I like Battle Cry a great deal, as the cannons/cavalry/infantry balance is the most enjoyable of the Command and Colors balancing acts, and with the reissue they fixed some of the things that you had to house rule in before. Also, I think there’s a lot to be said for little plastic figurines instead of wooden blocks with a million stickers.
I love Roman history so I’m always tempted by Sword of Rome, but I read that there were some serious problems with casualties (namely that, because of some oddness in the dice system, as your DRM increases you become MORE likely to incur casualties) and that it’s a hard game to casually enjoy because of the unique faction decks.
I’ve never played Battle Cry, and Memoir '44 is the only C&C I have to judge against, but for me C&C: Ancients comes together perfectly. I really love how the battle line forms, cavalry harries, and the heavy infantry turn everything into chaos when they hit.
There was some weirdness in Sword of Rome’s battle casualties, but that’s addressed with a simple tweak to the combat tables in the Carthage expansion. I would imagine the rule has been inserted into their online “living rules” too.
The problem was basically that small 1 and 2 unit armies inflicted too much damage while limiting your losses, and that’s alleviated by having such armies inflict casualties on less die faces.
The battles are still rather more attritive than they should be, but that’s a common problem in ancients period games, and at least it does fix the smaller-army-is-better issue.
Let me second this suggestion. I hate Stratego, but is game is great. Also, my boys both love it, especially my younger one who memorized all the special moves, because he couldn’t read yet.
Great story. Good for him!
Dean
3986
Rob and I really got into Washington’s War. You can see an AAR on it a few pages back in this very thread. I like WW very much because it combines political control with military maneuvering.
We’ve also played Twilight Struggle a couple of times, and he always trounces me. I honestly don’t quite get the game, as he can pull off combinations and take large swaths of Europe and Asia while I’m still trying to capture the hearts and minds of Italy, or Iran, or something.
He loves TS, but I think it’s because he always wins.
Rematch!! I really liked Washington’s War. I own Hannibal, which is very, very similar, but I think I prefer Washington’s War because of its dice combat rather than the card combat of Hannibal. It makes a world of difference when using Vassal, since the dice are so much easier to use.
I own Paths of Glory too, but the learning curve is a crusher. I’ll never get rid of it though as there is always some small chance I’ll get to play it.
With Twilight Struggle, I tend to win (actually, I always win) because I only get to play rookies. After a game or two it will click for you and you’ll be able to pummel me. It is really a bluffing game set up around knowing the event cards and the likelihood of the scoring cards coming up each round. It really isn’t a war game like the other card driven games.
I would love to try Here I Stand some day. I think it would appeal to the same crowd that enjoys Dune.
That was my experience with Twilight Struggle too. It felt imbalanced/obtuse until I got a sense of the deck, but the second it clicked it became one of my favorites.
I have a copy of HiS collecting dust. If there were enough interest it might be worth trying a game over VASSAL/PBEM.
Today I played Ninjato, a 12th c. Japanese themed game, and then later I described the game to my wife M.
Me: It’s really beautiful, great portraits on the cards, everything is gorgeous. You sneak into the houses of different clans and try to steal their treasures using either force or stealth. You just play cards to do this, it’s not like actual battles.
M: Not like actual battles.
Me: (laughs) I meant you don’t roll dice and stuff.
M: Right! Like the war in Afghanistan, whoa guys, they rolled a 12, we’re dead. Everyone get in the discard pile!
ckessel
3990
I have a love hate with Twilight Struggle just for that reason. Brilliant game, but heavily favors those that know its cards.
That will happen if you leave out an adjective!
What is a good board game (prefer card games) for four people who have just started?
Still trying to puzzle out what you mean!
Tichuis a fantastic 4 player silent partner card game. Citadels is a great card only game with 2, 4,5 players although it can be played with other numbers. It includes some really cool boardgame mechanics and will introduce you to a lot of basic abstractions like role-taking and actions, while at the same time providing an experience that really changes as people learn the game better and adjust their play style to their own personalities.
Dixitis one of the best introductory games ever made. It’s all cards, has plenty of depth, is aesthetically stunning, has wonderful expansions for when you play it to death, and makes it really easy to bring in new people. This is a game that everyone should be exposed to and have the opportunity to pass on to other new people, especially if you ever wanted to see an example of something that works great across age groups without dumbing down the core mechanics.
Beyond that, once you get a taste for more complex games that are nevertheless mechanically sound and have a lot of depth you could look at the trifecta of Glory to Rome, Race to the Galaxy, and Dominion. The latter two are tremendously popular, but for some reason have never appealed to me in the way that GtR has, art and all. I may also be adding Eminent Domain to that list at some point depending on how it holds up over time, since it’s brand new to me. But I would stick with any or all of the first three I suggested before taking a look at these.
Tigris and Euphrates is out as a universal app for iOS today. Early response over on BGG seems pretty positive.
Lorini
3996
Thanks for the heads up. I think I’ll pick it up as something to play while on the plane to BGG Con.
Looks like they did a great job with it, which is a tremendous relief as T&E is one of my favorite Knizia designs but rarely hits the table. Now I can play whenever and wherever I want to.
Here’s hoping it’s a success and convinces them to port Taj Mahal.
Hunty
3998
Dixit went down an absolute storm amongst some boardgame newbies we were playing with yesterday. It’s such a beautifully elegant piece of design. It has pretty much no barrier to entry whatsoever. Unless, I dunno, you hate imagination or something.
I’ve had success with all of these card games listed below:
Coloretto
Loot
6 Nimmt/Category 5/Slide 5
For Sale
Frank’s Zoo
Guillotine
Mamma Mia
Parade
Set
If you’re willing to try dice games, then I’d highly recommend:
Can’t Stop
Liar’s Dice
Pickomino
There’s a bunch of stuff regarding the COA game Persian Incursion over the weekend, starting off with a feature article in Foreign Policy, followed by an NPR Interview with the author and a separate “lessons learned” article in Wired.
— Alan
