Official CAG board/card game topic. From Dominion to Battlestar we gots it all!

Anyone catch the new episode of Tabletop? They play Elder Sign. Seems like a game I would dig, but as always, I think it would be tough to find people to play with.

Anyone play it? Opinions?
 
Anyone else been following mage wars? It looks awesome. It's a two player dueling game. Similar to magic but much much better. Watch dicetowers review of it on youtube. It was the big hit at gencon and comes out in a couple weeks.
 
[quote name='Temporaryscars']Anyone catch the new episode of Tabletop? They play Elder Sign. Seems like a game I would dig, but as always, I think it would be tough to find people to play with.

Anyone play it? Opinions?[/QUOTE]

I got it as a gift and tried playing it solo and had an awesome experience playing it. I ended up winning the game on my final roll. I'm sure it would be fun with a small group too.
 
Yes. check out videos of it on youtube. Mage Wars is similar to magic as in you are casting spells but you have your whole deck open to you to play what you want when you want. It also has a board you can move your creatures around.

Quick update.

Libertalia is awesome if you like citadels or pirate themed games.
Lords of Waterdeep is really fun. Euro d&d game.
 
So, I've been playing Elder Sign with the wife for the last couple of weeks and, surprisingly, she has really taken to it. In fact, she has been wanting to play it more than I have. It's a great game, but there are so many variables involved and it's not clear what some of the rules are. Either way, I give it a thumbs up in case anyone wants to check it out.
 
Got two games recently.

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Mages: Duel At Mt Skullzfyre- This game is a hilarious and fun game where the goal is to basically explode your opponents. Each round you make a spell of 1-3 cards (spells have a beginning, middle and end to make a complete 3 card spell), and everyone does what the spell says. It's also an official rule, you have to name your spell like a wizard. The artwork is amazing, and reminds me of regular show, super jail and adventure time mixed together. The game is a fun game when you want something not deep, but yet fun.

Arkham Horror- Just got it today. Played it once at a friends and I knew I needed it but I forgot the rules so I need to read up on them.
 
I played Power Grid for the first time last friday and really liked that game. It does play rather long with 6 players. Probably better with 4, but it was fun anyway. The turn is broken up into phases. First power plants are auctioned off. Then resources are purchased to run the power plants (the cost of the resource depending on how much of the resource is available), and finally cities are purchased, with fixed costs, but with varying costs for connections between cities. The goal is to have the most cities powered once the end game condition is met (which is a number of cities owned, dependent on the number of players).
 
We just cant seem to wrap our heads around Power Grid. We have owned it forever and glanced at it a few times and for some reason it just never clicked with us.

We just finished up Jaipur which is one of the best games we have played in awhile. Right now we are working on Red November, Twixt, High School Drama, Pocket Rockets, Last Will and one or two others I dont recall. Twixt and Red November are mainly what we are playing. RN is kind of like a goofy and crappy Pandemic where as Twixt is like a precursor to Blokus....a wonderful wonderful precursor. Both my wife and I are really loving the game because it is just so simple yet so well balanced. It is amazingly competitive and until the end of the game the other player is putting up a fight
 
Twixt is an old Avalon Hill game. Is somebody remaking that or did you get an AH copy? I believe I still have our copy. It's a pretty cool abstract game.

I have been introduced to the wonderfulness that is Crokinole. It is not exactly a board game, rather a skill game, but so much fun. I would love to have one of the sets from here, but they aren't exactly cheap: http://www.hilinski.net/woodgames/crokinole.html

If you are so equipped you can build your own, but I am not. :) I guess I'll save my pennies.
 
I got my expansions to Flash Point Fire Rescue. Urban Structures and 2nd Story. They are both worth having, but especially 2nd Story. That's a great enhancement to the game.

This game is very difficult in the advanced game. Not to understand, but to win. I had to dial the difficulty back by changing the setup and by not using hot spots. We'll work our way back up.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Twixt is an old Avalon Hill game. Is somebody remaking that or did you get an AH copy? I believe I still have our copy. It's a pretty cool abstract game.

I have been introduced to the wonderfulness that is Crokinole. It is not exactly a board game, rather a skill game, but so much fun. I would love to have one of the sets from here, but they aren't exactly cheap: http://www.hilinski.net/woodgames/crokinole.html

If you are so equipped you can build your own, but I am not. :) I guess I'll save my pennies.[/QUOTE]

Yeah we picked up an old Red Book copy ;) Love it to death so far. I have always wanted to get a good Crokinole board, they are just too god damn expensive though!
 
[quote name='Temporaryscars']I've had Pandemic for a couple of weeks now and I have 0 wins out of six games or so. Anyone have tips on how to win at that game?[/QUOTE]

I've found that it helps to try to quickly eliminate one of the diseases while quelling all of the 3-block spots that you can.

Honestly, Pandemic can really swing wildly easy or insanely difficult just through luck of the draw, even on the easy mode. It's fun, but I'd play it more if the difficulty was a bit more consistent somehow.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Twixt is an old Avalon Hill game. Is somebody remaking that or did you get an AH copy? I believe I still have our copy. It's a pretty cool abstract game.

I have been introduced to the wonderfulness that is Crokinole. It is not exactly a board game, rather a skill game, but so much fun. I would love to have one of the sets from here, but they aren't exactly cheap: http://www.hilinski.net/woodgames/crokinole.html

If you are so equipped you can build your own, but I am not. :) I guess I'll save my pennies.[/QUOTE]

I ordered one of those Crokinole boards from them and they are well worth it.
 
Just as a heads up, the next few days are a great time to stock up on any board games you may want (either as gifts or for yourself)... the BGG Hot Deals forum will no doubt be up-to-date as deals get announced, but FFG's annual sale has already started and Minature Market looks like it'll be having a great sale starting on Black Friday.
 
So a few of us in the GGT are trying to organize a round of Battlestar Galactica played online via Vassal. We have three right now, so two more players is ideal but I'm okay with a full game, too. If we end up with four or six players, I'd prefer to use the "no sympathizer" variant.

Anyone interested?
 
An update on some recent purchases I've made:

Eclipse: Had to see what all the fuss is about. Heavy space game. Only played once with 2 players. A lot going on, and is very euro. Will need to play more.

The Castles of Burgundy: Euro tile and dice game. Cool mechanics. Quite enjoyed this.

Innovation: Holy chaotic card game! 2 players was a blast but a brain melter. Would never even try playing 4 players. This game is very love it or hate it. I love it.

Archipelago: Just barely hit shelves. This is a VERY pretty heavy-ish euro game. It's been described as heavy but taught it to my mom in 20 minutes and she didn't have many problems. The rulebook sucks but once you get it down the game has so many things going on. Probably the most thematic euro game I've ever played. Really feels like exploring islands, hiring natives, creating markets, avoiding crisis, and dealing with rebels. This is a semi-cooperative game which makes it rather different than anything I've played. Each person has a card showing how the game ends that they keep secret which keeps you on your toes. Really cool.

Libertalia: Role selecting game with pirates. Quite like it.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']An update on some recent purchases I've made:

Eclipse: Had to see what all the fuss is about. Heavy space game. Only played once with 2 players. A lot going on, and is very euro. Will need to play more.
[/QUOTE]

I just bought this last weekend, Miniature Market had it for $70 after shipping, which is the cheapest I've ever seen it. I normally don't like games that play over 2 hours long as well as games that are shorter in length but this game has always looked interesting to me. There are a million pieces so I know setup will be fairly substantial but I hear it's about 45 minutes per player so as long as games don't turn into marathons it should be ok. I know it will take a little while to learn how to play but once we get it down I'm anxious to see if we like it or not.
 
I'm asking for Lords of Waterdeep for xmas as it's supposed to be a good gateway worker placement game and the Dungeons & Dragons theme will appeal to my kids. That's then definitely a plus.

Also probably going to ask for Formula D. I don't have any racing games and this one sounds great.

I would *love* to get a crokinole board, but that's out of my price range right now. Sometime next year for sure, though. Such a fun game.

I haven't picked up anything new in the mean time. I'm still enjoying Flash Point Fire Rescue a lot, but I really need to organize all the counters. There are so many of them of different types, especially with 2nd Story added in. Right now they are just a jumble in the box and that slows down set up a huge amount. Going to get things in order this weekend.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']
Innovation: Holy chaotic card game! 2 players was a blast but a brain melter. Would never even try playing 4 players. This game is very love it or hate it. I love it.[/QUOTE]

Try it with 4. It's fun to have to decide if you want to use a technology or not based on who it does or does not help.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']I'm asking for Lords of Waterdeep for xmas as it's supposed to be a good gateway worker placement game and the Dungeons & Dragons theme will appeal to my kids. That's then definitely a plus.

Also probably going to ask for Formula D. I don't have any racing games and this one sounds great.

I would *love* to get a crokinole board, but that's out of my price range right now. Sometime next year for sure, though. Such a fun game.

I haven't picked up anything new in the mean time. I'm still enjoying Flash Point Fire Rescue a lot, but I really need to organize all the counters. There are so many of them of different types, especially with 2nd Story added in. Right now they are just a jumble in the box and that slows down set up a huge amount. Going to get things in order this weekend.[/QUOTE]

I forgot to mention lords of waterdeep. It's a good game. Pure euro worker placement. It's like Caylus super light. The theme is very tacked on - it's hard to remember to say "I need 5 wizards" instead of "I need 5 purple cubes."
 
So my gaming group sunk our teeth into Eclipse this weekend and I have to say we really like it so far. It took us quite a while to get the hang of it, either because we are dumb or there's a lot going on at first, I'm not sure which haha. Anyways it seemed to take us about 1 hr per player to play through a whole game. Now this should only speed up as we keep playing and getting more efficient with the game's setup and cleanup afterwards, but this was the initial time for our first game. If you don't like a long setup this game may not be for you, it seems to take between 10-15 minutes to get a game up and running. There are also about 500 pieces and parts but this game is more than fun enough to overcome that. I normally prefer shorter games like Catan over longer games like this one but the game is so fun that this seems to be one of the exceptions. This game has the makings of one of those games you can just keep playing and not get tired of, there are so many different strategies you can use to try and win. I know the first expansion comes out in a few weeks, once we play a few more games together I think we will go ahead and get the expansion and see how much it adds to the base game.

If you don't mind long setups/cleanups or a few hundred game components this game may be for you.
 
Pickups...

Civilization The Board Game- While I haven't tried it yet, imagine if they made Sid Meyer's Civ into a board game that you can play in a night.

The Waking Dead (The ZMan games one, not the one based off of the TV show)- Just unwrapped it. It looks fun because it's very rougelike. Your main goal is to scout three locations but at the same time you also need to go and get followers/equipment to survive. It has this risk vs reward system where you could die in one bad zombie attack, but you may need to go to x space to get more resources to win.
 
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Got Legendary for my birthday a couple weeks ago. Really liking it. Think Ascension for the comic book geek.

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Also got For Sale for my birthday. It's quickly become a favorite quick-play game, and it can be taught in no time.

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Picked up Flash Duel and Yomi today to complete my David Sirlin collection (see also: Puzzle Strike). If you don't know David Sirlin, he rebalanced Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. Very excited to play both games.
 
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Just learned to play this game called Citadels over the holiday. Really fun card game that's fairly simple to learn but very deep strategy wise.
 
[quote name='dopa345']Just learned to play this game called Citadels over the holiday. Really fun card game that's fairly simple to learn but very deep strategy wise.[/QUOTE]

Citadels is a great little game. Easy to teach, and really easy to bring along with you.
 
Has anybody played Android:Netrunner? From the description, it sounds to be in my wheelhouse. A hacker trying to break into a corporation, and the corporation trying to stop the hack.

Is this a CCG by the ways of M:TG or more like Dominion? I don't want to buy booster packs but I don't mind buying expansion sets.
 
I am sure I'm not the first to ask this but here goes:

I am looking to get into table top games. Any good ideas where to start out?

I will most likely just be playing with my wife to start off with, so a game that's at least 2 players would be nice. I'm also interested in co-op type games but it doesn't have to be co-op.

Many thanks in advance!
 
[quote name='Superstar']I am sure I'm not the first to ask this but here goes:

I am looking to get into table top games. Any good ideas where to start out?

I will most likely just be playing with my wife to start off with, so a game that's at least 2 players would be nice. I'm also interested in co-op type games but it doesn't have to be co-op.

Many thanks in advance![/QUOTE]

First off, get yourself comfortable around BoardGameGeek. You'll be able to research games, watch videos to learn how to play them, get recommendations, and about a million other things involving the world of board games.

I'll start you off with a small list of things to look at. I could easily expand on this, but knowing a bit about what kind of things you like would help tailor recommendations.

Strictly two players:

  • Lost Cities - Fun, relatively quick card-based game in which you try to build paths of cards in ascending order number.
  • Hive - Kind of an advanced chess with no board, but lovely bakelite pieces. Each bug moves in a different way as you try to capture the queen.
  • Mr. Jack - A clever deduction game in which one player is trying to figure out who the killer is by alternating control of character tokens, each of which has a unique ability.
For two players and up:

  • Ticket to Ride - One of the most popular games around and a great "gateway" game. Complete destination tickets by building railroad paths. Easy to learn and play.
  • Carcassonne - A classic and one of the founding fathers of the modern boardgame movement. Draw and play tiles to build the biggest and best cities, roads, and farms, then lay claim to them with your meeples (everyone loves meeples!)
  • Pandemic - A challenging cooperative game in which you try to save the world by curing diseases that are constantly on the verge of an outbreak.
  • Dominion - A major favorite, and the godfather of deck-builders. You start with a standard hand of money and victory points. From there, you buy new cards to add to your deck that will give you new abilities and more points.
 
[quote name='BigSpoonyBard']First off, get yourself comfortable around BoardGameGeek. You'll be able to research games, watch videos to learn how to play them, get recommendations, and about a million other things involving the world of board games.

I'll start you off with a small list of things to look at. I could easily expand on this, but knowing a bit about what kind of things you like would help tailor recommendations.

Strictly two players:

  • Lost Cities - Fun, relatively quick card-based game in which you try to build paths of cards in ascending order number.
  • Hive - Kind of an advanced chess with no board, but lovely bakelite pieces. Each bug moves in a different way as you try to capture the queen.
  • Mr. Jack - A clever deduction game in which one player is trying to figure out who the killer is by alternating control of character tokens, each of which has a unique ability.
For two players and up:

  • Ticket to Ride - One of the most popular games around and a great "gateway" game. Complete destination tickets by building railroad paths. Easy to learn and play.
  • Carcassonne - A classic and one of the founding fathers of the modern boardgame movement. Draw and play tiles to build the biggest and best cities, roads, and farms, then lay claim to them with your meeples (everyone loves meeples!)
  • Pandemic - A challenging cooperative game in which you try to save the world by curing diseases that are constantly on the verge of an outbreak.
  • Dominion - A major favorite, and the godfather of deck-builders. You start with a standard hand of money and victory points. From there, you buy new cards to add to your deck that will give you new abilities and more points.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestions! I forgot to mention that my wife and I are already addicted to ticket to ride on the iPad. I am probably going to pick up the physical board game soon. I am going to try out pandemic. It sounds amazing.
 
[quote name='iambeaker']Has anybody played Android:Netrunner? From the description, it sounds to be in my wheelhouse. A hacker trying to break into a corporation, and the corporation trying to stop the hack.

Is this a CCG by the ways of M:TG or more like Dominion? I don't want to buy booster packs but I don't mind buying expansion sets.[/QUOTE]

It's based on an older Richard Garfield (creator of M:tG) CCG, but Fantasy Flight has updated it and turned it into an LCG (Living Card Game, like a CCG, but no random packs-just set purchases). The original is pretty good, but I haven't played the new one yet.
 
[quote name='Superstar']Thanks for the suggestions! I forgot to mention that my wife and I are already addicted to ticket to ride on the iPad. I am probably going to pick up the physical board game soon. I am going to try out pandemic. It sounds amazing.[/QUOTE]

If you've got an iPad, there are a ton of good boardgame conversions you can try out for a lower cost than buying the physical games: Lost Cities, Ascension, Small World, Carcassonne (Excellent ios implementation), Settlers of Catan, Neuroshima Hex (a personal ios favorite), Zooloretto, Hive, and tons more (Stone Age, Puerto Rico, ok, I better stop).
 
For Xmas I got Formula D and Lords of Waterdeep. Formula D is a ton of fun! Plays quickly too. I'm going to put the expansions on my wish list. So far we've just played the basic game. We haven't tried Lords yet, but I understand it's good. I'm looking forward to trying it.

My son also got Axis & Allies 1942, which he'd requested (I think my kids just like all the planes and tanks and such :). I'm wary of that one. I hear it can take 5 hours. Ouch.
 
Ended up buying Monty Python Fluxx last night off Amazon. It seems fun because it's something that's fast but at the same time the randomness gives no one a real advantage. Plus I can buy more sets and mix and match.
 
I don't really enjoy Fluxx much. It's mostly just convoluted thumb twiddling. We play it because it kills time while we wait for others to arrive since people can join in after it has started. But I don't really have that much fun with it any more.
 
We played Lords of Waterdeep on Saturday. That is a lot of fun! My kids liked it a lot too. We did run into several questions that I didn't see the answer for in the rules:

When reassigning agents in the harbor, does that count as an extra turn? I.e. can you complete a quest as well?

If you have the plot quest that lets you place an agent on a space already used, what happens if you place it on Castle Waterdeep? Do you take the first turn away from the person that was there?

Does the ambassador get returned to its building at the end of a round, or does it stay on the board?
 
[quote name='crunchewy']We played Lords of Waterdeep on Saturday. That is a lot of fun! My kids liked it a lot too. We did run into several questions that I didn't see the answer for in the rules:

When reassigning agents in the harbor, does that count as an extra turn? I.e. can you complete a quest as well?

If you have the plot quest that lets you place an agent on a space already used, what happens if you place it on Castle Waterdeep? Do you take the first turn away from the person that was there?

Does the ambassador get returned to its building at the end of a round, or does it stay on the board?[/QUOTE]

Looks like you found your answers on BGG ;)
 
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