The Board Game Thread

[Big Jack McBastard]

I have this one somewhere in the attic...

Oh man, can't believe I never knew this existed.

[dredd]

 I've been playing Race for the Galaxy against real, actual people! Not face-to-face, of course, that would be ridiculous, but online using flex.

[Cambrian Times]

I want to play this:



http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/

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

I saw this in a charity shop in Barnet for £5. I was so tempted as well.

[hpmons]

Now I've played *drumroll* ... Twilight Struggle!



I admit, I was a little skeptical I could enjoy something to do with the Cold War, which I know very little about and haven't been interested in.  What kinda interested me is I think its the only game I've played which is just for two players.  Most other games are capable of being played with just two players, but you have to change the rules slightly, or it just isn't as good with two players somehow.  Also, it looked confusing, and confusing is good (see also: Race for the Galaxy).

Each player chooses to be either USA or USSR, and the goal is to either win by scoring the most victory points (usually by being dominant in a region) or by controlling Europe.  You are dealt a bunch of cards each turn and you have to play all of them (though one you can dump into the space race each turn).  Each card can be used for the event on it (e.g Red Scare/Purge: Deduct 1 from Operations value of all your opponents cards this turn; Suez Crisis: Remove a total of four US influence from France, UK and Israel) or for operation points, which allows you to add influence to a country, lower the influence of your opponent in a country or perform a coup.  The interesting point is that if you get one of your opponent's cards (e.g you play as US, but the event on the card hurts you) the event has to happen.  This means that there will always be cards you have to play that hurt you.

This allows for a fair amount of strategy, working out how to minimise the losses you'll inevitably get and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses.  The game has a total of ten turns, and when you get to mid war or late war, more cards are introduced - e.g. in the early war U.S has Panama and USSR will probably get Cuba, but otherwise the Americas are largely ignored - most of the fighting is done in Europe, Middle East and Asia.  In the mid war there are more cards relating to Americas and Africa.  This game has just the right combination of strategy and randomness - the cards you are dealt each turn may turn out to great or terrible, coups and realignment are based on dice rolls (though with certain bonuses), but theres still plenty of choices to make about where to put your influence and when, and what areas to make your priority.

We played the game 3.5 times, and each time USSR won (the last time it was leaning towards USSR)...This probably owes quite a lot to the fact that we were doing the scoring somewhat wrong (we never got to Late War) and that He played USSR twice, but there does seem to be a natural inclination towards USSR.  Perhaps the Late War cards are more inclined towards USA though.  Its a pretty long game, Boardgamegeek puts the playing time at 180 minutes, and if you're as slow as me at making decisions, that would be even longer.

All in all: Fab.

[Mr_Simnock]

I have been playing chess for around 17 years now ( I'm still not that good at it) and I'll continue to till I die. Its the daddy of all board games and the one hardest to master ( by light years ). I've become interested to the point where, rather geeky like, I now find some games quite beautiful to play through. I love the fact that you can study it your whole life yet scratching the surface is the most you can do.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I've been playing a lot of chess this year, and would ask you for a game, but it would be pretty pointless I'm guessing.

[Mr_Simnock]

It all depends on where you have been playing and to what success. Do you play on the internet at all? or just friendlies with friends?

[Koant]

Any Go players about? I haven't played for ages and never got really good but I could do with a bit of practice. And the handicap system will help even out any unbalance in skills. We could do it on KGS, nice server and GUI.

[Borboski]

Twilight Struggle looks great.  Looks quite a "serious" game though - I don't know if I could persaude Mrs B?

Has anyone on here played Tide of Iron?  It's a Fantasy Flight boardgame, you get 100s of pieces of build your individual squads on round counters, plugging in mortar, machinegunner, etc, for different stats.  I *think* it might be accessible enough for pick up games with mates.

I may do threads on Dominion and Malifaux when I get the time...

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Dominion is great.

[hpmons]

Twilight Struggle looks great.  Looks quite a "serious" game though - I don't know if I could persaude Mrs B?

It is rather.  You have to be in the mood to play it, and potentially it can take a looooong time to play.

Race for the Galaxy online version now has multiplayer!  It isn't quite as good as having the cards in your hand, and it can also screw you over in a couple of ways (you choose the card you want to play before you choose your discards and can't undo, so if you somehow count wrong you may discard your lovely perfect wonderful card that you were saving for a special occasion), but its still pretty good.  I've mostly been playing the latest expansion which He doesn't have.  He claims the later stuff is unbalanced, but actually I just think its...different.  Well ok, a little unbalanced.  Mostly really cool with lots of features the first expansion doesn't have, and interesting to play because I don't know all the cards.

[HappyTree]

Illuminati

This is a game of world domination using cards with various conspiracy groups. I can't remember much about it as I have played it only once, in France, with friends whilst on a skiing trip. It was good fun and I'd like to play it again some day.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Wot no jews

[Williamellison]

My vote's still to keep to the old classics. These old games are dead for a reason - they're crap!

[bomb_dog]

Two great games - Tantrix and Ingenious



Tantrix works both as a puzzle and a game, its fantastic. The pieces feel nice to play with, the case is tidy, its just ace. There are about three or four different 2-4 player games you can play, plus different solitaire and puzzle games, and there are online tournaments too.



Got the two player version of this. Ingenious is a 'match the pieces' game, but you have to try to get high scores with all your coloured pieces, as its your lowest count scores, not the highest. Great strategy game, and simple to pick up.

Have bought Qwirkle Cubes recently too, but not played it yet.

[HappyTree]

Kerplunk always held great mystery for me, largely because I never had it. I'm sure if I'd played it I'd have found the excitement of falling marbles rapidly underwhelming. But the idea of it is still exciting. If anyone wishes to take a walk down memory lane they are advised to get the original Kerplunk off Ebay as the modern version is very cheap and shoddy, according to contemporary Amazon reviews.

Another game the idea of which was always more exciting than the reality was Mousetrap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw3pZLvDAl8



The great thing about this game was that it didn't matter if it was a bit crap in reality, it managed to fire the child's imagination. I spent many a happy hour just fiddling around with the parts and not playing it properly. There is something inherently fascinating about marbles and making them roll down certain paths. I look at my nephew playing happily with bits of lego, piling them up to make a "black fire" and wish my mind could still be so easily entertained.

[Neomod]

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.

I didn't like this because having no definitive answers would lead to arguments every time in my competitive household.

Any way I give you the far superior ' Chartbuster.




Chartbuster introduces the players into the exciting and glamorous world of pop. Records are promoted by performances at London theaters and clubs and perhaps on television until they are eventually launched onto the hit parade and top 20. The first player to sell one million records is the winner. Groovy graphics, cheesy song titles working their way up the charts and nothing like the feeling of buying your first Roller.

Found one for £3 in a charity shop a few years ago and sold it for £70. I still regret it.