What boardgames have you played recently?

Whizbang1963

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Millionaire Monopoly with the wife last night. Interesting take on the Monolopy franchise. And of course she kicked my ass, stole my money, and at my lunch!
 

Helmseye

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Vietnam (Victory Games), plan to go through all the scenarios a couple of times, then hopefully start a campaign game before the end of the year.
Great choice

Well worth the effort, I never got to play it as much as I wanted too but feel free to ping me if u need help understanding some of its finer points
 

Victor

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@Steve re Thunderstone changes,

1) Replacing the Thunderstone itself with a Thunderstone bearer. A tough arse behemoth usually with global effects. Game only ends when he is defeated. So the game goes out with a much bigger bang.
2) Useless militia replaced with regulars that couple to their starting pole arm weapons which have the benefit of drawing an extra card; regulars can be leveled up for 2 xp instead of 3...very big; a lot more cards available in possible mixes where you might hold the regulars a little longer than you would militia
3) Introduction of a prepare option that allows you to place any number of cards in your current hand onto the top of your draw deck and discard the remaining cards.
4) Clearly defined Battle vs. Aftermath effects
5) Better balanced heroes...Selurin and Outland are waaaay unbalanced; games often turn on who can bring these guys up the fastest; Selurin is particularly broken.
 

RobZagnut

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@Steve re Thunderstone changes,

1) Replacing the Thunderstone itself with a Thunderstone bearer. A tough arse behemoth usually with global effects. Game only ends when he is defeated. So the game goes out with a much bigger bang.
2) Useless militia replaced with regulars that couple to their starting pole arm weapons which have the benefit of drawing an extra card; regulars can be leveled up for 2 xp instead of 3...very big; a lot more cards available in possible mixes where you might hold the regulars a little longer than you would militia
3) Introduction of a prepare option that allows you to place any number of cards in your current hand onto the top of your draw deck and discard the remaining cards.
4) Clearly defined Battle vs. Aftermath effects
5) Better balanced heroes...Selurin and Outland are waaaay unbalanced; games often turn on who can bring these guys up the fastest; Selurin is particularly broken.

Thanks for the update.

Didn't like some of the reviews about the original and didn't know about a new version until your post. The changes sound like it made a good game better. Just ordered it.

Or maybe I'm a sucker for any game with the word 'Advance' in it? :)
 
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TopT

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Tokyo Express is an outstanding solitaire game. It's been a long time since I played it, but it's very, very good. I picked up a copy last year (as I lost my original copy many years ago) and hope to give it another goover the next few years.

I played a game of Polis Friday night - First Peloponnesian War, Athens vs Sparta. An interesting economic model, I can see why many Cold War strategists studied conflicts like the Peloponnesian and Carthage vs Rome wars, as the grand strategic similarities with the NATO vs Warsaw Pact situation are very interesting.
You have sold me on purchasing this game. Thank you.
 

Victor

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Thanks for the update.

Didn't like some of the reviews about the original and didn't know about a new version until your post. The changes sound like it made a good game better. Just ordered it.

Or maybe I'm a sucker for any game with the word 'Advance' in it? :)
I've been a TS fanboy from the get go, but must admit, TS advance is vastly superior. It also has great online support with additional prix fixe modules thoughtful card combos and nice rules tweaks for flavor. Only thing original has over advance is original has a computer implemented adaptation on Yucata while advance is still lacking in this department.
 

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It's called "Rolling Stock", an old "HO train scale" computer game updated by a friend. Basically it's a problem in "spotting" your rolling stock (box cars ect) from one track siding to another or moving cars out to from up the train. "How do you get boxcar "A" out to another siding when it's the 3rd car from one end and the sixth from the other end. lol we do at times more than just run the silly trains around the room.

Bill
 

RobZagnut

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Played the space exploration game High Frontier last night. Very detailed, but very interesting.

Water is both money and fuel. You need to buy Thrusters to get into space and a Robonaut and Refinery to convert to a Factory, which builds you a much better Thruster, Robonaut or Refinery on the planet/rock you've inhabited. Getting better stuff allows you to move faster and farther allowing you to explore deeper into space. Takes a few hours to get your head around, but once the light comes on it works well.

Going to play the new Talisman this morning with two of my original gaming buddies who moved away from Spokane 12 years ago. Then the ASL tournament starts tonight.
 
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jwb3

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A couple weeks ago some friends and I tried out two games new to us, the new version of Descent and the 4x game Eclipse.

I never played the old Descent, partly because I gathered it was pretty long. The new version is a lot shorter; otherwise I can't compare them. Someone I talked to today said that he preferred old Descent because it filled a niche, a relatively long and in-depth game of dungeon exploration with a bit of role-playing. From his perspective, new Descent is none of the above, leaving that niche empty. YMMV.

I liked the shortness, and wasn't that excited by the lightness. It was a game I will willingly play again with my friends, but otherwise will never touch. That puts it a notch above the very similar D&D boardgames (Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt, Wrath of Ashardalon), which I found pretty pointless.

Eclipse was a lot of fun. It uses somewhat Euro-ish mechanics to good effect, has a well-thought-out way to handle research, and didn't last too long. I'll be looking forward to playing it again, but we'll see how well it holds up long-term. At the moment I'd rank it well above Twilight Imperium, although there's another 4x game (Space Empires: 4X) which is longer but otherwise scratches my 4x itch about as well. The latter has much more of a wargame feel, where Eclipse has the more Euro feel.


Then today the local game club gathered, and I played another round of Viva Java (discussed in a post about a month ago), Seven Wonders (a bit tedious as I always find it), Transamerica, and a new-to-me game called Guild Hall.

Guild Hall is an interesting card game where there are cards representing six types of (vaguely medieval) guild professionals; each type has a special power, and comes in five different colors. Your goal is to collect sets of cards, where each set is a single type and has exactly one of each color. Since the players can steal from each others' guilds, there's a lot of careful balancing of what you play when.


John
 
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Delirium

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I'm playing quite a lot of Archipelago (multiplayer and solitaire),which is a theme heavy Euro of exploration, colonisation and market management. Some interesting elementary economics mark this one out, in addition to some unique aspects such as its partially hidden victory conditions, semi-cooperative status and openness to bidding / negotiation. I find it intriguing and stimulating. Somehow its imperfections make it all the more attractive. I have two more games of this scheduled in the next 24 hours, so looking forward to more!

I've also recently played a 5 player game of Colonial: Europe's Empires Overseas which I enjoyed, particularly once we started forming Grand Coalitions against the scoreboard leaders, rough-housing it and engaging in some massive naval engagements. Lots of Crossing of Ts! Formenting rebellion in opponent's colonies is also fun.
 
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jwaldron

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When I decide to take a break from ASL it will be White Death from GDW. For some reason that is my favorite Russian/German game (except, maybe, for PGG)

Jack W
 

62nd Army

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When I decide to take a break from ASL it will be White Death from GDW. For some reason that is my favorite Russian/German game (except, maybe, for PGG)

Jack W
Jack

I agree with you on this one, WD is one of those hidden gems you don't here much about.

Regards
Joe
 

Drow

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Played another AD &D game, (okay D&D now but I still use the old AD & D rules), Andy was getting a bit full of himself, soooo before he and anyone knew it, they walked into a gate to Myth Drannor. Nicky and Marry keep punching him in his arm for screwing up. lol But, they did get out, alive, but not with all of their goodies.

Bill
 

Count_Zero

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Played another AD &D game, (okay D&D now but I still use the old AD & D rules), Andy was getting a bit full of himself, soooo before he and anyone knew it, they walked into a gate to Myth Drannor. Nicky and Marry keep punching him in his arm for screwing up. lol But, they did get out, alive, but not with all of their goodies.

Bill
Loved the gate trap as a DM for when my players got their ego on...
 
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