My 4 year old daughter loves boardgaming too, but King of Tokyo is about as complex as she really cares to get. I’m hoping I get my copy of No Thank You, Evil! pretty soon, I think both kids will dig that.
We still need to try that one again. First session ended in tears when it turns out there’s only one pet unicorn card (or pegasus, or whatever it was!)
Not to derail the thread with kids games much more, but I got this game for my niece who lives in another state, and she supposedly loved it. Will likely get it for my kids later this year:
Well, sure, lots of things are conceptually similar. But roll-and-move is a specific gameplay mechanic that applies to certain games. I will bet you dollars to donuts it’s even got a category on Boardgame Geek!
Uh, okay? I think you’ve mistaken me for someone interested in debating whether Monopoly or Catan is a worse game. In case I hadn’t made it clear, I’m happy to write them both off. But if you’re trying to start a game of “would you rather?”, I guess put me down for Catan.
-Tom
Oh yeah, also got Mansions of Madness this Christmas.
Pretty fun, silly party game, the most deceptive theme and box art ever.
You’re a team expedition cooperatively climbing up Lovecraft’s Mountain of Madness. Every turn you have to pass a challenge which is pretty much a Battlestar Galactica skill check. Everyone gets 30 seconds to disclose exactly what they can play, you play them face down, then see if you pass.
The trick is you accumulate madness as you go which puts increasingly restrictions on your communication, starting off as silly and escalating to truly hindering. It’s a tower of Babel scenario where everyone is talking gibberish and can’t work together.
Good for a casual group game. I imagine at some point you’d have to hunt down custom madness effects online since half the fun is not recognizing any of them for the first time.
I trust you because there’s no way this game still gets as much love as it does from gamers and non-gamers without reason. I’ve still never had an enjoyable game of Catan and feel pretty confused about the love it gets. I find trading feels rare, the game goes on forever, and I spend more time waiting for something to do than playing. Is this not normal? I think I’ve played it with about 5 different groups, all of whom felt the game was best played in some form of drunk or high, which may be part of the issue (drinking doesn’t make me any more patient for my turn).
Dude, you buried the lede! I see that it’s an Andrew Parks design. He single-handedly made Mage Knight palatable for me, he made one of my favorite deck-builders (Core Worlds), and he just released an excellent deck-builder-meets-tactical-combat-RPG called Dungeon Alliance.
Unfortunately, it seems a bit redundant with the upcoming Agents of Mayhem game, which I backed and expect to arrive reasonably soon:
(pleasedontsuckpleasedontsuckplease)
-Tom
The lack of an auction mechanic is why Catan, while nothing I would ever play again, will always be infinitely superior to Monopoly. Fuck auctions.
Marks of a terrible game?
auctions < roll to move < pop-o-matic bubble < exclamation points
Anyone tried the new Fireball Island?
Can’t say I was impressed with any of the previews. The vivid, realistic “pulp” art was replaced by kiddie earth tones, you’re now wondering around collecting souvenirs and tourist snap shots instead of cutthroat treasure hunting greed, and victory is a point total after a luxury helicopter ride out instead of all or nothing leaving everyone else to die?
Auctions are what makes High Frontier such a good game. Phil Eklund knows how to do auctions.
I enjoyed Ra, and that has auctions.
Auction are awesome! Unlike roll-and-move.
-Tom
Yeah, I like to say that I hate auctions, except in every game that features them.
I guess it’s a good thing I will never get to play High Frontier, then. I never would have purchased it if I had known that. Auctions are the worst.
It’s like they made a board game just for Tom Chick.
I hope they didn’t pay too much to license that IP.
I will say that I can think of one game where auctions weren’t a total fun-ruiner: City of Remnants. This is largely because the auctions (troop recruitment) a) guarantee you get something and b) other people winning the auction you started costs them an action. As such, it might see a bidding war now and again (though less so with yellow’s factional advantage) but it’s not worth it just to fuck with people.
I can’t name a game where auctions do ruin the fun: Keyflower, Power Grid, Dungeon Petz, High Frontier, faction bidding in Terra Mystica, Pinochle–all of them are great.
I highly disagree. Auctions may be the worst mechanic in boardgaming.
Sounds like you’re…
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…SOLD! on that idea