What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[MrHscape]

Just purchased battleship galaxies and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Apparently it was created by some of the staff at Hasbro, that created heroscape. It also looks some what similar to heroscape, in that it uses a board divided by hexes. I would check it out for sure. I think I might do a review on the game once I get the rules down.

[caps]

Character creation for Spirit of the Century tonight. We haven't played a session yet, as they recommend a full game-session just for character creation. I enjoyed creating my character though. Character creation is one of the things I most love about RPGs--it usually tickles my fancy for both playing around with game systems and creative writing. Character creation in Spirit of the Century was much heavier on the creative writing side of things, and it felt pretty fresh. I'm looking forward to trying the game out!

I've never really been able to try my hand at actual roleplaying for more than one or two sessions (all my RPG campaigns seem to be short-lived...) so it will be fun to see how a game that focuses a little more on that will play out for me.

[nate the dawg]

Originally Posted by Gurei-Ornery

Have either of you played Legendary: Paint the Town Red expansion? I haven't, just seeing if you had any thoughts. We have been playing DC Comic: Heroes Unite almost everyday since I picked it up, so Legendary is a distant 2nd at my house right now.

I got it in last Saturday and had the cards sleeved just in time for game night. The new masterminds and schemes are pretty tough, but not because of their attack scores. Mysterio prolongs the game by adding master strikes to his pile of mastermind tactics, and Carnage and his crew KO cards from the top of your deck.

The heroes are pretty solid. Most have the new 'wall-crawl' keyword, which puts them on top of your deck when you recruit them. This combined with Carnage feasting on your deck can bring about some careful ordering when you take your turn.

Despite the fact that Spider Woman should be an Avenger (instead of a Spider-Friend) and that they gave her wall-crawl (c'mon, the lady can fly!), I've thoroughly enjoyed the expansion. Try including Scarlet Spider, Spider-man and Elektra in your hero deck for some power deck-building.

Oh, and if you sleeve your cards and own all three expansions, you have officially run out of room in the box.

[SirGalahad]

Not playing yet, but wife surprised me with early birthday gifts of:

Munchkin Deluxe
Smallworld
Pandemic
Smash-Up

She wanted to get Betrayal at House on the Hill, but they had sold out of the shipment they just received on Friday.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by MrHscape

Just purchased battleship galaxies and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Apparently it was created by some of the staff at Hasbro, that created heroscape. It also looks some what similar to heroscape, in that it uses a board divided by hexes. I would check it out for sure. I think I might do a review on the game once I get the rules down.

Battleship Galaxies if fun. I haven't played it in a while but hope to get it back to the table soon. Would have been huge with expansions, but is a fun game without them too.

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Character creation for Spirit of the Century tonight. We haven't played a session yet, as they recommend a full game-session just for character creation. I enjoyed creating my character though. Character creation is one of the things I most love about RPGs--it usually tickles my fancy for both playing around with game systems and creative writing. Character creation in Spirit of the Century was much heavier on the creative writing side of things, and it felt pretty fresh. I'm looking forward to trying the game out!

I've never really been able to try my hand at actual roleplaying for more than one or two sessions (all my RPG campaigns seem to be short-lived...) so it will be fun to see how a game that focuses a little more on that will play out for me.

Good luck in having this one go longer than the others Cap. Looks pretty neat.

Originally Posted by SirGalahad

Not playing yet, but wife surprised me with early birthday gifts of:

Munchkin Deluxe
Smallworld
Pandemic
Smash-Up

She wanted to get Betrayal at House on the Hill, but they had sold out of the shipment they just received on Friday.

All right Sir G, looks like you'll have fun for a while. Hopefully you can bet Betrayal at the House on the Hill sometime, it's fun.

[akden]

Originally Posted by MrHscape

Just purchased battleship galaxies and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Apparently it was created by some of the staff at Hasbro, that created heroscape. It also looks some what similar to heroscape, in that it uses a board divided by hexes. I would check it out for sure. I think I might do a review on the game once I get the rules down.

Battleship: Galaxies is a great game, and it's biggest downside is the lack of support from Hasbro. This game could have been awesome with new ships and factions.

After mentioning Space Hulk in another thread, I had the urge to play, but didn't have another player available, so last night after the kids went to bed, I played a solo game of Gears of War: the Board Game (haven't waded through my rules for Galaxy Defenders, yet). It had been awhile since I played this, and I'd forgotten what a cool game it is. Definitely better with other players, but it works as a satisfying solo game, and it helped to scratch my "soldiers vs aliens" itch.

[1Mmirg]

Last night we played Werewolf (x5) and Roborally. Good times.

[davidlhsl]

Finally received my games I ordered from Victory Point Games. After Ogre scratched my wargaming itch, I decided to try some other hex and counter games. However, I was never able to learn the more complex wargames back when I was more actively playing low-mid level Avalon Hill games back in the late 70s - mid 80s, so Victory Point Games appealed to me. Their games are mostly introductory to mid-complexity, and they have smaller mapboards and fewer counters to create faster gameplay.

Battlesson series (I ordered the first 8 games in series, plus the 11th)

The Battlesson series (combination of Battle and Lesson) is designed to introduce newcomers to the wargaming hobby. I took a risk in ordering these, because I wondered if the complexity pendulum would swing too far into the simplistic territory. Let's now get to the 5 games I've played so far solo.

Strike Force One

I knew going in that this was going to be simplistic, as it's main purpose is as a teaching aid to newcomers rather than a full fledged game. Think of this game as a sort of wargaming boot camp. I still felt this game was useful as a way to introduce newcomers to such wargaming staples as zones of control, combat results tables, and terrain effects. It really is great for this, and the game comes with spectacular documentation featuring a fully narrated game play example.

Since the game features so few counters (6 for Russians, 4 for the U.S. in the basic/advanced game) and such a small mapboard, the quick gameplay is perfect for playing several games in a row while trying out various tactics. The Russian side tends to be more direct in how to play while the U.S. side requires finesse.

Once completed, the game doesn't have much staying power unless I desire a quick fix.

Assault on Sevestapol/Paul Koenig's D-Day (Canadian Beach)

Here's a slightly more complex wargame set in the Eastern Front during WWII. The Germans have 10 turns to completely eliminate the Russian counters, or at least push them back to the west in a very narrow area. The Germans start with a massive force compared to the Russians, but the combat table is quite interesting. The highest combat odds are 4-1, and those odds can still cause damage to the attacker. 4-1 odds in other wargames are typically safe for the attacker. This means that attrition against the Germans is guaranteed.

In the three games I've played solo, the Germans have cleared the board by turn 7 for the first two games. I experimented with the Russian setup in the third game by stacking units rather than spreading them out, which delayed the German victory until turn 9. I still feel there are things I should be doing for the Russian side to give them a better chance. Once again, one side's strategy seems to be obvious, while the other side requires finesse.

The D-Day game presented a similar challenge in wondering how the Canadians can win the game. This game features a chit pull mechanic. The Allies have 4 chits colored to specific units in the game, while the Axis get 3 chits. Place them in a cup and draw one randomly to determine which units activate next. All the stats point to the Allies having an advantage, but I rolled some horrible dice for the beach landings in the two games I've played. The victory points you earn, however, seems heavily skewed towards the Axis. I need to play this again with more moderate luck before determining whether the Canadians have a chance or an uphill battle.

Israeli Independence

Being a fan of playing solitaire and solo, I've heard of the States of Siege series of solitaire games. This is the first game I've actually played, and this is the most basic version without any of the additional elements other games in the series have.

You have 5 Arab nations (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt) with their own separate 4-space tracks leading to Jerusalem. The game begins with the counter for each nation on the furthest track. Each turn, you draw one card from an event deck. That card will tell you which counter(s) to advance or retreat. If a counter ever reaches Jerusalem, you lose. The card then tells you the number of offensive actions you can take, along with any die roll modifiers. An offensive action is simply selecting one of the counters and rolling a die. If you roll an adjusted number greater than the number printed on the counter, you get to push it back one space. Keep drawing cards until you either lose (a counter advances to Jerusalem), or until the deck runs out. You win the game if you go through the entire deck.

Although extremely simple, this game is more addicting than eating potato chips. I even placed an order for Levee en Masse.

Boom and Zoom

This is really more of an abstract game than a wargame, thus it's not as satisfying solo experience. Still, I do love abstracts when I can get it to the table. The main draw for me with this game is that it provides a ton of optional rules you can incorporate to completely change your strategy.

The basic game is played on an 8x8 square grid (i.e., chessboard)., and each player gets 8 pieces. Each piece is actually a stack of counters numbered 1-3 (from bottom counter to top-most). The top counter (#3 for all pieces at the beginning of the game) indicates the range either orthogonally or diagonally (think of a chess queen with a limited move). You can either Boom (attack an opponent's piece within range) or Zoom (move the piece within range). Booming/Attacking removes the top-most piece from the attacked unit. This is automatic and doesn't require a die roll. So if you Boom/Attack a unit with 3 counters, you remove the top-most counter to leave 2 counters. The #2 on that counter reminds you of that unit's changed Boom/Zoom value.

The object of the basic game is not to capture your opponent's pieces, Your object is to exit your piece(s) off the opponent's side of the board. You score points based on how many counters the unit contains when it exits. When only one player has units remaining on the board, the game immediately ends and you count escaped pieces to determine the winner.

At first blush, I thought the game might actually be broken, but actual play reveals a lot more depth. I've tried a couple of the variants, and they do change the strategy you have to use quite a bit.

-----

I'm running long as usual, so I'll postpone describing Ancient Battles Deluxe until later.

[chas]

Davidlhsl:

Its great to hear from a wargamer, which is something I used to be more heavily. Best of luck with your new toys, and thanks for the game descriptions.

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by chas

Davidlhsl:

Its great to hear from a wargamer, which is something I used to be more heavily. Best of luck with your new toys, and thanks for the game descriptions.

You and me both! But you've seen my collection of old Avalon Hill games.

[Aldin]

Yay, wargames! I still have my Ambush! collection in the garage.

In other late-to-the-party news, I finally tried Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica over the weekend and thought both were absolutely great.

~Aldin, who thought it was awesome to see so many copies of Mice and Mystics floating around at TN Game Days

[jbbnbsmith]

Originally Posted by davidlhsl

Israeli Independence

Being a fan of playing solitaire and solo, I've heard of the States of Siege series of solitaire games. This is the first game I've actually played, and this is the most basic version without any of the additional elements other games in the series have.

You have 5 Arab nations (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt) with their own separate 4-space tracks leading to Jerusalem. The game begins with the counter for each nation on the furthest track. Each turn, you draw one card from an event deck. That card will tell you which counter(s) to advance or retreat. If a counter ever reaches Jerusalem, you lose. The card then tells you the number of offensive actions you can take, along with any die roll modifiers. An offensive action is simply selecting one of the counters and rolling a die. If you roll an adjusted number greater than the number printed on the counter, you get to push it back one space. Keep drawing cards until you either lose (a counter advances to Jerusalem), or until the deck runs out. You win the game if you go through the entire deck.

Although extremely simple, this game is more addicting than eating potato chips. I even placed an order for Levee en Masse.

I've looked at this series as well. I may try this one once my self-imposed game embargo is over.