What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

My wife asked for Ghost Stories last night. A surprise as it’s been two or three years since we last played together, but a welcome one as it’s still rock solid. We lost on haunted village tiles about eight ghosts before Wu Feng showed up. Too many four-health bodies showed up too early, and we didn’t prioritize them high enough.

Still annoyed that I haven’t flipped a Chuck No-Rice or Jean-Claude van Rice promo incarnation yet.

Played several games over the past week:

Wyatt Earp -- this is the 2001 Rummy version from Rio Grande (not the 1958 version, which we also played). My wife continues to dominate in this game. I led by $3000 into the last round and she somehow had an absurd amount of melds and one by a good $8000 in bounties. Great card game.

Abomination - played this 3-player. I know Josh suggested the Igor variant that is supposed to speed things up and reduce randomization. Time wasn't an issue, and I think that I like the things that add to the length...and I definitely think the randomization is necessary (a rare time I disagree, I suppose). This was a hit all around. Game lasted just under 3 hours and ended with the Captain of the Watch raining on everyone's parade. All in all, a cool worker placement theme...I think that the final scoring is shit, though. Too much going on and 5 VPs for the most "humane" scientist seems completely arbitrary and not connected to the theme. Maybe should just go with body part score since that is the goal of the game? The dial scoring seems tacked on as well -- when there is a goal to be accomplished, seems ridiculous to add all this other stuff up. Could even just add everyone's humanity score to the body part VP -- the other two dials should be irrelevant since they are used to accomplish the goal of bringing in the monster to life.

Quest for El Dorado + Epansion This is probably Knizia at his best (or at least "modern" best). Just a very smooth deck builder with a defined goal -- no VPs or any such nonsense, just reach the temple first. Up there with Tyrants of the Underdark as my favorite deckbuilder.

Blockbuster Movie trivia game that is surprisingly good. Has the ability to make you completely blank on things you think you know well. The ticking buzzer has much to do with that.

Exit: Medieval Castle - My first escape room game. We bit it with 1 hint (might have been two). Overall pretty good, even though some of the puzzles were a bit absurd. I got this as a gift for Christmas -- nice way to play with the family.

The Mind - Several four player games of this. We got to level 8 numerous times, but couldn't quite close the deal. Continues to be a crowd pleaser.

Camp Grizzly x 4 All expansions mixed in -- everybody loved these. It plays at such a brisk pace. Would be nice if there were some alternative setups included, but otherwise, very fun. We won one time in the barn; otherwise, Otis was living it up at the counselors expense.

Top Gun This game is much better than it deserves to be. I think it is best played with someone who you are familiar with so it doesn't feel too random -- it turns into a nice game of bluffing and second guessing. The volleyball part works great for getting extra options in the dogfight part. The dogfighting is a bit abstracted with some mental geometric rotation with hexagons that can trip some people up. It is a simultaneous reveal for moving and targeting -- I made my decisions in about 30 seconds; my opponent was probably taking 3-4 minutes (or at least it felt that way). So be prepared for people to complain about that as well as everything being random -- it isn't though. Nice little strategy/bluffing game. I say it is definitely another win for Prospero Hall.

Loopin’ Chewie
I lost the first round when I gave myself a two trooper handicap. My son found the rest of the pieces after that, and I dominated the next four matches. My two year old hit his paddle so hard Chewbacca and the loopin’ assembly popped out of the motor. My four year old grabbed Chewbacca and hit his troopers on purpose. Just naturally understood the Wookiee’s heroism and the villainy of our position, I assume.

A good time was had by all.

Played Skull King a couple of times, which is a trick taking game where you score only if you predict how many tricks you'll take. It's fun, review coming soon.
My son invited his boyfriend over for his first ever game night with us. He was running late, so we played Tiny epic Galaxies×2 which i really like but my youngest daughter smashed me the second game after I taught her the game before. We did a round of King of Tokyo and I smashed everyone to death with the new berserk expansion, and was put on the big bad list and ended up defeated with my wife returning from the dead to finish me off with cyberkitty 9 lives card. Currently playing Anomia, which is a great, loud party game.

Space Ghost wrote: Camp Grizzly x 4 All expansions mixed in -- everybody loved these. It plays at such a brisk pace. Would be nice if there were some alternative setups included, but otherwise, very fun. We won one time in the barn; otherwise, Otis was living it up at the counselors expense.

There are a few additional setups to be found in the errata, aka Camp Grizzly Counselor Survival Handbook.

boardgamegeek.com/filepage/119857/camp-g...or-survival-handbook

Two games of Theseus, I taught my spouse. It's such a weird fun mashup between an abstract and classic FFG ameritrash game. I love it. Very short too, values your time.

Which factions did you play? Who won?

Jackwraith wrote: Which factions did you play? Who won?

Ha, never sure how much detail to give. We played twice with me marines, her aliens, then her marines/me aliens. She won with the marines and I won with the marines, but the first game was a lot of rules fumbling so I don't consider it a real competitive game. I think the most interesting thing is that when I gave her the marines she was instantly like "I completely see how this faction works and hurts and traps the enemy, I wish I had started with them, I mainly took the aliens because they're green." Whereas my buddy who I had played this with before always took the aliens and vastly preferred their gameplay style. So it turns out the different faction style of doing damage/scoring points really has different compatability with types of players. It's always surprising that such an abstract game can nevertheless be so thematic in terms of gameplay "style."

Scientists 4 Life

hotseatgames wrote: Scientists 4 Life

You just say that because of the Med Bay. The Greys above all else. You just thought you favored the Scientists. But, really, it's the Greys. I know it seems fuzzy, but that's OK. We're here to guide you...

Top Gun is great. Prospero Hall does it again. They are the best designers of modern games today. Nobody is doing anything as smart, economical, and cleanly designed as they are. I don’t give a damnabout 99 out of 100 board games released these days, but these people are saving the hobby games world from crawling up it’s own ass.

I do wish that they would design out of IP space- but they do that so freakin’ well I also find myself wishing they would have all the IP. I love Outer Rim, but if they did a SW game it would probably blow it out of the water.

The secret sauce is that they design games or be FUN and ACCESSIBLE with minimal neck beard-appeasing bullshit. They get that bringing forward a licensed setting’s themes and specific iconic beats are critical. With this, they go a step further. They take the camp elements of the movie- rather than the machismo, nationalism, and military fetishism- and lean into those. It’s so fucking smart.

Will review soon, it’s a total win. One caveat- it is a 2 player game. The team option is obligatory.

The only one I've played is Villainous, but I love it for all the reasons that you cite. All of the decks FEEL like the characters they're associated with. They all play differently, but they all work pretty cleanly as soon as you figure out how to play them. It's that one factor that I think slows it down with most of my group in the same way that Root just won't take with some people: you have to know how other people are playing or you just end up ignoring them and doing the multiplayer solitaire thing except when someone pushes you to actually Fate someone. I keep trying to convince people to do a multi-session night with it so everyone can get a little more familiar with the characters like I am, but no luck so far.

Everyone I've heard or seen speak of it loves Jaws, too. I don't mind that they're inhabiting IP space. At the moment, it's what makes their games work and I think it's a compulsion on their part to bring these designs to people that they know will try them and love them BECAUSE of that IP. That's what makes Legendary Encounters: Alien work, too.

Lots of games with our son. We played Clank! with him using the Dwarven Mine from the Gold and Silk expansion. He stole a bunch of treasure and made it out of the dungeon first. My wife and I thought we might not make it, but it turns out it was just my wife who wasn't able to make it out and get a mastery token. Our son actually won convincingly. The Dwarven Mine is mostly interesting for its different layout. It has a new gold-mining mechanic that is fine but doesn't add a ton.

We also played Small World with him this afternoon. This time I won with a one-two punch of Swamp Giants and Berserker Pixies. I had like two-thirds of the board by the end.

hotseatgames wrote: Scientists 4 Life

I love the Scientists but they're the only faction I've never really managed to wrap my head around. Still play them fairly often and always take them when I teach newbies as a sort of handicap.

If I were to do a tier list it'd look something like this:

S: Hunters
A: Aliens, Grays
B: Marines, Bots
C: Scientists
Impossible to grade: Pandora

It's been way too long since I've played, and I certainly don't know who I have won with the most. I just recall enjoying the Scientists more than any other faction, I think because of the cameras.