Board Game General /bgg/

The fuck is this?

YINSH; at least til I get a chance to try out LYNGK and see if it's as sexy as it looks in the quick video BGG had on it

Which 2-player board game should I get my parents? They are retired in their 60's like travelling, music and western civ. They enjoy tetris and puzzles/crosswords. Thanks bros.

Hard to say. A lot of people who aren't into games can only play simple board games, but those are all very boring, moreso if they are only two player.

>Tetris fans
Patchwork is really solid, but the theme doesn't appeal to everyone

The Voyages of Marco Polo is a great game for 2-4 people. It's a beautiful and thinky Euro dice placement game without being overwhelming. It's about traveling and fulfilling contracts using resources such as pepper, silk and gold. Every game is different because of the modular and random nature in which you set up the board and there are 8 different and awesome player powers which also influence the game a great deal. One of my absolute favorite games. Can be difficult finding it outside of Europe though.

looks too heavy for beginners. It is on my want to play list though thanks.

It looks heavy but I have introduced the game to several novices and even nongamers and not only has there never been a problem but it's always been a great success, no matter the group. The game really is fairly simple. The complex part is your own strategic thinking.

Funded! Yay!

Found it with 60€ wew lad

Interested in this also. Want to get into one of these games, but it's a decent chunk of cash if I'm not going to get a good few hours play out of it

I usually see it for 35-40€. On amazon.de it costs 40€. But the reprint (in 16 languages) will hit stores in August so there's that.

Yeah, thats why im trying to have some opinions, the internet is too divided but agricola seems the most picked one.

If you had to create the perfect board game package, consisting of 10 games, which games would you include?
Would you make sure to cover most genres? Player count? Theme? Playing time?

Agricola is the best game, requires the most strategy, and also has the most replayability. However many people dislike it due to every farm being extremely similar, the main focus being on action economy, victory point minmaxing, and not starving. The actual "building of a farm" barely happens.

Feast for odin is a bit cleaner but less strategic. Caverna allows players to do what they want at the price of replayability and interactivity. I havent played the others.

If you dont mind a clear disconnect between mechanics and gameplay, and dont mind being stressed every turn, and dont mind that the endgame will be "the same" every game, then i highly recommend agricola. Original or 2016 are both fine. 2016 is probably better balanced but has less variety.

Jaipur might be worth a look, it's a pretty good 2 player game and perfect for [spoilers]playing on maglev trains.[/spoilers]

If you don't get them patchwork it would be a crime

I would try to cover a wide range of heaviness and playtimes. Fuck theme. I would prefer to have different genres, but don't mind an overlap if they are of different heaviness and playtime.

My 10 games would be:
A deck of cards. Preferably a nice full tarot. Cheating, yes. But by the fact that most people are familiar with a deck, and the great variety possible, it's impossible not to include. Also, Screw, Conquian, Texas Hold'm, Hearts, and my homeruled version of War are each good enough games to be included on their own. You can use a deck to play stuff like Mafia, Skull, Sushi Go, or any other simple game.

#2 - Cacassone. A classic for a reason. Simple enough to teach to toddlers and geriatrics, complex enough to have real strategy and replayability.

#3 - Agricola - Preferably with curated occupation and improvement decks. This game is great. I don't know what else to say.

#4 - Hive - Deceptively simple, great clean design. Take it anywhere and play. I'd rather include this than chess, backgammon, or any of the old classics.

#5 - An MTG custom gauntlet. A carefully designed set of decks (anywhere between 6 and 12 unique decks w/ sideboards) that have been balanced against each other. Format agnostic. Full of custom cards to make shit work. Been meaning to build this IRL.

#6 - Kingdom Builder. I just played this recently and already it's become one of my favorites. Again, simplicity and clean design create interesting strategic depth without bogging shit down with rules or phases.

#7 - Chinatown - Takes the classic bartering that people love from Monopoly and Catan, and turns it into a decent game finally.

#8 - Codenames - Feel free to include your favorite party game here, but this one feels the most clever and strategic while remaining fun. Just make sure to use a timer.

#9 - Heroscape - I have a soft spot for this, and it fills the wargaming niche. What a fucking great game.

#10 - Battleball - Fuck yea.

What is a good co-op board game that is actually difficult?

Basically I want the Pathfinder Card Game with actual difficulty so you have to work as a team together and actually think.

Flash Point can be very difficult depending on your set-up.

Arkham Horror LCG

Kingdom Death

Kill 6 Billion Demons is a poor man's James Stockoe

>Kingdom Death

Well damn that looks fucking amazing. Is there anyway to get a copy for under $500?

No.

>They enjoy tetris

Pic related...

>What is a good co-op board game that is actually difficult?

Forbidden Desert
Pandemic (initially - then add expansions to increase the challenge level.)
Gears of War
Level 7 'Invasion'
XenoShyft
Robinson Crusoe

Don't a lot of coop games have different difficulty levels via simple numerical changes?

Just got back from gaming with my friends:

Played a game of Dixit while everyone finished up eating. (I narrowly avoided coming in last - I just wasn't connecting the dots imagery wise today.) Then we played a full 7 player game of 7 Wonders which was fun. We had a couple of new players who did well. I managed to win, but the new player to my right gave me a run for my victory with solid play. And we finished up with a 4 player game of Roll for the Galaxy. One of our younger players really likes it and was excited to find yet another strategy which he used to win the game. I felt bad for the player to my left - they bottle-necked themselves on credits early game and while they had a large dice pool, most of the mid and late game they were struggling to get them back into their cup.

Tabletop Sim. I guess.

This

Fuse! Honestly one of my favorite games, came sooooooooo close to beating it on 5 player insane. I have yet to use the level 6 cards though. Ghost stories is crazy hard, the first time I played it it really seemed like there was no way to actually win, but it is possible. Pandemic Iberia with all 4 special abilities for the diseases - absolutely perfect coordination required for this. Legendary encounters: alien with all four movies mixed together is pretty brutal. Coop games with traitors can be difficult too, but that's player dependant.

Is Cyclades worthwhile with only 3 players?

Bump

Lazy shills are lazy

The Grizzled.

>Let's go to one of the worst places on the internet full of unemployed, caustic assholes who hate everything and try to advertise.

I mean, I'm sure it's happened, but what's the more likely scenario here? Some game designer is that desperate even though he's already fully funded, or someone is just excited by a kikescammer and wants to talk about it?

>but what's the more likely scenario here?
A shitposter trying to stir the few chucklefucks who always take the bait.

Seconding post. What's even better is there is a Blokus version made for two players, Blokus Duo (great name right)? It's such a good game, I love it. One time I brought my copy and taught it to a girl I was on a date with...and then she broke up with me a week later so YMMV ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sadly this version is very hard to find, alongside the other two player version of Blokus, Blokus To Go. Still worth keeping an eye out for imo.

if its basically the same why it has the most replayability?

Agricola awards you a certain amount of points for every thing you have on your farm, up to a small cap. Which means that all farms more or less end up the same, since you want one that's diverse rather than focused.

Beyond that, the sheer amount of cards available, and the impact they have on your engine-building (not your farm itself), provide a ton of replay.

Just getting into the hobby, rate my cart!
Trying to get games from a spread of genres (party, coop, regular strategy), and with at least some decent artstyle.

It could be worse, but also could be better.
Do you play any other kind of game already?

Those are all really fun games I hope you enjoy :)

I'm -of course- the one pushing board games into my group. We played Catan and everyone pretty much loved it (even if some of us are already burning out after a few games), only criticism was it was "ugly". LotR LCG was a hit, but until some expansions come in it kinda "ran out". Finally Android Netrunner was a hit among a few of us, but it was "too hard" for others, plus it beign a 2p game only kinda doesn't merges well with the group.
I'm of course open to suggestions!

>only criticism was it was "ugly"
Catan at the time it was released was praised for being gorgeous, game art styles change a lot over time. For future reference a lot of Mayfair's euro games have similar art/component quality, once it was the pinnacle of gaming, but they don't put near as much into it these days as everyone else. Makes me really interested to see what happens to the reprint of pic related in the ~10 years since it first came out.

I didn't know it was hard to find. I could have sworn I saw it at Walmart or Target recently but I could be way wrong

Did you enjoy any particular parts of any of those games? I can be a lot more confident in my suggestions if I can match game mechanics such as Catan's trading elements, or Android Netrunner's asymmetrical gameplay.

Agricola
>Boards all end up looking nearly the same
>Random cards dictate your strategy for points
>Can get hosed or hose others because of cards

Caverna
>Much wider range of strategies leads to boards looking very different
>You can come up with your own strategy and make it work
>Only way you will lose is if you get out played
>Dorfs

I can totally see your point now! Agricola is so much better than Caverna! I would much rather have my strategy dictated to me so I can just follow the garden path over and over and over and over! It's so much easier just letting the cards inform your actions instead of having to think about what other players are doing!

What's the worst "bargain bin" game you've ever played?

Pic related, it's three layers of random number generators (dice, spinners, four decks of event cards) and it sticks with the tennis games/sets/matches so you might have to play dozens of rounds of this shitshow just to figure out who effectively won a coin flip.

There's even this uplifting motivational speech on the last page.

Unfortunately there's more info on this trainwreck of a game than on Joe Quadri himself.

What about le havre?

Haven't played it, so I don't have any critiques or compliments.

Heh, that's pretty interesting. I think "bland" was the exact word, more than "ugly" actually. I think artstyle and the looks is going to be a thing in my group in particular since most of us are either graphic designers, illustrators or artists.
To be honest, I'm not sure what we liked. For sure the paranoia in Catan, playing with the "don't give him wheat! he's got like 3 hidden vps for SURE" and "you GOTTA build a road here or we all lose next round!" was great, so that's why I think Dead of Winter will play nicely. The coop aspects of LotR LCG also went well. But I think we're not matured enough as a boardgame group to be able to tell.

What are some war games that resolve combat in a way that is influenced by the player's skill? Dice chucking is fun and all but are there any other ways that combat can be a little less random?

Kemet, Rex, and Game of Thrones all use no-dice combat that is some variation of "Play cards secretly, then reveal, best set of cards+bonuses wins". They're all pretty satisfying.

Falling Sky

The only randomness in the combat comes from whether legions, forts, or leaders survive hits, which really doesn't happen a lot, since legions are precious, and leaders are invaluable.

There's the older game called 'Tactics II' that uses attack ratios and zero dice rolling. It's all about strategic and tactical thinking.

You might have done, but I live in the UK, and I had to wait ages before I found a decently priced copy.

That's prolly what it is then, US here

What is the veredict for terraforming mars to you guys? Adding it to the collection? Ive played a game and its really nice, very thematic and fun.

It looks pretty cool, but I always had doubts about backing a kickstarter. Anybody here played it already and can say something about the mechanics, replayability and so on?

Agricola 2016. (I'd say 'Agricola', but it's out of print and much uglier.)

Maybe A Feast for Odin, but it hasn't been back in print and isn't available for normal gamers, yet so nobody can say much about it definitively.

Its a solid thematic engine builder. Its not a game that should be in every collection but if you feel the theme and are looking for an engine builder, you could do a lot worse.

well have it here in brazil by the year's end so im consering it, Agricola 2016 will be out next month.

>Random cards dictate your strategy for points
No, how you use the cards does.
>Can get hosed or hose others because of cards
No, because you used the cards wrong.

>Much wider range of strategies leads to boards looking very different
>You can come up with your own strategy and make it work
I.e., anything you do will let you win anyways.

Caverna is Agricola for dumb people.

I downloaded the rules and the print-and-play but I don't know if I'll get a chance to play it before the Kickstarter is over. Apparently it's on some tabletop sim-like program as well?

The Lord of the Rings LCG

Agricolafags are the worst.

Still not as bad as race for the galaxy fags

What's been your guys experience with Kickstarter? Have you had any good/bad luck with backing projects?

I recently got into playing board games with my work friends and started backing a couple that looked cool There's really only one that I'm thinking won't get funded since it ends in like 2 days with $1k still left to go. I like the whole aspect of helping established/aspiring developers and watching the game grow as new stuff gets added to it. The long ass wait to actually get it is the only real down side to me.

Games that I've Kickstarted & Gotten
>Madstone Chronicles
It's not great but it's exactly what I expected from the pitch.
>Vast
Really good.

Games from Kickstarter I've played (and enjoyed)
>Kingdom Death Monster
So much that I'm pledged way deep in 1.5
>Miskatonic School for Girls
The family really likes this one and frankly it's not anything less than I would have expected
>Maybe some others
I'm not 100% sure what out of everything is KS spawn

Upcoming
>Fate of the Elder Gods
The hype is real. More than that the communication has been constant and good.
>Tavern Masters
Starting to seem like it might let me down, but doesn't seem like it's going to completely fail.

So far, so good.

>So much that I'm pledged way deep in 1.5
How deep? Don't be shy.

I'm also waiting for KDM 1.5 and Gloomhaven. I think I'm all set for 2017 through 2020

>How deep? Don't be shy.
Frogdog to upgrade my 1.0 plus basically everything with game content not otherwise included in the pledge. I could have had the 777 pledge but I didn't have enough faith on day 1 so $223 idiot tax for me

>Not using fast backer to snag a Black Friday and pushing back your buying a second house to start renting because you've been scrimping and saving every other cent so you can hopefully retire before 80

looking for a new game recommendation. I dont really need anything new but I love to spend money and put things on my shelf and i'm the only person who supplies games in my group so my friends will play literally anything i put in front of them.
some of our favourite games are
Scythe, 7 wonders, legendary (any, but I like alien the most), blood bowl team manager, stone age, smallworld.
I'm probably not giving you much to go on, but I just have extra money to spend. I wish Kingdom Death was in stock.

>I wish Kingdom Death was in stock.
SOON.

Other than that, here are some random recs from me

>Dudes on a Map/Area Control
Inis
>Economic/Exploration
Merchant of Venus
>Deckbuilder
Tanto Cuore if your group won't sperg over the theme.
>Co-op
Pandemic or Reign of Cthulhu

The only loser I've backed so far has been High Frontier, and even then the publisher managed to go into overdrive to rush the game out (with good quality components and a coherent rulebook, at that) when the IP owner declared that if it wasn't fulfilled by October[ish] that he'd cancel his contract with them and print his own run with blackjack and hookers, and donate copies to the people who got had.

the art for Inis is amazing. I'll probably grab that based on shelf appeal alone.

>I could have had the 777 pledge but I didn't have enough faith on day 1 so $223 idiot tax for me
You don't get charged until the campaign ends, and even then only if it succeeds.
The only situation in which not backing immediately is a smart move is when you're forgetful and can't set up a reminder to check in about two days before campaign end.

Agricola has the most varied and impactful occupations, which is the main replayability mechanism. Caverna takes the approach of giving you more freedom/breathing room to explore actions naturally with a lot of viable paths. So it depends, do you prefer being incented to play differently each game, or do you prefer being given the freedom to play differently each game, at the risk of "discovering optimal play?" (scare quotes provided with great sarcasm)

Odin is in the middle, it emphasizes both occupations and a diverse action pool. I'd say the occupations provide less incentive to try a certain strategy and the action pool feels very limited round 1 (players are unable to pay for half of them). That said it's my favorite

I never played the other two

>TAMSK

I wish they didn't dump this one. Sure it doesn't fit the line but why not spin it off?

while tanto cuore is something i would probably abhore theme wise, someone has it listed on kijiji/craigslist in my small ass city. maybe i'll try and cop it for cheap.

inis is not only pretty, it plays fantastically

>Keyflower KS
>supporting Game Salute
I bought mine from overseas to bypass that shitbag company

I didn't buy Keyflower I bought the pig tile.

meh, it's not worth it. for some reason people say it's an improvement over Dominion gameplay but I find it lackluster

does that somehow mean you didn't support that shitbag company? you paid them $6 for a single piece of cardboard that costs less than a dollar to make and ship

>tfw I'll never have $1k to blow on high impact sexual violence miniatures

How is Scythe by the way? I keep seeing it at my LGS and I've heard mostly good things, but no one around here has played it