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  Hello and welcome to the Something Is Awful Dot Com Board Game thread! Unless you're from Somalia, everybody's had experience with some sort of tabletop game that involved a board or even a card game that didn't use a poker deck. We discuss those and more in this thread, so whether you're just curious, want to know what's good, have an eye for design, or just got lost, I hope you stick around long enough to grasp some of what's going on!  Okay, so forget about literally every board game or card game you've ever played. I presume their names might be Risk, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, or Munchkin? Forget all about those. We're currently in a board gaming renaissance. Long story short, in 1995 a crazy Nazi named Klaus Teuber made a game in his basement called Settlers of Catan, and it was wildly different from previous games. Older board games usually involve a lot of just rolling dice and watching what happens, but Settlers upset everything by redefining the concept of turns and completely changing how players interact with each other. It was a breakout hit, and like Spider-Man the movie, Street Fighter 4, Survivor, and many other media sensations, it caused a resurgence in the genre with the amount of attention it received. Now, more than ever, new and bizarre board games are pushing the limits of creativity, to the point where we often wonder how we got along before this all started. Why haven't you heard about this? Well, a certain handful of big-name companies happen to have a stranglehold on what's allowed on mainstream store shelves. You can't go to Wal-Mart and buy something that's not made by Hasbro, Mattel, Parker Brothers, or other Good Old Boy companies run by rich Americans that churn out licensed trash. As a result, a lot of these games are relegated to limited printings and specialty retailers. The system doesn't look like it'll change anytime soon (short of some attempts by Hasbro to pick up some of the more unique designs it finds at conventions), but we have lots of ways to get around these particular limitations. To try to describe what makes these games so much better than the games you grew up with would be like trying to describe what makes chocolate so good-- to an extraterrestrial. So, what are you missing out on? Keep reading!  There are two big sides of this whole area of entertainment. One side is a more American school of thought that focuses on style, and the other is a more European school of thought that focuses on substance. Ameritrash games usually have high cost, complex rules, and a large footprint on your table in exchange for fancier components, more thematic experiences, and more unique settings. Eurogames usually have pasted-on themes, boring components, and little variation from game to game in exchange for lower cost, tighter mechanics, and gameplay that scales between all skill levels seamlessly. Also, keep in mind that many games fall into a grey area between the two, and the continental descriptors shouldn't always be taken literally. A good example of an American-style product would be Die Hard. Flashy, lots of special effects, and spectacular amounts of money put into the license and marketing. Some people enjoy the spectacle and are right for doing so! Other people find it dull because it is unchallenging, or because they have no testicles. A good example of a Eurogame-style product would be 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cerebral, rich, and with scores of effort put into every facet to make a cohesive and fulfilling whole. To some, it's boring and requires too much effort for a leisure exercise, and those people are also stupid. Others enjoy the intellectual experience and are right for doing so! Within each big genre are littler genres that are more like a venn diagram of shared mechanics. There are dozens of these from Auction to Drafting to Tableau-Building, but I'll try to outline some of the more notable ones here. Deckbuilding games have been a sensation since the 2008 hit Dominion (which we'll describe in detail later). Most card games involve a deck of cards, right? Well, deckbuilding games involve a lot (think sales lot, not the amount) of cards that you pick and choose from to assemble a deck for personal usage. What's more, you're often using the deck at the same time you're building it. These games are fun in the same way LEGO blocks are fun, but also fun in the same way traditional card games are fun. It's a really cool experience overall. Worker Placement games, some examples include Caylus, Dungeon Petz, and Stone Age, are the kings of indirect conflict games. Basically, there is a shared menu of actions among the players, but the menu is limited and competition over the actions is fierce. Workers (usually little wooden dudes that are sometimes called Meeples) mark actions chosen by players, and once an action is chosen nobody else can perform said action until all the workers on the board are wiped off. These games are usually Euro as gently caress. Traitor games aren't that alien to a lot of people. Many goons have played Werewolf or Mafia in GBS, but those are Tic-Tac-Toe compared to The Resistance or Battlestar Galactica, which take the paranoia and teamwork to extreme levels. The better traitor games are the ones that require players to work together with the opportunity for traitors to attempt subtle sabotage efforts, reducing the traditional popularity contests and trolling of Werewolf. Cooperative games are kind of like RPGs. The players are all on the same team, and they're usually fighting against the game itself. Coops vary wildly in quality, but a single game stands out as so much better than the others that almost no other coop is worth playing. It's called Space Alert and it will get its own section below. Of course, this doesn't cover everything. With so much to do, where do you start?  You can probably find a local board games club at your Friendly Local Gaming Store, but not everybody is so lucky. For some of you, you'll be the first in your circle of friends to embark on this journey. For you specifically, I have made this handy guide.   Where do you buy these games? Well, support your FLGS, otherwise go here: BoardGamePrices This site lists all shops internationally and compares their prices. You can search by location or by game. Bookmark the gently caress out of this. Failing that, go to: CoolStuff has prices and shipping rates that are basically uncompetitive. I mean it. They're so cheap that they're destroying the local market. I live near their warehouse. They also have an experience system where you get growing discounts the more you spend. And free shipping on $100+ orders. Boards and Bits certainly is a website! FunAgain Games employs goons!  This Coupons and Deals thread link keeps you up to date on cool discounts and Board Game Deals! PRO-loving CLICK  Can you try these games online? Certainly! Many games are available for free play on BrettSpielWelt (including Carcassonne, Caylus, Stone Age, Puerto Rico, 7 Wonders, Pandemic, Settler of Catan, Cities & Knights of Catan, and many more) using their software or through a Java-based browser window, BoardGameArena is a browser-based place where you can enjoy many games that are also on BSW, you can play Through the Ages through your browser at (a very heavy but awesome 4X Card Worker Hybrid) at BoardGaming Online (and it supports Play By E-mail), literally all the Dominion sets but Dark Ages are available at Isotropic complete with leaderboards + promo cards + the original playtest art for each card, and you can play some of the rare games as VASSAL modules if you have Java. You can also purchase many games on XBLA, the Droid marketplace, or iOS, including Settlers, Carcassonne, and Hive!  Well, you can go to BoardGameGeek to locate forums and designers of various games, plus BGG has separate regional forums for you to find local players. If you want to talk with us, though, we usually hang out at #boardgoons on synirc. Come idle with us! There are games going on and off all the time, including playtest of some up and coming goon projects! Want to travel back in time? Relive the glory days? Board Games Megathread (2010-2011) Board Games Thread - We've Only Got Four Meeples to Save the World (2011-2012) Broken Loose fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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There are review sites for board games. Most of them suck. Shut Up and Sit Down is really good; it's 2 British guys (that like mostly American-style games) who are fantastic at articulating what you experience out of a game while also being hilarious. Untitled Flash-Based Review Thing has short reviews that are really insightful and clear on what mechanically drives each game he reviews. No Fun Allowed is entertaining Goon Rants by one of our own (Tekopo). I may edit some more in here later. Okay, so throughout 2012 we collected votes on which games were the best. This Google Doc has the results. But don't click it. These are the reviews of the top 5.  7 Wonders is a game where you draft cards. What's drafting? Well, everybody starts with a hand of cards, picks one to keep, and passes the rest to the player next to them. As time goes on, all the good choices have been lobotomized and you're cursing out your friends for giving you a hand full of poo poo! The premise of 7 Wonders is that you're all building the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, and over 3 ingame Ages you build communities, addons, and militaries surrounding these monuments. When the game is up, everybody looks at what they've built and scores them accordingly. It's good fun, not terribly challenging, and goes from 15-30 minutes.  Dominion is the deckbuilder. This game started the deckbuilding genre and god drat if it's not the reigning loving king. You start off with a 10-card deck of stupid bullshit, and you sculpt it into an unholy engine of destruction by purchasing cards from a shared supply of randomly chosen additions. Also, you occasionally send out armies and minions to inconvenience your neighbors. The premise of Dominion is that you're building a kingdom and... the theme really doesn't loving matter. It's genius in its execution, and it says something that its most fierce competitors are literally just the same game with a different theme or with an extra mechanic or two. You win by having the most victory cards in your deck when time runs out, but victory cards are dead weight, so there's a delicate balance between winning and being able to maintain the lead. Everybody who plays this game gets addicted to it. Dominion has a shitload of expansions. In release order they are (and feature) Intrigue (cards with choices), Seaside (sustained actions), Alchemy (totally broken actions that require a unique resource), Prosperity (lots of money), Cornucopia (a wide variety of cards), Hinterlands (cards that act immediately upon gaining them), Dark Ages (manipulating the trash), and the final expansion Guilds (saved money and optional add-on purchases). There is also a Base Cards mini-set which you can purchase if you want to skip straight to the expansions instead of getting one of the initial two box sets (Dominion or Intrigue). This is pretty much the only game in existence where we will recommend you get all of them (although Alchemy has a pretty unbalanced awesome:poo poo card ratio, skip over it and get it last). The expansions are not necessary to enjoy Dominion, but they will dramatically increase the life and enjoyability of the game. They were released in order from least complex to most complex. Get them in any order you want. Release order if you can't decide. I typed their names in release order. Buy the expansions to the game in the order I just listed them, but skip over Alchemy. If you want to get the Big Box, whatever, knock yourself out-- but the Big Box contains (A) the one expansion you should skip and (B) the Big Money expansion which might make the game feel a little unbalanced. I have now typed 4.5 paragraphs on this game, 2 of which were on the expansions and the order in which you should buy them. If you ask what order to buy them in, you are loving illiterate. Umbilical Lotus posted:The thing with Dominion is that I can see EXACTLY where I went wrong, and now I really want to play with those exact same cards to see if I can salvage the horrible wreck my deck had become. I usually like nice, friendly, happy co-op games where everyone is helping everyone else against the nasty mean board, but Dominion actually manages to stoke that faint and dying spark of competitiveness in my soul.  Chaos in the Old World is a wargame. It's no normal wargame, though, it's a wargame with 4 assymetrical factions, a grip of magic, and thousands of innocent bystanders. CitOW takes place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, and you play as one of the 4 gods of Chaos. You lead armies of demons and worshippers all up and down the land, corrupting and raising hell every which way. Each god has its own unique mechanics and victory conditions, and the game itself is a shining example of Ameritrash at its best. It has a load of pretty components and the game itself oozes theme. One sidenote: The game says it supports other numbers, but you NEED 4 players to play this. Exactly 4. The gods balance each other out in specific ways, and absent gods upset that balance.  Battlestar Galactica has its own goddamn thread, it's that good. It's based on the newer show, but don't expect spoilers. Kind of. 50,000 people are all that remain of the human race as they attempt to escape an armada of unstoppable killer robots. But it turns out the robots look like us now and are hiding among us. Everybody is working together to win the game, but just under half the players are secretly sabotaging things before revealing their true nature and ordering fleets of automated battleships to home in on the group. It's a combination of nearly every traitor game hidden underneath a thick layer of cooperative deathtrap. Players could be evil from the start, they could be sleeper agents without even knowing it and switch sides halfway through the game, they have once per game super moves that can either save or destroy the fleet, there are chances to sabotage and run, there are chances to point fingers, there are chances to gather information that may or may not be lied about, and so on. It does a better job of pulling off the show's premise than the show actually does. That said, it's really drat good. But it's not perfect. Each expansion adds a slew of really unbalanced things without adding many positive things to compensate other than more characters. And while the base set is pretty clean, the expansions do spoil events from the show in bizarre ways (like a character's once per game power being to get themself killed, etc). BSG is fine for people who have not seen anything. Pegasus should be held off until after you've seen all of seasons 1 and 2. Exodus and Daybreak should be held off until you've seen the entire show. Also, it's Fantasy Flight as gently caress, so it's lengthy, fiddly, and the rules are kind of rear end. 2 hours minimum. 4 minimum during your first game. But it's really good. There are constantly ongoing Play-By-Post games of this occurring in The Game Room. Refer to the main BSG thread for highlights. I seriously recommend you go look at them to gain an understanding of both how the game is played and how hilarious it is. Finally,  Space Alert. By the holiest of holies, Vlaada Chvatil. It's the best loving board game out there. We mean it. Now, what I'm about to tell you will sound crazy and/or stupid, but bear with. In Space Alert you are a crew member on a Sitting Duck-class Starship of the United Space Exploration Services. Your mission is a boring survey. Your ship will hyperspace jump into an uncharted region of space, automatically scan the area for 10 minutes, and then hyperspace jump out. No interaction on your part is required. You just sit back and drink coffee. Space is mostly empty, so this job is the best-paying 10 minutes of doing nothing there is. Totally easy. Spoilers: The entire universe hates you and wants to kill you. When you drop out of hyperspace, fleets of alien ships target you simultaneously. Meteors radiate toward you like you're a loving ice cream truck. The systems controlling all your defenses are prone to malfunction and/or being hacked. The squadron of armed, semi-sentient androids put on the ship to defend you have turned sentient and murderous. There isn't enough energy to fire all the guns. There is no shielding against teleporting saboteurs, terrorists, or xenomorphs. Your communicators keep cutting out at random times. There is a gigantic crack in the hull. A giant octopus is trying to make love to the ship. The elevators can only fit 1 person at a time. A psychic satellite is knocking you unconscious every 3 minutes. The bridge's Main Computer has a screen saver that you have to manually prevent from activating every few seconds or it will disable the lights and life support. And the USES still expects you to survey the region and come back in one piece. Space Alert is the coop to end all coops. Cooperative games tend to have a "quarterbacking" problem where the best person tends to boss everybody around. They also have poor balance, where either they're impossible due to poor planning or they're too easy because the designers didn't think more than 1 person could put their heads together. Space Alert solves these. Space Alert takes place over 10 minutes in real time. During these 10 minutes, an audio track acts as the ship's computer which serves to announce incoming threats. You and the other players plan a course of action, and you NEED the other players because no single person can do even more than half the work required (or even pay attention to more than half the problems that arise). After your huddle and BREAK! your crew high-fives to do their job. Then, you watch the ship's black box recording of what actually happened, and the results are as horrifying as they are hilarious. Space Alert turns board game night from "let's sit around the table, drink a beer, and make small talk" to "let's freak out and experience the most stressful half hour of our lives littered with cold sweats and elevated heart rates." It's almost more of a video game than a board game. It's so good. Space Alert is the most fun you can have with a table that doesn't involve cake or lubricant. If you don't like this game there is something wrong with you, as in broken in your loving brain. This is not hyperbole. This is not goon bandwagoning. The game is ACTUALLY THAT GOOD. What's more, the rules are taught as an in-character academy lesson as a dark comedy. The whole game is a dark comedy in a cynically Soviet future. This game is not recommended for the faint of heart or for those brand new to this whole board games thing. Play the other games first. Save the main course for when you can appreciate its richness and hilarity. Aston posted:In summary, trying to train the battlebots in IT whilst they're revolting against you doesn't work. Spiggy posted:Sure- we may have died pretty horribly the next three games in a row, but it was probably one of the best experiences I've had in gaming in a long time. The highlight of the session was coordinating everyone to stare out the window during the final phase to celebrate our victory, only to discover that we didn't kill that destroyer which crashed into and destroyed the ship in that same round. quote:The Sitting Duck has: kaptainkaffeine posted:I wanna love space alert but when people lose horribly the first time they get all discouraged and don't want to hear "ok, the tutorial went ok, let's try the first mission" Putenbrust posted:Now the blue zone had four damage markers. And lucky me! The octopus (two life points left) did exactly two damage... jayquirk posted:Psssst... you don't need clones. That's for those other explorers. You can do it, you're good enough. You'll get your levels waaay faster. Don't you want to get levels? Fuligin posted:I thought space alert was just a goon meme until I finally got to play it with friends Casnorf posted:I got Space Alert the other week and even with all the general good feelings and hype surrounding it, I feel like it actually exceeded expectations. I absolutely cannot wait to play again. Sloober posted:It's all fun and games until your captain has a massive brain fart and accomplishes exactly zero of what he thought he was putting cards down for. (It's me, i'm the bad captain and instead of activating the crewbots and sealing the fissure in the hull I road the center lift up and down several times and looked out the window a couple times) homullus posted:Beat the two tutorial missions, then on the first simulation mission, communications officer (and the rest of us) learned that he should read the threat cards before firing the rockets twice on the major and minor asteroids converging on the ship. As chaotic as the "live" phase is, people were surprised at how tense the resolution phase felt. KiloVictorDongs posted:Got my friends together to play my first couple of rounds of space alert yesterday. Deceptive Thinker posted:Space Alert - just...wow Broken Loose fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2012 15:09
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Wargames and CDGs Effort Post Wargames? Aren't they horribly complex and filled with counters and hexes and impossible-to-read rulebooks? Not completely. Although this has been true in the past, with Avalon Hill producing many high quality (and low quality) hex-and-counter boardgames, wargaming in recent years has been focusing on making easier to play games, while retaining either the strategical/tactical complexity present in older games. So what kind of wargames are there? Along with the classic hex-and-counter games, wargames have diversified to include Card Driven Strategy Games, Block Games and my current darling, Diceless Block Games. Hex And Counter Hex and counter are the grand-daddy of the wargaming scene and there are still excellent games coming out nowadays, although it might be hard to find a game. They usually range over all periods of history, from ancients to napoleonics to WWII, but its usually the latter that is most associated with this type of wargame, which the true heavyweights being Advanced Squad Leader and if you are absolutely insane, Campaign in North Africa. It can be difficult to find people to play, though, due to the complexity of the rules even in games in which the design aims were to reduce complexity (such as my personal darling, None But Heroes). Card Driven Strategy CDGs are an excellent introduction to wargames as they mix some of the concepts of regular board games and wargames into a single mix: they are the way I got started. CDGs are played using a deck of cards (either shared or a single one per player), with the cards being used either to move your troops or to play specific events. This brings a level of resource-management and damage prevention to the game, as well as allowing the games to play quicker than most other boardgames while still keeping a good level of complexity. The foremost games in this genre are Twilight Struggle (considered by some to be one of the best boardgames ever made) and Paths of Glory. Block Games Block games screen information about your opponent to create a fog of war, usually by printing unit information on the single side of a block (Commands and Colors prints the unit on both sides, which defeats the purpose of blocks at all). The gameplay of a block game is a combination of a traditional wargame with the bluffing of a poker game. Hammer of the Scots, Strike of the Eagle, Sekigahara, Napoleon's Triumph, and East Front are great and diverse examples. Many of the modern Block Games are diceless, relying entirely on cards and hidden information to create the uncertainty of war (Napoleon's Triumph, Strike of the Eagle, Sekigahara). There's so much out there, where should I begin?! Some of the best games to get started in the genre include: the Command And Colours series, which includes Battle Cry, Battle Lore, Memoir '44, C&C Ancients and C&C: Napoleonics. All these are pretty easy to get in and don't require wading through complex rules in order to understand and thus are a good start for anyone interested in playing wargames for the first time. In terms of Card Driven Strategy games, a good starting game is 1960: The Making of the President: it provides all the fundermental concepts of CDGs but has generally easier rules and it is set during the 1960 US presidential campaign between Nixon and Kennedy. After playing it, it isn't too hard to make the jump to the meatier CDGs like Twilight Struggle. I want to play with goons! There are quite a few wargame boardgoons that hang around the #boardgoons irc channel. We usually play quite a lot of CDGs using https://www.wargameroom.com although Vassal is also sometime used. Tekopo fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 15:11
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Tekopo, you suck, I was going to post that. edit: not true anymore, but you really should have written more about Napoleon's Triumph, that hardly counts as a love letter
silvergoose fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 15:13
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Beaten like the french beat the austrio-russian forces 
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Jul 2, 2012 15:13
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Flowerfall has a Kickstarter now, where you can get the game for $12 until the end of the day, at which point it will cost $15. The game seems like a super ridiculously light game where you let cards fall and score based on some area majority mechanism, or something. It's $12 for a light fluffy game that could serve well to cap off the night.
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Jul 2, 2012 15:48
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Space Alert is overhyped.
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Jul 2, 2012 15:53
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If you like X-Com or 2 player tactical skirmish games, Earth Reborn is literally the best game you can buy. I will never stop evangelizing for Earth Reborn.
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Jul 2, 2012 15:57
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:If you like X-Com or 2 player tactical skirmish games, Earth Reborn is literally the best game you can buy. ... If you can stand the art being all over the place in terms of quality, the floor tiles being hard to read, the whole order tile system dividing opinions (no fixed amount of action points per character that is), gunfights being not-so-lethal etc. etc. Therefore, I would want to voice a word of warning because I was personally let down by the game. But, different strokes for different people. Look up the rulebook and scenario books online and then take the plunge. (I actually DID read the rulebook before buying about halfway through but the components and the actual playing experience let me down.)
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Jul 2, 2012 16:13
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The true top games should be Tigris And Euphrates, Through the Ages and Napoleon's Triumph. Give me a 3 hour cerebral marathon or give me death. It's getting so bad that some of the people I play with say crap like 'Hey Tekopo, what are you doing playing Get Bit? You NEVER play fun games!'.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:16
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For the new thread I'm going to do a short review a personal favourite game that I would recommend to newcomers. Dixit is a game that can be best summarized as "Balderdash, but with pictures". The game revolves around a deck of cards, each of which has a unique piece of art, usually fantasy-themed. Each player has a hand of 6 of these cards, and one player is the Storyteller. The Storyteller picks one of his cards, places it face down and gives the other players a clue. This could be a movie line, a pop culture reference, a reference to an ancient forgotten god, or whatever else you come up with. The other players must choose a card from their own hand that best matches this clue, and give it to the Storyteller without showing anyone. The Storyteller then shuffles the cards, and reveals them. The other players must guess which card the Storyteller picked. Players gain points for choosing the correct card or for other players choosing their card. The Storyteller only gets points if some, but not all of the other players chose the correct card. So, it is important as the Storyteller to have a clue that is not too specific, but still describes the card accurately enough for some people to understand the clue. Here is a sample round: The Storyteller has given the clue "Do no harm". Which card is his?  Answer: The first one. It is a reference to the Hippocratic Oath in Medicine, for which a snake is the symbol. Then, after points are scored, everyone draws a replacement card and the next player in sequence becomes the Storyteller. Dixit is a fantastic game for introducing people to the world of boardgames. It's bright and colourful, not too serious, and it's perfect for getting to know people you've never met before as you share abstract clues with each other. I can't recommend it enough, and the artwork is gorgeous to boot. Discussing what you meant by the clues and what people understood by them is as much of the game as the actual guessing of the clues.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:20
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Nice OP, but maybe you should suggest a simpler Ameritrash game to start out with than BSG. It not only has way more rules than Carc or Dominion, but also runs about six times longer than a round of either of those two, probably even more if a group is getting together to learn it for the first time.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:29
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bobvonunheil posted:For the new thread I'm going to do a short review a personal favourite game that I would recommend to newcomers. Dixit is fantastic. It's also a really good game to play with your kids as it really lets them flex their imaginations and problem solving skills but is extremely is to learn.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:33
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I know it's been out for a while, but I picked up Kingdom Builder at Gencon, and I really, really like it. I'm not a big fan of Dominion, and I know there's a lot of complaints about KB being dry, but it's like a combination of a bunch of other games taking the stuff I like. It plays quick, is simple to teach, has enough variability to stay interesting, well balance, but has lots of room for aggressive play.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:50
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I wasn't so keen the first time I tried KB, although it could have been due to a boring combination of special effects/victory conditions, but it felt like just a matter of counting properly and there wasn't enough meat to the game for me to find it interesting. Also, the game seemed slightly too luck based since you have to play what you draw immediately: if you had a hand of cards and a choice on where to build I think the game would be much more interesting, since at present you can get majorly screwed if you keep drawing cards you don't need, although this is circumvented at least somewhat. Apart from that, the theme seemed really boring, extremely generic and tacked on.
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Jul 2, 2012 16:56
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Redacted
Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Apr 19, 2013 |
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Jul 2, 2012 17:01
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Unfit For Space posted:Nice OP, but maybe you should suggest a simpler Ameritrash game to start out with than BSG. It not only has way more rules than Carc or Dominion, but also runs about six times longer than a round of either of those two, probably even more if a group is getting together to learn it for the first time. I am pretty sure the recommendation of BSG in that context, as a recommended first game, is Broken Loose making a joke. He should put a smiley face after it, or something. Just to clue people in. Because it isn't obvious that it is. A joke, that is. Funso Banjo fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 17:22
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Nah, BSG is fine for a starter. I've seen drunk college students playing it at a boardgame cafe as an introduction, and they do just fine and have fun. Most importantly, it's social as hell and teaches the holiest lesson of Ameritrash: Games are an excuse to chill with buds, drink, and have a good time while blowing poo poo up.
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Jul 2, 2012 17:26
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BSG was my first real board game and it sucked me in like nothing else. I have received Goon Wisdom and now I play all the thread standbys. It is not a bad starter game.
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Jul 2, 2012 17:27
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Unfit For Space posted:It not only has way more rules than Carc or Dominion, but also runs about six times longer than a round of either of those two, probably even more if a group is getting together to learn it for the first time. But seriously, I'd probably say just cut out the middleman and go straight for The Resistance over BSG, even though it's much more a party game proper, it's got all the best meat of the traitor interaction without the length, the rules, and the fiddly bits- but I guess if you're a fan of fiddly bits and the traitor mechanic, it would be the way to go. I would almost say that Cosmic Encounter might be a good introduction to Ameritrash, but I doubt BrokenLoose would sacrifice his BG integrity by putting it in the OP. bobvonunheil posted:Dixit is a game that can be best summarized as "Balderdash, but with pictures". I played Dixit for the first time a week ago and immediately picked up a copy of Odyssey for myself afterwards- it's fantastically simple and light, but by no means derivative. It's surprisingly entertaining getting into someone's head about what kind of card they would choose for their clue, and there's almost always something interesting that fits thanks to the whimsical, surreal artwork of the cards. I also played 7 Wonders for the first time last week and am similarly energized by that- it's something I would not hesitate to recommend as a filler game, because it will play in 40 minutes or less, often 30-35 once you've worked out the rules after a single game. It doesn't have as much strategy involved as something like Dominion, but it feels more interactive and personal where you're simultaneously trying to cooperate with AND dick over your immediate neighbors each round, while also figuring out what you can do in the long run. It's sublimely paced and really fun- the one problem I could envision would be getting burned out on it quickly because of those two points, but again, if played as a filler between heavier games, you're golden. Bobby The Rookie fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 17:45
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7 Wonders is nice simply because it plays so well with a lot of people, although sometimes I do struggle to get people through it without them becoming confused. There's only so much information you can tell someone new, it's not viable to tell them about every single card. Other games that have different cards that effect the game in different ways have the same problem, as good as they might/might not be (rftg, Twilight Struggle etc).
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Jul 2, 2012 17:47
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I'm one of the people who can never stop evangelizing for Earth Reborn as well, and:These Loving Eyes posted:... If you can stand the art being all over the place in terms of quality, the floor tiles being hard to read, the whole order tile system dividing opinions (no fixed amount of action points per character that is), gunfights being not-so-lethal etc. etc. Therefore, I would want to voice a word of warning because I was personally let down by the game. But, different strokes for different people. Look up the rulebook and scenario books online and then take the plunge. If you CAN get past these pitfalls, which honestly isn't a terrible hurdle if you've been playing Eurogames like me; you'll find one of the most tactically rewarding experiences in board-gaming. Earth Reborn shares less with the simple likes of Space Hulk and Doom and Gears of War and more with older tactical war-games, except with streamlined, modular rules. The final game becomes a titantic, 4-hour struggle of absurdity and depth that only possibly Dungeon Twister rivals in the tactical minis department (although it's a hard comparison to make). Behind the hit-or-miss components is the slickest tactical minis design you'll find on the market. If you're a euro-fan curious about a not-so-ameritrash minis game, Earth Reborn is the place to be.
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Jul 2, 2012 17:53
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bobvonunheil posted:Dixit Dixit is to party games what Space Alert is to coop games.
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Jul 2, 2012 17:54
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Agricola has been my favorite for awhile now. I highly recommend it if you want to try the euro style of games.
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Jul 2, 2012 17:59
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Tekopo posted:The true top games should be Tigris And Euphrates, Through the Ages and Napoleon's Triumph. Give me a 3 hour cerebral marathon or give me death. If I had to play Tigris and Euphrates for three hours, I would welcome death. There's a fun little deck builder game called Miskatonic School for Girls that emerged from the depths of Kickstarter a couple of months ago. It differs from the normal DBG style of play in that the objective is not to win by improving your deck, but to make everyone else lose faster than you by making their decks worse. It's not deep, and it should have come in a smaller box and been $15 cheaper, but if you've got a few beers to hand and have always wanted to feed a prep school hockey team to a shoggoth it's a good way to pass the time.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:01
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Oh, Dominant Species. The best Euro. Worth every penny. A game I wish I could play more of all the time. So, so good. It takes the indirect conflict of worker placement and mixes it with straight-up direct conflict on a prehistoric battlefield. gently caress yeah.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:08
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Trynant posted:Oh, Dominant Species. The best Euro. Worth every penny. A game I wish I could play more of all the time. So, so good. It takes the indirect conflict of worker placement and mixes it with straight-up direct conflict on a prehistoric battlefield. gently caress yeah.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:11
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Manatee Insanity posted:Agricola has been my favorite for awhile now. I highly recommend it if you want to try the euro style of games. I played Agricola for the first time last Saturday, and I enjoyed it well enough. I'm not sure why it got as huge as it did, but it's probably the best medium weight worker placement game, although that could be a bit of a narrow field. My enjoyment of the game might be biased since I won with 42 points, while second place only had 20. Apparently Plow-Maker and a good oven is a useful combination to have. I ordered Troyes and I'm excited about that, as it seems more weighty than Alien Frontiers. Did anyone try out Sky Traders yet? Edit: I really like Dominant Species, but it is unfortunately a game that is hard to get on the table since it takes forever to play.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:12
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Pierzak posted:Speaking of, is the third printing (the one with actually good art) out yet? Minimalist art is the best art.  (yes, third printing is out)
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Jul 2, 2012 18:20
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Unfit For Space posted:Nice OP, but maybe you should suggest a simpler Ameritrash game to start out with than BSG. It not only has way more rules than Carc or Dominion, but also runs about six times longer than a round of either of those two, probably even more if a group is getting together to learn it for the first time. I would agree with this. Break it into The Resistance and Forbidden Island. Both of those are nice simple examples of the Traitor mechanic and Cooperative play. BSG is a fine game, but for someone just starting out, it's a long LONG game and very heavy rules wise.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:22
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VoodooXT posted:Minimalist art is the best art. I can't stomach the earlier DS art, though. Pity since it seems a very good game. I'll try to hunt down a 3rd ed. copy.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:26
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Pierzak posted:Same reason I prefer the original Innovation over the new edition. You probably couldn't stomach DS's first printing art because it used Comic Sans.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:32
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Hey, how is this thread different from this guy here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3386208&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 I am inclined to keep the extra strings to a minimum, but if this is different somehow let me know.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:34
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Winson_Paine posted:Hey, how is this thread different from this guy here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3386208&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 That's the old one, paybackjack probably should have closed it. This thread is just the new iteration, started today.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:36
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Godddamn, that wargame post was great, but a few games deserve some more gushing. Napoleon's Triumph If you are in the market, this is one of the few wargames you'll ever need. While the game itself represents a single battle, Napoleon's Triumph stands out by giving players remarkable freedom in creating and implementing battlefield strategies in a match of skill while removing luck from the outcome. The result is a creative, fast, and engaging game for two players which is wildly successful at recreating the battlefield of the age. The decisions each player will face are seemingly impossible, but a ruthless and clever opponent will always find a way to turn the tide against impossible odds. At any given time, you'll find yourself with 10 crisis to deal with and 5 actions to put out the fires.  The gameplay combines the best elements of a wargame, poker and chess to recreate the uncertainty of battle and the necessity of strong command. The rules may be difficult to understand for a new player, but are best explained as a toolbox of maneuvers and tactics that players may use to sculpt whatever strategy they desire. From the moment forces are mustered on the field, to the cavalry screens that scout and harass the march to battle, to the final clash of lines, each player has complete control of their own destiny. The battle itself creates an agonizing situation for each player. The Austrian/Russian alliance greatly outnumber the French, but they are faced with attacking a fortified position and superior soldiers. The French position seems hopeless, but a strong reserve force can march to the rescue should the situation go tits up. If the Allies push too recklessly into the French lines, French reinforcements will be called and the aggressive soldiers will find themselves stretched thin, disorganized, and defending against fresh troops. If the attack on the French position is too conservative, they French will simply fend off the feeble assault for victory without needing the reserves. From the French perspective, sounding the bugles for aid will flip the victory objective from holding ground to a much riskier offense. The manner each game will play will change dramatically not inly through the varied battlefield tactics each player can employ, but through the very victory conditions the players create. This creates some amazing emergent gameplay with very little overhead. A unique feature of Napoleon's Triumph is how seamlessly an important element of battle has been integrated into the system without cluttering the rules: every engagement with enemy forces will cause a battalion to lose cohesion. As the lines draw closer, the generals will find themselves committed to each fight as direct control over troops degrades with contact. A careless general will find too many holes in the sweep of battle with too little time to correct. Controlling when and where each commitment happens while manipulating the opponent's forces into less favorable ground is a perfect thematic fit to the Napoleonic age of maneuvers, feints and bold sweeps. The design is so clean and comprehensive the designer makes it look easy. The downside is that every other battle level game will pale in comparison to this, and you will become picky and snotty. Like many other great wargames, dedication is needed to make Napoleon's Triumph shine. The rules are alien and can be difficult to grasp, and how to best use the tools at your disposal can be unclear. There are many guides and videos on Boardgamegeek.com to help a new player find their footing this great game, and I'd strongly recommend taking the time to familiarize yourself with the rules and strategy. The time you'll spend is worth it. King Chicken fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 18:36
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Trynant posted:Oh, Dominant Species. The best Euro. Worth every penny. A game I wish I could play more of all the time. So, so good. It takes the indirect conflict of worker placement and mixes it with straight-up direct conflict on a prehistoric battlefield. gently caress yeah. I need a new game for my group, this really seems like something that we would like. We've played a bucnh of twilight imperium, is the play time similar to that? I hope it has less rules!
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Jul 2, 2012 18:39
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Lordpen posted:I need a new game for my group, this really seems like something that we would like. Nah, it's way shorter than Twilight Imperium by clocking it at around 3-3 1/2 hours. It's still long, but hardly an all day thing. If you want something very similar to Twilight Imperium with less rules and shorter play time, also check out Eclipse (around 2-3 hours). Edit: Forgot the obvious. Eclipse is a pain in the rear end to get right now, so you might need to wait a few months to get your hands on an (expensive) copy.
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Jul 2, 2012 18:42
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King Chicken posted:Nah, it's way shorter than Twilight Imperium by clocking it at around 3-3 1/2 hours. It's still long, but hardly an all day thing. If you want something very similar to Twilight Imperium with less rules and shorter play time, also check out Eclipse (around 2-3 hours). Sounds good! Now to try and find a place that sells it in Sweden. I read up on eclipse a while back and I just don't feel like getting another space war game, besides spiders vs monkeys just sounds more fun!
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Jul 2, 2012 18:45
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silvergoose posted:That's the old one, paybackjack probably should have closed it. This thread is just the new iteration, started today. Oh! I am incredibly easily confused. Thanks!
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Jul 2, 2012 18:49
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silvergoose posted:That's the old one, paybackjack probably should have closed it. This thread is just the new iteration, started today. I don't think you can close your own threads anymore, which is why I PM'ed Winson_Paine to do it, which is why he's here asking about it.
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Jul 2, 2012 19:02
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