What sort of Board Games do you Play (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

And Star Wars Armada, when I can fit it in

 

[BobO'Link]

If you've not figured out by now - I'm somewhat of a completist and like to get all "expansions" or "limited" items for most of the board games I own (as proof - I have all of the "numbered" Carcassonne expansions and many of the magazine/trade show/etc. mini-expansion things - most of which are still in shrink wrap as I just prefer the base game).

To that end, I ordered a couple of copies of the "Joker" tiles for Azul. One set for me, the other for the copy I got my son for Christmas. I'd put it off because shipping was a bit on the high side (IIRC ~$8) for a couple of ~$9 items. I finally caved and did the order (also throwing in the max number of free starting tiles just because). After it shipped I discover "Next Move Games" is Canada based. Well... that explains the higher shipping amount and actually tempers it quite a bit. I've paid more for less from Canadian vendors all because it crosses the border on the way to me. I can't say I'll actually play with these tiles but they sure are pretty...

Part of me really wants to get the "Collector Tiles" for the rather bland red and blue sets. Those are $12 each! For both that's more than I paid for the entire game (mine or my son's copy)! And they're not *that* "special" looking:

 

[Sam Posten]

Games I've played somewhat recently include:

Space Base - Think Machi Koro but without the unevenness. You get something every time you roll.

Space Base is in my top 3 games. You do NOT get something every time you roll. You can choose to buy something or you can save your dollars for next time. There is a rare possibility of not being able to afford any of the cards up for sale. It can happen.

 

[DaveF]

Space Base is in my top 3 games. You do NOT get something every time you roll. You can choose to buy something or you can save your dollars for next time. There is a rare possibility of not being able to afford any of the cards up for sale. It can happen.

Spoiler

You’re playing a different game than I am. I start with all 12 positions docked and get some benefit every time I roll. I can’t save money in Space Base. It’s spend it or lose it, and “change” doesn’t carryover to next turn. Income can increase but that’s not what I spend. That’s the starting point for accruing money. And through purchases, I deploy more and more ships, and I build up opportunities to benefit when others roll and that by mid game can greatly outstrip my own self-rolling benefits. That's how it is in my printed rules with the game.

I've not looked for any rules revisions. Did they change the core rules on money, income, and carryover?

EDIT: Never mind! We've been playing that rule wrong! It got lost in early game learning and playing, and we never realized the mis-read! Ha. This will change the game!

• The active player buys a card (or chooses not to).
• If the active player bought a card, they reset their [credits] to their [income]"

 

[Sam Posten]

You know to give a card to everyone at start to figure out starting money and first player too, right?

 

[DaveF]

Yeah, we do that. lately we’re playing the quick start variant. Especially two player it’s a bit slow to start for our tastes.

 

[Sam Posten]

MM Sale
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...nFZDkUDvRYMsmLV0sI6aE/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0

 

[BobO'Link]

You beat me to it!

I've been trying to decide if I really need any of the things on sale (probably not as the unopened pile is already too big). There's a game I want to get one of the grandkids and its price difference is enough to fully offset shipping (compared to Amazon's current price) if I don't get to $100. That alone makes it hard to pass this one up completely as there are a couple of sale items that look like they'd be fun.

They had a couple of copies of the Blood Rage 5th Player expansion (which appears to be sold out and OOP) and I couldn't decide if it was worth ~$24 just to have another color (it's unlikely we'd ever get 5 people to the table on that one). It sold out while I was procrastinating so that was easy.

 

[Yee-Ming]

the unopened pile is already too big

Heh. You and me both...

 

[BobO'Link]

We played a couple of new games yesterday. After starting with Unstable Unicorns, chosen by the 7yo, the 13yo selected "Bob Ross: The Art of Chill" from the unopened pile. She's a budding artist, knows a bit about Ross, and with it being an art game was excited to get it on the table. This is one that upon first hearing the title I thought "OK... making a buck off a dead guy with game that'll be pretty lame..." because 99% of games I've owned/played based on existing "franchises" are pretty bad, generally counting on name recognition for sales. In spite of that I watched a review and came away with a "Hmm... sounds like it might actually be fun." So a few weeks back during a sale I purchased a copy.

I'm happy to say that this one was a hit with every one who played it - me, the 13yo, the 7yo, and their mom. We played 4 games with scoring fairly close every game. It's light but surprisingly fun and has some strategy involved. There's a bit of luck with a dice roll but it essentially moves "Bob" on the painting (if he moves far enough it's "complete" and you switch to another), adds another action, gives you a free "art supply card" action, or a free "place a color on your pallet" action. If you roll "Bob" on the die there's a deck of cards that can change game play/bonuses until "Bob" is rolled again. Rolling "Bob" usually moves him on the painting track (there are a few cards that say "Don't move Bob - he's chillin'").

It's essentially a set collection game. There's a randomly chosen painting (30 included) put on the easel. You roll the die for the random event and then take your actions. You get 3 for sure but other events can add 2 more. Those include selecting an art supply (a color/brush combo card and you have to chose just which to use - the color or the brush, not both) from those face up or the draw pile, purchasing a technique (can earn bonus points or cards), put a color on your pallet, complete a painting feature (each has 3 from 5 possible), clean one side of your pallet, remove the 4 art supply cards shown and replace them with 4 new ones from the draw pile. You get points for completing painting features. The first person to 30 points (achieve chill) wins.

Strategy enters by attempting to complete painting features (each feature area shows you the colors and brush needed to complete it). You can earn bonus points by completing the feature before "Bob" moves to cover bonus point areas on the painting, being the first or second to complete that feature (with first getting a larger bonus), and by having technique cards matching the colors/brush used to complete the feature. Once "Bob" moves to the end position on his track *or* one player completes all 3 features a new painting is put on the easel. Paint colors needed change from painting to painting and specific rules on putting colors on your pallet make selecting and placing colors properly critical. It also pays to keep up with how close someone may be to completing the 3 features or "Bob" is to completing the painting first so you don't put colors on your pallet that could possibly have to be removed (and using an action to do so) when a new painting comes up.

Cards are a bit thin but have a very good linen finish. They shuffle easily. The pallets and play board are thicker paperboard, the paintings are a thick paper (standard playing card thickness) with the easel a very sturdy plastic. It has a custom D6 die, standard wooden squares for the point track, and square paperboard markers for the features track. Those paperboard markers are the worst part. IMHO those should have either been wooden blocks or a wooden/plastic pallet shaped piece. But that's really a minor thing.

Right now it's on sale at Target and Amazon for under $15, tax and shipping included (at Target - free shipping at Amazon only with Prime).

 

[DaveF]

We got together wife my wife's ax murderer I mean Instagram friends last night. I enjoy gaming, but they put me to shame. They've got a collection of hundreds of games bought in the past two or three years. We had a group of seven people, so we played:

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Camel Up

Welcome to Your Perfect Home

Wingspan (spilt up the group and I was in this game)

 

[Yee-Ming]

If you're into art-themed games, this is on KS; it's a second printing and new expansion, so not totally risky (and yes I received my copy during its first production run). Late pledge appears to be available.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...second-printing-of-the-award-winn/description

 

[BobO'Link]

Well... I found that Blood Rage 5th Player Expansion at deepdiscount for $20 and added a CD (Audioslave) to get free shipping. Ordered... I'd waffled for many weeks while Amazon had it at that price. I like the color and additional choice of player option even though we'll likely never need it for a 5th player.

With Target's current sale on board games I ordered a copy of Horrified. I'm normally not much of a fan of coop type games. This one looks very intriguing and like one I might actually enjoy. It's also one that looks to play well for a single player (without the need for an automa player) so there's that aspect. And it's the classic Universal Monsters you're playing to beat. I like that too. And it *looks* good:

And I did a first. I backed a Kickstarter - for Tiny Epic Dinosaurs (it's still open for "late backers" and may be until Jan 30th, 2020 - at least that's the cutoff date for making changes/additions to your pledge). My youngest grandson is a huge dinosaur fan (me too) and, while too young right now, this looks right up his alley in a year or two. I thought it sounds like fun and the minis are cool. I was hoping it would ship before Christmas and was going to add a 2nd copy for his house but it has a July 2020 ship date.

For me, this is one for which the KS bonus stuff was worth the possible small extra cost over the standard retail version price. Most of their games go for $20-$25 at most vendors and this was $25 ($31 with shipping).

 

[Sam Posten]

Good Pax advice:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PAX/comments/e6jbi0/first_time_going_to_unplugged_tips_from_a_filthy/

 

[BobO'Link]

Thanksgiving weekend provide opportunity to play a bunch of board games. My oldest grandson had surgery on one of his feet a couple of weeks ago (to correct arch and tendon issues) and was recovered enough to join my son and me for a game of Blood Rage. We've played that before a few times and it was nice to get it back to the table. We still really enjoy that one.

Blood Rage:

We also got a few new games to the table. The first is more of a family style game and one I picked up for my son and his kids (ages 3-7) and also one my house to play with daughter's kids. I felt the younger ones (8 and 13) would enjoy it (and it was on sale for $4/copy so absolutely worth the risk).

Two by Two:

A rescue the animals set collection (pairs this time) game. Each player has a boar/ark and an area to stack collected pairs of animals. Each collection area has 3 animals which score a bonus for that color and the 3 animals are different for each area. That keeps players from competing for those animals but also makes it where you can snipe them to prevent other players from getting those bonus points. If we read the instructions properly you get 2 points each for those instead of the normal 1 point each *and* get a separate 2 point bonus per type collected. Each animal type (of 12) has 3 pairs with a single pair for the Unicorn (and it gets 4 points for the pair if collected). When putting out the animal circles you'll have 6 left over so unavailable pairs will change every game.

Turns are easy. You get a water circle from the limited supply, place it on a "land" (the brown circles *or* a jungle circle) or animal area on the board scoring a point for each water area it adjoins. Yep - you can cover an animal someone wants/needs with water. The location you choose can be anywhere on the board. You then flip all adjacent jungle circles to their animal side. You now have 2 actions: You may move your ark/boat and/or collect animals. So you can move across 2 water sections, 1 section and pick up 1 animal pair, or pick up 2 animal pairs. You only need to be next to *one* of the pair icons to get both. That's it. Very simple yet can be challenging as you try to decide just which actions you want and where you want to place that water circle. The game ends when there are either no more water circles or all pairs of animals have been picked up.

Our games all ended when we ran out of water circles, although 1 was pretty close on the animal pair too. The 8yo said the worst part about the game is setting up as you have to randomize and put all those animal circles on the board. I played a couple of games with the 8yo and the two of us played a couple with her 13yo sister. It's a fun, quick, family game and one I'm sure my son's kids will enjoy (they left before we got this one to the table).

Dragonwood:

Another I picked up with the kids in mind. I was surprised to see this one show up on my son's 6yo's Christmas List. He was going solely on the picture of the dragon. It's a family style set collection type card game with dice.

It's pretty straight forward. You're collecting power-ups and beasts from a center row using card groups. The groups are number runs (any color - just has to be sequential), identical numbers (any color - just all the same number), and color of card (can be any number). Those align with specific types on the creature card to come up with the number of points you have to roll on custom dice. The more numbers in a run, identical numbers, or number of a single color cards you have the more dice you can roll - up to 6. The dice have number 1-4 on them. You can see the numbers needed on the Orange Dragon (to capture) or the Magical Unicorn (a power-up card). There are also cards that'll appear in the center row that effect all players (the orange Thunder Storm is one of those).

On your turn you either draw a card or try to capture a card from the center row. The beasts are a separate deck from the player draw deck (which has only colored numbered cards). There's a "Magical Ladybug" card in the player pile. If you draw one of these you immediately draw 2 cards (the 6yo drew 4 in a row and loaded up on cards).

This one was a hit with my son's boys (6 and 7) as well as with my son and me. I'd already played it with the 8 and 13yo girls, both of whom enjoyed it. The box says 8+ but the 6yo caught on fairly quickly. His older brother had a few issues but overcame them to win the game we played. They both wanted to play again but it was dinner time and we never got it back to the table.

Whistle Stop:

My oldest granddaughter (13yo) selected this one. I was excited as I've been wanting to give it a try for several months. It's a tile laying pick up and deliver resource management game.

You're trying to get your trains from one side of the board to the other while outscoring your opponents by purchasing stock certificates and earning points for landing on various locations delivering cubes picked up on other locations. The game length is round based with the number changing for the player count. Each player gets 4 actions per turn (tracked on your player board) with movement actions requiring a coal or a whistle to perform. You get coal at the beginning of each round. Whistles are more powerful and harder to earn. You also start the game with 3 tiles. On your turn you can place a tile from your hand as an action. If you do so you then pick a tile from 3 face up tiles or a hidden random off the stack to replenish your supply. Train movement can only go vertical *or* towards the end goal unless you use a precious whistle to go backwards.

And that's somewhat of a simplification of the rules. It's quick and easy to pick up and lots of fun with lots of strategy about what tiles to move to for collecting a resource, which tile to play to expand the track, and more. Both girls enjoyed the game and wanted to play again - but, you guessed it, dinner time so we had to give up the table (gotta work on getting my game area in the den going!). I have the "Rocky Mountain" expansion for this one so I'm sure we'll be giving that a try soon. It's one I think my son would like but, like Two by Two, it didn't hit the table until after they'd left.

Voltage:

A lighter abstract strategy game that plays quickly.

You put the squares with the + and - on the matching color squares on the board. The object is to win a round by getting the points from card placement. You play number cards and there are cards that change a + to - or vice versa with the player who gets that card deciding just which square to flip. When the 5th card has been played on any color you check to see if it's + or -. If + the player with the most points on their side of that color wins the round. If it's - the player with the least points on their side wins the round. You play 4 rounds.

My son and I played this one. We both really enjoyed it.

And finally, the 13yo and I played a round of Barenpark with my son and following that game got my daughter (her mom) to play. This one will absolutely hit the table again. My daughter really enjoyed it.

Barenpark:

My son and I really wanted to get Surburbia or Scythe to the table again but it just wasn't to be. His family will be back in town this weekend so there's a chance we might get to play one of them at that time.

 

[DaveF]

I think I recommended Barenpark previously Glad you enjoy it. It's a hit here. I'm looking forward to trying the expansion, which I bought for my wife for Christmas.

 

[BobO'Link]

I think I recommended Barenpark previously Glad you enjoy it. It's a hit here. I'm looking forward to trying the expansion, which I bought for my wife for Christmas.

Yep...

Recent purchases:

• Dixit 10th Anniversary pack
• Gravwell (good tactical fun for 2; chaos for four )
• Imhotep (solid Euro)
• Barenpark (played it at Mox Games and bought it for anniversary present. Must buy if you like Patchwork)
• Ganz Schön Clever by BrettspielWelt (meh four player roll and write. But a quick and fun little single player game)
  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ganz-schön-clever/id1411348057

I absolutely agree with your later comments on the game. It's quite fun and scales nicely. I felt it was just as good with 2 as with 3 and expect 4 to be just as good.

I've been looking at that extension myself. Can't decide.

Still haven't played Imhotep. I can't get anyone interested (I think it's the name that throws them).

 

[Sam Posten]

Pax finds I’m giving tentative thumbs up to:
Atlantis rising
Set a watch

meh:
Dungeoneering

no:
Estates

 

[Sam Posten]

Pax haul:
Silver
Silver bullet 2
Both front lines no komrades expansions
Tiny Tina party
Parks (signed)
Animal kingdoms (signed)
Castle Dice and expansion
Runestones and expansion space base command station box
Taverns of Tiefenfal
Gloomhaven solo missions printout and metal coins
Reavers of Midgard mat
Raiders of the north kingdom mat
Pax scarf
Board game tables bags
Keyforge decks
1 painted mini
1 beholder 3D peintnhidden prize
Pins for gloomhaven
Wet pallet tray and replacements
Promos for champions of Midgard, bargain quest and others

 

[BobO'Link]

My oldest granddaughter wanted Sushi Go! Party for her birthday (tomorrow) so I complied. We had her "family party" last Saturday so it got opened and played a few times that night. I like it a bit better than plain vanilla Sushi Go! but just barely. It's still the same game with the option to rotate cards so it doesn't develop that sameness in every game quite so quickly and I *do* like the board/score track. It makes it easy to keep score and everyone can see how others are doing.

The worst part is the production quality is lacking. Several of the different types of sushi cards are slightly different in size - just enough to make shuffling a chore and very inconsistent with cards tending to group due to the differing lengths (I plan to complain to Gamewright as soon as I nail down which are poorly done). Based on photos of the inside of the box they've changed that for the worse. It used to have a slot for each type of card so, like Smash Up, you could keep them easily separated. Now they have larger slots and expect you to keep the same type of cards together. OK... that works but you then have to separate them for different mixes of cards and can't easily keep the little type boards with the cards (and they provide separate slots for those as well). The new box layout makes starting a game take longer. And the game's just not good enough to want to wait for a new mix of cards every game. If you do that you have to go through the deck, separating all the cards out by type, select the new ones, over shuffle the deck because of inconsistent card length, and finally play.

Like the original Sushi Go! it comes in a tin. I very much dislike metal boxes and have since I first got a game in one as a kid.

I got it on sale from Amazon's recent board game sale and purchased a 2nd copy for the house. I'm not sure I'll keep it after seeing and playing her copy.