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The Board Game Thread

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

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Cerys

He likes strategy games.

He really likes strategy games.




Okay, maybe not that much.

Repentia

Battle of the Halji is one of those early 90's board games that takes over an hour to set up, and then a good three hours to get close to any sort of conclusion, let alone victory.



The concept is simple: each player is a three-legged tree god vying for domination of a planet. The way you see off your opponents is to telepathically control the local wildlife. You send it hurtling through the danger-laden, disease-ridden landscape at each other's legs, where, if the animals hadn't dropped dead, starved or otherwise become blind or maimed beyond control, you detonate them.



Your critters need to eat colour-coded food tiles that grows in certain regions, or, far better it turns out as the game progresses, colour-coded poo tiles. Battle of the Halji was responsible for popularizing the word coprophile.

Each enslaved critter has its own character sheet to keep track of how disease-ridden and damaged it is getting, and a unique, pictorial digestive system to keep track of how empty it is getting.

Some creatures need a certain nutrition-combo of colour tiles to use special attacks, but to be honest, most of them drop dead long before they encounter your opponent's, or by some miracle of lucky dice rolls they reach a leg.



Good game, despite the fact we never played one where anyone managed to win. Would possibly play well as a computer game these days, if the corruption of the animals could be depicted well enough. There are a lot of humour flourishes, and a lot of creative thinking in how the game plays. The game board was a very satisfying, thick cardboard, and slotted together jigsaw-like, rather than folded. Luckily, one of my friends had access to a photocopier (a rarity in them days of yore), so we always had fresh character sheets, but even so, the initial wedge of sheets provided was very generous, for a board-game. Came with quality dice, very rare for a board game, memories of shitty greyplastic d4's grudgingly provided with TSR games at the time (and I imagine, the same today).

ozziechef

In our house it's all about Escape from Atlantis



Collapsing Islands, plastic dolphins, sea monsters and boats. What's not to like?



The original 80s version though - the 90s redesign wasn't as good.

Atmosfear too is always good fun.

hpmons


dredd

#34
The Dune boardgame! Sort of like an intergalactic version of come dine with me.

There is an online emulator.
Quote from: Cerys on April 17, 2010, 05:57:09 PM
4000 AD
We had the French version, for some reason. Never figured out how to play it.

edit: sounds interesting, a diceless RISK with innovative movement system
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/190722/headache-inducing-space-conquest

El Unicornio, mang

Ghost Castle was a favourite but I also liked this one



Which came with a red stamp thing that made a bat print on your hand

Later on it was all Warhammer 40,000 with it's 300 page rulebook that I could never be bothered to read

The Masked Unit

Used to love this as a kid, although I can't really remember how it worked


Later on, this ruled the roost, and was the closest I ever got to the likes of D&D.


weekender

I want to play this:



QuoteEveryone starts with the best intentions. Then things start to get cramped. Then you notice your neighbour has more oil than you. Before long, war is waged, nukes are dropped, revolutions are fought and terrorists are doing your dirty work, before turning on you...

This is the War on Terror, the boardgame: A quality boardgame for 2 - 6 players, lovingly illustrated and politically correct (in a very literal sense). Playing it will bring out the nastiest, greediest, darkest, most paranoid aspects of your character. It's all great family fun.

http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/

I just want to know if it's any good before I shell out £30.


CaledonianGonzo

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on May 16, 2010, 02:58:15 AM
Ghost Castle was a favourite but I also liked this one



Which came with a red stamp thing that made a bat print on your hand

While I've never seen that, as well as Ghost Castle our house had this horror-based tabletop pastime from the estimable divertisements house of Messers Waddingtons:



Despite it coming with a green cardbgoard vampire bat mask, even as a kid I knew it was a minor leaguer compared to the likes of The Game of Life or Go For Broke (The Game You Win By Losing A Million).


dredd

I still have this:

A 2-player favourite, involving much dice-throwing and drawing of random weapon effect chits.
Someone on boardgamegeek turned the original map:

Into this:

Lt Plonker

Jurassic Park!




Exciting stuff. You got to control the dinosaurs, as well as your own piece, in order to slow down the other players. Still got it at home, thankfully. We got Great Grandma playing once and she just made up her own rules. She's dead now.

Also, 13 Dead End Drive.




KILL THE CAT

It was a murder mystery game, where you had your own characters, but could control every piece on the board. The idea was to lead your own piece to the inheritance whilst trying to bump off your opponents in one of the numerous traps. Obviously, leading your own character straight to the treasure would reveal that to be your piece, and give your opponents a chance to do away with him. Not played it in years. Must dig it out.

Jemble Fred

13 Dead End Drive looks fucking drop dead brilliant. I;d even turn up to a meet if I knew that was going to be there.

TotalNightmare

Quote from: Jemble Fred on May 16, 2010, 09:33:35 PM
13 Dead End Drive looks fucking drop dead brilliant. I;d even turn up to a meet if I knew that was going to be there.

This does look something I would play if it was pulled out at a party (fuck Pictionary/Scrabble!)... It's right up my street, that!

Also, that Vampire Game reminds me of something similar called 'I Vant To Suck Your Blood' or something... It had a big Vampire head and you put your finger in it and it left two little bite marks on your finger... or something...

I personally remember this game from my yoof.

Feed Me
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/2419/

You may need to scroll down a bit

But it was effectively Kerplunk with marbles and a little Audrey 2. As a weird little kid, I'd use this toy to recreate the scene from Little Shop Of Horrors where Seymour visits John Candy at the radio station...

Hmmm... I want to watch that film now!

TotalNightmare

Quote from: Jemble Fred on April 17, 2010, 11:53:46 AM
:0

Seriously. :0

Why is this a shock?

I had this at the first year of uni and I thought we'd played it? I'm sure I remember bitching about the fact that it was 'Just Ghost Castle' and was offended by the fact that they stuck a shitty Containment Unit sticker on the roof to make it seem as though it was part of the Firehouse... Also... a Skull? Why not a green Slimer marble?

Anyway, I don't have it any more, It was ruined when it got wet after a storm damaged my parent's loft (where the game was being kept).

Jemble Fred

Weird, I have absolutely no recall of that. It may have been a vodka-based event.

Are my trilbies okay?

Oh yes, this is a forum, not chat. Um...


... Was probably the hardest I've ever laughed at a game, being about 10 years old, fixing the cards so you'd have Max Ramsay sucking Helen Daniel's hedge while dressed as a dolphin or somesuch.

TotalNightmare

Hmm - I remember vodka...

and the Trilby hats are safe...for now!

The fond ones I remember from my youth were

The Grape Escape

An absolte mess, since your 'characters' were made from play doh, only this play doh was oddly sticky and ruined the game and the weapons of destruction that would crush your 'grapes'.

Crazy Crocodiles

A great little game which involved monkeys, an evil red magnetic monkey and crocodiles.

Risk

The sort of game I imagine Mark from Peep Show playing.

greencalx

We seem to have got this far without anyone mentioning Siedler. Passé?

Angst in my Pants

Quote from: TotalNightmare on May 16, 2010, 10:22:21 PM
:
Also, that Vampire Game reminds me of something similar called 'I Vant To Suck Your Blood' or something... It had a big Vampire head and you put your finger in it and it left two little bite marks on your finger... or something...
:
I Vant To Bite Your Finger!
i vant to bite your finger

I used to love that, and Escape From Frankenstein:

SetToStun

#49
Quote from: Lt Plonker on May 16, 2010, 09:21:34 PMWe got Great Grandma playing once and she just made up her own rules. She's dead now.

Fuck me, you take your board games seriously.

I'm off on holiday to Great Yarmouth next month; since it will probably piss down for the entire fortnight, I think we're going to have to stock up on board games, so thank heaven for this thread - there's some crackers in here to look out for.

jaydee81

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on May 16, 2010, 03:14:09 PM
Despite it coming with a green cardbgoard vampire bat mask, even as a kid I knew it was a minor leaguer compared to the likes of The Game of Life or Go For Broke (The Game You Win By Losing A Million).

I was scared shitless by this game as a kid... does that make me a pussy?

dr_christian_troy

I have this one somewhere in the attic....



I believe I have a fair few interesting ones up there, such as the proper ITV Knightmare board game. Will peruse soon.

Madison

Old Guess Who - good. Proper men with proper faces, a sadness in the eyes. There was one who looked like Alan Bennett. Paul, I think.


New Guess Who - an abomination.


No one could ever fancy Maria in the new version. Yes I do remember the 80s. I'll go away.


dredd

Quote from: hpmons on April 16, 2010, 09:35:50 PM
We all know and love board games.  Most importantly, we all know and love Race for the Galaxy.

There's a computer version (though the AIs can be a little irritating) here
Just got around to playing this (didn't notice that last link), very good stuff indeed.

DJ Solid Snail

Quote from: dr_christian_troy on May 20, 2010, 03:03:45 PM
I have this one somewhere in the attic....



Ahhh, nice! What's it like?

Ignatius_S

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on July 12, 2010, 10:14:38 AM
Ahhh, nice! What's it like?
Rather good, though the game's ending is invariably abrupt and leaves more questions than answers.

GoochDogHigh5s

Quote from: Sivead on April 17, 2010, 12:07:29 PM
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.
I had so many board games in the 70's,including this one, which I had forgotten about.
It was ok , bit not as good as the advert made it out to be.
Still pretty cool though

NoSleep

#57

Not technically a board game, although with multiple copies you could possibly play it as a multiplayer game, Ace Of Aces is a 1 versus 1 turn-based WW1 dogfight game (a kind of turned based First Person Shooter). The version I have is the Handy Rotary Series, which features a Sopwith Camel versus a Fokker Triplane. The game is played with two books, each with around 270 pages, that show views of your opponent from the cockpit of your aircraft. At the foot of each page are the possible maneuvers you can make and a page number you must tell your opponent. When you arrive at the page number that your opponent gives you in return, you again look at the maneuver you chose and go to the page number it tells you. if you have both followed correctly, the page number will be the same for both of you, and the views you now have will be your new positions, relative to one another. If your aircraft's nose is pointed directly at your opponent then you score some damage against them; this will vary dependent on the distance you are from them (close/medium/far), and they will deduct that number of points from their initial 12 points. The first one to whittle that 12 points away is the winner.


Note the "T" below the page number. This means you are tailing your opponent and they must indicate whether they are to move left right or forward to you (as you would be able to see their rudder moving from this vantage point in a real dogfight).

Probably not the greatest plan, here.

That's the basic game, which assumes that you and your opponent are playing at the same altitude. There is an advanced game that takes into account changes of altitude and its corresponding effect on distance. Also damage is calculated in a more complex manner, incorporating dice.

It wouldn't take much to make a decent online version of this.

HappyTree

Escape From Colditz was amazing. So exciting to imagine yourself in the war, tunnelling underground, jumping over walls, cutting barbed wire and making a dash for the magnificent Staff Car which gave you six rolls of the dice to escape or wind up in solitary! Exciting stuff.















It says it's best for ages 12+ but I remember playing it when I was 7. Now where did I put that rope?



GoochDogHigh5s

One of the greatest board games ever, Happy Tree
Where is the DO OR DIE card?