/bgg/ board game general

Less fighting than you want, but a good game nontheless.

I've played 40 different boardgames so far this year. Whaddabout you guys?

30 or so, can't really complain. Most were light games though.

I don't really know. I haven't been playing as much this year but I have been buying a ton that I liked last year.

Wanted to ask the same thing. Keep us updated with your experience.

Got my copy earlier this week and haven't got a chance to test it yet...

If i remember to, I'll post my impressions here tomorrow.

The game can get legit if Crimea or Saxony are doing their job right.

>>which game you have played do you feel has the most artistic merit
Probably gonna catch some flak for this, but D&D, WH40k and WHFB have spawned tons of great artwork over the decades. Also, DiTerlizzi's work for the Planescape setting are superb.
>>what game you have played is set at the earliest date, if any
Any space game can be set up billions of years before life on earth. As for earth settings, Evolution does not give a date, but you play species evolving over millenia, so there's that.
>>how do you feel about asmodee being a political cartoon octopus
Where there's a trend, money follows. Where there's money, greedy companies follow. Afraid they'll kill at least a few lines of good games just because they're not as profitable, at least they're not shucking quality.
>>which game you own has the most ebat-up box
Got home drunk last month and sat on my brand spanking new Letters from Whitechapel, tore the sides. Catan box is pretty worn over the years of hauling it everywhere before I got into gaming more seriously.
>>how do you keep your group from turning BG night to a cocaine-fueled orgy
Poverty, user.

Samefag. M:tG has loads of great artwork as well

>Most artistic merit
Assuming you mean artistic just strictly by gameplay standards, don't know if I have played one that has done that. I think with legacy games, Rob Daviau has made the closest thing to an artistic statement in board games, but unfortunately the games themselves are very "commercial" so far.
>Earliest setting
Dominant Species probably. If you mean Historical games only, then it would be Greenland (11-15th centuries) since I haven't gotten Neanderthal out yet
>Asmodee
I think Chaz Marler's criticisms are relevant, and he should do more research into the executives at Asmodee. Someone (maybe SU&SD?) should do a more critical expose of Asmodee's president's former role and decision-making at Vivendi
>Box with most beating
Poor Keyflower has a hole in it. Cosmic Encounter has seen better days
>Keep group focused
We don't have much else to do but board games, at least at my place. If certain troublemakers are around we tend to face some resistance, but thankfully they rarely show up
~95 different games in 2016, but I'd guess only about 30 of those were new to me this year, even less were great games, and only 4 of those were published in 2016

I have only played some two player matches so far, but I am quite enamoured with it. I find the balance between earning stars to have game control, the player mat and resource management, and the control of power scale really great fun. There often so many choices each turn and the game allows your strategy to switch up mid game.

I really get this "cold war" vibe from it and I'vr actually found combat to be quite integral in the matches I've had. There is a lot of potential conflict by say, positioning mechs on tunnels and having a large amount of power. I just really dig how everything works together to keep you fretting over which move to make.

Also, factory cards are really influential.

I had a factory card as Crimea one game that cost a resource and one if the benefits was a combat card. That plus wayfarer meant a lot of agressive plays, it was great.

>>which game you own has the most beat-up box

Dominion

Because really who gives a fuck after the first five hundred plays?

I'm looking for a get into a minis game. the only thing that would matter to me more than the setting or the system is how much would cost me to set up a decent sized army/squad. I'm not in a condition where I can spead hundreds just to play with one faction or army.
someone once told me about Guild ball and I like the prices on their stuff but what else exists?

My copy of Millennium Blades from the coolstuffinc sale just got here yesterday, super fast as it wasn't supposed to get here till the 3rd originally. Just so happened to be game night, so my friends and I cracked it open, taped all the money together, and played our first round.

Holy shit, that is a good game. We didn't even do the full game (started with the pre-release tourney, didn't use character powers or locations) but it was super fun and if it wasn't so late when we finished we probably would have played another round.

Highly recommend it for anyone that seems interested, before the sale ends on coolstuff. I also definitely recommend doing the pre-release mode first so you get a feel for the game. We also tried doing the very first 7 minute section of the first deckbuilding phase without timing (we moved on to timing it during the second 7 minute section, once we all agreed we were done) in order to get a good feel of what you can do and how that phase works.

I pity the fool who never tried Istanbul. What a great game.

Introduced it to my housemates last night. Had a 5 player session and everyone wanted to play more each time. Ended up spending 3+ hours playing a few rounds.

Has anyone played Dogs of War?

>which game you have played do you feel has the most artistic merit

Kingdom Death: Monster. From the miniatures, to the artwork, even the phrasing and fluff text and how combat behaves. It feels like a great artistic endeavor.

>what game you have played is set at the earliest date, if any

Probably Stone-Age? Unless you count something like Dino-Dice?

>how do you feel about asmodee being a political cartoon octopus

I...wait, what?

>which game you own has the most ebat-up box

Probably Fortune and Glory. A couple of tears at the corners. Most of my games are kept in a pretty decent condition.

>how do you keep your group from turning BG night to a cocaine-fueled orgy

I host games night for people in the Fetish community. Cocaine-fueled orgies are their normal saturday nights, so a quiet night of boardgames is their way of relaxing and blowing off steam.

I think this might be the wrong thread for that senpai.

i have played Dogs of War about half a dozen times now. The war mechanic and point scoring makes you really think where you put your support for each battle. you have to keep a close eye on other players too. good fun and makes you think.

Good game to buy if it was 50% off?

>which game you have played do you feel has the most artistic merit

Oh jeez, that's a toughie. Some of my favorite art is for Camp Grizzly. But merit, that's another question... Maybe a Ryan Laukat game ? Fucker creates great games and does the gorgeous art for it. That's what I cal an author.

>what game you have played is set at the earliest date, if any

I guess stone age. Or some Star Wars game, like STEEV mentionned.

>how do you feel about asmodee being a political cartoon octopus

So far they have not given a reason for me to give a shit. But somehow, I fear they're going to fuck it all up in tue end.

>which game you own has the most ebat-up box

My copy of "transformers epic duels" was bought for like two pounds on ebay and is pretty banged up. As for damage I have made myself, I dropped Lords of Waterdeep from the top of a dresser and it's stitched back together with adhesive tape.

>how do you keep your group from turning BG night to a cocaine-fueled orgy

Spend all my money on board games and toys. No more money for cocaine.

>I...wait, what?

Still playing DS solo. Shit is freaking fun, want to play as an OL against someone.

What area, maybe we can meet up, I attend a group at my LCS every Tu and Sat (different groups).

Just got my copy too, glad to see someone really likes it. My group is big into CCG's, we used to play YGO and Duel Masters, now we play MtG and THEY play Vanguard.

Western Washington north Seattle

Fugg I'm in the IE.

Dang too bad, I've actually never played a proper fantasy game with others since d&d 1. Normally just solo

when's the troyes reprint coming out?

2016

I think I've played Forbidden Stars a sufficient number of times to get a new board game.

What do you guys think of Eldritch Horror?
I'm also interested in Dead of Winter, but I think I'd enjoy the previous game more.

It's okay as base but great with the Forbidden Lore expansion and gets better with every one until you get an unwieldy behemoth.

Yeah, supposedly the events start keep repeating themselves after a couple of playthroughs.
Should I get it with Forbidden Lore right of the bat?

Eldritch Horror is alright - if you can stomach full co-op's.
Dead of Winter's theme execution is really good - except for some problems with the traitor mechanics, where an experienced traitor is more of a SURPRISE YOU LOSE GAME OVER land mine instead of a sneaky subversive saboteur.

It's not that the events repeat themselves, base is simply badly balanced. The city events are almost always good and the old ones are either piss easy (all of them but the big C-man) or fucking impossible (you know who). The Forbidden Lore expansion introduces more varied city encounters (not bad per se, just with failure penalties sorely lacked in base) and varies the old ones better. It's a small expansion box but being an obvious fix-up job it contains about as much stuff as a big box expansion.
I would not recommend EH if you can't also get FL.

Some people don't hang with a crowd as colorful as yours and don't lose much by not being cutthroat competitive.

were should I ask then?

Noted, will get both and additional expansions if we end up playing frequently.

Well, we haven't played much co-op games, mostly competitive so far. I want one for varieties sake and to own a game that can accomodate more than 4 players. Not intended, but it's probably more female friendly as well this way, even though we only have those occasionally. Because fuck women in competitive games, they ruin everything.

why? I haven't ever seen a miniature games general here... plus, there's a ton of board games that use miniatures, so I think /bgg/ is a good place to ask

Aside from WH40K, AoS, and WHFB.

X-wing/Armada for spess dogfights/capital ship battles. Widely acclaimed (fans will gobble up anything with a star wars sticker on it, but they're both solid games). Prepainted miniatures. Not cheap.

Warmachine/Warmahordes. Steampunk/fantasy battles. Scalable. Great miniatures. Good system. Cheaper than GW stuff. There's usually a general up in Veeky Forums.

Dust Tactics. Dieselpunk WWII battles. Vehicles and walking tanks! Minis are pretty cool. Dunno much else about it.

Necromunda/Mordheim. Out of print, gotta scavenge for minis, alternately, scratchbuild. Gang warfare. Campaign mode, customizable characters. Good fun, has some mechanical flaws.

Blood Bowl. I love this game, waiting for the new edition.

Memoir '44. Hex based boardgame. Haven't played it but heard much praise for it. Plastic miniatures are just OK, small and not very detailed. TONS of expansions. Asmodee sucks.

Battletech. Mech combat. A goddamned classic, miniature design is showing its age. There's a battletech general up.

Infinity. Sci-fi skirmishes. I dig the theme and the minis look nice. Dunno much more. I've seen a general up here as well.

Some I just know by name: Confrontation, Malifaux, Warpath, Tides of Iron, Warmaster, Crimson Skies Attack Wing and some star trek thingie.

>home on vacation
>brought a bunch of light games with me to play with family
>want to start with something really light even among my light games
>try Age of War out with family
>all of them smart and more than capable of figuring out the probabilities on dice rolls like this
>mom does badly
>7 turns in (probably 2/3rds of the way through the game if the leader rushes to finish) she ragequits and throws her castles back to the middle of table
>mfw I forgot how much she dislikes games with a ton of randomness
>mfw ruined chances of family enjoying the rest of my games since that set the tone

in general how do you deal with people like these at your tables?

loads of options but I think I feel more interested in Dust and then infinity. BattleTech sounds like my thing also.

>memoir '44 - Asmodee sucks
sure it does.

I've played Blood Rage, Splendor and One Night Vamp from a couple of m8s for first time, pretty fun. Is it advisable buying my first board game for my family? I'm thinking One Night Vamp.

>then I realize they don't give a shit about board games and I'll still be lonely

If you're looking at one of the One Night Ultimate titles, I'd recommend One Night Ultimate Werewolf over Vampire. The game is less fiddly, with only one night phase instead of two, and it's (from my e perience of both games) easier in Werewolf to quickly identify how the roles can interact with one another, and as such easier to convincingly bluff when on the Werewolf team. One Night Ultimate Werewolf is simpler, more accessible and shines because of it.

Whilst fillers such as Splendor and the One Night series are fine you might not want to play one repeatedly, which, if it's the only game you own, will be a given (given their short playtime) in any extended session. Consider how long you intend to game with your family for at any one time and whether or not such a short game would be suitable.

Go with what's kicking in your area. I have several mini games sitting around I's love to play, but getting in a game of warhammer fantasy is pain in the arse, and malifaux needs a better rep in my area. I also do infinity and its pretty good stuff.

Guild ball is fairly cheap. I think to buy an entire team it costs like 100 bucks. The second hand market is your friend user, all games (within reason) are cheap when you buy them from someone who things it's just trash sitting around.

I don't. I gave up on my family a long time ago when it comes to figuring out any sort of board game. I'm going to try one last time with codenames this christmas, but i feel like they will stumble with that as well

it's not that they can't figure it out, they love Power Grid, Infinite City, and Secret Hitler. My mom just has the worst attitude when she starts doing at all poorly

I'm really not sure if I can enthrall them because they're so pre-occupied with phones and some sappy teledrama. I just play the board games my friends bring and it's probably the most fun I had in years. I'm gonna go on the fence for now and wait for the end of the week if they're open to playing board games. Any other suggestions in building a game library?

Kind of jealous. I haven't seen a proper rage out in a long time. I mean it's not like I'll ever push to see it, but damn it all hearing these stories about people going absolutely crazy in game stores and the like, when the worst I've ever seen is someone storming away from a conrpg because he thought the DM was railroading us or something, and that was more of silent power walk away.

>Any other suggestions in building a game library?

Don't do what many do (myself admittedly) when entering the hobby and buy ALL THE THINGS in an attempt to catch up with a hobby that's been flourishing with fantastic games for the past 10+ years; if you do so, as you refine your tastes over time you'll find that you regret a lot of your earlier purchases. Do a lot of online research. When I started my collection, I initially watched Top 10 lists in a variety of categories (best games for certain player counts, best games for certain mechanics, best games for certain themes) from The Dice Tower (m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL97ADFA21D301E54F). The channel's appeal lies in its breadth of reach and quantity of videos, rather than quality, but I'd note down games of interest and then research them further, either by searching for The Dice Tower's own review of the game (which will inevitably exist, given the number of videos they push out each week) or through others' reviewers channels.

If you're interested in purely how a game plays, with little to no opinion on the game, then Rodney Smith of Watch it Played (youtube.com/user/WatchItPlayed) can't be beaten for rules explanations. He also publishes gameplay videos of some of the games he plays. The Game Night series from Board Game Geek (m.youtube.com/user/boardgamegeektv) provides a unique format of rules explanation, followed by gameplay and a follow-up discussion amongst the players of their opionions on the game. Wil Wheaton's TableTop series by Geek and Sundry (m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C) specifically chooses games that he deems to be accessible to newcomers, most of which are family friendly. Rules will be very much glossed over and not explained in their entirety, but the series will provide you with a better feel for how the game plays (albeit heavily edited) and how players are likely to react and interact with one another.

Furthermore, BoardGameGeek is your friend, and provides a plethora of information for any given game, such as its weight or difficulty, its SUGGESTED player count (do not believe what publishers put on the box; 7 Wonders, you suck ass with 2 players), its time length and its overrall score, as voted by users, and thus rank. Whilst a game's rank should not be the be-all-and-end-all of your purchasing decision, there is a lot of hot garbage out there, and a high rating, and rank, will likely reflect whether or not a game is worth your time.

> 7 Wonders, you suck ass with 2 players
BGG says it's a 2+ player?
Bullshit, the game can't be played with less than 3, there are no cards that have 2+ printed on them. Heard Duel is pretty good.

There's a 2 player variant in the rulebook. Basically, you set up a dummy player between yourself and the other player. The twomof you alternate control of the dummy player each turn, deciding which action to take, which card to play and which player to purchase resources from, if relevant. 7 Wonders: Duel is a much better 2 player iteration of 7 Wonders.

Sounds bland. The dummy player has no goals but to screw the guy that isn't controling it. Maybe some sort of script would be better, thinking Viticulture's automa.

I'm back from an afternoon/evening with Scythe.

Fun game! While the rules took a while to explain they weren't too complex in practice. Turns went relatively quickly, and you often had direct interest in what the oppositions moves were, so there was little downtime.

The upgrade system gets points for neat design with customization options.

While movement initially is kind of a crawl, there's a lot of jumping around the map during the later part of the game, with tunnels and certain special abilities allowing mechs to quickly jump from point to point, so there's no real set up of perimeters as there is always some way for the enemy to sneak up behind you.

Combat system is really nice, and involves very little luck.

It is definitely one of those games that you need to play several times before fully understanding how to set up an effective strategy.

(Sorry about fuckhuge image, I forgot that you generaly need to downsize phone images)

It wasn't some 7MB image - it isn't awful for anyone on a typical broadband connection.

And I'm glad you liked Scythe. I didn't back the KS (I already have a ton of Space 4x games), but it's interesting to see the feedback starting to come out.

Fun fact about those fancy resource tokens: The metal tokens are made of actual metal rather than plastic.

Board game thread!

Are you willing to pay extra for a game with unusually nice, or even "professional" grade components?

What is the upper limit you are willing to spend on a non-miniatures game?

It's definitely something I would do If i had a comfortable stable income. At student poorfag budget, never.

>7 Wonders
>2 Players
Get 7 Wonders Duel, expansion comming soon, it's much beter, it's actually quite excellent and I prefer it greatly over 7 Wonders. It's almost a shame it's only a 2 player game.

If the components don't actually affect the gameplay then no. Not on my current budget. I'd rather put the money towards more games than a nicer edition of a game I have (I say that but then I have both normal and fancy editions of love letter, both president and pokemon hanafuda decks, am only interested in glory to rome if it's the nice edition, am going to spend any money at all on skull (and roses), am waiting on fancy wood box for secret hitler despite laminating myself a good print and play copy, and am buying a fancy set of tokens for power grid after losing a single uranium token)
I balance it out by having a ton of cheapass games games

Sure, but I'm picky when it comes to design choises and I rather have extra or alternative bits be a seperate thing to add then a core component.

There's no limit as long as I have the money and I like what I see and feel the urge to upgrade.

Watch a lot of reviews and play a lot of games to educate yourself of what there is out there that might not only interest you but also the people you play with.

My current collection is around fifty titles and I'm having to rethink storage a bit as I know it won't stop there.

Hey /bgg/, I have a problem, namely, I suck. I love playing strategy board games but whenever I try I tend to loos horribly. I still have fun, but the constant feeling of being hopelessly outmatched sometimes hamper my enjoyment. Any tips on how to improve ones tactical/planing skills, maybe some good boardgame-like videya to train with or some general mindsets to try and adopt?

Depends on the deal.
I woulda jumped on the $100 KD:M if I was into the hobby at the time, and I spent $100 for the metal coins and resin resources edition of Scythe.
I won't pay $400 for KD:M though, and I probably wouldn't pay for the Scythe upgrade packs.
I did, however, pay $7+S&H for a mounted mapboard for GMT's Genesis though, and I got the BT inserts for Cosmic Encounter and Castle of Mad King Ludwig because those games are BITCHES to organize otherwise.

>some good boardgame-like videya
Advance Wars 2.

When you play, how far ahead do you plan? Do you account for not just your opponents' most likely play but also a few other possible plays?
That's probably the biggest thing. The first few times I play a game, I usually suck because I don't have a feel for the timing of the game. Where is the climax of the game? Where do I try to jump ahead that minimizes opponents' opportunity to catch up? How far behind can I fall while I wait for the right time? What subtle mechanic interactions are there? Spend your first few times playing heavier games looking for these things.

I do often keep a few-turns-ahead plan, and try to guess what my opponents would do, it's just that I often get it wrong. I tend to start to understand timings and synergies relativel quickly, but my timings are always a little off and my plans tend to have holes in them that I don't realize until halfway through. Basically, I do everything you should do, just not good enough.

Rather than trying to make a singular plan and stick to it, prepare as many options as you can. Then choose the best option for the situation when it's your turn again. Sometimes there will be stuff that can blind side you, but unless it's particularly devastating you'll recover from it much more quickly than if you didn't have back up options.

probably between 20 to 30 games so far, pretty good really.

got a link for the Asmodee criticisms? Can't see anything obvious on that guys website.

>but unfortunately the games themselves are very "commercial" so far.
Scythe "might" get a Legacy version.

>both president and pokemon hanafuda decks

pics nao

Hope these aren't too big, don't how to lower phone resolution and cba to check the res before uploading

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All the little details on the pokemon deck are gorgeous. I wouldn't play it with someone who wasn't familiar with the deck already though. Since there are pokemon on all the cards you don't have the easy way to tell which are earths unless you already know (they all have animals on them except for the one that doesn't and the brights that have animals)
Every single card has unique pokemon on it too.

Not laying these out. Too lazy. I need to get a red-backed deck sometime (maybe the other club nintendo one, iirc that was in red).

*unzips*

Those are rather fantastic, user.

I guess you could read up on or even take free online classes in game theory. I know a few friends that have taken a few classes online for free.

I admire how traditional Japanese culture insists on everything being a work of art.

>which game you have played do you feel has the most artistic merit
Hmmm, not sure. If you mean in terms of aesthetics probably something by Fantasy Flight. In terms of game design, I'm a big fan of how much "game" Love Letter and Coup can fit into 15 cards. Blew my mind when I first tried them.

>what game you have played is set at the earliest date, if any
Evolution I guess.

>how do you feel about asmodee being a political cartoon octopus
worriedlaughter.png

>which game you own has the most ebat-up box
All my boxes are in pretty good shape because I've only really been in the hobby for a couple years.

>how do you keep your group from turning BG night to a cocaine-fueled orgy
well no ones really all that good looking, or gay, or has money to spend on drugs, so it's actually not as hard as you might think.

>they left out 50 pokemon
baka nintendo

Yep, club nintendo mario deck comes in both red and black. it isn't quite as nice but it's still cool (there were also more made so they're cheaper)

>>which game you have played do you feel has the most artistic merit
I don't even know what I would start considering artistic to be.. TIME Stories have been a favorit from a storytelling experience point of view and I love the "legacy" aspect of games that are coming up.

>>what game you have played is set at the earliest date, if any
Come again?

>>how do you feel about asmodee being a political cartoon octopus
What?

>>which game you own has the most beat-up box
Not counting the ones that I use at work.. Neuroshima Hex as it's a go-to game to bring along in the IKEA-bags for all the game nights during the week.

>>how do you keep your group from turning BG night to a cocaine-fueled orgy
They get all that out of their system during other times (a rather big young fetish community with a lot of clubs and events full of fellow board gamers and generally geeky people) and most of us have become bored of that life style.

What happened with the board game generals? I stopped opening the threads after they've been overrun by tripcunts but it looks like the situation is under control now. Were they shooed off or did they just give in to their attention whoring instincts and left for leddit?

Not to make this completely offtopic, I started a board game club at work and now I'm looking for good games to play with 6 people. I've got the obvious Codenames, Spyfall, Betrayal a House on the Hill and Colt Express. Any other recommendations for light and casual fun?

Ca$H & Guns