Board Games

icarr757_sl said:

New game about to hit the shelves: Scythe. Very very good game for 1-5 players. It is crunchy, of that there is no dobut, 1910, WW1 brought about massive new techs and the creation of the "factory." The factory was so amazing IT ended WW1 and now you play one of 5 eastern european countries rebuilding your empire the the blood sweat and tears of your workers and the military might of steam powered mechs. The game has alot going on best recomendation is to look it up on Boardgame Geek and watch some videos. Production quality is 150%. Game seems super complex but you really only have 4 possible moves to choose between each turn. Can not recomend it enough!

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I love Scythe, actually made my own copy when it went on kickstarter from their PnP files.
I dislike the instant finish though which feels just a little too sudden but other than that, great game.

Just picked up Euphoria tonight, made by the same company. Dystopian worker placement game.

I am a big fan of Euphoria, but most of my tabler dislike it due to lack of player interaction. Scythe seems to appeal to them more even though combat is a serious 2 edged sword. I like them both, but Scythe wins out, barely, due to the art. I want a copy of the art book for this game BADLY, hope it is easier to obtain than a copy of the art book for Bloodrage. The art is just jaw dropping, add that to its amazing depth of play and it is a really hard to beat game.

It is not a light weight game by any measure, but I like crunchy games anyhow.

Only played Scythe once but it felt super imbalanced to me. I enjoyed the game for an easy Euro game but the race where you can choose the same action twice in a row just steam rolls to victory. The guy closest to me in VP had 1/3rd of my VP's. Perhaps I played it with tards but the game doesn't seem balanced.

Played Mystic Vale over the weekend. If you like card drafting games (Dominion, Ascension, DC, etc) then you will enjoy it. The new mechanics are nifty. There is zero player interaction which is unfortunate. They already have announced a version where you interact with other players which I look forward to. Basically, instead of drawing a hand, you flip over cards until you get three bad symbols. The last card you drew stays on top of your deck, the rest are your "hand". You then buy from the 12 available card pieces. Each card piece takes up 1/3rd of a card. They are clear so you slip them in to the sleeve and it makes your card better. It's interesting enough that if you are a drafting fan it's worth owning, if you are okay with drafting games it is worth playing a couple times but unless you are a big fan of drafting games I wouldn't suggest the purchase.

Fantasy Flight Games forum in an uproar this morning. Company's making a Marvel Dicemaster's knock-off using Star Wars, and its using randomized packs of dice+cards. The squawking from the LCG crowd that FFG is DRIVING A DAGGER INTO THEIR HEAAAART is hilarious.

It's almost like after Asmodee bought out FFG, FFG stopped being entirely autonomous. Whoda thunk it!

The new game you have a hand of cards so it's not a lot like Dicemasters. The write up sounds like you have a draw deck. Like what the fuck people. More games available is a good thing. I love LCG's and play OCTGN daily and hit mys tore once a week but I hate LCG players.

Apparently there's a 75% off sale at Barnes and Nobles brick-and-mortar stores right now. Gonna try to go check tonight.

Kuro_sl said:

Fantasy Flight Games forum in an uproar this morning. Company's making a Marvel Dicemaster's knock-off using Star Wars, and its using randomized packs of dice+cards. The squawking from the LCG crowd that FFG is DRIVING A DAGGER INTO THEIR HEAAAART is hilarious.

It's almost like after Asmodee bought out FFG, FFG stopped being entirely autonomous. Whoda thunk it!

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Asmodee bought FFG?! I didn't know about that. That explains the boring Star Wars and Lord of the Rings titles being thrown left and right. They're milking the IP alright.

Djay_sl said:

Apparently there's a 75% off sale at Barnes and Nobles brick-and-mortar stores right now. Gonna try to go check tonight.

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Only board games mine had left for sale were Car Wars and something called Golem Arcana. The latter has good reviews on board game geeks so I picked it up. A miniatures war gaming game with phone support. We'll see.

I thought about it, but my wallet is being sucked dry from the recent barrage of Kickstarters and the ones yet to come. Right now I am backing Near and Far. It is the sequel to Red Raven Games Above and Below. It looks to be a really good competitive story driven game that goes much deeper then the first game in the series. Other than that, I am waiting on the Carnival Zombie KS and an expansion to The Captain is Dead in the immediate future.

KurganAU said:

I've been enjoying Pandemic with a group of 4 the last few months, we're starting to get the game down and have ordered the expansions to keep it fresh. We have a gaming session once a month roughly.

The only other board games we've played is some Catan, Munchkin and Risk but we really like the co-op aspect of Pandemic. Any co-op kickstarters out there or other games worth a look to mix things up a bit?

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If your group enjoys Pandemic you should really invest in a copy of Pandemic Legacy. The base of the game is just plain old vanilla Pandemic, but every month there is a new twist that adds a challenge to the game. The game also comes with stickers and secret panels you open so that every time you play you're not quite sure what is going to happen. The bad news is that the game is self destructive, which means you only get to play through the campaign once. But the campaign in the box is going to last you at least 12 sessions (one for every month) and assuredly you're going to fail several months; probably an average game group gets about 18 games out of it. Not bad for a very cool twist to Pandemic.

Other co-ops you might enjoy (not on kickstarter):

Flash Point Fire Rescue (Fireman Pandemic)
Dead Men Tell No Tales (Pirate Pandemic)
Defenders of the Realm (Fantasy Pandemic)
Forbidden Dessert (Archaeology Pandemic)

Co-op wise my favorites are -

T.I.M.E. Stories
Zombicide
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Super Dungeon Explore

There are so many good co-op games out there. As for Kickstarter, I really like The Captain is dead. Its expansion is going to be on KS soon and the base game should be available as well. You should also keep an eye out for Carnival Zombie, Siege of the Citadel, and The Massive Darkness Pledge Manager. It may not be for you, but I am super excited to get Too many Bones and I think the pledge manager is still open.

If you do not want to wait for a Kickstarter (they can take a year plus to deliver), there are a lot of good co-ops out right now. Legands of Andor is a puzzly adventure game, Flash Point Fire Rescue and Dead Men Tell no Tales are close to Pandemic in feel. XCOM is good and tough, but uses an app. Castle Panic (There is also Star Trek Panic and Dead Panic) is a fun tower defense type of game. I am also a big fan of Escape (Curse, or Zombie city), Dead of Winter and Zombicide Black Plague.

Hmm, that turned out to be more than I thought I would right down and that is not even all the good Co-ops from my perspective. I do think there are a lot of good none co-ops if your group likes a little competition and does not mind a little screw your neighbor. Survive Escape from Atlantis is one. Hope that helps with a starting off point. I remember when I was new to the hobby 7 years ago and now I have over a hundred games that I am desperately trying to condense into a smaller collection lol.

Edit: Can't Believe I forgot Time Stories, Defenders of the realm (Defenders of the last Stand is the new version), Forbidden Dessert, Forbidden Island, Pandemic Legacy!!! Good call to those who did not! Oh one, last thing. Depending on you situation, I hear that the app for Pathfinder is much better than buying the actual game.

The pathfinder app is fine but it's a one player game, make no bones about it. The card game is fun with a lot of people

T.I.M.E. Stories is only playable once. The base game took my group like 4 hours to complete. The expansions are also only playable once. They range from 3-5 hours for my group. It's kind of a "choose your own adventure" type game where if you fuck up you start over. Super fun and it's all about people looking at things secretly and communicating them to the group. I really like it as a co-op because I feel like many other co-op games have the smartest guy at the table just telling everyone else what to do.

Games News, 01/08/16: The Asmodee Edition | Shut Up & Sit Down

Interesting article on how we might be in for higher boardgame prices soon

That's not really new or Asmodee's fault. It's been happening for a decade or so. Big Box games go up and up every year. For example Twilight Imperium is 90 bucks. Forbidden Stars is 100 dollars.

I finally played Blood Rage with some friends the other day.

It's a great game, much simpler than it initially looks the multiple paths to victory through trying to win battles, pillage areas or die in battle/Ragnarok is really interesting. Our winning player barely pillaged or won anything but died a whole bunch with synergistic upgrades which gave her tons of points every time she went to Valhalla.