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Any boardgamers here? What games are you in love right now?
Tonight we are having our weekly game night.
Recently i've been in love with Mottainai. Specially playing with my SO.
Lisboa and Agricola are still my favorites.
What are your favorite games right now?
I recently got Pandemic Iberia and I'm loving it. I feel like it improves on the formula of the first one, but adds a lot of cool mechanics. The Railroads create strategic depth to traveling and the preventative actions have you balancing risk and reward. I strongly recommend it, especially if you like cooperative games.
Really interested in Pandemic Iberia. I don't like co-ops very much, but this one could be the one that we will enjoy playing.
It's hard! Not to play, but to beat, I mean. Part of that is you just have less room for mistakes when you can't fly to any node on the graph, and it's slightly more likely you'll be dealt a scenario that no amount of prudence could win -- but that's sort of unavoidable in a co-op game. If you can find a copy I would say it is my favorite pandemic.
A related topic from a few months ago might interest you:
https://tildes.net/~talk/3t/what_are_your_favourite_board_games
My response from back then would be the same for here, too... Small World is still my all-time favorite modern board game. Recently I have started playing Talisman again after it was included in a recent Humble Bundle which reminded me of it though. I had forgotten how much fun that game was.
Small World is now one of our favourites as well (so thanks for suggesting it then!). Last time we played, my 7 year old destroyed us by getting Spirit Trolls early, taking a bunch of mountains, and then taking something else and just aggressively wiping everyone out. She was getting a bunch of passive points every turn and then just grinding us down. I think she ended up at around the 160 point mark, and the next closest was at just past 100.
Anachrony is still one of my favourite games, but I still don't get to play it often (it's not really suitable for kids). We play a lot of Catan, and King of Tokyo has made a big resurgence because my son (3) can play it with a bit of help. He has a very consistent strategy; "I only keep claws, Dad". It's actually surprisingly effective. Last time we played, he won on his third turn.
No prob. That’s awesome to hear that you and your family are enjoying it so much. The fact that your 7 year old can crush it like that is also rather impressive. She must be pretty tactically minded since the game, while chance is definitely involved, is much more about making sound strategic decisions, IMO.
King of Tokyo was pretty fun from what I remember of it the few times I played it several years ago, but dice rollers that rely heavily on luck like that aren’t my favorite type of games in general. I can see how it would definitely appeal to younger kids though, since the concept and monsters are pretty badass. ;)
I have never heard of Anachrony but it looks pretty interesting and I will definitely have to check it out now.
She is a pretty smart kid. Her teacher last year said her math abilities were off the charts and we should do something outside of school to foster them (we do already, which is why they're off the charts). She wins at other games too - Cities & Knights of Catan is her favourite. The interesting thing to me is that she does't always do the same strategy in each game. Anyways, enough about me talking about my genius child - I'm doing that dad thing that I try not to do!
King of Tokyo is a fun game, but it's entirely fluff. I don't really care if I win or lose; it's more about big stompy monsters doing big stompy things with big stompy dice. I think it's a great game for kids as a result, and a good intro to things like taking turns, waiting, thinking about basic strategy. But the fact that a three year old can win on turn 3 is pretty messed up (and obviously required a lot of luck).
Anachrony is a beautiful game. I love the story that goes with it. At its core, it's just about worker placement, but I really enjoy some of the concepts, like taking goods from your future turns, and then just not actually sending the goods back to your previous turn and accepting that you've made a paradox (just one of the things that can happen in the game, but a fun one).
How does it hold up with two people? I've heard it's 60+ hours; so getting my girlfriend to play through it would be a lot more feasible than a full group.
Gloomhaven is one of those games you can spend as much time as you want with. We easily spent 300 hours with it, but we neither exhausted what was in the box, nor did we take the most direct route through the campaign structure.
It's preferable with three or four characters on the board, but you can play up to four characters regardless of how many humans you manage to gather around the table. I am pretty sure much of the playtesting of the game was done solo by the designer.
What classes are you playing? We played forty or fifty scenarios before our copy moved out of town with its owner.
Recently played Masque of the Red Death, and I'm really loving it. It has pretty different mechanics and can accommodate up to 7 players without taking too long.
Azul is also a lot of fun. It can be quick and casual or you can totally over-think everything too!
Love Azul. If we have time after the main game on game night, we always play it.
I only ever got into Catan, and even then organizing with friends is hard, especially if they lose their first few matches.
Any recommendations for similar but more fun/unique games?
There aren't really many games like Catan that I know of. Carcassonne shares some of its elements, but plays quicker, including a quicker set-up and clean-up. It also doesn't have the snowball effect that Catan suffers from, where a good start will give you a cumulative advantage over time. This makes losses less frustrating.
Lotta people recommending Carcassonne but I was looking for something more indie, I guess. Thanks though!
Tzok'in maybe.
What aspects of Catan do you like?
Tzolk'in is very cool, but I wouldn't suggest it to someone just coming off Catan. It's really a brainburner. Not that Hotcouch couldn't understand it or anything gatekeepy like that, but it's much less breezy and social than Catan.
That's a fair statement. Catan is a bit more unique of a game, so it really depends what they like about it.
Tiny Epic Galaxies - this is a lighter exploration/resource strategy.
7 Wonders and 7 Wonders Duel - has a similar strategy/interaction feel to Catan for me.
I enjoy the conquering and interacting with other players directly, I think. Trading is awesome because it helps out everyone but there's obviously a covert level of strategy there.
I enjoy games where alliances can be formed, but I also don't have many friends with free time for multi hour games, so specifically I'm looking for a 2-5 player game with player interaction and probably conquering a board. I know that's specific, but since I probably won't find the perfect game, any suggestion helps. I will definitely check out Tzok'in.
Definitely check out 7 Wonders too. I think you'll enjoy that based on your reply. And for something on the sillier side, Munchkin Quest. It's on the longer side, but it's an easy game to add house rules to speed things up.
Edit: fixed name and link
Oh perfect, yeah that sounds dope. Thanks!
My friends are not very serious, we already blew up a DnD campaign two weeks in and the Catan night didn't last more than a month. But we love each other and we love sipping beers so I wanna just spring something super fun on 'em sometime.
e: Muchkin seems REAL cool, I'm gonna run it by the boys.
Just started really getting into them lately and really love Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Does anyone know of similar games? Either in terms of spookiness and/or exploration?
I haven't actually played Betrayal at ... , but Mansions of Madness should cover both the spookiness and exploration parts. I'm not personally a big fan to be honest, but with how wildly popular it is, it's probably me who just don't get it.
I haven't played Betrayal, but since everything I mention Arkham Horror, I get a "you should try Betrayal" response. Maybe that one.
I prefer shorter tabletop game experiences that I can play several rounds back-to-back in one session. I'm a big fan of Carcassonne. Another good (more abstract) strategy game is Pente. I also enjoy Citadels, Dominion, Infinite City, and Bang!
If you want something more complex, but fast once you learn and it's just a deck of cards, check out Mottainai.
But it's really opaque at first, you need to have a partner that's willing to learn.
I recently got into Istanbul which is a lot of fun. If you like Agricola you will probably like Istanbul.
Have you checked out Century Spice Wonders (or the Golem Edition)?
A lot of people say it is a better Splendor .
Wonders is a standalone game, but it can be combined with Spice Roads working as an expansion.
I'll second Splendor. I've been loving it.
If you ever get the chance to assemble a group to play Twilight Imperium, do. Playing TI4 in a closed hobby store on christmas eve was one of the more exciting experiences i’ve had playing a board game. There’s actually just so much that you can get into with the game, the scale and that time investment all comes together to create a feeling of an event that I really love whenever I get a group together to play it.
It will be released in my country and it will be expensive, but i think a friend will buy it. I hope so. I'm dying to play it.
A good way to do it is to split the box between a playgroup! You're probably gonna want to find a playgroup before buying it anyways, so its a good way to share the burden.
That sounds like a great way to play TI :-) We haven't had a chance to play it properly since we were teenagers.
Mottainai is my favorite game, I think? It's so beautiful and clever. Sometimes my friends get frustrated how often I like to pass, but drawing cards is good and playing cards is iffy!
I've been looking for ways to emulate Mottainai in other designs. Carl Chudyk has influenced me more than any other designer I've encountered in the last ten years.
I'm really looking forward to Innovation releasing in my country. Sadly it got pushed to 2019, but it's on my wishlist.
Playing tasks in Mottainai is really dangerous. Last game i played a potter and my SO had covered helpers. She managed to move 6 materials to sales and she had a work that automatically covered the sales with most materials. I dropped the ball on that one.
I recently bought 'Evolution: The Beginning', thinking that it was 'Evolution', which I've played before and enjoyed. 'Evolution: The Beginning' is still enjoyable but it's a bit simpler than the game I played before. So, 'Evolution' is still on my to-buy list.
I would love to get into the Star Wars X-Wing and Star Wars Armada games
In terms of recent additions, we recently go the 'Cities of Splendor' expansion for the base game which adds some interesting, optional variety to an already great game, as well as the 3rd Expansion for Red Dragon Inn. We also recently picked up a copy of Codenames, which is a sort of word suggestion game, and rather fun. I also picked up another copy of Set, having given my old one to my young nieces. We have also recently started expanding our collection of mini/micro games with some recent additions being: Kittens in a blender (Cutesy, kinda simple but can be fun with the right group), We Didn't Play Test This (Sporadic and random card game, somewhat limited replayability it seems) Love letter, and the Settlers of Catan dice game.
Regarding other games I've had for a while but still love - Betrayal as others have said is fantastic, as is Splendor. Forbidden Desert/Island are some of my favorite Co-Op board games if you're into that sort of collaborative thing. My personal favorite game right now though is Hive, I've been playing it with my girlfriend and it just gets more and more interesting as we improve.
Latest have been teaching "Game of 49" which my gaming group liked. Followed up with the classic "Sticheln".
I really enjoy playing Betrayal at House on the Hill. I got everyone to download the app to their phones to keep better track of their character's stats during the game. Some of the haunts have gotten a little confusing and we've had to come to a consensus on how to interpret a few conflicting rules at times. But overall, its definitely one of those games that I'm always looking for opportunities to play again.
It is a really fun game but you are right, some of the haunts are a little confusing and/or silly, recently got an owl-themed haunt that we all thought was a bit stupid.
Don't you have those hexagon boards with the coffin markers? My group uses those to track their stats.
Hey, if you like Fluxx, try Chrononauts or the Pyramid Arcade collection. I'm a big fan of their colorful games where it's okay to zone out or get distracted.
Looney Labs definitely has the chops to push into more serious game design, but they're really nicely dedicated to pleasantly pointless nonsense.
Teenagers? Every time I've played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, I pick the old mad scientist character. He's in his 60s or 70s.