What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

sornars wrote: I also played Marvel Champions with mezike on Saturday. I find this game to be just fine. We used the starter decks from Spiderman and Thor to take on the Rhino planning a Bomb Scare and came out on top. I shared my thoughts on the Discord server but to summarise here, my impression after two plays, is that the interesting decisions are front loaded into the deckbuilding while the actual piloting of decks is relatively straightforward. As I dislike deckbuilding, I'll happily play if someone else hands me a constructed deck but I also recognise that the game is not particularly interesting once that deck has been built.

I only play Marvel Champions on the basic difficulty level, so no deckbuilding. That's ideal for me, as I don't get much enjoyment from the deckbuilding process for any game, and Marvel Champions has a pretty limited pool of cards to work with so far. So I may be biased, but I feel that most of the challenge in Marvel Champions comes from tactical decisions made during play, not deckbuilding decisions made in advance. Your built deck won't tell you when to flip to alter ego form and heal, and it won't tell you when to push your luck and when to play cautiously.

Shellhead wrote: I only play Marvel Champions on the basic difficulty level, so no deckbuilding. That's ideal for me, as I don't get much enjoyment from the deckbuilding process for any game, and Marvel Champions has a pretty limited pool of cards to work with so far. So I may be biased, but I feel that most of the challenge in Marvel Champions comes from tactical decisions made during play, not deckbuilding decisions made in advance. Your built deck won't tell you when to flip to alter ego form and heal, and it won't tell you when to push your luck and when to play cautiously.

So my experience is very limited with the game, with the first game being coached by an experienced player and the second facing the most standard scenario but I felt like many of the decisions on a given turn were relatively straightforward. The first game was against Klaw and the Anachronauts so there were loads of cards popping out of the deck but Ah_pook was managing the book keeping and providing some coaching so that definitely made it way easier to assess relative threats and figure out when to switch over. I do enjoy the game and will definitely play again but it just didn't spark the same joy or excitement in me as Arkham Horror does, even in the beginner scenarios.

I started up a game of Spire's End. I bought this because of the gorgeous art but to be honest, it's really a CYOA novel with some more involved combat added on. Combat is deadly and the frequent rolls of a single d8 lead to very fickle outcomes but it's an enjoyable experience so far. I had to call it a night halfway through but I'm curious to pick this up again and see how my story ends.

Continuing my tour of games I wasn't able to buy or play while overseas, this week my family bought Horrified. We played two games today, and of the Prospero Hall games I've played so far I think this one my be my favorite. It's not as deep as Villainous or as thematic as Jaws, but geez, what a game. I've never played the original Arkham Horror from the 80s, but Horrified is a little like what I imagine that game to be like.

Much like in Villainous, the six different monsters all feel like they have been super well-designed to provide maximum flavor with minimum fuss. Though I don't know if I'd consider myself a true fan of the Universal Monsters, I've seen most of the movies represented here, and I love the little details. The villagers who show up to wander around the board, the little subsystems for each monster, it's all just great.

It's also a very clean design, and it just hums along with a minimum of friction. I know there are others who want more depth or more control, but this is exactly what I want for a $30 game from Wal-Mart. My kids were both able to play without any trouble, and it's got the earmarks of the sort of thing people have fond memories of playing when they are adults.

It's also one of the nicest looking games I've seen in a while. It's really tastefully designed visually, and I love the dark mood combined with the vibrant colors. Very much a classic 80s game feel to it, and I am in love.

I'm discovering this 2-3 years after everyone else on this site, but all these Prospero Hall games have been such a pleasure to get into. Between Villainous, Jaws, and now Horrified, it has made family game night an absolute joy. Even our youngest, who isn't much of a gamer, has requested them now and then.

They seem like they're perfectly scoped for the target store shelf, which I actually deeply respect as a niche without going crazy for it myself.

Yeah it’s a niche I could really use with kids ages 8 and 11.

Picked up the Bruce Lee figure for Unmatched.

Got 4 games in tonight. 2 vs Invisible Man and 2 vs Alice. He won the first 3 games. At first blush, Bruce Lee seems overpowered. His shtick is to gain additional actions with his attacks, in a game where you get two actions per turn. He can deplete his opponent’s hand and get damage in quickly. His defensive cards aren’t great, but some do return cards to his hand from his discard. I won the third game by one-turn-KOing the jabberwock while Alice was small, which set the tone for the game. In the last one the jabberowock got a good hit in and Alice finished Bruce. My partner was happy to finally win and did not want to ruin it by going best of three.

I love Villainous and Funkoverse. I've enjoyed Jaws and Godzilla: Tokyo Clash. I'll take a look at pretty much anything Prospero Hall does because you're right. They've totally nailed the feel of the characters and settings that their games are based on, even if they're not the deepest or most innovative things in the world.

Got in a 4-player Rising Sun tonight with my slowly-reviving regular group. It was Fox (me) vs Bonsai vs Lotus vs Dragonfly. We used the Horseman card set and two extra monsters per season. We had Amaterasu, Ryujin, Tsukyomi, and Susanoo for kami. The one new player took Lotus randomly, but he's a really sharp gamer, so I knew he'd have no problem figuring out how to best exploit Lotus' power. I tried to convince the other two players that they really needed to boot him off the shrines if they could, but he and Bonsai stayed allied for the whole game and he ended up with a pile of cards from Ryujin. He also Harvested at least twice with other mandates, gaining huge amounts of points and coins off the couple provinces he was controlling. I also got screwed by the WPT draw in Autumn, since the two provinces I needed to get at least 7 didn't have combat. So, it ended up 63-52(me)-43-37, which means I still would've been one point short. Our Dragonfly player isn't very aggressive (she won last time with Turtle Clan) and I was trying to encourage her to divebomb Lotus, but she just didn't have as good a handle on Dragonfly as she did with the green dudes.

This was my first time playing Fox clan and I have the same criticism of them that most have: their ability is great in Spring, but less so in later seasons. I did, however, end up with the Oni of Blood, Skulls, Strife, and Hate (Plagues was the only one I didn't get) and dual Form of the Beast. That and 5 different WPTs was the bulk of my scoring. Next time, we bring in Kami Unbound since everyone who will be there now has at least one game under their belts. We finished in about two hours, too, which is just brilliant given all of the choices that can be made. I know it's disdained as a "pile of plastic" around here, but it's a great game with a lot of depth.

I've played Rising Sun over 10 times and still haven't cracked open Kami Unbound. Need to change that some day.

We were set on playing Oath at my standard game night, but a player couldn't make it. While the chronicle doesn't require the same players every session, it felt a little wrong playing it without him. So we wait until next week.

Instead we played Dwellings of Eldervale, which is a hybrid - although I'd say 90% Euro - worker placement disguised as area control/adventure game designed by Luke Laurie.

Despite tons of really stunning components such as personal plastic player trays, large neutral monster minis, shaped and screen sprinted meeples of different types, etc. It was ultimately forgettable. It's all about moving up different elemental tracks and then spamming out as many dwellings and acquiring as many cards of your highest elements as possible. I was holding off on writing my top 10 of 2020 thinking this could possibly make it, but no chance. It's not terrible, and I'd rather play it than Terra Mystica, but just nothing terribly exciting to me.

Then we cracked Vengeance out. I'd been wanting to get it back to the table to try the Director's Cut expansion. I ended up playing this twice this week (once with another group) and I'm mixed overall on the expansion. New gang is fine, new character is neat, but the actual director stuff I'm conflicted on. I do dig more player interaction and I also appreciate some of the other aspects of the expansion such as personalized perks and character specific goals that tie into their stories.

But, like expansion bloat in general, it's just more stuff on the table that you only touch once or twice per game. If we played Vengeance more often it would have more utility, but it's a once a year game at this point for me due to the sheer volume of games we play.

I've hit three plays of Ruination now and close to reviewing it. I really enjoy it and think I will make space to keep it. Mezo didn't make the cut unfortunately but this Kolossal release will.

The Company of Heroes board game continues to bring it. Digging this one as a step up from Memoir 44 in complexity and it does a great job of capturing the video game's feel.

Vampire: Rivals is a new LCG from Renegade. It looks to be highly influenced by V:TES, but it's a 40 minute game instead of 3 hour one. We just played two player to learn at the end of a game night, and in that format it was just alright. Nothing I'd seek out. Many of the mechanisms rely on three or more players though so I'm hopeful it's better there.

Just a guess, but my impression is that it won't quite hit the highs of V:TES but it may be solid enough given the abbreviated playtime. The battle system is a lot cleaner too, although I miss that you can't block all kinds of actions. I also don't like that you can't directly bleed someone but instead just go after their coterie.

I'm trying to get a review copy for myself so I can explore it better. Difficult relying on someone else's copy really.

Watergate really shocked me. I remember No Pun Included loving it, and it generally getting good reception, but I think this is a better game than 13 Days. I also really like the themes at play as All the President's Men is one of my favorite films. I won narrowly as Nixon. Think I'm going to pick this up.

Uk'otoa still kind of sucks.

I've been trying to trade for Watergate, too. I like 13 Days, but Watergate seems somehow more involved for both players.

Watergate is on BGA. I tried it and was pretty unimpressed. Much prefer 13 Days.

Iron Helm - Played a learning game of this. Simple card-based solo dungeon crawl. No map you just hit a series of rooms each level but you draw two and choose a face-up or the other face-down. Died on level 3 after running out of energy a zombie slowly damaged me to death. It was quick and my choices led to my inventory and fate at the end. I like that combat is just rolling damage.

Had a couple friends who took the day off and came over to get some games in before one of them heads back to his current residence in NC. (They're a couple and he works remotely and is making plans to move up here to be with her.)

Started out with a game of Godzilla: Tokyo Clash. MB liked this but I know Josh was totally put off by it, although he never really went into detail as to why. It's a pretty simple game and it kind of annoys me that you can't simply bash the large buildings that you're near without needing to throw either another kaiju or a vehicle into them. But I think there's enough variety of actions in the cards of all four monsters that it's entertaining, although our game ran a little longer than I expected a three-player session to go. I was Godzilla vs Ghidorah and Megalon. We played the suggested beginning scenarios (Armored Assault (tanks) and Rush Hour (trains)) as it was a first game for all of us. Godzilla won with 10 points, beating Ghidorah with 9 and Megalon with 8, so it seemed like a successful venture. I'd definitely like to try again and use some different events, since the trains didn't seem to do much other than get tossed across the map for energy.

Then we pulled out Fate of the Elder Gods, which I hadn't played in a while. It's a decent worker placement game, but I think it may be a bit too rules-heavy to really be appealing. There's just so much to keep track of and I'm not sure that there's a better strategy than simply cycling back and forth between the Gathering (getting dudes back from the Abyss) and the Outer Worlds (sacrificing said dudes to move up steps on your summoning track.) A couple side jaunts to the Library to get more cards is useful and maybe hitting the Museum if there's a good artifact is possible. But the really important spots are the first two. I was Yog-Sothoth vs Tsathoqqua vs Cthulhu. I kinda performed said strategy and eventually won, not least because both of my opponents' luck with the dice was really on the low end. I want to like this game, but I've played four or five times now and it's just not singing to me.

One of my players requested Dune: Imperium so I taught them that. I took Duke Leto against Count Richese and Earl Thorvald. I started by focusing on swaying the Emperor to my side but then a lot of Bene Gesserit cards showed up and I had to take advantage of them, especially given the pipeline of Intrigue cards that they create. I was able to get my Swordmaster quite early, but Thorvald took control of two spots on Arrakis by winning combat regularly. But I ended up with three alliances at one point and was prominent enough with the factions to play the endgame Intrigue card that gives you two points for being at three influence or higher with three of them and that secured the win. I really like this game from a mechanical perspective. There's an enormous amount of depth in the decision-making. What bugs me is that the game is over so quickly that you rarely get to make regular use of the cool cards that you end up buying. I'd also like it if there were more plentiful ways to purge cards from your deck, because some rounds can really be hampered by drawing a fistful of starting cards that make you feel really gimped if others have managed to draw the better cards that they've purchased.

We were a little fried by then, so I brought out Guildhall to play a quick game before dinner showed up. I've never lost that game... until tonight. One of my opponents picked it up quickly and, after I had won the previous three games we'd played today, both of them targeted me heavily with Assassins and Traders. I only managed to put together 13 points by the time she'd hit 20.

They decided they had time for one more light game before taking off and suggested Lovecraft Letter, for which my girlfriend joined us. The first game went to a rare full length, as one of them had played Liber Ivonis, which means they couldn't be knocked out until the end of the round. But he lost out to her Cthulhu. She went on to win two more games and won the overall match with three Insanity tokens, which is also fairly unusual for us with this game. I still think it's the best version of Love Letter that I've played.

Another game of Iron Helm this time reaching a final boss who straight-up murdered me. This game has a very OSR every choice matters style to it that I like. I feel satisfied that my character had a dungeon-crawl adventure with all the boxes checked. I ordered the loot expansion and a level 2 and level 3 pack to try the campaign. More plays might bring a full review of this one.

Also tried out Puzzle Dungeon which is a very different game. There's no real dungeon stuff other than the artwork and wording but I knew that going in. Its a set collection game where monsters require different combinations of suits to defeat them. Only hero cards, monster cards, and fancy playing cards are used. You pick one hero card per game and all it does is list how many and which types of monsters you need to defeat to win and gives a unique ability for that game. Every monster has an effect that triggers when you defeat it. Most of the game is figuring out which monsters you can defeat and in which order to take advantage of their effects. The game comes with hundreds of heroes and lots of different monster types so a lifetime of variability. Ultimately it's just matching sets of cards to collect the right sets of monsters to win. Not taxing but not mindless.

For the first time in far too long I finally got to play games with real live Human Beings!

My spouse is revising all weekend for an exam and it was a nice day so I took the kids with me to get out of her way and we went to hang out with a friend and her family in their garden. They expressed an interest in trying some games so I took a bundle of light and friendly stuff with us that were all new to them although no doubt very familiar to everyone here.

I tried them out on Micro Macro which surprisingly flopped when I thought it would be a sure thing. There was some kind of conceptual break between trying to figure out the story behind the crime and having a clear operational structure to play within, they didn't quite know where to stop and be satisfied that they had found the answer to the clue card and then move to the next step, nor were they able to focus on the one thread they were following (one card asked them to identify someone suspicious and they found about a dozen such people nearby that were all part of different cases).

Followed up with Skull which went down much better. I love the little learning curve that people go through when they try this for the first time. I surprised them with seeding a skull and calling a low bid to entrap them into bidding up and flipping my clearly innocent cards ("we thought you were a nice person") and then, when they had learned that trick themselves, calling their bluff and forcing them to reveal their own skulls ("thank god we're not playing this for money"). Even so, my friends spouse got a clear win by gauging the time and size of his bids well.

Fake Artist was the star of the day and we could have played this for the rest of the afternoon but for my wipe-clean marker running out and stopping play. They really latched onto the concept and with six of us it felt like the perfect number to bring the game alive. I'm half-tempted to get a copy for them as a present but I know it won't work at all with only three players.

So then we switched to Insider which also went down very well. There is something really great about these Oink titles that maybe we don't appreciate well enough in the hobby, in that they are so straightforward to understand. "We all draw a picture together one line at a time based on the same word except one person doesn't know what that word is" and "it's 'Twenty Questions' except one person knows the answer but wants to guide someone else to say the word" are immediately understandable shared concepts that require very little finessing with specific rules.

Another thing that was even better and far more satisfying than the games, the sun, and even the company was the reaction of my friends son. He's not only going through the usual teenage grumpy phase but also coping with a change of schools and missing his extended family who are far overseas. He didn't really want to engage with anyone, even sitting with his back turned to everyone when we first sat down, but by the end of the afternoon he was very actively part of the group, really into the activities and socialising well. I felt like we gave him a fun experience which he might otherwise have spent moping about in front of screens, and that really made my day.

First games evening with someone other than my house mates.

We played Cosmic Encounter with 4. Which worked better than I expected. For some reason I had it benched as always a 5-6, but 4 is fine. Perhaps 5 or 6 is better simply because there are more allies to draw in. My girlfriend consistently accused me of being untrustworthy are refused to ally with me in defence or attack. But i did ok depite this. It ended with 3 of us with 4 colonies and Gav winning with 5. Rare solo win. I had the philanthropist which i mostly used for foisting bad cards on the other players to try and burn my hand.


I also played Paper Back earlier in the day with the lady. Its dominion crossed with countdown. It is not quite as good as scrabble in my view but fun for a speller none the less.