Italy). As for balance, both WWII teams--Allies and Axis--each won one game. Not only did everyone want to play a second game after the first, but two people insisted on playing the same country again!

This ground breaking design is well on its way to becoming an "instant Classic." Its got a set up/knock down time of two minutes, only takes up as much table space as you need for the players to sit down, and both wargamers and nonwargamers love it. Your kids will learn about history without even trying.

The game designer is very present on boardgamgeek already with the rules, a short 2.0 FAQ, and a description of an small upcoming expansion available for your perusal. It looks so simple that at first you tend to just pass it by, but when you play it---wow! This was the experience of both myself and a prominent game reviewer (Marco) whose comments are also available on bgg. And check out the complete list of card descriptions by yours truly, also in the Files section.

(Edit: my review of this game on bgg is now pending approval)

[Hahma]

Yeah Chas, even though I have only gotten to play QG once so far, I really liked it. Like you said, there is minimal setup time and it plays faster with more people which is not usually the case. It's a great design and plenty of fun for sure.


Last night I had a couple buddies over and played City of Remnants by Plaid Hat Games and had the blue gang going against the yellow and red. I taught the game, so of course I lost as is usually the case The red player was complaining about not being able to get money because his gang doesn't do that inherently, as they are mostly just great brawlers. But he was able to spread out and park some guys in spots on the map to get Renown (VP's) early on without the need to have developments that he couldn't afford. So even though myself and the other player had some developments that we controlled that gave us income and some Renown every round, the red player was also able to get the Renown. Later on he was able to build some developments and was such a threat that I kind of stagnated on buildings because I was afraid to branch out too far and have red come in and take them away, but I should have anyway. It's a long game, with lots of stuff going on, between being able to recruit new gang members, buy black market goods, buy developments, battle each other and the Yugai patrols, but it's pretty easy mechanically. We all enjoyed it.

We wrapped up the night by playing a quick game of Courtier. Again, because I taught it, I lost. Just one of those things with me that I find it hard to concentrate on my own strategy or whatever when being tag teamed with questions. But that's okay, I have fun regardless.

[akden]

I love City of Remnants, but I never get the opportunity to play it.

I played five rounds of Heroscape in Dad_Scaper's tournament yesterday, which is always an excellent time.

Afterwards, we stayed to play a few games. We had a group of six and couldn't quite agree on something substantial, so we started out playing Coup until we could find something else. We ended up playing about 6 games of this, so I spent the next two hours surrounded by five liars. It was very fun, and my son loved the game, but the bad part is of all five of them, only one was over 16. I weep for the future...

On the way out, I used my meager winnings, along with a discounted gift card purchased from @Gurei-Ornery to pick up Legends of Andor. I've heard and read a little about the game, but the guys from the Secret Cabal love it, so I thought I'd take a gamble. It looks to be a pretty neat cooperative game that tells a story in a unique way. We'll see.

[Hahma]

Well Akden, it's only the second time I got to play City of Remnants and it's been awhile since the first time. I love it, but like you, it's hard to get played, especially it being a long game.

I was fortunate about a month ago when a FLGS had some real good deals on some games to make room for newer ones. I got Conquest of Planet Earth for $20 and it's expansion Apocalypse for $10. Great deal for $30. I also got Legends of Andor as well and paid $15 for it as I've heard good things about it too. Haven't gotten to play it yet. Look forward to hear what you think of it.

[Dad_Scaper]

Thanks for showing us Coup, @akden ! The game demos after the tournaments are one of my favorite things about game day. I was not, however, crazy about Coup. Which was a surprise, because I'd read a little about it and seen a lot of love for it.

In Coup, as many of you know, you are dealt two cards. As in Love Letter, each card has a simple power. On your turn you announce the power you are using. The thing is, you can bluff, pretending to have a card that's not in your hand. You can get challenged when you use a card's power; the loser of the challenge reveals (and loses) one of the cards in his hand. So it's similar to Love Letter, except for this bluffing mechanic, and also except for the notable difference that your cards do not change. Unless something *forces* a change in the cards in your hand, and that can happen but also might not, the two cards you get at the start are the ones you keep. And some combos are better than others, and some are just bad, which means that some players are forced to lie to get anything done at all and others may sit pretty on their solid opening hand and milk it for all it's worth. And some hands are worth a lot.

So, I didn't care for it as much as many others do. My .

[Gurei-Ornery]

@akden , Stephen Universe loves City of Remnants, so we will have to get together with him sometime to play it, possibly at Huzzah with @OverEngineered .

We played Black Fleet after the tournament and @CatScaper eeked out a 2 doubloon win over me, @Johngee , and Stephen Universe. Fun game and especially since CatScaper was relentlessly stealing SU's goods or sinking his pirate ship. Classic.