Board Games

Hateyou said:

Gen Con online is going on starting today so there's various livestreams and stuff going on. Chip Theory Games streaming now. They previewed the treasure chest storage thing, talked about the design process, flaws with cardboard, etc. Looks very nice, they ended up making it out of MDF and magnets. Ate into their profits but it looks fantastic. @Seananigans Hatorade

Has some slick labels and chip dividers to organize everything too. Awesome showpiece for this game. With all the extra materials, weight, and cost it went from the $75 price point on Kickstarter to $120 (shipped) on their site lol

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Just now getting around to organizing this beast!

I'm on my 3rd Too Many Bones Trove Chest replacement because it has arrived damaged each time. You're one of the lucky ones if yours arrived intact.

Pyksel said:

I'm on my 3rd Too Many Bones Trove Chest replacement because it has arrived damaged each time. You're one of the lucky ones if yours arrived intact.

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Right top side was a little broken, messaged them on how to fix it. Wood glue and some clamps it 100% now.

Got it all in, now what to do with all the boxes and outdated cards and sheets. Some good artwork and quality materials seems like a waste to just throw it out.

Played some games over the break -

Biblios - Quick and engaging, never won but wanted to rematch and try again : Good quality in that
Boss Monster - Quick and basic. Feels incomplete. Fun references.
Caverna - Too much going on. Better experience if scaled down. Hours and hours long and a good deal of it didn't have fun. But next day woke thinking of strategies for next time, so value in that.
Pandemic: The Cure - Dice version of Pandemic, plays fast because lose fast. Not sure how much depth it has, but was fun enough and definitely would play again.

Conefed said:

Played some games over the break -

Biblios - Quick and engaging, never won but wanted to rematch and try again : Good quality in that
Boss Monster - Quick and basic. Feels incomplete. Fun references.
Caverna - Too much going on. Better experience if scaled down. Hours and hours long and a good deal of it didn't have fun. But next day woke thinking of strategies for next time, so value in that.
Pandemic: The Cure - Dice version of Pandemic, plays fast because lose fast. Not sure how much depth it has, but was fun enough and definitely would play again.

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My wife loves Caverna, bought "A Feast for Odin" by the same developer. We've heard its basically a better version of Caverna, but we've had it a couple of years and still haven't cracked it open >_<

Onoes said:

My wife loves Caverna, bought "A Feast for Odin" by the same developer. We've heard its basically a better version of Caverna, but we've had it a couple of years and still haven't cracked it open >_<

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Feast for Odin is good but probably simpler strategy wise than Caverna or Agricola, in that it's a lot more forgiving. But mechanically a lot more complicated. I've played mine a couple of times, the expansion improves it quite a lot, but it's really hard to get to the table these days.

Conefed said:

Played some games over the break -
Boss Monster - Quick and basic. Feels incomplete. Fun references.

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Boss monster has been a pretty popular warm up game for my group (and new one-timers). But I also have everything for it.

Phazael said:

Been getting back into Terraforming Mars. Played a couple games with all expansions other than Council (just bogs the game and dumb with only 3 players) and it holds up well. Probably one of the better games for giving people in dead last a good time, because they still have plenty to do and there is not a ton of kingmaking.

Also been sneaking in some games of the new edition of Eclipse. Its not as crunchy as Twilight Imperium, but it has the same feel without the complexity. There is also more of a gold rush explorer aspect to it, along with more combat incentivized. Its an amazing bargain for the scope of the game.

Main project lately has been getting old classic games into box organizers, especially Rebellion which the wife and I want to play over the holidays.

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i also dont like the Council expansion, we have them all and its the only one we dont use regularly. I agree 100% about it bogging down what is probably one of the more enjoyable games to play

I've been playing Etherfields a lot lately. I like it a lot more than Tainted Grail, which I found to be repetitive, and more suitable for solo play. The story line in TG is top notch however.

Playing Etherfields is like they took the best ideas from various games. It has the 7th Continent vibe because you are flipping over tiles and exploring them based on the text encounters on them (wanna touch the golden altar? Pay 2 action, read x-xxx from the script book). It also has elements from AHLCG in how the players cards work. You can use cards for their colored Intent, which is similar to AH's system with skill checks.

I think what gets me the most is how well the artwork is done. The game is very engrossing, plays well with multiple players, and isn't too complicated (compared to something like Gloomhaven) for the non-board game enthusiast, which is my family. The miniatures are well done as well.

The gameboard is AIDS though, it's very poorly laid out. You wonder if they actually playtested it. It should be oriented horizontally, but it is oriented vertically, with the 2 most used spots on the board at the very top and bottom......the text on the cards is small so you have to get up out of your chair at times to read the cards. After playing a while and understanding how the game flows, you are better off without the board altogether.

Still, it's one of the more engaging board games I have played in recent memories, and the campaign consists of 33 (?) main dreams/scenarios, each gaming sessions lasts about 2 hours I would say, so I should get 50+ hours of gaming from the main campaign alone.