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Author Topic: Board Game Banter  (Read 13083 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Board Game Banter
« on: January 04, 2018, 09:55:22 AM »
Let's talk about board games!

I'm gonna copy over my list of anticipated board games from the video game thread.

Most Anticipated Games of 2018:

1.Rising Sun



Folklore Samurai area control game with a heavy emphasis on diplomacy? Yes, please! It's like someone tapped into my brain and asked what my idea "minis on a map" game would be. I backed this on Kickstarter and it should be shipping any day now...

2. 7th Continent



This looks like a roguelike distilled into a board game and I want to see how it works. I know a lot of people complained that the actual writing of the story wasn't great, but I hope it's able to capture the experience of swapping stories with people about the unique situation you encountered and how you dealt with it. Also backed this one on Kickstarter and it should come out in March.

3. Altiplano



If you want to play something different, I'd tell you to play Orelans, a game where you build your resources but draw them blindly from a bag. It's a super fun system, but with enough depth that you've almost always got two or three interesting choices to make. Altiplano is the followup to Orelans, but instead of boring trade in medieval France you're breeding alpacas in the Andes! Now that sounds like a fun theme.

4. Gloomhaven (Retail Release)



As legacy games become more of a thing, I think the initial sheen is going to wear off and we're going to have to deal with whether or not the systems are good. Gloomhaven looks like the core dungeon crawl combat campain I wanted out of Star Wars: Imperial Assault. The fact it's also an evolving legacy game is just the cherry on top. The only problem is going to be selling people on committing to a campaign of this.

5. Hunt for the Ring



I love War of the Ring, but it only plays two and is a beast of a game as it can easily reach 4 hours of playtime. This looks to add in more players and distill the hidden movement mechanic of War of the Ring into something I could play with my family. Unless this one ends up being a dud, I feel like this might be the hidden movement game for my collection.

6. Batman: Gotham City Chronicles



Conan looked like an interesting combat campaign system but the theme is so off-putting that I have no interest in playing it. The idea of wrapping those mechanics into a Batman game--meaning it's also something I could probably convince family and hardcore tabletop gamers to play--makes it a perfect way for me to finally experience a game I'd love to play but with a theme/aesthetic that won't make me squirm.



Give that I just got a handful of games for Christmas and I've got those two kickstarters coming in over the next couple of months, I'm going to try to hold off buying any more board games until April. We shall see if I withstand temptation. (I've already thought about some light cheating by picking up a couple of expansions.)

Corndog

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2018, 10:01:40 AM »
This will be good for me to follow because my family loves games, but don't know much other than the major popular games.
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Sandy

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2018, 09:37:58 PM »
"minis on a map"  :)  Yes, please!

This will be an elementary question, since I too am not well versed in the less mainstream games. I've never played Dungeons or Dragons and have only played The Hobbit (a co-operative game) once. I found the game to be wholly unsatisfying. Basically, the person who knew the game best, guided us through each of our turns to help him in the best manner possible. My presence was essentially superfluous and rather boring. Am I missing something? Are there great reasons to love a co-operative game? Or, am I just too competitive to want to work with others? ;)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2018, 10:02:56 PM »
That's a problem with certain cooperative games. If one person just tells you what to do every turn, it can feel like you're not part of the process. It's more of a people problem than a game problem. I try to let people work out things even if I know it might mean we lose. Some people find that infuriating, but I find it engages people more if I only point out critical problems to keep an eye on or give a suggestion when asked.

I would say try something like Pandemic, though. That one has some satisfying elements where each player has his/her own special ability and even if you take other people's suggestion, you often find after a while that you'll make observations the other experienced player might have overlooked. Still, more pushy players will just constantly tell other people what to do each turn. But since most people aren't exactly approachable about being controlling in a game, there are some alternatives.

One possible solution is playing a coop that has a traitor element like Battlestar Galactica or Dead of Winter so that players are more coy about what the strategy is because someone in the group wants to ruin that strategy.

The other is to play a one vs many game. So for instance you could play Specter Ops where one player is a spy running through a maze and the other players are working together to hunt down the one player. You give the expert the harder hidden role and then everyone else gets to work out as a team how to hunt down the other player.

oldkid

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2018, 02:43:35 AM »
My daughters and I agree that we need a board game about breeding alpacas in the Andes.  How could we possibly live without this?
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Teproc

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2018, 03:59:59 AM »
I'm an avid boardgamer, grew up playing Settlers of Catan as well as the mass-market classics and still play very regularly today, both with family and friends. Over the holidays, we played Mysterium, Splendor, 7 Wonders, Concordia, Mah-jong (we have our own simplified rules), Crossing, and others I can't think of right now... but my favorite part was teaxching my 8-year old nephew Dominion (which is my favorite game), and him not only liking it, but being rather good at it and even winning a 4-player game.

@Sandy: What you're describing is a common problem with cooperative games, known as the alpha player problem. I'd disagree with Sam's proposal of Pandemic, as I think that game is just as subject to alpha gamers as most cooperative games... instead I would suggest Hanabi. It's a small card game where you're trying to make fireworks (represented by numbered cards of different colors), but the twist is: you don't know what your own cards are. Everyone else sees them, and they have to make you understand what to play with limited means (and you do the same with them): it completely shirks the alpha player problem since no one has a full picture, and it's surprisingly addictive.
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Teproc

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2018, 04:04:43 AM »
My daughters and I agree that we need a board game about breeding alpacas in the Andes.  How could we possibly live without this?

Contact Uwe Rosenberg, I'm sure he'd be interested. If he can make a great game out of 18th century Bavarian farmers (Agricola), he can certainly do this one too.
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Sandy

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2018, 12:36:13 PM »
Oooh! I remember now playing a game called Clue: The Great Museum Caper, a long time ago, which sounds like the concept of Specter Ops and had a lot of fun with it. I also like the idea of a mole. Anything to break up the Alpha stranglehold!

Thanks for the suggestions, Sam and Teproc. I won't give up hope on cooperative games just yet. :)



My daughters and I agree that we need a board game about breeding alpacas in the Andes.  How could we possibly live without this?

:))   This is a game I'd come to Portland for, just to sit and play with you and the kids.

I've bought two alpacas in the Andes, through Heifer International. I hope they're breeding well!

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2018, 12:41:07 PM »
The answer is simple. Do no play cooperative games. Buy competitive games and impose your dominance as you crush your rivals' hopes and dreams.

I wish I knew enough gamers to get more into boardgames. Getting trashed every other day is nice and all, but there are other indoor things people can do together.
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smirnoff

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Re: Board Game Banter
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2018, 01:56:40 PM »
The answer is simple. Do no play cooperative games. Buy competitive games and impose your dominance as you crush your rivals' hopes and dreams.

I wish I knew enough gamers to get more into boardgames. Getting trashed every other day is nice and all, but there are other indoor things people can do together.

Yes on both counts :)

Does anyone still play Balderdash? It's a family favourite. Best with 5 or more though imo, so it doesn't come out that often.

 

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