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Board Gaming Era |OT| (Mostly) Unplugged Gaming
- Thread starter XShagrath
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Need last minute Christmas gift recommendation for my sister and her husband. They are big on board games and card games. Munchkin, Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, etc.
What are some similarly good party games? I'm not sure what all they have at the moment, so all recommendations are welcome.
What are some similarly good party games? I'm not sure what all they have at the moment, so all recommendations are welcome.
Are you looking for actual good games? Or more crap in a similar vein to munchkin and cah?
If the former for great party games check out Say Anything, Just One, Telestrations, or Codenames.
If you want a better take that style game then munchkin check out smash up
If you want more naughty games I'd suggest the after dark versions of Telestrations or Codenames.
I have it. It's a pretty direct translation of the board game so it runs well if you know how to play already. If not the tutorial is (or at least was the last time I played) nonexistent. There's also no multiplayer yet, but it is coming. I'd say it's worth it at half off.
I've specifically had a friend advise against Codenames After Dark because the words get so similar and the dirty content didn't make up for it being really poor compared to the base game.
I agree. Go Codenames vanilla or Duel. All the other versions are kind of trash.
The one exception I've seen is Harry Potter, which uses the Duet system. It's great to be able to mix the pictures and words, and the extra theme difficulty challenges and special powers for doing a campaign are cool. I don't remember if regular Duet had that.
I agree that the after dark version of code names is bad, I also think all dark version of party games suck.
I don't agree with this, maybe for marvel but I think Disney has enough appeal and the characters are distinct enough that it works. Course I've mixed all my codenames into one box and use everything.
Also I think pictures is better then words for the two base versions of code names. I even prefer duel with pictures.
I don't believe it had special powers, it did have a campaign mode though.
Has anyone played Detective A Modern Crime Board Game? Looking to get a new game for this Christmas period and this one is on the list of games that sound interesting. There will 4 or may be 5 of us playing.
I've played through three of the five scenarios. I'm a big fan of cooperative games and especially detective/crime solving/story type games (Sherlock Holmes, Chronicles of Crime, T.IM.E. Stories). I think Detective does the crime solving story game better than just about any other. It feels heavy, which I like but others may not. You feel like you're digging into the case and working it. So far in three cases I've only felt one time like things had an unfair leap of logic (which happens all the time in Sherlock Holmes) and it essentially resulted in us making a blind choice but then the game continued.
I have played with 2 and 3, and I like it at those numbers. I'm not sure how good any game of this type will be at 4 or 5, because I think less people tends to be better personally. The missions have taken about 2 - 4 hours to play through. Overall I think if you're a fan of the genre its probably the best game you can get to scratch that sleuthing itch. If you're looking for something lighter and don't mind using an app consider Chronicles of Crime.
Hola dear Boardgame Era. I took the liberty of creating a thread for the Sierra Madre Games, which plenty of people don't know about and figured taking some time today might warrant giving them their own OT:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/si...read-best-boardgames-you-havent-played.89246/
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They are absolutely fascinating games that deserve more love, but have a rather high entry barrier, especially if you don't know what you are getting yourself into. Hope some of you guys find my input helpful, if you have any questions, I'll keep an eye on that thread over there or will react if you quote me here. ;)
https://www.resetera.com/threads/si...read-best-boardgames-you-havent-played.89246/
They are absolutely fascinating games that deserve more love, but have a rather high entry barrier, especially if you don't know what you are getting yourself into. Hope some of you guys find my input helpful, if you have any questions, I'll keep an eye on that thread over there or will react if you quote me here. ;)
Played Sushi Go Party and 7 Wonders Duel this weekend.
Sushi Party Go is REALLY good compared to the base game. We created our own menu that involved a LOT more long game thought and hate drafting, and it was fantastic. The base game is borderline trash in comparison haha.
7 Wonders Duel is a fascinating game. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I ended up winning by collecting the 6 special symbols. I built a pretty insane engine by getting the ability to build wonders for 2 less and buy all blue cards for 2 less. It was fascinating. Game definitely has some cool strategic legs.
Sushi Party Go is REALLY good compared to the base game. We created our own menu that involved a LOT more long game thought and hate drafting, and it was fantastic. The base game is borderline trash in comparison haha.
7 Wonders Duel is a fascinating game. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I ended up winning by collecting the 6 special symbols. I built a pretty insane engine by getting the ability to build wonders for 2 less and buy all blue cards for 2 less. It was fascinating. Game definitely has some cool strategic legs.
I like 7 Wonders Duel better than the base game. It cleans up some fiddly elements and makes a lovely tight duel.
Hola dear Boardgame Era. I took the liberty of creating a thread for the Sierra Madre Games, which plenty of people don't know about and figured taking some time today might warrant giving them their own OT:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/si...read-best-boardgames-you-havent-played.89246/
They are absolutely fascinating games that deserve more love, but have a rather high entry barrier, especially if you don't know what you are getting yourself into. Hope some of you guys find my input helpful, if you have any questions, I'll keep an eye on that thread over there or will react if you quote me here. ;)
Awesome, checking it out now (I own a couple of these)
While I agree Party is much better then base sushi go, I will give the base one advantage. The base game you open the box, shuffle the deck, and the game begins. Party with it's big messy tin full of stuff you have to spend a few minutes digging out all the sets you want, shuffle and play, and then separate it all at the end of the game. Kind of a similar advantage of base Love Letter vs the premium edition where the latter you gotta make sure the 5-8 player roles aren't mixed in.
Alright, that's a fair point! Setup and teardown time are increased, so that's a thing. I just find the base game boring after a few plays. WIth Party, there seem to be so many unique combos that it completely changes the way you approach each and every game, which is super cool. But I can see the allure of a mega quick "let's go" kind of thing.
Seeing the prices on the full set of expansions makes me feel REALLY good about the money I spent on Black Friday!
I only needed one (Dragon King) so that has me kicking myself. I got all the essential expansions, not bothering with the crappy expansions or those simply not worth the money. A couple of the late game stuff is a waste of cash when you might only ever encounter them after a long play period, and maybe 1-2 times at most.
Got Escape the Dark Castle with all the expansions for Christmas and I played it with my wife and brother today. Very nice game. Sure, it's a lot of random stuff and pretty luck-based, but the decission making in a group is very fun and the art is gorgous. I also love dice-roling, so it's more plus for me ;) It looks like those old oldschool adventure books, pen & paper and early pc game manuals. Very, very nice.
Also still looking for a good solution for Gloomhaven organizing. That organizer set for 70€ is way to expensive and you have to put it together by yourself. I found this one here (in German):
https://www.feldherr.com/feldherr-schaumstoff-set-fuer-gloomhaven-brettspielbox/a-58215/
Any experiences with the shop and the stuff? I mean it has 60 days money back guarantee so it might be worth a try. Still pricey with 40€, but to have everything handy in the box is a big plus for me because it always takes a lot of overcoming to actually START the game, lol.
Also still looking for a good solution for Gloomhaven organizing. That organizer set for 70€ is way to expensive and you have to put it together by yourself. I found this one here (in German):
https://www.feldherr.com/feldherr-schaumstoff-set-fuer-gloomhaven-brettspielbox/a-58215/
Any experiences with the shop and the stuff? I mean it has 60 days money back guarantee so it might be worth a try. Still pricey with 40€, but to have everything handy in the box is a big plus for me because it always takes a lot of overcoming to actually START the game, lol.
This storage solution has worked out really well for me and wasn't that expensive, assuming you can get the Plano boxes. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1726878/yss-yet-another-storage-solution
dunno if this would work for you but if you can wait, there's a kickstarter on folded space organizers, and they are letting people pick up from their old catalogue of inserts as well(including gloomhaven)
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e-board-game-inserts-campaign-3?ref=user_menu
Have heard good things about these inserts, especially for the cost
I have something similar to this, but it's not "all in the box" and still a bit fiddly IMO. It works, but it's not perfect.
Thanks. But the price is 15 pounds for the Gloomhaven box plus shipping and that would be 40€ as well. And it still takes 6 month to deliver.
I might just try the feldherr-stuff and if I don't like it I can still send it back.
Game kinda fell off a cliff at the start of the year after the Draft set released. FFG got that huge delay in the next set, the hype was dying down, the community got sick of the same meta dominating. Pretty much every store around us that used to run regular game nights of it and organized play all stopped. They have tried to bring it back since the new sets but it hasn't taken off.
We still play it casually, its a great game, but it feels like a Dicemasters situation. A hugely hyped game that was a flash in the pan. Still has a playerbase but it's never gonna be as popular as it was at the start.
I'd say so. It has all new haunts and tons of new mechanics. We've been having a good time with it.
Tangent; why does 1960 have to be between print runs? Need!
Tainted Grail, what are people's thoughts on this? Seems like a medieval and more fighty version of 7th Continent.
Goodness me! That is what they are shipping?!
Goodness me! That is what they are shipping?!
KS seems to hate my new cc, my Tainted Grail pledge got declined
Gotta find a way :|
Oh yes, got this for Christmas, i'm litterally dying to dig in, but i gotta wait until the 31st for my friends to come over ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Gotta find a way :|
Oh yes, got this for Christmas, i'm litterally dying to dig in, but i gotta wait until the 31st for my friends to come over ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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Sure you'll be able to resist taking a peak inside the sealed boxes? :p
And that's just the base game. Wave 2 is going to be ridiculous.
is wave 2 expansions? I am so out of loop on this KS, I just backed the base level on Day 1. And I got confused with this and Alone which I enjoy.
Got to play another game of fireball island. I find the pirate expansion to be the worst of the major ones as
1) none of the pirate ship specific attacks are strong that effective for hitting people there
2) it may just be my copy, but the snap shot spot fits too perfectly and it never knocks anyone over
3) the game doesn't last long enough to justify running over there unless you go asap
4) when nobody is over there the pirate ship cards are complete deadweight
5) the gems are in pretty terrible locations where unless you come from the 2 cave you'll have a hard time getting them
1) none of the pirate ship specific attacks are strong that effective for hitting people there
2) it may just be my copy, but the snap shot spot fits too perfectly and it never knocks anyone over
3) the game doesn't last long enough to justify running over there unless you go asap
4) when nobody is over there the pirate ship cards are complete deadweight
5) the gems are in pretty terrible locations where unless you come from the 2 cave you'll have a hard time getting them
I agree with all these. I do find utility from the secret motive cards and use them in every game along with its souvenir cards. I will only use the board and add the action cards in a 4 or 5 player game though.
I'm gonna try next game house ruling that if you have a crows nest card you can fire them from volkar instead of doing nothing. I know bgg has the variant with birds but that comes across as a bit too complicated for how simple this game is supposed to be.
It is fully compatible with both of the previous expansions, but they are far from necessary to enjoy all the goodness of The Rise of Fenris. Really, I wouldn't skip on Fenris just for the reason that you don't have them.
I would personally order the 3 expansions in the following buying priority:
1. The Rise of Fenris : Awesome expansion with a very great campaign. As the campaign progresses, it let you discover new stuff by gradually having you open a few sealed boxes. Even when the campaign has been completed, some of this added content can even be used in regular games. It's like a collection of mini expansions. Highly recommended.
2. Invaders from Afar: It adds two new factions that are both very fun, as well as the Militant and Innovative player mats. Great if you need more variety.
3. The Wind Gambit: The airships are fun, but I find myself not playing with them often. Most of the people I played with prefers the game without. This expansion is probably worth it more for the new alternate win conditions that may add more variety to your games.
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It depends. If you paid for two waves of shipping, you'll get the base game now with wave 1 and the expansions in wave 2. If you paid for single wave shipping, you'll get the base game and expansions in wave 2.
Had a friend over to play games yesterday. It was a great time, as we only tabled unplayed games from my collection.
We started with The Reckoners. Really liked this one. We played on beginner and lost. It's actually a lot less intimidating a game than it looks with the table presence it has. Fun group decision-making. It's not as thematic as I'd like for it to be, but it was fun.
Next up was Thunderstone Quest. I have a copy of Thunderstone Advanced that has rarely hit the table since I bought it a long time ago. I found it to be OK, but Thunderstone Quest is definitely a major step up from that. Really enjoyed this one. I lost heartily, but I was focused on opening and sorting everything more than playing. I tend to get obsessed with that. Will actually go through the "Quest book" for this. Really enjoyed it.
We opened Dungeon Degenerates next. I really don't know what to make of this game. The rulebook is a bit of a mess, information isn't easy to find and a lot of parts aren't explained well at all. I'm 100% sure we were doing some stuff wrong. We ended up in this rut where we would have a combat encounter, be forced to rest due to it, then the next danger card had more combat that was triggered. We literally had to stay in a place two spaces away from our destination for five turns stuck in this cycle due to the drawn danger cards. That was kind of a bummer. I think the flavor comes out better in the encounter cards and is far more interesting than the combat, so I wish there was more of that. I need to look up some rules explanations and think on this one some more.
My friend brought his copy of Dungeon Mayhem with him, and we played a few rounds of it. It's a fun, quick, take-that game. Each game is short enough that nobody should really get mad for getting knocked out. Good filler.
We ended with Railroad Ink, which I really loved. Really fast to play, with hard decisions that have to get made. In some ways, it's a level-building puzzle game.
I really need to do this more often to work through my extensive backlog.
We started with The Reckoners. Really liked this one. We played on beginner and lost. It's actually a lot less intimidating a game than it looks with the table presence it has. Fun group decision-making. It's not as thematic as I'd like for it to be, but it was fun.
Next up was Thunderstone Quest. I have a copy of Thunderstone Advanced that has rarely hit the table since I bought it a long time ago. I found it to be OK, but Thunderstone Quest is definitely a major step up from that. Really enjoyed this one. I lost heartily, but I was focused on opening and sorting everything more than playing. I tend to get obsessed with that. Will actually go through the "Quest book" for this. Really enjoyed it.
We opened Dungeon Degenerates next. I really don't know what to make of this game. The rulebook is a bit of a mess, information isn't easy to find and a lot of parts aren't explained well at all. I'm 100% sure we were doing some stuff wrong. We ended up in this rut where we would have a combat encounter, be forced to rest due to it, then the next danger card had more combat that was triggered. We literally had to stay in a place two spaces away from our destination for five turns stuck in this cycle due to the drawn danger cards. That was kind of a bummer. I think the flavor comes out better in the encounter cards and is far more interesting than the combat, so I wish there was more of that. I need to look up some rules explanations and think on this one some more.
My friend brought his copy of Dungeon Mayhem with him, and we played a few rounds of it. It's a fun, quick, take-that game. Each game is short enough that nobody should really get mad for getting knocked out. Good filler.
We ended with Railroad Ink, which I really loved. Really fast to play, with hard decisions that have to get made. In some ways, it's a level-building puzzle game.
I really need to do this more often to work through my extensive backlog.
Recently got two new board games. The Disney Board game Villainous. For those that don't know you and other play several iconic villains from the Disney roster. Each villain has a unique win condition and your playing against over villains. The only problem is that you can't directly stop the other players, you've got to use heros. Each villain has heros that are unique to them that can screw up the works, these heros can only be summoned by other players. I found it really fun once I learnt the basics and me and the wife love it.
The other was Eldritch Horror. That game had such potential. I am in love with the concept, but man that game takes some serious effort to setup and is crazy complex. Does anyone have any guides I can follow? Like how does combat in this game ever work? We tried to muddle through two games, each lasting about 2-4 hours. This game is seriously tough for 2 people and I think guide does recommend more players. I usually understand games pretty quickly, but this game was crazy difficult to pick up and I'm still struggling.
Anyone else played this?
The other was Eldritch Horror. That game had such potential. I am in love with the concept, but man that game takes some serious effort to setup and is crazy complex. Does anyone have any guides I can follow? Like how does combat in this game ever work? We tried to muddle through two games, each lasting about 2-4 hours. This game is seriously tough for 2 people and I think guide does recommend more players. I usually understand games pretty quickly, but this game was crazy difficult to pick up and I'm still struggling.
Anyone else played this?
KarneeKarnay Good games. Eldritch Horror is one of my all-time favorite games. Yeah, it's a beast to set up, and it takes a while to play, and you're going to lose far more often than you win, but damn if it doesn't feel good when you do. I use Plano boxes for storage of some of the bits, and just bags for the rest.
The Rules Girl video is a good overview to make sure you aren't missing any of the rules. It's actually one of those games where it's a lot more intimidating than it is. Gameplay is actually pretty straight forward.
The Rules Girl video is a good overview to make sure you aren't missing any of the rules. It's actually one of those games where it's a lot more intimidating than it is. Gameplay is actually pretty straight forward.
My friend got me a copy of Discover Lands Unknown. I know Tom Vasal dunked on the game hard and it seems to have mixed reception on bgg, but anyone here have any thoughts on it? I love and own 7th continent I dunno if that'll help or hurt my enjoyment of D:LU.
Blah, I paid for one shipping and looks too late to change it.
The other was Eldritch Horror. That game had such potential. I am in love with the concept, but man that game takes some serious effort to setup and is crazy complex. Does anyone have any guides I can follow? Like how does combat in this game ever work? We tried to muddle through two games, each lasting about 2-4 hours. This game is seriously tough for 2 people and I think guide does recommend more players. I usually understand games pretty quickly, but this game was crazy difficult to pick up and I'm still struggling.
Anyone else played this?
Always play with even number of players, I think 4 is the sweet spot. All it really is is all players do 2 different actions each, then each player faces an encounter. Repeat. If you are on a space with a monster it is your encounter unless you beat it and then you can do a card encounter. Monster is the only real wrench in the thing that could trip you up.
I own and have played it once and it was decent. I'll likely give each scenario a once through and trade it off. Not a long term keeper IMO.
Once you know that some city events can boost skill points, that also opens the game up some. And picking investigators who balance each other a bit is wise. It's good to have some semi-clear roles to play on the map, at least in my limited experience.
We played Just One and Decrypto over the weekend. Just One was a hit with the casuals. It's a fun word game that you can teach anyone in minutes. It really needs at least four people or more though. I don't know what the sweet spot is but I would guess five or six players.
Decrypto was also a lot of fun but it isn't very intuitive the first time you play. I've heard it called a Codenames killer. I don't know if I would go that far. It is different but I think that there is probably space for both in my collection.. Codenames for larger groups and odd numbers and Decrpyto for four or six players.
On Friday night we played the new Mother of Drargons expansion for Game of Thrones. It was good but the game lasted too long. I like the new vassal rules and would use those most of the time but I would probably avoid adding the Targaryen player in most games because it just adds more downtime and complexity. I am not sure about the Iron Bank either. It's too early to tell if we would use that regularly. We had some great cards from the bank and some awful ones so it was either hotly contested or never used. Also the gamemat seems to be a necessity with the expansion (mine is pre-ordered).
Decrypto was also a lot of fun but it isn't very intuitive the first time you play. I've heard it called a Codenames killer. I don't know if I would go that far. It is different but I think that there is probably space for both in my collection.. Codenames for larger groups and odd numbers and Decrpyto for four or six players.
On Friday night we played the new Mother of Drargons expansion for Game of Thrones. It was good but the game lasted too long. I like the new vassal rules and would use those most of the time but I would probably avoid adding the Targaryen player in most games because it just adds more downtime and complexity. I am not sure about the Iron Bank either. It's too early to tell if we would use that regularly. We had some great cards from the bank and some awful ones so it was either hotly contested or never used. Also the gamemat seems to be a necessity with the expansion (mine is pre-ordered).
https://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-Q20011-Greed/dp/B00LLWEE2Q/?tag=article-boardgamegeek-20
Greed is sub-$6 as an add-on item. Top tier overlooked drafting game.
Greed is sub-$6 as an add-on item. Top tier overlooked drafting game.
Recently got two new board games. The Disney Board game Villainous. For those that don't know you and other play several iconic villains from the Disney roster. Each villain has a unique win condition and your playing against over villains. The only problem is that you can't directly stop the other players, you've got to use heros. Each villain has heros that are unique to them that can screw up the works, these heros can only be summoned by other players. I found it really fun once I learnt the basics and me and the wife love it.
The other was Eldritch Horror. That game had such potential. I am in love with the concept, but man that game takes some serious effort to setup and is crazy complex. Does anyone have any guides I can follow? Like how does combat in this game ever work? We tried to muddle through two games, each lasting about 2-4 hours. This game is seriously tough for 2 people and I think guide does recommend more players. I usually understand games pretty quickly, but this game was crazy difficult to pick up and I'm still struggling.
Anyone else played this?
I'm a big fan of this game. We play it with two players controlling two characters each, and just finished up a 6-game campaign with only a few deaths.
Combat is totally straightforward: at its most basic it's a mind test for a certain number of successes, if you don't reach that number you lose sanity for each point you missed by. If you reach or exceed the number take none. Then repeat for a strength test, same method of taking damage applies, as well as each success doing 1hp of damage to the enemy. Anything beyond those basics will be indicated on the enemy token.
Setup gets faster as you get more familiar with the game and have it packed in a good state for quick play. But it's a long game still, we average probably around 3 hour sessions