NG.com board game thread

Acquire is a great game duf. I wish that alot of these designer board games would get translated to Xbox Live, such a perfect medium. They did good with Carcassone, I'd like to see alot more.

lithy said:

Has Statego ever been talked about in this thread?

No offense to Risk which is awesome, but for the time investment, Stratego is vastly superior.

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I like Stratego, but don't own a copy of the game.

They just printed a civil war edition of Stratego, which looks pretty cool (same basic Stratego though). I should buy that.

Stratego is what Mulder was playing with his sister when she was abducted

Lagduf said:

Stratego is what Mulder was playing with his sister when she was abducted

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Jesus...I'm betting some of those smilies are because you knew I was going to call you a nerd for this

lithy said:

Has Statego ever been talked about in this thread?

No offense to Risk which is awesome, but for the time investment, Stratego is vastly superior.

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Agreed. Stratego to me is a good game for younger gamers, I pretty much grew out of it. It's a great game no doubt, and I enjoyed it more than Risk. I always rather play some variant of Axis & Allies over Risk as well.

GunstarHero said:

Acquire is a great game duf. I wish that alot of these designer board games would get translated to Xbox Live, such a perfect medium. They did good with Carcassone, I'd like to see alot more.

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Well, you've got Settlers of Catan, and now Ticket to Ride on XBL.

Ticket to Ride is fairly hugely popular as a "gateway" to designer/hobby board games. But i've yet to play it. Not really interested and I have other railroading games that are more what I like.

We're definitely seeing more and more titles coming out on XBL though, which is fairly exciting.

I heard a rumour sometime ago that BLOOD BOWL was supposed to be coming to XBL.

qube said:

Jesus...I'm betting some of those smilies are because you knew I was going to call you a nerd for this

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It's a typical self reaction when I post something:

Tickled at the nerdiness/randomness

Embarassment of my vast nerd knowledge

Sadness at my nerd knowledge

Depression

I've been meaning to post here again --I've got a good friend who's really into board games and he sometimes has people over to his house to play. We've played a bunch of games. I'm trying to remember some of them...

I enjoyed:

Alhambra
Robo Rally
Puerto Rico
Filthy Rich

Strange Synergy was all right, but was very unbalanced.

I know it gets a lot of love, but I wasn't all that into Settlers of Catan...

I don't know if he still has it, but I enjoyed the concept and gameplay of History of the World.

Its nice that he has a group of people ready to play, because that's the trickiest part of getting into board games, IMO.


EDIT: catching up with this thread, I found Wits and Wagers to be an excellent party game when I'm at that same guy's house with other couples. I tend to do pretty well

EDIT 2: I remember asking for games that I could bring to lunch, I should try that again. I went with Trivial Pursuit which was a disaster because I didn't have good competition and people didn't want to play me anymore (and I'm by no means a jerk when I play... that game. I can't speak for games where you're trying to kill your opponent ).

I think Risk has come up once or twice and I really like this game but it takes a long time to play.

Has anyone played Star Wars Risk? I guess it would play about the same but I noticed that it is for 2-5 players instead of the normal 2-6. ToysRUs has it on clearance for $20, so I was thinking about picking it up.

There were a couple other very cool versions of Risk (I don't remember the names) but they were around $40.

As for Stratego, I own it and it is great. You would think it would be a pain to set up forty pieces but that is part of the fun. Deciding where to place your flag, bombs and troops is part of the enjoyment of the game.

I use to play this against my brother when we were younger. I always moved my flag around and he couldn't figure out why he would always lose.

Bobak said:

I've been meaning to post here again --I've got a good friend who's really into board games and he sometimes has people over to his house to play. We've played a bunch of games. I'm trying to remember some of them...

I enjoyed:

Alhambra
Robo Rally
Puerto Rico
Filthy Rich

Strange Synergy was all right, but was very unbalanced.

I know it gets a lot of love, but I wasn't all that into Settlers of Catan...

I don't know if he still has it, but I enjoyed the concept and gameplay of History of the World.

Its nice that he has a group of people ready to play, because that's the trickiest part of getting into board games, IMO.


EDIT: catching up with this thread, I found Wits and Wagers to be an excellent party game when I'm at that same guy's house with other couples. I tend to do pretty well

EDIT 2: I remember asking for games that I could bring to lunch, I should try that again. I went with Trivial Pursuit which was a disaster because I didn't have good competition and people didn't want to play me anymore (and I'm by no means a jerk when I play... that game. I can't speak for games where you're trying to kill your opponent ).

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Settlers is a love/hate thing. For a lot of people it's their first accessible hobby board game. It's the gateway game to hobby board games. It's still fairly random (dice rolling ftw!) but I think it can be fun and I still think it beats Monopoly.

Glad you enjoyed Wits and Wagers, I believe it is coming to XBLA or has already made it (i'll have to check).

I've heard of Alhambra, but never played and not really familiar with it much. I'm familiar with Puerto Rico, but never played it. I'd like to play it someday, but not in much of a hurry too. It is the #1 rated game at BGG...but BGG isn't the end all be all holy gospel of boardgames (damn great resource though). From a thematic standpoint it is pretty unappealing.

I think I just need to buy Roborally. What a sweet concept. I'm sure i'd love it. And i'm fairly sure i've even sat down and read the rules to it too. My Local Game Store has a few copies, I might just need to snag one when I go in there.

You hit the nail on the head about boardgames though Bobak. The hardest part about the hobby is finding a group of people to play with.

For games at lunch you might want to try Travel Blokus or Regular Blokus if you can get people in to abstracts. Maybe look at Hive. I'm guessing there are quite a few abstract strategy games with short playing time. Quiddler is word/vocabulary game that is pretty cool. It is kind of like scrabble, but with cards and played in rounds where you progressively get more cards each round (and hence can score more points). You might even be able to get in a game of Sleuth, which is a phenomenal game of pure deduction.

Gameoz said:

I think Risk has come up once or twice and I really like this game but it takes a long time to play.

Has anyone played Star Wars Risk? I guess it would play about the same but I noticed that it is for 2-5 players instead of the normal 2-6. ToysRUs has it on clearance for $20, so I was thinking about picking it up.

There were a couple other very cool versions of Risk (I don't remember the names) but they were around $40.

As for Stratego, I own it and it is great. You would think it would be a pain to set up forty pieces but that is part of the fun. Deciding where to place your flag, bombs and troops is part of the enjoyment of the game.

I use to play this against my brother when we were younger. I always moved my flag around and he couldn't figure out why he would always lose.

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I hear that Risk 2210 is the best variant.

You get to fight on the moon.

Thats awesome.

Also, there is a turn limit and I believe you win based on Victory Points, so it's not just a game you play until the last man is standing.

@Bobak, how far away is Roseville, MN from where you're at?

Thats home of operations to Fantasy Flight Games, which is pretty much my favorite board game design company (and now actually one of the top Game Companies in the US - Obviously they're dwarfed in Comparison to Hasbro and the like, but still for a company that was only started less than 15 years ago thats pretty awesome).

Lagduf said:

@Bobak, how far away is Roseville, MN from where you're at?

Thats home of operations to Fantasy Flight Games, which is pretty much my favorite board game design company (and now actually one of the top Game Companies in the US - Obviously they're dwarfed in Comparison to Hasbro and the like, but still for a company that was only started less than 15 years ago thats pretty awesome).

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Roseville's a first-ring suburb and about 10 minutes from my apartment in downtown Minneapolis (actually more like 20 until they finish replacing that bridge that fell last summer). One of the MN members lives right in that area.

Bobak said:

Roseville's a first-ring suburb and about 10 minutes from my apartment in downtown Minneapolis (actually more like 20 until they finish replacing that bridge that fell last summer). One of the MN members lives right in that area.

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/me so jealous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Flight_Games

5th Largest Publisher of Board Games in the world. And they're not even really that big of an operation. I think more so the #1 and #2 spots are just held by such a massive corporate juggernaut.

Anyway, thats quite a feat considering CEO Christian Peterson basically self produced his first title (Twilight Imperium) around 1996. But I think a large part of FFG's success is not only do they design excellent games, but they've landed contracts to Publish foriegn language games in English. Indeed they publish many games which they didn't design in house.

Of course Peterson's original plan was to bring Danish (IIRC) comics to an American market (he does have business degree).

I'd love to visit the FFG headquarters and get some of my games autographed by their designers!

/nerd

Lagduf said:

I hear that Risk 2210 is the best variant.

You get to fight on the moon.

Thats awesome.

Also, there is a turn limit and I believe you win based on Victory Points, so it's not just a game you play until the last man is standing.

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Yes, that was one of them, Thanks. The other is GodStorm Risk (link below). The Risk 2210 sounds like the better of the two, so I may go with that. I like the idea of a game that will just last three hours.


http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10383

Gameoz said:

Yes, that was one of them, Thanks. The other is GodStorm Risk (link below). The Risk 2210 sounds like the better of the two, so I may go with that. I like the idea of a game that will just last three hours.


http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10383

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The unfortunate part about Risk 2210 is that they released a bunch of Convention/Tournament only expansions for it.

Like they released a MARS board complete with Mars' two moons. I think they also released some other planet boards too.

I think i talked about this on page 2, lol

I should pick up this game some day.


Pretty awesome. If you look hard enough you can find scans of the boards and rules on the interweb, but I haven't taken the time to do that yet.


Acquire tommorrow! Can't wait.

I bought a great Football board game a few years ago. Pizza Box Football. This is surprisingly intricate, and includes 4 game variations that range from 30 minutes, to 2 hour games depending on the level of detail/play calling that you want.

Great game, Bobak you would like this I think.

I realized that I buy board games like Jro buys video games. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, though probably not necessarily a good thing.

Anyway, I bought/ordered some new shit. Only got 1 of this batch of purchases so far as 3 are on preorder (2 should arrive August, 1 september) and 2 should arrive next week.

Arrived:

• B-29 Superfortress: Bombers Over Japan, 1944-1945 - For the best story ever on the circumstances surrounding when I got the game, check this thread. Anyway, this is a solitaire (1 player) game where you take on the role of the crew of a B-29 in the Pacific during WW2. Your goal? Complete your missions and hopefully make it home after your 35th (standard number of misisons for a tour of duty). I haven't played yet as I need to photocopy some stuff for the game (lol) but looks very cool. Component quality is great. This game was a labor of love and is basically a more advanced version of B-17: Queen of the Skies. The rulebook is chock full of lots of good design notes too, so you learn while reading the rules. Rulebook also includes a list of further reading and selected sources for those interested in the topic. Yeah, I pretty much buy a lot of this shit just for the history. I hope I don't die on my first mission.

In the Mail:

• Blood Bowl (Boxed Game) - This is the boxed game of Blood Bowl that GW sells. It has everything you need to play the game, except the current rulebook which is available online for free. I read the rules and liked what I saw. Seems better in many ways than the current combat oriented football game (Battleball) I have is. The Boxset has an Orc team and a Human team. I wish Games Workshop would put out more hobby board games. Looking forward to getting this.
  
  
• A bunch of Warhammer 40k models from the Ork Range - I bought all the models I need to finish my 1500 point army. After that I don't have any plans to start another fully army. My intent with 40K has been to create one full 1500 point army, and then maybe have 500 points of 1 or 2 other forces (probably do Tau and Space Marines) that i'll put together at a very leisurely pace (so as to not bankrupt myself). I don't want to get to involved in creating other full blown armies because it's too cost prohibitive. Besides 1 army is good enough.

On Preorder:

• Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942 - Another Squad level tactical ww2 boardgame. I have like 1 million of these already. A lot of hype surrounding this title (I bought in). It's from a pretty new designer, so always nice to support the new guy. Anyway, this game is supposed to have a really elegant ruleset with a nice balance between realism and playability. The combat resolution system is really simple, but still very good. Components looks really nice too. Only 12 pages of rules. Should arrive in August.
  
  
• World at War: Eisenbach Gap - This is a game i've wanted for awhile. It's been out for a little while (came out last year) but they sold out the initial print. I've got a copy from the latest printing on preorder. This game is a platoon level game featuring the forces of NATO battling it out against the Warsaw Pact. It's pretty cool, has a simple combat system utilizing the tried and true "buckets 'o dice" method, hah. It also uses a "chit-draw" system for activating your units - which basically means you really aren't sure each turn what units will be able to do stuff. Keeps it tense. This is one of the base games in the World at War series. It features USA vs Soviet battles. The first expansion adds the forces of West Germany. A new base game is coming out as well that will feature British Forces vs the Soviet Union. Pretty cool stuff. Should arrive in August.
  
  
• Assault on Black Reach (5th Edition Warhammer 40k Starter/Box set) - This is the new starter set for Warhammer 40k. Basically it's a ton of models for $60 so you're a dolt if you don't buy it (I guess unless you don't play Orks or Space Marines). Yeah, the models are the beginner type that snap together (so therefore they have a fixed pose, unlike their non beginner counterparts which are poseable). Anyway, really looking forward to this. I currently play Orks in 40k and this will give me some troops for them to battle. Should be available for me to pick up at my FLGS (Favorite Local Game Store) on September 6.

Oh yeah, sometime a few months ago I got this (for my birthday I think):

• Federation Commander: Romulan Attack - This is an expansion to the Federation Commander game system. Basically it adds 2 new map panels featuring asteroid belts. You also get a bunch of new ships and a scenario booklet. Since this is Romulan themed, the majority of the ships you get are Romulan. So now I have a pretty decent selection of Romulan ships to use. This pack also adds more ships for the Gorn, and a few specialized ships for the Federation. It also adds a Space Monster, the Giant Space Amoeba (lolz) which is for use in one specific scenario.
  
  All in all a great expansion for the best tactical lightweight spaceship/naval game out there. Now I just need to get Kilngon Attack

I also got the new Rulebook for Warhammer 40K (5th edition) but I don't think that counts as a game. For what it's worth the rulebook is really nice - way better than the 4th ed book from every standpoint (rules, modeling, backstory). It's just a more coherent book than the 4th ed one IMO.

I love reading about the board games you are picking up, makes me wish I had more time to play board games. The links are great because I have never heard of some of these games.

I went into to a store called Games By James yesterday and they had a ton of board games. I was in a hurry though, so I didn't pick anything up.

Gameoz said:

I love reading about the board games you are picking up, makes me wish I had more time to play board games. The links are great because I have never heard of some of these games.

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I agree, please keep this thread up

Gameoz said:

I went into to a store called Games By James yesterday and they had a ton of board games. I was in a hurry though, so I didn't pick anything up.

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The one in MOA? There's a couple of independent game stores in the Twin Cities (Games by James is a chain), I believe.

Bobak said:

I agree, please keep this thread up



The one in MOA? There's a couple of independent game stores in the Twin Cities (Games by James is a chain), I believe.

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This store is located down town in Rochester. I had some family come to town, so my wife ran them by Mayo to show them where she worked. We were walking through some of the buildings and saw it.

I didn't realize it was a chain. I was pretty impressed with the amount of games they had though. I was checking out Doom and the Settlers games but was in a hurry, so I didn't buy anything.

Gameoz said:

This store is located down town in Rochester. I had some family come to town, so my wife ran them by Mayo to show them where she worked. We were walking through some of the buildings and saw it.

I didn't realize it was a chain. I was pretty impressed with the amount of games they had though. I was checking out Doom and the Settlers games but was in a hurry, so I didn't buy anything.

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Best thing to do is make a note of any games you think are interesting and read some reviews online. There are a few other places out there besides Board Game Geek.com, but generally they have decent user reviews (always read several) or at least overviews of the mechanics.

Like I said earlier I enjoy reading the rulebooks to games i'm considering purchasing. You can't always get a feel for if you'll like it or not, but it's a pretty decent estimate to determine if you'll like it 9a game) or not. Most manufacturers have their rulesets as free downloads (unless the ruleset is the game ala tabletop miniatures [where any minis could be used] or something like roleplaying).

I'm supposed to getting a game called Agricola soon, you guys might be interested.

Blood Bowl - Fantasy Football Component Review

Well guys I got Blood Bowl in the mail.

I was pretty excited and the contents inside did not let me down. The pitch (the game board of the Football field) is on a nice mounted board (ala Monopoly, Sorry, etc). The printing is really nice - bright and crisp colors. The counters (playing tokens) are nicely printed and laminated, but the cardstock is a little flimsy). You get some custom dice, some regular dice, and I think a D8 (could have been a D10, i forget).

And of course you get 12 Orc Players and 12 Human Players.

This is what I LOVE about the Old Games-Workshop boardgames. They were hobby board games in the truest sense - You basically got a boardgame in a box, and if you wanted to go the extra mile (which was encouraged) you could paint the components. All the figures are on sprues so you do need to cut them out. Youcan snap them in to their bases, but model or superglue would work best. I'm planning on painting these...sometime. Of course you don't need to paint the pieces, but I think it's fun to do so. Some people even make their own Stadiums and playing fields, etc. I'm just going to paint my figures and but flock on their bases.

I think some of you guys might like this, or something like it.

For those who don't know, Blood Bowl is a fantasy (as in Swords and Sorcery) football game based on American football, except there is fighting involved. Basically when you "Block" (that is what your offensive move is called, it's basically a tackle) an opponents player there is a chance you can seriously injure them, and possibly kill them. Blocking is resolved with a special Blocking D6, while most everything else uses a regular D6.

Different players have different stats, etc.

So there is blocking, throwing the ball, catching the ball, running w/ the ball etc. It's all very footbally with some players better at doing some stuff then others.

Thats the basic game, and the rulebook includes a lot of background material, as well as rules for running a Blood Bowl league which is basically like a light football RPG since you gain money at the end of matches, your players can get permanently injured, you can buy cheerleaders, doctors, assistant coaches, etc. Even some rules for committing fouls, bribing the referees, and playing in various weather conditions.

The models included are nice. They aren't as detailed as the newer GW stuff from WFB or 40k, but they're stylized and funny (I think). The Orcs have that old dopey, smiley look (as opposed to the mean looking new Orcs/Orks in WFB/40K). The humans look like bizzarro knights playing football.

Good stuff.

Some other Football games I'm aware of:

Battle Ball - I own this. Its Robots vs Robots. Only two teams. Simpler than Blood Bowl but still fun.

Pizza Box Football - Mentioned earlier in this thread. I don't have it and have never played it, but supposedly it's good.

Links to more football games:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/10614

Strat-O-Matic Football sounds interesting. Anyone ever play one of the Strat titles?

Blood Bowl - Fantasy Football Component Review

Oops

Cannonball created a boardgame thread to ask some questions, i'm replying to him here for the sake of simplicity and hoping his thread is merged in to this one (since most of the replies were spam anyway):

cannonball said:

So I'm getting into these strategy heavy board games (I just bought Puerto Rico and Power Grid), and was wondering if anyone else played these types of games and if they had any recommendations for games that are good for 3-4 people. Has anyone ever played Brass? That one looks interesting.

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First Off...

Hell Yeah!

You have found yourself some quality titles - while I personally haven't played them, I am familiar with those titles and have a basic understanding of how they play. PR doesn't interest me for a variety of reasons, and I like the idea of powergrid, however, I'd like to play it before I buy it instead of just making a blind purchase like I do with a lot of titles.

Haven't played Brass, but you might like it based on your liking of PR and Power Grid. I think it's a Martin Wallace design and he does good stuff...but I could be confused and it might be Glenn Drover game? Meh.

I'm thinking maybe you'd like Age of Steam (if you could find it) or perhaps Railroad Tycoon (a little easier to get, though i'm think AoS might be more up your alley).

If you aren't a member at:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com then go and sign up. They have a wealth of knowledge of boardgame and they have a ton of user reviews and answers to rules questions. Just ignore the rabid, snobbish community over there.

Let me know when you sign up, and i'll add you as my "geekbuddy" - really useful site.

Yes, I play lots of "hobby" or "designer" board games.

The games you are talking are what we call in the snob filled world of BGG to be "Eurogames" typically games that are nothing more than strategy games with a theme (what the game is "about") pasted on.

I like these types of games, but I lean more towards "Ameritrash" or American-Styled games that are heavily thematic. Stuff like Descent, Fury of Dracula, Blood Bowl, Arkham Horror, Fortress America, etc...to name a few of the more well known titles. Usually stuff where you have characters doing things, and maybe some combat.

I'm also heavily interested in more traditional hex and counter wargames (stuff like ASL, Combat Commander, Conflict of Heroes, World at War: Eisenbach Gap, etc) but I don't delve in to the uber complex stuff...i like a moderate degree of complexity and decent playing time.

Sid Sackson is probably my favorite designer, followed by the crew at Fantasy Flight Games, and the boys at Nexus. GMT is a fantastic publisher as well who get on board a lot of great designers making games on the best (read: nerdiest historical shit, EVER) subjects imagineable.

@the person in the other thread talking the DUNE game...if you have the version i'm thinking of them i'm JEALOUS.