What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[stubobj]

Originally Posted by Onacara

Just played 2 games of Terra Nova...now setting up Cave Troll

Ive looked at Cave Troll a few different times but havent jumped on it yet. Ive also looked at Drakon. Which do you prefer out of those 2?

Finished up our first game of Pandemic. It was a little daunting at first. The actions and special actions seemed confusing but once we had the cards in hand and started playing it all came together rather quickly. We were able to cure and eradicate red early in the game. We were doing alright and eventually had blue and black cured. Problem was those were the 2 that kept getting infected. I then noticed we were set up to win in a couple turns as long as we didnt get a major outbreak. I even drew the special event that let me stack the top 6 infection cards. After examing the 6 cards I then realized there was no way of stopping a horrible chain reaction in the middle east. We played it out and tried our best to avoid it. Even got to skip a turn as the infector due to a special event. But our fate was already written and we lost due to 8 outbreaks, 5 of which happened on the last turn of the game.

This was a great time. Its so much different than the other cut throat games we play. It was nice discussing what options we each saw. Something I did find a bit odd though. The rules state for Normal and Heroic games you cant reveal your hand but can tell whats in it. Im not understanding the difference it would have on the game. If I can tell you what I have in hand why not show you? Is there something Im missing here? All in all it was a lot of fun and we might even try out another round tonight.

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by stubobj

Ive looked at Cave Troll a few different times but havent jumped on it yet. Ive also looked at Drakon. Which do you prefer out of those 2?

They are both very different...but if I had to choose I would say Drakon only because the board changes each and every game. I was lucky to get both in the Fantasy Flight Games Christmas Sale this year for $20 total ( nyys )

[Eirikr]

Originally Posted by stubobj

The rules state for Normal and Heroic games you cant reveal your hand but can tell whats in it. Im not understanding the difference it would have on the game. If I can tell you what I have in hand why not show you? Is there something Im missing here? All in all it was a lot of fun and we might even try out another round tonight.

It's just supposed to make the game a little more difficult. I find it just inconvenient/annoying. We play with open hands. Still only win about 40% of the time with 5 epidemic cards.

[Onacara]

A fun game of Last Night On Earth to end our Rainy Day Board Game day....Me vs the wife and Anthony....ZOMBIES WIN!!!!!!!

I got some good card and die roll combos to overrun them fairly quick and take out 2 of their heroes...and then killed the other 2 just for fun

[CheddarLimbo]

Originally Posted by stubobj

Ive looked at Cave Troll a few different times but havent jumped on it yet. Ive also looked at Drakon. Which do you prefer out of those 2?

I know you asked Ona, but I have both as well (from the same sale, even! ). They are different types of games, so it depends on what you're looking for.

I don't like Drakon with just 2 players (unless one of them is my 4 yo son). I think it's best with 3-4 players. 5+ and it starts to drag. Cave Troll, on the other hand is just as good with 2, 3 or 4.

Drakon is a little bit like setting up an economics engine. You try to find a way to get coins efficiently, while keeping them away from your opponents. But the board is constantly changing. With Cave Troll, it's a straight up area control game. It's all about the numbers and you can form a strategy and (for the most part) know how it will pan out. There are a couple of random elements but you can defend yourself from them.

Both games do have a bit of a cut-throat, screw your neighbor element to them.

[stubobj]

Thanks for the input Cheddar. I had been looking at Drakon a bit more since I love modular boards. However if you think its not as good with 2 players (which was my fear) then I may just have to go with Cave Troll whenever I order again.

I also just taught one of the guys here at work Carcassonne. I didnt bother explaining farmers but did explain everything else. He thouroughly trounced me. I thought Id be back in the game after stealing a 32pt city from him but he kept grabbing small 4pt cities here and there and just pulled away.

[Armydillo978]

Humans!!! Just got the expansion for it (Humans!!! 2), yesterday and played that. Fun game. Played on the regular Zombies!!! board with some of the cards from Zombietown and it's a bit like Omega Man.

[Jormi_Boced]

I hope to maybe get a boardgame or two in today either before or after our WFRP game.

[Elstree]

Originally Posted by Eirikr

It's just supposed to make the game a little more difficult. I find it just inconvenient/annoying. We play with open hands. Still only win about 40% of the time with 5 epidemic cards.

My impression is that this rule is there to help prevent "dictator syndrome". A lot of coops suffer from the problem that they can be absolutely ruined for everyone if one player decides to take control and direct everyone's actions each turn. If the other players feel like they aren't making any decisions of their own, then the game stops being fun and the dictator might as well be playing solitaire. Theoretically, keeping hands hidden should help guard against this, but in practice we've always played open-hand and never had any problems.

There's a real danger of becoming a dictator when you're teaching Pandemic to new players. Having never played before, they have a tendency to look to you for advice. I try to keep conscious of this, and when playing with new players I'll start each player's turn by asking something like "So, what's your plan?" That makes it clear that their turn belongs to them, lets them talk out what they think they ought to do, and usually prompts a discussion between them and the other new players about their best collective course of action.

[CheddarLimbo]

Originally Posted by stubobj

Thanks for the input Cheddar. I had been looking at Drakon a bit more since I love modular boards. However if you think its not as good with 2 players (which was my fear) then I may just have to go with Cave Troll whenever I order again.

I also just taught one of the guys here at work Carcassonne. I didnt bother explaining farmers but did explain everything else. He thouroughly trounced me. I thought Id be back in the game after stealing a 32pt city from him but he kept grabbing small 4pt cities here and there and just pulled away.

Well, Drakon is the definition of modular, that's for sure. And you can elect to remove certain tiles - in part or entirely - to change the focus of the game.

The thing is that with a 2 player Drakon game as soon as one person gets ahead, the other person really has to spend most of their time and resources to keeping them from getting further ahead. But with more people, a couple players can gang up on the leader and keep him in check while still progressing themselves. That's been my experience, anyway.

I also forgot to add that both games have revised rules in the most recent editions that let players add special Hero abilities that spice things up a bit.

[nbxfan]

We played our first couple of games of Descent this weekend. Dungeon crawler indeed as we completed the second game in seven hours. Some of this was looking things up, and making sure that things were being done correctly. We are finding it somewhat unbalanced though and not sure how to fix the issue. When players get the next level treasure chest, the monsters become to quickly overpowered. In the final room, I had ice storm and cleared out the room outside of the named monster in a single hit. It was rather anti-climatic. Regardless, we all had fun and will have to figure a way to speed things up. This isn't much of a concern as we have others in the Fantasy Flight game line and know that the more we play them, the quicker they go because we know how its done.

Also got in a couple games of Dominion and Ticket to Ride.

[A_Train]

Played Dominion twice with my son today and won quite soundly. I'm trying to teach him that stocking up on as many kingdom cards as possible, is not really the best plan, but he's learning.