I did manage to pick up a couple of games at PAX, Klask primarily as we found that one a lot of fun.
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What sort of Board Games do you Play (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Northgun
- Start date
I've heard very good thinks about Clank! In Space! and it looks interesting. It's on my wish list.
Right now I'm leaning towards a couple more maps for Clank! partly because they add play value for less expense. The "Temple of the Ape Lords" has an interesting sounding mechanism where some of the paths can change direction either by the game events or someone playing one of their limited supply of path changing tokens. My grandson also thought that sounded interesting.
I'm also looking at a the Legacy "Expansions" because they're really character miniatures with a custom starter deck for each. They look and sound really cool:
We all went to my son's house this past Memorial Day weekend. He and I love Suburbia and got my daughter to play with us. I was quite surprised that she likes the game. We played 4 games and got my oldest grandson to join us for that 4th one. He's not too fond of it but looked to be on track to win when we had to stop the game. Now that she's played I know I can get her to play with me if none of the kids want to play something. That's always a good thing.
I really thought we might play at least one level of Clank! Legacy since we were at his house but he didn't want to play a "new and heavy" game. OK... he'd played at my house and the rest of us had played several games of regular Clank! plus a few of the Sunken Treasures board in preparation of playing the Legacy edition with him. I told him we'd played Clank! several times and knew it fairly well so it wasn't really "new" to us. Oh well... maybe next time.
I played a couple of games with my son's 6yo. He loves to play games and is pretty good for his age. We played Sleeping Queens, a card game where you have a hand of cards and use simple addition/subtraction math formulas with the numbers on your cards to be able to replace several in your hand. You're trying to get the "power" cards that allow you to "waken" (turn over and capture) one of the dozen Queen cards, put a Queen back to sleep, or steal a Queen from an opponent. You have to get a certain number of Queen cards *or* a certain score (each Queen is worth differing points) to win. It's quite fun for a simple card game.
He and I also played a game of Dragonwood, a card/dice game. In this one you're getting specific group type of cards (all one color, same numbers of different colors, runs in any color) to "purchase" 1-6 dice to roll and capture "monster" or "enhancement" cards. He *really* likes this one for the fun monsters and the two dragons that randomly appear in late game (they trigger the end game when captured). He also likes rolling the dice (you have to get a varying minimum number of pips for monster captures).
Both of those games are from Gamewright who publish Sushi Go! and lots of other family style and educational games.
I finally managed to snag a copy of Ticket to Ride: Asia when Miniature Market got a few copies in stock last week. I've been looking for an "affordable" copy of this one for a while (it looks to be OOP and goes for at least double MSRP almost everywhere) and jumped on one of theirs while able. The few copies they got sold out in just a few hours so I felt lucky to have gotten one. I also picked up copies of TTR: Nederland and TTR: Japan/Italy to complete my TTR map collection plus Azul: Mosaic (a board overlay to help keep tiles in place and new double-sided player boards) and the Clank!: Temple of the Ape Lords expansion. Essentially a group of expansions/add-ons for games we all really enjoy playing.
I've been looking real hard at Rajas of the Ganges lately. It's a tile laying/dice game I think my family might really enjoy.
I really thought we might play at least one level of Clank! Legacy since we were at his house but he didn't want to play a "new and heavy" game. OK... he'd played at my house and the rest of us had played several games of regular Clank! plus a few of the Sunken Treasures board in preparation of playing the Legacy edition with him. I told him we'd played Clank! several times and knew it fairly well so it wasn't really "new" to us. Oh well... maybe next time.
I played a couple of games with my son's 6yo. He loves to play games and is pretty good for his age. We played Sleeping Queens, a card game where you have a hand of cards and use simple addition/subtraction math formulas with the numbers on your cards to be able to replace several in your hand. You're trying to get the "power" cards that allow you to "waken" (turn over and capture) one of the dozen Queen cards, put a Queen back to sleep, or steal a Queen from an opponent. You have to get a certain number of Queen cards *or* a certain score (each Queen is worth differing points) to win. It's quite fun for a simple card game.
He and I also played a game of Dragonwood, a card/dice game. In this one you're getting specific group type of cards (all one color, same numbers of different colors, runs in any color) to "purchase" 1-6 dice to roll and capture "monster" or "enhancement" cards. He *really* likes this one for the fun monsters and the two dragons that randomly appear in late game (they trigger the end game when captured). He also likes rolling the dice (you have to get a varying minimum number of pips for monster captures).
Both of those games are from Gamewright who publish Sushi Go! and lots of other family style and educational games.
I finally managed to snag a copy of Ticket to Ride: Asia when Miniature Market got a few copies in stock last week. I've been looking for an "affordable" copy of this one for a while (it looks to be OOP and goes for at least double MSRP almost everywhere) and jumped on one of theirs while able. The few copies they got sold out in just a few hours so I felt lucky to have gotten one. I also picked up copies of TTR: Nederland and TTR: Japan/Italy to complete my TTR map collection plus Azul: Mosaic (a board overlay to help keep tiles in place and new double-sided player boards) and the Clank!: Temple of the Ape Lords expansion. Essentially a group of expansions/add-ons for games we all really enjoy playing.
I've been looking real hard at Rajas of the Ganges lately. It's a tile laying/dice game I think my family might really enjoy.
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With the pandemic we can’t do any in-person social gaming. I don’t know when or if we’ll resume our gaming group later this year.
I've been doing group gaming up to 5 people. It's a risk but a calculated one. We've all been social distancing and nobody is working in a public facing role.
We have played 2 nights of The Crew. Got through 21 of 50 missions. It is VERY HARD with 5 people and we love it. We are NOT using the cheat token!
We have played 2 nights of The Crew. Got through 21 of 50 missions. It is VERY HARD with 5 people and we love it. We are NOT using the cheat token!
One area where I'm somewhat fortunate is that my "gaming group" is all family who I see on an almost daily basis. I've never been able to get any other people together on any kind of regular basis as most people I know just aren't gamers of any type with most not willing to play any type of board game or all they're interested in is DnD (tried it - didn't like it). Those that do play games typically play "Ameritrash" type games (Monopoly, Sorry, UNO, etc.) and get "that look" in their eyes if I try to pull out anything different, no matter how easy it might be. A nephew enjoys many of the games we have but his wife just doesn't "get" them at all. We tried to start a regular "Game Night" with them but she put an end to that after a few tries. The overwhelming majority of my wife's family thinks all board games are like Monopoly or Sorry or UNO and can't wrap their heads around the idea of more complex, engaging, games. My wife won't play with us at all unless it's one of those basic games.
That trip to see my son was unexpected - my wife got so "stir crazy" she announced, in no uncertain terms, last Friday morning "I've got to get out and am going away for a few days..." My son's family has been self isolating and his 3yo, who has been video calling grandma almost daily, regularly asks "When are you gonna come see me grandma?" so off grandma went in spite of us agreeing "now's not really the time." She took our 2 oldest granddaughters with her. My daughter, oldest grandson, and I left the next morning to join them. We can easily get there without stopping so there's that. I must admit, in spite of me being a home-body (my wife is not - if she doesn't get out/go somewhere every few days she gets quite irritable and hard to live with), it was nice to get out for a couple of days even though it was nothing other than being in a different house.
That trip to see my son was unexpected - my wife got so "stir crazy" she announced, in no uncertain terms, last Friday morning "I've got to get out and am going away for a few days..." My son's family has been self isolating and his 3yo, who has been video calling grandma almost daily, regularly asks "When are you gonna come see me grandma?" so off grandma went in spite of us agreeing "now's not really the time." She took our 2 oldest granddaughters with her. My daughter, oldest grandson, and I left the next morning to join them. We can easily get there without stopping so there's that. I must admit, in spite of me being a home-body (my wife is not - if she doesn't get out/go somewhere every few days she gets quite irritable and hard to live with), it was nice to get out for a couple of days even though it was nothing other than being in a different house.
I managed to get the 2 oldest grandkids to play a couple of games on Tuesday afternoon. We started with a round of Kingdomino. I tried to get them to try Queendomino but neither wanted to "learn new rules and stuff" so it still sits awaiting a play. I think they'd like it if they'd just give a couple of minutes to the new rules and parts.
We followed that with a long time favorite of my oldest grandson's - "Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers". I'd managed to snag a copy of it the last time it was printed. We all like the differences it has, especially him, and play it as often as regular Carcassonne. He calls it his "favorite Carcassonne spin off" game. I agree. We own several and that one's the best of those we have in the collection (although all of them offer something a bit different and I wouldn't call any of them "bad"). It really needs to be reprinted. I know I'd pick up a copy or two (one for him and possibly a spare).
We followed that with a long time favorite of my oldest grandson's - "Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers". I'd managed to snag a copy of it the last time it was printed. We all like the differences it has, especially him, and play it as often as regular Carcassonne. He calls it his "favorite Carcassonne spin off" game. I agree. We own several and that one's the best of those we have in the collection (although all of them offer something a bit different and I wouldn't call any of them "bad"). It really needs to be reprinted. I know I'd pick up a copy or two (one for him and possibly a spare).
Oldest granddaughter (13yo) has been wanting to play The Quest for El Dorado again. She, her brother, and I played that one *once* about a year or so back. She won that game quite handily by moving while her brother and I were concentrating on getting good cards for our decks. So... her mom, my daughter, agreed to play with us after dinner. The bad part was my daughter decided to help wash up (my grandson was supposed to do this unassisted and he wasn't going to play) which delayed the game by quite a bit. She then got quite irritated as we "kept changing the rules" while we played (it was our *2nd* time to play and we needed to recheck rules on occasion which caused confusion on my daughter's part). The real issue with my daughter was we started a "new" game with her "too late" in the evening (which was her fault for helping with dishes). It was almost 10pm by the time we finished and she just doesn't do that well to play that late. In spite of that we had a good game with me and the 2 granddaughters (the 9yo joined us and did well) really enjoying ourselves. Supposedly we're going to play again this afternoon... we'll see.
I'd forgotten how "basic" this one is. It's a deck builder with a race mechanic. There's no score kept with the winner being the 1st to the goal line. It has a very nice course building component by way of 7 double-sided board pieces you can fit in almost any configuration. Pick the ones you want, build a track, start playing. The rule book provides several examples to use directly or as inspiration. The biggest grip from the table was the size of the cards - they're the size of the original TTR cards (small) rather than poker sized. I don't think it's that big of a deal as they work. It's a good, mid weight, family style game.
I'd forgotten how "basic" this one is. It's a deck builder with a race mechanic. There's no score kept with the winner being the 1st to the goal line. It has a very nice course building component by way of 7 double-sided board pieces you can fit in almost any configuration. Pick the ones you want, build a track, start playing. The rule book provides several examples to use directly or as inspiration. The biggest grip from the table was the size of the cards - they're the size of the original TTR cards (small) rather than poker sized. I don't think it's that big of a deal as they work. It's a good, mid weight, family style game.
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We went "old school" last night so we could get grandma involved in some gaming. It started two nights ago when the 9yo found a kid's version/box of dominoes. She played a game with grandma and then one with me. She wanted more but it was late so I promised "tomorrow for sure". So I dug out an older, double 9, set of acrylic (those heavier plastic ones) dominoes for us to play.
She and my daughter arrived and the three of us sat down to play. We got in a couple of games before dinner and she seemed to enjoy it. After dinner we all played a couple of game - all 6 of us - and had a good time. The real fun part was the kids had lots of trouble understanding the game and "getting" how scoring works. This prompted grandma to say "You play these complicated games and have no trouble with rules and scoring but we get out a simple game and you can't keep up!"
The 9yo had asked grandma just *what* games she liked to play that first night. Grandma mentioned Scrabble so the 9yo got that into her head as a game she *had* to play. So after those two games of dominoes (which were won by the 16yo and 13yo) I broke out my vintage Scrabble board (one of the very early turntable models with plastic rails and pin style score keepers). We played a 5 player game of that one so I could help the 9yo. Surprisingly, grandma didn't do her usual 2-word words but actually played some good things and wound up winning by 10 points. The 9yo came in 2nd and was thrilled with that. While I helped her she did about half the work with me just suggesting a few things on those. She wants to play again. I need to find my American Dictionary of the English Language to put on the table just for fun. It's a mammoth volume that's over 3" thick.
I have a feeling we might be playing Scrabble (the 9yo called it Scramble) again tonight.
Here's what my copy (Called the "Deluxe Edition") looks like:
The small box holds the plastic silver bag and sits under the turntable part during storage. Inside the bag is the tiles and pins for the plastic rails. We stopped using the bag as a draw bag as it started tearing on one of the seams. It's now just a storage bag and we dump the tiles in the larger box.
She and my daughter arrived and the three of us sat down to play. We got in a couple of games before dinner and she seemed to enjoy it. After dinner we all played a couple of game - all 6 of us - and had a good time. The real fun part was the kids had lots of trouble understanding the game and "getting" how scoring works. This prompted grandma to say "You play these complicated games and have no trouble with rules and scoring but we get out a simple game and you can't keep up!"
The 9yo had asked grandma just *what* games she liked to play that first night. Grandma mentioned Scrabble so the 9yo got that into her head as a game she *had* to play. So after those two games of dominoes (which were won by the 16yo and 13yo) I broke out my vintage Scrabble board (one of the very early turntable models with plastic rails and pin style score keepers). We played a 5 player game of that one so I could help the 9yo. Surprisingly, grandma didn't do her usual 2-word words but actually played some good things and wound up winning by 10 points. The 9yo came in 2nd and was thrilled with that. While I helped her she did about half the work with me just suggesting a few things on those. She wants to play again. I need to find my American Dictionary of the English Language to put on the table just for fun. It's a mammoth volume that's over 3" thick.
I have a feeling we might be playing Scrabble (the 9yo called it Scramble) again tonight.
Here's what my copy (Called the "Deluxe Edition") looks like:
The small box holds the plastic silver bag and sits under the turntable part during storage. Inside the bag is the tiles and pins for the plastic rails. We stopped using the bag as a draw bag as it started tearing on one of the seams. It's now just a storage bag and we dump the tiles in the larger box.
Yee-Ming
Senior HTF Member
I've been playing The Search for Planet X, a brilliant logic/deduction/puzzle game, which as the name suggests, is a search for a new planet:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279537/search-planet-x
Nominally for 2-4 players, with an AI bot for solo play in beta-testing, which is how I played it this weekend (can't round up anyone, and the missus isn't interested
). Note that the app is required anyway for regular gameplay, which ensures no neutral non-playing game master is required, and also eliminates human error in giving or checking information.
Highly recommended. There's even a simple handicapping system so you can play with newbies, where more experienced players get less starting information so noobs get a head-start. Although I'd be hesitant about whether much younger players can effectively compete, since it really is heavy-duty deduction and logic.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279537/search-planet-x
Nominally for 2-4 players, with an AI bot for solo play in beta-testing, which is how I played it this weekend (can't round up anyone, and the missus isn't interested
). Note that the app is required anyway for regular gameplay, which ensures no neutral non-playing game master is required, and also eliminates human error in giving or checking information.Highly recommended. There's even a simple handicapping system so you can play with newbies, where more experienced players get less starting information so noobs get a head-start. Although I'd be hesitant about whether much younger players can effectively compete, since it really is heavy-duty deduction and logic.
Tino did you play Jaws? It was a target exclusive for a while but now it's out everywhere.
Not yet. Hopefully this coming weekend.
The past few days have seen multiple plays of The Quest for El Dorado with my 9yo granddaughter. After the night we taught her mom to play she's become a bit enamored by the game, asking for it every day or two. After a few games we added the "Cave" option and have decided the game shouldn't be played without it. She's watched the cards I purchase, how I use them, and how I've been playing and has gotten pretty good. She now strongly competes for the "better" cards. She beat her mom and me on a more difficult course last night. Made me proud!
I really like the modular style board on this one as it provides thousands of board possibilities. It's an excellent, fairly simple, mid-weight family style game that introduces the deck building mechanic in a nice way.
I really like the modular style board on this one as it provides thousands of board possibilities. It's an excellent, fairly simple, mid-weight family style game that introduces the deck building mechanic in a nice way.
Anniversary. Bought my wife:
Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto (2019)
boardgamegeek.com
The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Herb Witches (2019)
boardgamegeek.com
Wingspan (2019)
boardgamegeek.com
The Isle of Cats (2019)
boardgamegeek.com
Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto (2019)
Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto
A strange new galactic body has emerged within the Milky Way. The greatest minds of The United Earth Services find themselves bewildered by the sudden appearance of Shy Pluto. Get the crews to their stations — it's time to deploy your ships. The Emergence of Shy Pluto is the first installment...
The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Herb Witches (2019)
The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Herb Witches
Add one-time abilities, a fifth player, and more recipes to your charlatan's retinue.
Wingspan (2019)
Wingspan
Attract a beautiful and diverse collection of birds to your wildlife preserve.
The Isle of Cats (2019)
The Isle of Cats
Rescue as many cats as you can before Lord Vesh comes to destroy their home.
We played two games of Shy Pluto. While I don't understand the approach taken to revealing new rules and mechanics, I like the new cards and gameplay variations.
Yeah I have issues with Pluto but like the cards added in to base game at end.
I would now say that Shy Pluto is a must-buy for SpaceBase fans. The "legacy" is a fine way to teach the new rules, though as an experience it left me underwhelmed. But early experience leaves us really pleased with the new cards and mechanics added to the game.
I've been looking very hard at Quacks of Quedlinburg and Wings. I really think Quacks would go over well at my house. Not so sure about Wings. While *I* think it really looks like a fun game it also looks a bit "heavier" than what I'm normally able to get to the table for repeat plays (*still* trying to get Scythe back to the table).
I also watched a review of The Isle of Cats and think it, too, looks pretty good. BUT - While appearing more complex, it looks similar to Barenpark and I just don't know that I want to add another with a similar mechanism. We already have a couple of players who develop varying levels of AP on Barenpark which makes it take longer than it should. It *does* have a higher rating on BGG than Barenpark so... I'll be curious to get your reactions.
I still don't have Space Base. I just can't decide if I could get it to the table often. It looks quite fun. If I wind up getting that one I'd likely pass on Shy Pluto as I'm not a fan of "Legacy" type games at all.
I also watched a review of The Isle of Cats and think it, too, looks pretty good. BUT - While appearing more complex, it looks similar to Barenpark and I just don't know that I want to add another with a similar mechanism. We already have a couple of players who develop varying levels of AP on Barenpark which makes it take longer than it should. It *does* have a higher rating on BGG than Barenpark so... I'll be curious to get your reactions.
I still don't have Space Base. I just can't decide if I could get it to the table often. It looks quite fun. If I wind up getting that one I'd likely pass on Shy Pluto as I'm not a fan of "Legacy" type games at all.
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