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The Board Game Thread

Started by hpmons, April 16, 2010, 09:35:50 PM

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hpmons

We all know and love board games.  Most importantly, we all know and love Race for the Galaxy.



Once you get past the initial problem of actually remembering what the symbols mean, it's AWESOME.  You build a civilisation by playing cards (which represent worlds or developments).  Each group turn you choose what action to take (explore, develop, settle, consume, produce) - you get a bonus for the action you take, but can also perform the actions others have chosen.  The game ends when one player has played 12 cards, and the winner is the one with the most points (adding up the amount in the hexagons, along with victory chips you may acquire during the game). Uh...That's probably gobbledegook without playing the game.
The great thing about it is the variation.  The original has 109 cards - all world cards are original, though most developments have two or three cards.  There are so many strategies to go for, lots of alien planets and the alien development card, the mining win, using the diversified economy card to get loads of victory chips, or a military win (the military worlds are usually worth the most).  The only expansion pack I've played is The Gathering Storm which adds achievements - you get bonus points for being the first to do XYZ (e.g get three alien worlds), and for having the most of something (e.g. military bonus).  These are randomised so it isn't always the same, and it's near impossible to get all of them so you have to prioritise.  Its also great because it seems to be one of the few games that really works for 2 players.  There's a computer version (though the AIs can be a little irritating) here

I also ventured into the terrifying world of Arkham Horror.  Unlike most others this is a co-op game - you play with the other players against a common enemy, namely Cthulhu or another Ancient One and its followers which frequently spawn around the place and open up gates.  We played three games and failed miserably, filling the world with terror and doom, each time wondering whether it was supposed to be this terrifyingly hard...Then we double-triple checked the rulebook and realised we were playing it twice as hard as we were supposed to.  Our next game felt so free and easy, swanning around buying items and spells, it turned out to be fairly boring.  There were lots of great ideas and variations in it though - each character you choose (out of 16) had a unique skill, and you can play enviroment cards which alter gameplay temporarily.  The location cards (which you take when you explore an area) are nice, it gives a much more RPG-ish feel to the game.  Ultimately it seemed too easy, if only there was something in between the ultra difficult version we played.



Cosmic Encounter is the win.  Basically you just have to take over your opponents planets but the main premise behind it is that the rules change every time you play it - the different types of aliens make for a drastic change in gameplay every time - thousands of different combination to make it a fun and amusing game. It feels like its less focused on winning and more focused on just messing about. 
Each turn you play attack cards against your opponent face down, the value of which can be from 4 to 30.  Your attack power is your card, plus your ships plus any allies ships, and any effects.  Once the cards are revealed, the person with the highest attack power (usually) wins. But things can be completely changed by what type of alien you or your opponent are. Here are a few examples.  It could be that the lowest card wins again, you can switch your card with you opponent before its revealed, you can steal cards, you can choose your opponents card at random or you can switch your entire hand with your opponents.  It's INSANE.  ANd very, very cool.



What super sexy board games do you enjoy? Do you ever buy board games, or do you leave them on the shelves unloved?

The Plunger

A board game to me is Monopoly/Cluedo and suchlike. What is listed above looks dangerously like Games Workshop-style RPG nonsense.

Keep it old-school :


Jemble Fred



BRING IT BACK YOU MEGA BASTARDS!

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

Quote from: The Plunger on April 16, 2010, 09:52:36 PM
A board game to me is Monopoly/Cluedo and suchlike. What is listed above looks dangerously like Games Workshop-style RPG nonsense.

Keep it old-school :



WRONG

Have not played any of the games mentioned in the opening post but am very much a fan of the modern board games that are coming out of Germany and elsewhere. Dominion is the current favourite, but the list of games played at family gatherings is extensive. A good co-op game if you like that kind of thing is Pandemic, I would recommend that one.

Jemble Fred

In my experience, if the rules go on over one side of an A5 leaflet, nobody's going to bother following them.

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

Unfortunately for you then, your narrow minded and moronic associates are depriving you of a lot of fun.

Jemble Fred

Oi, there's nothing moronic about Mike Reid's Pop Quiz!

Or Scrabble, or anything in The Plunger's picture, really.

The Plunger

Quote from: Jemble Fred on April 16, 2010, 11:03:15 PM
Oi, there's nothing moronic about Mike Reid's Pop Quiz!

That game was tremendous. Due to a charity shop donation mishap a few years ago I no longer own it. But I often recall the halcyon days of trying to complete my band, waiting for the 'PA' square that never arrived fast enough. As I recall, a lot of excellent non-time specific questions as well, such as 'Name 5 bands with a colour in the title' and suchlike. Sounds easy, but try it with that bastard Pop Quiz egg timer counting down. PRESSURE.


Jemble Fred

True. Reid himself can sod off obviously but a board game where you put a band together is just gameplay perfection really.

The Plunger

Also featuring the singer from Curiosity Killed The Cat on the cover, fact fans.

Ginyard

A mate and myself built a horse racing game on our dining room table when we were stoned once. Drawing the track with a permanent marker, we used filter tips for horses and matchsticks, golden virginia and some light of jah as bushes and stuff. It was the best board game I have ever played apart from Punch Operation at school, which was a corruption of the popular operating table game where you basically got punched in the region you failed to fish the bone out of. Funny bone was ok. Bread basket was terrifying.

Capt.Midnight

#11
Quote from: Jemble Fred on April 16, 2010, 10:13:24 PM


BRING IT BACK YOU MEGA BASTARDS!

SHITTING GHOST CASTLE!

I always wanted that, just look how shit-stonkingly scared those children look on the cover. I bet it was absolutely terrifying.

Was it any good? What were the rules?

Ginyard

BLACK DEATH CARD: Go upstairs and behead your mum.


Quote from: Capt.Midnight on April 17, 2010, 12:43:56 AM
I always wanted that, just how shit-stonkingly scared those children look on the cover. I bet it was absolutely terrifying.

The original version looks a lot less terrifying:



Look at those bright 70s colours! That wouldn't shit ANYONE up.

The Plunger

Speak for yourself - I'm bricking it. It's like a 3d Knightmare.

Capt.Midnight

That looks quite awful. I have no protective ring of nostalgia to shield me from it's cheap production values.

Ginyard

Why the creators ever thought a plastic blue figure goosestepping across what looks like a welded wire mesh above some green igneous rock would be scary is beyond me. Where are the dismembered limbs hanging off the portculis?

Capt.Midnight

Does the staircase lead anywhere? Or is it just for show?

Yeah, the aim of the game is to move round the board then climb the stairs. Every so often you have to drop the glow-in-the-dark skull down the chimney, which then randomly bounces one of four ways, triggering a trap; if you get hit by one then you move your piece back a few spaces.

God knows why you'd actually want to go upstairs in a haunted house instead of GETTING THE FUCK OUT OF THERE but never mind.

Viero_Berlotti

Another Cosmic Encounter fan here, the fun wasn't always in winning but just seeing how the game played out and like all great games it's complexity lay in it's relative simplicity. I've not played it in about 20 years though, I didn't even realise it had been re-released and still had a following. I think I prefer the artwork on my 1980's West End Games version though. I see there is an online version as well now: http://www.cosmicencounter.com/screens/home.html

Jemble Fred

Quote from: waste of chops on April 17, 2010, 01:59:01 AM
God knows why you'd actually want to go upstairs in a haunted house instead of GETTING THE FUCK OUT OF THERE but never mind.

Er... soemthing to do with treasure, was it? Stop ruining it with logic!

I'd never seen that early version before, but the 80s incarnation was a bit genuinely creepy in its own way, some properly grotesque images for kids. But! It's high time that they brought it back, with all-new layers and designs and concepts added.

My brother has our old copy of Ghost Castle, and it's not fair, I want one.

Angst in my Pants

Wasn't it something like closing the coffin lid to stop the skull from causing havoc in the castle?

Jemble Fred

Yes indeed. That may be half the reason it was my favourite as a kid – it was the closest we had to a Ghostbusters game.

Well, it was until this version came along, anyway:


Jemble Fred


Sivead

The coolest of the cool. My nan had this in the cupboard with the Spirograph and Draffs.

I never played it mind, just played with the little plastic cowboys, fake dollars and cardboard wild west town buildings.

boxofslice

We had this in our house growing up and  I could never figure out how it worked.


Jemble Fred

We had the same game, but a magic pelican. My Nan and Grandad had that exact robot version, but it just sat in the cupboard looking intriguing and was never brought out to play with. :(

Cerys

We had this one -



We never worked out how to play it.  I wish we still had it, though, as it turns out it's a space strategy game.  SNG would possibly cream his pants.