Board Games

[celette482]

Who loves them? Who is playing them? For my birthday, I got myself a copy of Smash Up! for my birthday, and my friend sent me a copy of Coup (a Love Letter-esque game set in the Resistance universe- do I get nerd points yet?)

We moved away from all our gaming friends, but we're going to be moving to a new city in the next two months, so hopefully we can find a store or a Meet-up.

My current favorites: Sentinels of the Multiverse, Ticket to Ride (for playing with my vaguely non-gaming family), Lords of Waterdeep, King of Tokyo (I am always Cyberbunny) and Smallworld.

I also love playing Settlers of Catan with 4, 5, or 6 people- you get so many shifting alliances and the board is really tight.

[Enail]

Pandemic. Set-up is kind of a pain, but once you've got the hang of that, it's challenging and a lot of fun!

[celette482]

Oh, yes! We love Pandemic. Mr Celette and I beat it before our 3rd epidemic card once and we have declared it "Vanquished!" (okay, we got *damn* lucky and had the scientist and a cure in our opening hand but still, VICTORYYYYYYY) But i've heard good things about the expansion, so I might get it to make things a bit harder.

Mr. Celette and I love co-op games because we tend to just play with each other. (Particularly now that we are away from gaming group.) There are some great competitive two-player games, but most competitive games really need a third person to make things interesting. meanwhile, two is the perfect number for a co-op game because you can more easily discuss strategy.

[reboot]

Pandemic. Set-up is kind of a pain, but once you've got the hang of that, it's challenging and a lot of fun!

Ahhh love that game! I play when I see my friends from the CDC who all used to be EIS officers. I love the side commentary they get into when we play.

[Wondering]

Seconding Ticket to Ride. I love maps and traveling around the US, so it's a game made just for me!

Robo Rally. My husband introduced me to this. It's a game about "programming" robots to move around the board where wacky hijinks can ensue. You have to be very methodical and think of several different possible outcomes to be successful. But it's also just a lot of fun when things go wrong.

[Enail]

Flux. It's the perfect game for people like me who love to sow chaos!

[celette482]

I have played Star Fluxx and love it. A great game for sitting around drinking and shooting the shit.

[PKB]

Seconding the four-player Catan. It's quite nicely balanced at that size.

Puerto Rico is awesome. Instead of a "everyone does stuff on their turn" structure, each person picks a role (which corresponds to an action)...which everyone else then does. So you can pick a role (and get a small bonus for doing so), but the other players benefit, so you have to develop an asymmetric strategy to benefit disproportionately from each role. Takes a few games to really get the hang of, but it gets deep.

[celette482]

I have to say that my favorite games are the ones that have some strategy but that don't have *the* strategy. I want a new player to have a shot at winning. It doesn't have to be all luck, but I want the meta-strategy to be fairly obvious or simple. Meta-strategy being the strategy that applies from game play to game play, as opposed to the part of strategy that you have to work out as the game progresses.

Games that have a variable map, like Catan, or games that have variable goals, like Ticket to Ride, are good examples of the balance I like to see. If you play Powergrid often enough, you get an idea for how you're supposed to approach the board. With Catan, you might be able to know what resources you want, but you're still going to have to work out where to go to get those.

I rarely manage to play a game where everyone has similar levels of familiarity, so balance is really crucial for me

[Enail]

I like games that don't rely solely on strategy, b/c I am physically incapable of using strategy. Like, I'll be playing a game, my brain will say "okay, X seems like the best, most strategic move," but I can't seem to make myself pick X over some random, considerably less advantageous option that somehow strikes me as more interesting. That's why games like Flux appeal to me, b/ I already play like confusion is a valid strategy!

[Kaz]

Oh, yes! We love Pandemic. Mr Celette and I beat it before our 3rd epidemic card once and we have declared it "Vanquished!" (okay, we got *damn* lucky and had the scientist and a cure in our opening hand but still, VICTORYYYYYYY) But i've heard good things about the expansion, so I might get it to make things a bit harder.

Mr. Celette and I love co-op games because we tend to just play with each other. (Particularly now that we are away from gaming group.) There are some great competitive two-player games, but most competitive games really need a third person to make things interesting. meanwhile, two is the perfect number for a co-op game because you can more easily discuss strategy.

I love co-op games, and Pandemic is a definite favourite! I have noted it's easier with two players, which might be another factor in the vanquishing? Very impressive, mind you! My best game was on the other extreme - managed to win when on the next turn we'd have died in three different ways (ran out of cards, too many outbreaks, and ran out of cubes). That one was intense...

Another fun co-op game I've been playing is Legends of Andor, which is sort of RPG-inspired although there's a very strong strategic/time management element... and amazing cheesy narration. *g*

...man, all this is making me wish I had board game playing friends *eyes box of games that hardly ever gets touched sadly...*

[readertorider]

I'm really fond of Munchkin! The quality of the game though definitely depends on the group--one time I played it took us an hour to go through one set of turns which may be a little slow for most people's tastes

Catan is definitely fun. In our group it was usually the newbie who won (until we ran out of newbies). The feuding is the best part.

I also really like co-op games! At the moment my favorite is Arkham Horror (haven't played Legends or Andor or Pandemic unfortunately, but you all make me want to). Love planning strategy with other people too (Axis and Allies!).

celette, have you played Betrayal at House on the Hill? It's best with probably around 4 people and has a variable map with different goals each time (once the betrayal part begins). Usually just takes 45 min-1 hour to play. Its storyline is silly over the top dark, but there's plenty of opportunity for dramatic readings if that's something your group likes to do.

This may be a strange question, but does anyone else make up weird chess variants?

[Olmajor]

I have to say that my favorite games are the ones that have some strategy but that don't have *the* strategy. I want a new player to have a shot at winning. It doesn't have to be all luck, but I want the meta-strategy to be fairly obvious or simple. Meta-strategy being the strategy that applies from game play to game play, as opposed to the part of strategy that you have to work out as the game progresses.

Games that have a variable map, like Catan, or games that have variable goals, like Ticket to Ride, are good examples of the balance I like to see. If you play Powergrid often enough, you get an idea for how you're supposed to approach the board. With Catan, you might be able to know what resources you want, but you're still going to have to work out where to go to get those.

I rarely manage to play a game where everyone has similar levels of familiarity, so balance is really crucial for me

I like also like games where reading strategy guides is not required, but where you still need to think. That consists of most eurogames.

And co-op games are fun also. I haven't actually never played one with two players, only in large groups. It does sound fun though.

I'm interested to know that where do you usually play board games? At home or at a friend's house? Or in a clubhouse or a bar?

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