Board games

[Pentegarn]

My GF just picked up Forbidden Island (speaking of co op games) which is supposedly like a Pandemic or Defenders of the Realm. We haven't tried it yet though

[Fathom Zero]

http://vimeo.com/27752539

srsly, this show is making me interested in board games.

[Pentegarn]

That show is growing on me despite how silly the presentation is :lol

There's a lot of good info behind the gags

[Fathom Zero]

It does a lot for board games, which are usually seen by people outside terribly dry, to say nothing of being nerdy.

I s'pose I've come to like card games a lot more - I got my friends addicted to all the Munchkins. :lol

[Pentegarn]

I got a list of must plays for you then

Thunderstone- A deck building game where you have to compete with other players to build a deck capable of gaining the most victory points

Ascension- In some ways similar to Thunderstone, but streamlined to a mere 3 game mechanics

Nightfall- While I hate it's theme, I love the everyone plays on everyone's turn mechanic

Dominion- Probably my least favorite on the list, but its popularity is a lumbering juggernaut, so you will likely never want for more players to play it

Quarriors!- Not a deck/card game, but similar in its mechanic, you buy dice that represent creatures and spells to get enough points to win the game, lots of fun there

[OxBlood]

Paint me green and call me Frederick, my Quarriors! is on the way :)

Sadly the boardgaming-GF is gone again but what the hell, there´s enough people to play with around I guess.

[Pentegarn]

Gone gone? Or just gone for the time being?

[OxBlood]

Gone gone. A woman´s mind can be a little strange sometimes. But it´s better when these things happen early I guess, 2 months is nothing.

[Pentegarn]

:(

[OxBlood]

Meh, it´s not like I can do anything about it but don´t worry, Women come and go until you find the right one I guess. ;)

[Pentegarn]

Let's just hope the right one like board games too ;)

[OxBlood]

MY right woman does, yeah, otherwise she´s not the right one ;)

[OxBlood]

Huh, what do you know, there´s a german version of Glory to Rome and it comes without the horrible cartoony art in neon colors too :)

[Pentegarn]

My GF just picked up Forbidden Island (speaking of co op games) which is supposedly like a Pandemic or Defenders of the Realm. We haven't tried it yet though

Finally played it, it is fast paced and pretty difficult to win as far as co op games go. You pick a role from a list of a team of treasure hunters and of course they all have different useful skills (some more useful than others obviously). You have to recover 4 treasures from the island as it sinks. If too much island sinks, you can't get to the rendezvous point and everyone loses. The island sinks really fast. We played on the beginner difficulty and it was tough, I can't imagine playing on expert where the island is sinking at twice the rate.

The next 4 days will be the Buckeye Game Fest (http://www.buckeyeboardgamers.org/buckeyegamefest.htm). I won't have a ton of pictures of this, because it is mostly just playing games that are out or have been out for awhile. It is in essence an extended CABS (http://www.buckeyeboardgamers.org/index.html) meeting. But if I play anything I think is really cool I will post a pic of it here.

[Fathom Zero]

Is the Buckeye Game Fest as exciting as it sounds?

[Pentegarn]

I will say yes, and assume you are being either sarcastic or serious so you get what you want :p

[k0k0]

I remember playing Dream Phone with my buddy when we were 13. It belonged to my sister and she was staying at some girl's house over the night. I won. It was pretty excellent and to this day I can hoard over him that Jamal liked me better than him. Because his creepy robotic voice said over the phone "You're right, I really like you!"

[OxBlood]

I played the online-version of Memoir 44 last evening...never played Memoir before...seems like a really fun game but I think there´s no german version out there which is strange, given how popular the game is in the states...

Oh and my Kickstarter-Copy of eaten by zombies arrived the other day but I haven´t had time to take a look at it yet.

[Grislygus]

So my midterm in Computer Imaging is to make and box a board game. Mechanics finished, plastic and wood bought, lazertran sheets ordered, just beginning the final drafts of the graphics

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n157/grislygus/SHADOWMONSTERS.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n157/grislygus/Photoon2011-10-14at22402.jpg

More crap to be posted once the whole thing's done in about three weeks

[Zhukov]

Pretty cool.

[Dimnos]

:thumbsup

[Pentegarn]

So my midterm in Computer Imaging is to make and box a board game. Mechanics finished, plastic and wood bought, lazertran sheets ordered, just beginning the final drafts of the graphics

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n157/grislygus/SHADOWMONSTERS.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n157/grislygus/Photoon2011-10-14at22402.jpg

More crap to be posted once the whole thing's done in about three weeks
You could probably get a smaller game company to publish it if it is popular with play testers

[Pentegarn]

So I picked up copies of 7 Wonders and Smallworld for cheaper than I could get them online. I think this guy is getting all my future game purchasing business, cause he beat competitor prices in everything he sold

[OxBlood]

Alright, Saturday is Essen-Day. I still don´t know which games to pick up...I´m not willing to spend TOO much money on the stuff right now, but some games have to be purchased...I think, I´ll take Eminent Domain and Aries Project (if I can find it)...but what else...

[darkvare]

i own what i think is an austrian version of monopoly called DKT

[OxBlood]

i own what i think is an austrian version of monopoly called DKT

DKT? What´s that stand for?

I mean, yeah, Monopoly is available in almost all countries of the world, but it´s always called Monopoly...

I think I got my Essen- shoppinglist for tomorrow.

Dungeon Run
Super Dungeon Explore
Eminent Domain
Ares Project
Panic Station.

If I can find it, I´ll probably also buy King of Tokyo or Dominant Species.

[darkvare]

i have no idea here's a picture of the box maybe someone has seen it before
http://ist1-4.filesor.com/pimpandhost.com/3/5/0/4/35040/E/x/k/X/ExkX/21102011102.jpg

[Fathom Zero]

Monopoly-esque?

[Dr. Boogie]

That's what Google came up with. The name stands for "Das Kaufmännische Talent" (aka The Commercial Talent?).

I found an English page with some detail on the kid's version of the game:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/81759/junior-dkt-das-kaufmannische-talent

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

KNOCKOFFOPOLY

[OxBlood]

Das kaufmännische Talent? That is an extremely stupid title :D The commercial talent or "the talent of merchantile" would be what I´d translate it with. Never heard of it to be honest but then again, I´m not austrian ;)


So I went to Essen yesterday. Filled to the brim with people and I think I catched some kind of Con-illness, my throat is extremely sore today but nothin a bit of tea and guzzling some vodka can´t cure.

Sadly, there were no copies of Dungeon Run available, same with Super Dungeon Explore and Sentinels of the Multivers (though I just might have missed that one). Still, I got me some new games :)

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/6305/fotopq.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/543/fotopq.jpg/)

I´m especially happy about Ares Project and the german version of Dominant Species, I didn´t even know there was one :) King of Tokyo is really nice too since it´s so simple and really nice to look at.

It´s a little sad they had no german version of Bloodbowl in stock since that would´ve expanded the number of people I could play it with over here but then again...none of the girls would be playing something called Bloodbowl with us guys anyway and all of us dudes are good enough in english anyway...

I wanted to get Ankh Morpork but that one is published by Kosmos and all of their game are extremely easy to get in any normal shop over here, so yeah, no reason to get it in Essen.

[Pentegarn]

I saw someone playing Ankh Morpork at Buckeye Game Fest, i was in the middle of either a 7 Wonders or Smallworld game at the time so i couldn't take a closer look.

[OxBlood]

I didn´t look too closely but Ankh Morpork was all over the convention, same as Dungeon Fighter and Power Grid - the first sparks (Funkenschlag - die ersten Funken)...still a funny thing, naming the english version Power Grid whereas Funkenschlag litreally means "Sparks" or "making Sparks" :)

The secret star of the con seemed to be Panic station by the way. 40mins after opening the con, all copies were gone. Luckily the game will come out in Germany in a few weeks according to the booth-guys.

I took part of the weekend to go through all the stuff I got and so far I´m quite content with my purchases. The only thing that felt or rather read a little lackluster is Dominant species. It seems to be needlessly long and complex for what it tries to do (which is simple modular Area-Control and Worker placement as far as I can tell).

King of Tokyo is, as I said earlier, a simple and very charming game and I imagine it will be a great filler with some of my friends who love playing as monsters and smashing things (they freaking LOVE Conquest of planet Earth).

Blood Bowl is almost as simple as KoT but with a lot more if simple enough rules. Might be hard to find someone who´s digging the theme here but as far as I can tell, I like the gameplay and speed of the game. Almost a filler. And hey, I always like it if I can play Skaven :)

Now Ares Project while suffering from sub-par components seems to have the biggest potential of the four. It´s complex but not overly complicated, the Factions are similar in their basics but all posess a unique personality, Playtime seems to be adequate for what the game does and is, the Rules are...well, you can really see that the Engelsteins are gamers themselves and as such know how NOT to write rules.
Easy to understand rules is what makes me happy about more complex games and this one has pretty good rulebooks (one corebook and four faction-rulebooks). The thing is, when I read rulebooks, detail-questions pop up in my mind and most of the time, these questions are not answered, at least not in the paragraph or page that brought up the question.
Here, the answer is right next to where the question comes to mind. Kudos for that.

Now the only thing I need to do is try the games out with other people, though I doubt, Dominant Species will see that much playtime :D

By the way, the guy at the Heidelberger booth (they publish a lot of foreign games here along with Pegasus) handed me two Promo-items when I bought King of Tokyo. An earth-Elemental for Battle Lore (never played that one) and an additional Monster for Tokyo, the Brockenbär, basically it´s their company´s Logo (a Bear called the Heidelbär) in a monstrous version, throwing giant dice at buildings and pedestrians :D

[Dimnos]

Do you have a blod bowl on the pc ox?

[OxBlood]

Yeah, I bought it for cheap on Steam the other day but haven´t played anything but the brief tutorial, seemed immensly complicated.

[Dr. Boogie]

Same here. I got the 360 version and could barely stay focused enough to complete the tutorial.

[k0k0]

They just need to bring back Mutant League Football. I know this won't make the board gamers or strategy gamers happy, but it would make me happy.

[OxBlood]

That has to count for something ;)

Other than the Videogame, the Cardgame of Bloodbowl is extremely simple to pick up and play. It´s just a...what´s it called in English...a take-that-game?
Each player plays one card on his turn and after 6 turns, the player with the stronger card attached to each match wins it. Each player takes his personal reward and the winner also get´s an additional, bigger reward, depending on the match or tournament played. Is that what you would call a take-that game? I´m not really sure.

So far I like it (in theory, might try it out with some friends tonight), the different teams all have a slightly different Focus in their 12-card starting deck (Skaven cycly through the deck very fast, Dwarfs are good at tackling and keeping the ball, Chaos cheats like crazy, etc.). In addition to the simple core-gameplay, each player can get team- and equipment-upgrades by winning specific rewards which mixes things up a bit.
I´d say a typical 2-player-game (which is shortened again by only playing 4 rounds instead of 5) should last around 30mins which seems kinda nice to me.

I´ll try to bring out either this or King of Tokyo tonight I guess :)

[Pentegarn]

I tried out the 2 player rules for 7 Wonders, kind of odd how it plays. In some ways it reminds me of the allied army rule in Risk

[OxBlood]

I played 7W with two players a while ago but I think it´s the most fun with around 4-5.

[Pentegarn]

4-5 is a pretty good balance, I do really like 6 players too though. Haven't gotten a 7 player game in yet

[OxBlood]

The thing I really love about 7W is the speed and ease of play. Anyone can play it, it´s very easy to teach and no matter how many player you have, it has almost no downtime :)

We played a bit of King of Tokyo the other day and it was a blast, just as I thought. My friends GF won by destroying her guy and outscoring me before I could kill her off. And OF COURSE she only won because we didn´t destroy her when we could.
Why do we do that? Simple, we may not have won now, but we won HER for at least another 3-4 rounds in the future :D

The fun thing is, I do the same thing with him too, but I think, he doesn´t notice :D Ah, the dirty tricks one resorts to to get his friends like certain games ;)

[k0k0]

I only do that in fighting video games, so that my friends keep going even though I am superior. In board games I'm a huge cheater and try not to let my friends win. That's why nobody lets me be the banker anymore.

[OxBlood]

I can´t do that in fighting games, I don´t know why. They always notice me holding back and when they ask me to fight for real, they get angry because I beat them to a pulp for a while. After this...semi-defined ammount of time (around 20mins) I start losing my focus and they can beat me normally every now and then :D

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I only do that in fighting video games, so that my friends keep going even though I am superior. In board games I'm a huge cheater and try not to let my friends win. That's why nobody lets me be the banker anymore.


:lol:lol:lol I randomly find hundreds stuffed in couches and under tables that I hid previously. They won't let me be banker either.

[k0k0]

For me it's sleight of hand. I palm the cash when I pay someone else by grabbing a few extra bills. It all adds up over time and before long, I've got a ton more cash than everyone else.

[executioneer]

i always win monopoly because i am THE BEST

[Dr. Boogie]

Willie has a monopoly on victory! :D

[Sam]

I'M TIRED OF THIS ZIONIST MONOPOLY COINSPIRACY.

[OxBlood]

I finally got a chance to play Memoir 44...why the fuck did no one ever release that game over here, it´s GOOD. Really good and so simple to teach an play...lost both games (played...well, Germany) but at least my opponent want´s to play again :D

[OxBlood]

New addition: Ankh Morpork.

Simple, easy and quick to play with gorgeous artwork on the cards and the board even though the theme is kinda slapped-on it still fits the way the game plays. simple area control and area denial for a low price.

I don´t know when I´ll be able to play it with other people but it seems like a decent light fillergame with 4 people.

[Pentegarn]

Does it have Pratchett humor in it?

The After Turkey Day 48 hour game fest is coming up. My favorite place to buy games online (RC hobbies, google it, I am no spambot) will be there and are bringing 3 games I just ordered there so I don't have to pay shipping. Kingsburg, the new Thunderstone expansion and Elder Sign will soon be mine.

[OxBlood]

Does it have Pratchett humor in it?

The After Turkey Day 48 hour game fest is coming up. My favorite place to buy games online (RC hobbies, google it, I am no spambot) will be there and are bringing 3 games I just ordered there so I don't have to pay shipping. Kingsburg, the new Thunderstone expansion and Elder Sign will soon be mine.

Hm, not really, I mean every Pratchett-fan will get a chuckle out of Death´s Card which is not called "Death" but "HELLO!" but most of the charme is transported through the artworks. The game mechanics themselves don´t leave much room for any kind of humor since this is a eurogame at heart and the cards don´t have any flavortext on them, Death for example only has the ability to kill off two thugs and place another one of your own thugs.

It´s a good game but it doesn´t do the source material any justice.



I bought Summoner Wars on a whim and boy was I suprised how good the system is.
For those who don´t know, Summoner Wars is a tactical, grid-based card game, a little chesslike but not as dull (I hate chess). Each of the...what, 14 factions plays differently and each trooptype has it´s own special ability. Orcish Warriors can get a second move if you roll lucky, Goblins can attack out of turn, Elvish Archers can shoot farther, things like that.

I don´t want to go into too much detail right now but if you like tactical asynchronous battlegames, try it out, it´s really really good.

[Pentegarn]

I think some armies in Summoner Wars are a bin imbalanced though

Somewhat bad news for me on the game front, I will not be getting Elder Sign this Friday because RC Hobbies is out of stock on it.

[OxBlood]

I guess it would be too utopic to have a game with 10+ different factions and having them completely balanced...it´s hard with 3-4 factions already...but well, those stronger armies are something beginners can play with (or people I want winning at the game so they like it more ;))

Elder Sign...I´m still not sold on that. I played a bit of the iOS-Version and it felt kinda bland somehow. It´s all just 99% chance and that doesn´t fit the theme very well I think. The investigators should have a method to actually dominate a specific task. Not all of them of course, Hastur has to win after all but still...it´s another one of those games where the theme feels slapped-on to me...

I DID see Core Worlds though in a shop in Düsseldorf and I´m kinda thinking about investing the 45 or 50 bucks if it´s still there tomorrow...hrrmmm....

[Pentegarn]

Gonna find out either way cause I took advantage of the price dropping on it due to Amazon's Black Friday sale and purchased it, hopefully it gets here Wednesday so I can try it out for this weekend's game fest

[OxBlood]

How much did you pay then? Sadly, we don´t profit from Black Friday :D

[Pentegarn]

I believe it dropped down to 25 bucks US plus shipping cost

[OxBlood]

Okay, I´d buy it too if it was that cheap here :D

[Pentegarn]

So it just got here and I played a 1 player game (yeah it can be played 1 player apparently)

It seems to be a quick play version of Arkham Horror. each investigator does have some pretty good ability (such as altering a die roll, auto healing a stamina or sanity once a turn, and the like) The game is haaaaaard to win. I played it solo and the elder awakened pretty fast, and it gets downright ugly from there becuase beating them is virtually impossible.

That being said, t is still a fun and pretty easy to learn card and dice game.

[OxBlood]

I´m sure I´ll get it someday for cheap and try it out but hey...SO many unplayed games sitting on my shelves...it´s kinda stupid :)

I´ve played a bit more Summoner Wars, trying out the four starter-factions a bit...mostly just against myself but simulating a real game is not very hard if you ignore the other "player´s" cards.

So far the Phoenix Elves gave the Tundra Orcs a really hard time basically because of really bad luck for the Orcs.
Against the Dwarves, the Elves waged a very intense battle (or it would´ve been intense if I had played against someone else than myself ;) ) but in the end, a lone Guardian broke through and autohit the enemy Summoner for the final 6th hit. Both forces basically killed of all enemy troops each turn, it was really nice.
Then the Goblins showed up to try their luck against the Elves and what do you know, they won and didn´t even break a sweat. Rushing through the Elve´s defenses and double-attacking everything in sight cleared the way for one final Berserker attack, killing off and Archer, Warrior and the Summoner himself after he suffered a rush attack a few rounds before that.


It really felt that immersive and engaging and I´ve played against myself there...I really need a good Opponent for this game, it´s amazing. :)

[Dimnos]

So a friend and I broke down and split the cost of a 3rd edition space hulk. A bit pricy but man are the pieces fucking sweet. Once we get a few painted I'll post some pics.

[OxBlood]

Is that a new Space Hulk Version or one of the old ones (Space Crusade? Is that the same game?) I remember we had it over here but it was called Star Quest and all weapons were retconned to be non-leathal. Truth be told, I only found out about that last year when I realized the fucking Meltagun was changed to...I don´t know some Time-distortion gun or something that removed the enemies (which were all described to be robots btw) from this plane of existence or some such shit. Retrospectively I think the supposed weapon effect are pretty cool though, even if they are apparently non-leathal, freezing someone in time or banishing something from it home-plane is some sinister stuff...


Oh by the way, for those that have an interest in the hobby and don´t know them yet, you HAVE to check out Shut up & Sit down, a british videoshow about boardgames with two really talented guys :) You can find it at http://www.shutupshow.com/

[Pentegarn]

Someone already posted a few episodes of that, I want to think it was FZ. Seen all 5 and a half episodes :)

I do have one pretty big, but correctable, critique of Elder Sign. Honestly Smallworld has spoiled me for packaging, they have it spot on when it comes to how to put a game away. Elder Sign has a couple hundred small cardboard parts of many different varieties, and all you can do is throw everything into one place. Gonna head down to Container Store today and get some small plastic boxes so this crap all stays somewhat sorted.

[OxBlood]

What´s FZ?

Concering the packaging-problem, I hear you, Smallworld is pretty much the benchmark for good boardgame storage-concepts. Using the weight of the board to basically seal the rest of the box and keep the things in place is simple but genius :)

[Dimnos]

Is that a new Space Hulk Version or one of the old ones (Space Crusade? Is that the same game?) I remember we had it over here but it was called Star Quest and all weapons were retconned to be non-leathal. Truth be told, I only found out about that last year when I realized the fucking Meltagun was changed to...I don´t know some Time-distortion gun or something that removed the enemies (which were all described to be robots btw) from this plane of existence or some such shit. Retrospectively I think the supposed weapon effect are pretty cool though, even if they are apparently non-leathal, freezing someone in time or banishing something from it home-plane is some sinister stuff...


Oh by the way, for those that have an interest in the hobby and don´t know them yet, you HAVE to check out Shut up & Sit down, a british videoshow about boardgames with two really talented guys :) You can find it at http://www.shutupshow.com/


Its kind of like a colecters edition they released back in 09. Its basically the best parts of 1st edition and both of its expansions as well as 2nd edition (that I never played). It has something like 13 unique marines while the genestealers have a handful of unique models themselves as well as a sweet broodlord. But yeah people die. People die all over this game.

FZ is probably Fathom Zero (http://www.i-mockery.com/forum/member.php?u=4133)

[Fathom Zero]

IT'S PRONOUNCED FIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

[King Hadas]

I've been playing Chinese Chess (Xiangqi, Elephant Chess). I like it a lot more than western chess, it's more exciting. You've got cannons, elephants; the board has a river and each team has a palace. Also things happen a lot faster, you don't have a full rank of pawns obstructing you so it's easy to get your more versatile pieces into the action.

I've been peeking around at different chess variants. It's interesting how the original game evolved in different places. I saw this modern variant that I want to play, it's called Khet.

SpQrIiWAM8w

[OxBlood]

Khet always seemed like a cheap gimmick to me...hm.

But, concerning chess and chess-like but better games...I have a hard time thinking of a more boring game than chess...I really hate chess (but I like Shogi, etc.) Chess and Monopoly are THE games to get me angry instantly, I hate those :D

I think, if I want to play something kinda like chess, I´ll just play summoner wars :)

[King Hadas]

Chess bores me too, I hate the slow opening moves. I haven't played much Shogi but it seems like it'd have especially slow openings. I mean you only have two pieces that can jump across the board, not counting the lances, all blocked by a row of pawns that can't move diagonally until promoted. Things probably pick up once you start dropping and capturing pieces but who can keep their attention up that long?

[Fathom Zero]

http://www.cabalsgame.com/play.php

I've been playing this for the past two hours, but I can't tell if it's good or not. But I have been playing it for two hours, so I'm confused, I guess. Occult CCG, for those of you wondering.

[OxBlood]

Why why why must I always listen to that Vasel-Podcast...FUCK. Okay, long story short, I ordered Risk Legacy or "Risiko Evolution" as they call it here. I find the idea of that game strangely fascinating...

[OxBlood]

And another new addition (an my excuse is that it´s christmas soon and I should reward myself moreoften for being such a wonderful person):

Earth Reborn.

It´s...way smaller than I thought. Sure, it comes in a BigBox but it all fits into the inlay without even filling half the box after you´re done punching out all those tokens. Good thing a friend of mine really wants to play...now I´ve just gotta learn the rules and yes, it´s a 50 page rulebook but at least it´s written in modules...

[Pentegarn]

Sounds like they left extra room for expansions they plan to release later, that is both thoughtful and confident.

I just tried Eruption, a game where you have to protect your island village from lava while assuring your opponents villages burn down before yours does. It is actually simple mechanics but gameplay is kind of slow at the start and end of the game.

[OxBlood]

Indeed. As far as I can tell, the game is really good AND it has a scenario-generator build into it.

I´ve heard about Eruption a while back...can´t you build straw-blockades to halt the flow of lava? I wonder how that´s supposed to work :D

[Pentegarn]

In my mind it does not.

However they game mechanics answer is you roll 2 six sided dice and add numbers to the barrier roll based off of materials. Straw gets no bonus (should get a penalty honestly) wood gets +1 and stone gets +2, if the lava roll beats the barrier roll the barrier goes, it if does not the barrier stays.

[OxBlood]

Ha, it´s always nice when this specific scenario happens:

You - the board game buff - have set up some heavy, optically appealing game to learn the rules while playing against yourself.

A friend comes over.

Friend: "Hey, thanks for xyz, I just wanted to-OHHHH! What´s THAT!? *walks over to table, takes a look at the miniatures* Is that...?"

Me: Yep, the thing I told you about the other day.

Friend: It´s smaller than I thought overall...

Me: Yeah but that means we can play it on your table too

Fiend: Oh, cool! You gotta teach me sometime!


That´s how it´s supposed to go :)

[OxBlood]

And I´m back after having had some kind of malfunction in my inner ear or migrane or something...basically I couldn´t walk straight for about a week, feeling like I was being moved to the right all the time. Fucking annoying.


Anyway, I FINALLY got the Summoner Wars Master Set. I guess now I´ve got all the games I ever needed :D

[Pentegarn]

Games I bought or played recently include

Kingsburg: Strange but true, there is indeed 2 player rules for this game. I was happy about that.

Dice Town: Kind of a yahtzee meets Kingsburg kind of game where you are competing to win various prizes each round in an old west setting.

Eminent Domain: Deck Builder that reminds me of a simplified Race for the Galaxy

Smalworld Underground: I like it better then the original because the territory markers and relics add a new element to what you want to capture

[OxBlood]

Sounds good Pentegarn, I love Smallworld, always thought about getting underworld...is it worth it if I have the original?

I also got Eminent Domain a few weeks back but I´m not really sold on it yet, it seems a bit too solitary for my taste...

After testing the new factions from the Master Set, I again marvel at how different these factions play. One focusses on formation, another on magic, yet another is a speedy rush-faction which could go up against a faction with wall-manipulating powers...it´s just great :)

[Pentegarn]

Sounds good Pentegarn, I love Smallworld, always thought about getting underworld...is it worth it if I have the original?

I also got Eminent Domain a few weeks back but I´m not really sold on it yet, it seems a bit too solitary for my taste...

After testing the new factions from the Master Set, I again marvel at how different these factions play. One focusses on formation, another on magic, yet another is a speedy rush-faction which could go up against a faction with wall-manipulating powers...it´s just great :)

Underworld is stand alone, it is not an expansion. You could in theory use the classic races but they would not get benefits on an underworld board that they would on a classic one.

I am surprised you feel Eminent Domain feels solitary-ish. Every leader action you take can also be done by the other players so you have to be careful you aren't helping your opponents when making your moves

[OxBlood]

Yeah but ED is really passively interactive, you cannot interact with your opponents AND you attack your own planets to make them count points which is a really strange feeling, gameplaywise (I know that you attack neutral planets inside your sphere of influence ;)).

I don´t really mind games like this but many of my friends do because the level of interaction is so low...I should try to get them to play Cosmic Encounter with me, that game has NEVER hit the table so far. People saw it and went "ugh that´s a lot of english text on those cards, let´s play something else"...Uch...

[Pentegarn]

That reminds me, I played Dune in some foreign language but the person who owned it had translated rules in english. We just had to cross reference the cards every time we played them

[OxBlood]

Of course it is annoying to play a game in a foreign language, I can understand my friends to a certain extent...but the only thing they need to memorize is what the different races do which is really not hard and it´s not like they can´t understand english, they just start to go defensive when somethings not immediately clear :D

And I´d love to play Dune but I guess I have to wait until it´s being republished next year or whenever it´s supposed to come out...sadly without the Dune-License...

[Pentegarn]

It was a wild game. Lots of negotiation and back stabbing. I was the guild and won because the guy who was aligned with me and I kept the guild's winning condition maintained for 15 turns

[OxBlood]

I really have to play that game sometime.

Some games I DID play this week were Shadow Hunters and Humans!!!.
While Shadow Hunters is another excellent Partygame like King of Tokio, Humans!!! is sadly about as bad as Zombies!!! was though with a little less randomness to it. Still, it´s not a very good game.

Also, I finally got my hands on a copy of Galaxy Trucker, can´t wait to try that one out on the weekend :)

[Pentegarn]

I've been wanting to play Galaxy Trucker for a while now. I love the hastily build your ship concept

[OxBlood]

Though it can take any ammount of time if I understand the rules correctly. People have at least 3 minutes to build their ships in phase 1, more if no one flips the timer fast enough.

Still, I love the concept of being forced to build a piece of trash and then somehow keep it together while trying to make at least a bit of money on your trip :) Should be a lot of fun. I also like how the rules state that whoever wants to be first can just snag the #1-Token whenever he wants (he has to stop building of course) :)

[dextire]

Part of my gift to Dimnos this past Christmas was Nightmare: The Board Game.
It looks pretty fun and I noticed there's 3 more games in the series under the name Atmosfear.

Anyone on here played any of them? I'm wondering if they are worth tracking down as I've never played any of them.

[Pentegarn]

The VCR/DVD games were a bit of a fad. Haven't seen many hardcore boardgamers playing them though. Whenever CABS has raffles and giveaways they are always the last ones to go regardless of the type of vcr/dvd game it may be,

I think the reason is most people find the necessity of a TV and vcr/dvd player a bit cumbersome

[dextire]

Ah, okay. I had to transfer the VHS to DVD and I thought the Gatekeeper guy was great. :lol

I also liked the idea of game that only took an hour at most to finish, because most of my friends don't like board games that much.
Oh well.

[OxBlood]

Yeah, thats the old problem

"but these things take soooo long to play...!"

And they don´t even KNOW long games like Twilight Imperium or Runewars (though one of my friend really loves RW :))

[Pentegarn]

Yeah it is kind of a rabbit hole thing.

The normal person thinks of board games like a Monopoly or a Risk or a Clue.

If they try other things. like a Chrononauts, or a Quarriors! and they find they like them. They move on to a Dune or a Battlestar Galactica which can eat 3-5 hours. The really hardcore move onto the marathon games like the previous 2 OxBlood listed

[OxBlood]

Though some games, like Runewars, seem to grab peoples attention once you start explaining how the game is played. I still have a revenge-match to play against a friend :D

The same friend and I decided yesterday that 1 in the morning is no time to be sleeping so we played a bit of Memoir44 and a match of Summoner Wars.

He really liked Memoir and he should cause he beat me but then again, when do the Germans win in the first scenario.

The Summoner Wars match was even better. His Jungle Elves really struggled against my Shadow Elves but it was his very first match so that was to be expected. BUT. He won. Fair and square. I had his Summoner surrounded by weak Units and was poking him to death cause he couldn´t both get away and kill them off and his deck was empty too.
But he had one last Lioneer and he got really lucky and finished off my slightly unprotected Summoner hiding behind a wall :D

It was really cool and you know a game is good when you start analysing the turns afterwards :) As I´ve said before, Summoner Wars is a game that just keeps on giving :)


Also got 6nimmt and 11nimmt from the store, apparently 6nimmt was kinda popular overseas but you couldn´t get it or something? Every moderately stocked store here has is...weird.

[Pentegarn]

So the more I play Dice Town, the more I realize how cool it really is. There is an underlying screw others quickly and often element to it that the game does not openly advertise.

[OxBlood]

That one´s still on my list :)

Friend and I played through the second scenario of the GOW-Game, which is basically "Kill the Berserker"...it was quite fun, running from it, luring it to smash through the walls to get to the Hammer of Dawn...nice game.

I´m still waiting to pick up my copy of MageKnight, seems to be an awesome game :)

[Pentegarn]

If you are going to play Dice Town it is the most fun with 4-5 players, 5 preferrably

[darkvare]

a week ago i bought risk legacy (know as revolution over here) at first i thought it was a limited edition version of risk with different factions and robots but is much more than that, every faction has special abilities and every match has an impact on the next

[Fathom Zero]

I'm trying to major in games and game design, specifically board games.

Multi-disciplinary studies - that sort of thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Games-Elliott-M-Avedon/dp/0898740452

Anyone know any other books that would be helpful?

[Pentegarn]

There's a few good "x best board games of all time" books worth looking into. But to get really into how to design a great game you have to learn what works by playing them. Watching the trends is a good thing too. Like right now the co-op games and deckbuilders are scoring huge. Going to both Gen-Con and Origins is a must as well. You can talk to a lot of game developers there and see the nuts and bolts of how it all comes together if you find the right peeps to talk to. Demo anything and everything, not just to see what works, but to see what does not so you don't repeat the mistakes of a poor game design with a pretty finish,

[Pentegarn]

So I got to play Bang!. I am a big fan of the secret roll war kind of games like Shadow Hunters (with the exception of Battlestar Galactica). This game delivers, and I love the "he just banged him" jokes that kept happening.

If you can get 5-7 people together I say give this one a try. Not very complicated but pretty fun.

[OxBlood]

Interesting coincidence, I just bought Bang! a few days ago on a hunch. Haven´t played it yet but it appears to be really good :)

[Fathom Zero]

Picked up Citadels upon many recommendations and I've yet to play it. Might get a few people over tonight - looks likea ton of low stakes fun.

[Pentegarn]

Picked up Citadels upon many recommendations and I've yet to play it. Might get a few people over tonight - looks likea ton of low stakes fun.

Good choice. Better the closer to 7 players you get, but fun and functional even with just 2

[kahljorn]

I'm trying to major in games and game design, specifically board games.

Multi-disciplinary studies - that sort of thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Games-Elliott-M-Avedon/dp/0898740452

Anyone know any other books that would be helpful?

dungeons and dragons rule book?

[King Hadas]

I'm trying to major in games and game design, specifically board games.

Multi-disciplinary studies - that sort of thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Games-Elliott-M-Avedon/dp/0898740452

Anyone know any other books that would be helpful?

Have you read Playing to Win? Although it's written with video games in mind (specifically Street Fighter) the concepts apply to board games or any games really. Here's the initial article that was later expanded into the book.

http://www.sirlin.net/articles/playing-to-win-part-1.html

The full book is also on that site and it's free to read.

[Fathom Zero]

The internet's where most of this stuff's at now, anyways, so I've read scads of game design articles. Haven't read that, though. I'll look into it a bit later. But it's not just board games - video games are as applicable.

And a D&D rulebook would probably be worth getting, honestly.

[kahljorn]

maybe you can get some gay history of dungeons and dragons thing so you can see the balance issues and game mechanics bullshit they discussed if there is such a thing.

[Pentegarn]

There's a few good "x best board games of all time" books worth looking into. But to get really into how to design a great game you have to learn what works by playing them. Watching the trends is a good thing too. Like right now the co-op games and deckbuilders are scoring huge. Going to both Gen-Con and Origins is a must as well. You can talk to a lot of game developers there and see the nuts and bolts of how it all comes together if you find the right peeps to talk to. Demo anything and everything, not just to see what works, but to see what does not so you don't repeat the mistakes of a poor game design with a pretty finish,

So the other day I was helping a member of the board game club I am in play test a very alpha stage game he made. He wanted to make a space like version of Bang! Long story short he clearly failed to proofread a lot of his cards and some mechanics were missing entirely (like equippable weapon cards) whoch got us stuck in an infinite loop where we could not attack each other.

I bring this up to add yet another piece of advice to the list above. Proofread what you make. It may not seem like much but missing one key component can wreck your game.

[Fathom Zero]

Play-testing also works for that, as evidenced. :lol

[Pentegarn]

I felt bad for the guy it was a rather catastrophic first go, even for a first go

[Dr. Boogie]

So the other day I was helping a member of the board game club I am in play test a very alpha stage game he made.

:\

[Pentegarn]

Yeah fun was not on the menu that day

[Fathom Zero]

Played in last week's and this week's Pokemon championships.

I hate metas.

[OxBlood]

Not much time right now, but three new games on the shelf, Kingsburg, Rex - final days of an empire and A few acres of snow, the new Wallace game, more on the last two in a while :)

[Pentegarn]

A few acres of snow was just reviewed on the Shut Up Sit Down show. I am going to be getting it soon.

Kingsburg is a great purchase, I recommend it to everyone

[OxBlood]

A few acres of snow was just reviewed on the Shut Up Sit Down show. I am going to be getting it soon.


Exactly the reason why I got it, Quinns and Paul have a way of being a great indicator whether a game is fun or not :)

And even though their representation of the game is not all that accurate, the atomsphere is spot-on. I´ve of course yet to play it with another person but the game is so easy, yet very elegant in it´s design, I´d say almost anyone can play it and have a lot of fun.

Both factions have about the same options but different strenghts. While the English have the superior sea-force and easier troop recruitment, the French are sneaky, great at raiding unfortified english outposts and traversing the inland terrain with ease.

The two-actions-per-turn mechanic gives the players a lot of options but also forces them to think tactically AND strategically since you can play cards into your reserve for later use (though those cards can be vulnerable to enemy ambushes. I think it the English player would not like it at all if he was to start a big Siege for Port royal or maybe Quebec and the French just wastes his Siege Cannons with a single Sapper :D


As you can see, I really really like what I´m seeing in this game. It´s really fast too, I can imagine games of around 40mins as soon as both players know their way around the game :)

Oh and they even included french and german manuals and info-sheets, very nice of them.

[Pentegarn]

So the GF and I tried out a game called Feudo. It is a 13th century British conquest game. I had hoped for a bit less combat and a bit more politics in it, but it was pretty much all conquest. Kind of felt like Smallworld without the troop loss for occupying places.

Essentially you have 3 Knights, 2 Mercenaries, 2 Infantry, 1 Baron, 1 Milady, and 1 First Knight who have various power scores and you have them scurry about the board in an effort to collect victory points which are gained by conquering cities or defeating other players soldiers in the combat phase. There are a couple minor factors to worry about like Barons can stack an additional unit on them for more power in a single space, or First Knights being the strongest single unit but not being allowed to stack, or Miladys who can render opposing Barons useless by using the enamored ability. There is a plague running rampant throughout the kingdom as well and if a unit gets the plague (which happens a lot) they will become weaker (except the Milady, who turns into a disease spreading whore). The winner is the person with the most victory points after 10 turns.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

More games need a Milady.

[Pentegarn]

Got Eminent Domain from GF for my birfday. I did not realize it can be played 2 players until today

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

:lol

[kahljorn]

did you enseminate in her domain afterwards

[Pentegarn]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[kahljorn]

not the charmin' bear

[Pentegarn]

That's the bear, I said a bear :p

[OxBlood]

Gamenight later on, I guess we´ll start with good old Roadkill Rallye, I love that game, it´s so...shameless for a boardgame. "Go, kill little children with your car-mounted flamethrower, it´s worth points! Oh and here, use candy, that´ll give you an additional kill-dice!".

And I´m thankfully not making that up :)


We also might try Merchants and Marauders again, gorgeous game if you have any love for Sid Meyer´s Pirates in your heart :)



Well, in the end it was half a game of Kingsburg that we stopped after year 3 (just took too long with two of the guys having to walk their dog multiple times, poor thing´s sick) and a quite extensive round of Bang! that I won because the Sheriff didn´t pay attention to my huge grin every time I told him I was the Deputy. Not my fault for not calling my kindergarden-style bluffing ;) Interestingly the REAL Deputy didn´t really try to convince his buddy that if HE was the deputy, I must be the Renegade...but who cares, I filled 3 people with holes and took the win. Yay me.

And since a month without new boardgames is a month without new boardgames, I ordered Lords of Waterdeep the other day. Looked like a nice entry-level title :)

[Pentegarn]

Short rant.

Damn these game publishers for not having enough supply to satisfy the demand for their games.

I tried to order both Mage Knight and A Few Acres of Snow, both out of stock and getting them on Amazon costs 2-3 times their retail price right now.

Fucking gougers

[OxBlood]

Well, if you ever happen to be near Düsseldorf, I´ll invite you to a match of A few acres of snow anytime ;)

[OxBlood]

Played a bit of Summoner Wars and Lords of Waterdeep yesterday. I love how in SW, the game can always be turned around if you play your cards right (literally) which led to me losing, partially also because I didn´t spot an opportunity to finish off the other summoner.

So my Sand Goblins lost to his Phoenix Elves but who cares, I won the game of Lords of Waterdeep. I like how light and easy to play the game is, it´s almost a filler-title and a great entry-point into the world of Eurogames and workerplacement :)

[Pentegarn]

So Lords of Waterdeep is actually not very complicated? That's interesting, that may make me want to buy it.

I got 4 new games, tried 3 of them so far (haven't had time to wedge in the Lord of the Rings deck builder game.

-Puzzle Strike: A 'deck builder' that uses chips and is based strongly off of puzzle fighter. I liked it, it is less daunting than the instructions make it seem and was pretty fun

-Thunderstone Advanced: If you took all the original Thunderstone games and compressed them down into an easy to swallow portion, then add a few fail safes to keep the randomizer mechanic from screwing the game up too much, you have this game Anyone who was starting in on Thunderstone should play this game, and jaded TS vets like myself will appreciate how they addressed the flaws. Added bonus, you can still use any expansion cards from previous games that you want in the advanced version.

-Carnival: This game operates on a dice roll and card mechanic. Pretty simple (instructions are a page) to learn. Quick games and works well 2 player which is always a plus.

As an aside, to all up and coming game developers, I expect this year's big craze will be dice based games. It is already starting (Kingsburg and Alien Frontiers are enjoying a resurgence in popularity as far as I have seen) and I expect it will only increase. I will know for sure when I go to Origins though.

[OxBlood]

Lords of Waterdeep is about as simple and basic as Workerplacement gets, its great for beginners in my opinion. Simple in a good way. Place dudes, get ressources, spend them for points, done.

Puzzle Strike is on its way here, I kinda went a little crazy and bought the whole Sirlin-Package for...well, a lot of Dollars. You simply cant get any of that over here any other way.

Concerning dice games, I think my favorite is still the Godfather game. Dont know if you can get it in the states, it's being published by Kosmos over here. Great Dice-Placement game with a bit of backstabbing too. It's rather quick and a lot of fun :)

[Pentegarn]

Puzzle Strike is on its way here, I kinda went a little crazy and bought the whole Sirlin-Package for...well, a lot of Dollars. You simply cant get any of that over here any other way.

Wish I could have stopped you, there's a newer edition, with the works like screens and game pads on their kickstarter page coming out, and as far as I can tell they will ship it anywhere for a 55 us dollar donation (plus shipping costs)


Tried out a game called Primordial Soup, it is a race for survival game where your amoeba have to out evolve everyone else's amoeba while taking care to not evolve beyond the current climate, also you eat other amoeba's poop (while playing it all the other CABS passers by kept mentioning that particular game mechanic)

Also tried out Galaxy Trucker. I absolutely sucked at it, in fact I may have broken the record for suck on it by ending the game with a mere 1 credit to my name. Still, trying to build a ship quickly is a blast and watching as your ramshackle creation falls apart in the remorseless emptiness of space is kind of funny to see.

Finally got around to opening and playing Lord of the Rings The Card Game. It could use more scenarios, but was a solid co-op card game once you learn the somewhat cumbersome rules

[OxBlood]

Ah well, too late and I wouldn´t have listened anyway :) I actually ordered all three Sirlin games btw, so I got Puzzle Strike, the complete Edition of Yomi and Flash Duel :)

The package got stuck in customs of course and I had to pay an additional 30 bucks for taxes since there was no invoice attached to the package...ah well, who cares, 240 bucks or 270 bucks, it´s way too much one way or the other.

Oh and they actually included the Upgrade Kit for Puzzle Strike. Screens, Promos, Playing Mats, it´s all there except for the additional 10 Characters from the addon but I don´t really mind, to me, the main game is Yomi anyway. Flash Duel is nice too though, even though it´s basically a carbon copy of En Guarde with some nice additions but Sirlin says so explicitly too so who cares.

I really like the way, Sirlin designs his games and the thought that goes into them making them extremely simple but challenging at the same time :)

[OxBlood]

Mageknight, FINALLY! First edition in german. I´m pretty impressed how simple they kept the inside of the box. Most things fit back in perfectly and there is NO punching out stuff whatsoever, just unwrap a few components and you´re ready to play...if you know how to play this thing. Mageknight is definetely no simple or short game, but just by browsing over the rules, I get the feeling we have something really great here...

[OxBlood]

Played some new stuff this weekend. Believe it or not, this was the first time we ever played Munchkin. Problem is when you have one or two people in your group that for the love of a deity of your choice can´t wrap their head around rules.

Tell me, what´s so complicated about this:

Two decks of cards. On your turn you draw from deck A. If it´s a monster, deal with it. If you beat it, draw from deck B. If it´s not a monster, play one from your hand or draw from deck A and be done with it.

It´s really not rocket-science. Anyway, that went rather well after a while, then we switched to Jungle Speed. Now, there´s NO excuse if you don´t understand THAT game, unless you´re a very small monkey maybe. Lots of simple stupid fun, though I suck at these games because of the way my brain seems to work.

Finally we broke out the new Wiz-War. I was really looking forward to it and I had an absolute blast playing, even though I died first. Sadly, the remaining two people thought it was too random (which is the point) buuut...I´ll get them to like it sooner or later :D

[k0k0]

I just got into board games while I was with my ex fiance. My favorites so far are Smallworld and King of Tokyo.

[Dimnos]

Man, I have been shilling out a lot of cash to Fantasy Flight here recently. :\

I picked up Mansions of Madness about a year ago but only recently got to really play it. Damn that game is fun. As the keeper (read game master) you just get to murder the investigators, especially if they all split up and do their own thing, its almost unfair. Its basically Arkham Horror just done up a different way to be a bit more RPG like and someone gets to be the monsters.

On top of that I also recently picked up Rex and the new 2nd edition Descent.

Descent is basically Mansions but D&D style in place of Cathulu and has more focus on combat and killing monsters than progressing a story. Its supposed to also have campaign rules and character progression. Havent actually played it yet because we have been to busy with Rex and its political backstabbing.

[Dr. Boogie]

I picked up Lords of Waterdeep a couple months back. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to play it with anyone nearby because it was D&D, but thankfully I can just explain the works as purples, oranges, blacks, and whites. Also, my brother doesn't want to play it anymore because I always wind up overtaking him in the final points tally.

Picked up King of Tokyo over Thanksgiving and played the shit out of it with my sister and some friend of hers. It's a nice mix of strategy and luck, so no one really feels left out when they play it. That was my least favorite part of Settlers of Catan: getting stuck in a rut where your numbers never came up, so you couldn't do a damn thing. Also, the games are short, which means plenty of time to try again if you fail.


I've had my eye on Fortress America. It looks like an interesting one, and so many of the boardgames I play wind up being 1 vs all anyway. Anyway tried it, or something like it?

[Pentegarn]

Think I will necromancer this thread with my current top 10 favorite board games

10) Thunderstone Quest - The third edition of the Thunderstone deckbuilder game. They further improved how dungeon delving works in the game and removed food cards which totally fixes the junk draw issue of previous editions. The balance of dungeon delving is at its best where you will always have a productive action to take regardless of draw thanks to the various sub actions within the village action. Game ends when you find 4 keys hidden throughout the dungeon and the big bad appears. You get one final turn where you draw an extra 4 cards and keep all but 2 of your choice then you either attack the big bad or take one more turn. Most points based off your deck value and vp tokens wins

9) Crusaders Thy Will Be Done - A mancala based action game where your knights crusade accross the countryside smiting heathens and building castles, churches, farms, and monuments that enhance your basic actions. Actions include Crusade (where you kill Prussians, Saracens, and Slavs), Move (move your knights around the map) Build (build a building in an empty territory), A scoring action where you collect points based off the power points on that action, and an enhance action that increases your permanently increases your power when crusading. When the set number of victory point tokens are given out the game ends.

8) Manhattan Project Energy Empire - A worker placement dice game set in post WW2 era Earth. Power is needed to heal and you are one nation trying to become the best at generating power. But watch out how much pollution you generate while doing so. Every turn you either place a worker/energy to achieve and action, or you pull your workers back and take a personal goal for end game scoring. When you pull back you gain back your workers and generate energy tokens by rolling your power plant dice. If your highest value roll has pollution on it, you gain one or 2 pollution which has to be cleaned up or else it costs you end game points. Each time pollution happens (or in the case no pollution is rolled, a pollution is burned) the countdown till the end of the round comes closer to ending. When a round ends and event happens. The first 3 events are pleasant and may gain you a free worker, die, or resources which are given to everyone, but the last 3 events are more catastrophic like plagues, power shortages, sanctions, taxation, pollution increases and the like. The game ends at the end of the 6th round and your pollution, dice, buildings, and personal goals are added up and high score wins

7) Reavers of Midgard - A shared action selection and set collection game. Each turn a player chooses an action that he gains a bonus for, then everyone gets to do said action. Each round everyone chooses one action. Game ends after 6 full rounds.

6) Hyperborea - a 4x (explore, exploit, expand, exterminate) bag builder (think deck builder but instead of cards, you use cubes) You draw 3 cubes per turn and place them on your personal board to take actions that allow you to move, attack, add more troops, add more cubes, gain victory points, or gain technology cards that give more action choices. Points scored by gaining cubes in your bag (other than grey ones, those are worthless and take up junk) holding territory, killing different players, killing non player faction creatures, gaining tech, gaining victory point gems, getting achievements, generating troops and so on. Game ends depending on number of achievements accomplished, player count, and pre-chosen game length

5) Scythe - This one, like all Stonemaier Games, is polarizing. I fall on the side of those who love it. It's a post apocalyptic action selection, area control, resource management game. Select an action and if you possess the correct amount of goods, take the attached build, recruit, develop, or upgrade action. If you reach certain milestones, such as maxing your battle power or popularity, building all your buildings or mechs, generating all your workers, finishing a quest or winning a battle, you add a star to the score area. The game ends after a player gets their 6th star placed. Your score is based off accumulated coins many of which are given at end game based off of territories controlled, stars placed, and goods left all multiplied by your popularity tier rating. It plays great but also looks incredible with the mech and leader minis, goods all over the board, and beautiful game art

4) Power Grid - Pound for pound, this is the most balanced game ever made. The catch up mechanic is top notch so it is almost runaway leader proof. Each round you participate in auctions to buy power plants and power resources which you use to power cities. The order of bidding is determined by who is the leader which results in whoever is in last place has the bidding advantage. The game ends when a certain number of cities have power plants in them and most powered cities at the end of the game wins.

3) Puerto Rico - I love shared action games, be it the previously mentioned Reavers of Midgard, Race/Roll for the Galaxy, Exodus Fleet, or New Frontiers. But this is the granddaddy of the genre. You select from a series of actions, be it prospect coin, sell goods, increase your farm, build buildings, generate goods, ship, etc. The person choosing the action gets a special bonus benefit while everyone playing then gets to do the action. The game ends when points or colonists run out.

2) Brass Birmingham - Martin Wallace has designed a lot of great games, London, A Few Acres of Snow, Mythotoppia, Age of Steam, Automobile, but my favorite one is easily Brass Birmingham. It's a hand management style game where your cards have city names or actiion symbols on them. Each turn you play 2 cards which can either allow you to build in a specific city or build a specific building in a city connected to your supply chain. The cards can also be used to take a loan, ship goods, build canal or rail depending on the era of the game you're currently in, or gain 2 wild cards to be used later. The game is played over 2 eras where you go through the cards until the deck dries up, reshuffle and start the second era and repeat this till the deck dries up again. Most points after that wins

1) Castles of Burgundy - Stephan Feld's "Guernica" You are competing to create the best section of kingdom by using 2 die rolls per turn to either take a tile from the board, place a taken tile onto your board, sell the die roll for die manipulating workers, or sell a stack of goods you collected. Plays across 5 rounds with 5 turns per round where the quicker you fill in a section the more points that section is worth.