6521

Denizens of Qt3, I need your assistance! My sister in law and her husband are leaving in a few weeks for a vacation on another continent. They want a board game that travels well.

Now, wait, I know you’re all going to suggest get some apps on their phone. Duly noted, and have suggested so. But we’ll get back to this.

They want a physical game, cards preferably. Now they specifically mentioned Citadels, because they really enjoy playing with my wife and me. Got it. I considered Love Letter too. So here’s the request.

Game must be light and compact, so cards only, or minimal pieces. See: Citadels
Must play 2 well, but also at least 4 (6+ a major plus).
Readily available.

The last part is the trick. See it is her birthday, so my wife wanted to get her a game. Problem is she mentioned this at 10:30 LAST NIGHT! For today. Wonderful. Obviously you can’t know the stock levels, but that does mean it needs to either be something from a reasonably large publisher, or popular and recent. If it is FFG or Days of Wonder, I can probably find it.

You can tell I am a little less than thrilled by the tardiness of this request.

Anyhow part the second:

What are some good board game adaptations for Android? I figure I’ll throw them Ascension, if it is available. But I’m on iOS, so don’t know what are the good games for Android. This is a bit less urgent, as they don’t leave for a few weeks.

Help me Qt wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

6522

Space Hulk Death Angel plays well with 2 and it’s a co-op game (which might be a plus or a minus, I play it mostly solitaire), but the theme and difficulty (it’s a hard game) might be a hard sell for some people.

6523

I’ve played that! Forgot about it, really. But had a really fun narrative. One of our players did a kamikaze destruction of a segment, with the odds of death >80%. A suicide mission.

Well he rolled exactly what he needed to succeed and not die. We said he screamed ‘FOR THE EMPEROR’, pressed self destruct, and rode the explosion, 80’s movie style, to safety.

We won with zero casualties.

But I don’t think the theming would do much for them :-/

6524

What’s the state of the art in RPG-lite, Ameri-trash, solo/coop board games? There seems to be a ton of them.

6525

@CraigM

Cards:
Diamonds plays 2 - 6, best with more players. Great game. Also have them look at Mystery Rummy games.

Reign: Omen of War (if you can find it, only two player).

Board:
Onitama, fast game for two.

Codenames (at least four players)
Tiny Kingdoms, Tiny Galaxies etc.

6526

When I’m traveling with a partner, I always take along Lost Cities. It’s a 2-player card game by Rainer Knizia (which means the scoring can be a bit obtuse the first game or three, but then you get the hang of it and it becomes second nature). It has a board, but that’s extraneous, and you don’t need it after the first game.

6527

Of the stuff that’s currently out I would recommend the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (preferably Skull and Shackles or Wrath of the Righteous - the first set is comparatively dull) or maybe Galaxy Defenders. Mage Knight is amazing if you have a lot of time, but you probably don’t have that kind of time. Darkest Night is really really good but I think the first edition is no longer in print and the second is not out yet (and may be hard to find since last I heard they were mainly printing enough for Kickstarter backers). Gloomhaven looks likely to be the absolute state of the art when it hits but it is also not out quite yet.

6528

I’m going to cheat and provide two games, one for each player range.

Jaipur is a great 2 player card game (with some small chips to represent good/points). The box is fairly compact and it travels well. My wife and I have always enjoyed it. It’s basically a set collection/trading game and plays quickly.

Sushi Go is a great 4 player card game (just cards). It’s an introduction to card drafting with cute art and just about anyone can play it in a very short amount of time. It only goes up to 5 though. I don’t think I would play it with less than 3 though. There’s a new version called Sushi Go Party which introduces more types of cards than you would play with in a normal game so you can mix and match, but I think it’s a much larger form factor.

6529

Since they like Citadels, I will suggest San Juan. It’s a card game that shares a role selection mechanic with Citadels but is more closely related to Puerto Rico (former number one game on BGG).

  • It’s highly compact, just 110 cards and a handful of tiles.
  • It plays well from 2 to 4.
  • I don’t know where you live, but Amazon says they could deliver me a copy tomorrow. (EDIT: Wait, you need it today? I think there is a good chance it’s at your local game store, since it’s from a fairly large publisher).

As for Android board games:

  • Pathfinder ACG
  • Steam
  • Brass
  • Elder sign
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse
  • Small World
  • Splendor
    And of course… San Juan! And it’s even free.
6530

Thanks for those. I’ve been meaning to try the iPad app for Pathfinder, so I’ll start there. Gloomhaven looks pretty amaze-balls

I bounced off Mage Knight a few years ago, but I should try to take another run at it. When you are talking about time, are you referencing learning the game, playing a session, set-up and takedown, or all of the above?

Has anyone tried Shadows of Brimstone? That looks like a fun, thematic dungeon crawler. A bit expensive, though. So many expansions!

6531

Playing a session w/ setup and takedown. Last time I played Mage Knight it went about 8-ish hours with three players (that being the only time I’ve ever fully completed a session). The single most satisfying boardgaming experience I’ve ever had, but real tough to find time for.

Also, I haven’t tried Shadows over Brimstone but I’ve played two other Flying Frog games (Last Night on Earth and A Touch of Evil) and could not possibly recommend either, so I have serious doubts about it.

6532

Hi all,

Perhaps there is a better spot for this, but I recently backed a Kickstarter campaign for a beautiful card game. I am a big fan of Werewolf, so thought I’d share.

Assassins is a Werewolf-like game, so there is nothing new when it comes to gameplay, but the art is amazing! Here are a few cards that come with the deck:

Here is a link for more details

6533

I’m too late, but I would have said Carcassonne. I think it travels quite well… assuming you put the tiles and meeples in a bag.

6534

Well they actually have that one, like I do. But we got the ‘big box’ packs.

Though I suppose it would be simple to put the tiles in a ziploc bag.

6535

Does the big box pack separate out the tiles into expansions? And did you/they keep it that way? If so, just the base game is playable enough, and is small enough to carry around.

(Plus, Carcassone has a good android/iOS version)

One thing I didn’t quite consider: How much table space will they have available on their travels? A card game might be a better fit.

PS: Have you got a game yet?

6536

In the end my wife didn’t feel like waiting for me to get back to her, so she bought the Hunger Games blu ray for her sister instead.

But I have forwarded on suggestions to them, as their trip isn’t for another two weeks. Plus I dropped the Android idea on them.

Their trip is on an African safari, so table space may be limited. Hence the card idea. However Carcassone would probably work too. Floors are alright ;)

And, yes, mine is still organized. There are different cells for each expansion, and the lid has a litho wrapped insert that labels where each expansion fits, and how many tiles. Makes it easy.

6537

One of my favorite games is Heroscape.While it was discontinued in I think 2010, you can still find it on Ebay. It’s an amazing game for one reason, the wife liked it. She liked it enough to play it with me in the basement of my old house. The unfinished basement, next to the heating unit.

I have a crapload of the add-ons and expansions. I am saddened to say that about half of the unit cards were lost in our move to Orlando. While it’s essentially unplayable without the cards, I still like to make great terrain maps and move the critters around. One day I’ll probably pay some ridiculous price for a full card set. I can not recommend it enough. Go on Ebay or some gamer site and just get the basic set. It’s a fabulous experience. My favorite part was actually designing terrain on a huge fold out table in the basement. The modular form has never been done better in any game since, IMHO.

Oh, and, if you have a full set of the unit cards… and you don’t play it anymore? I will buy them from you.

6538

I’m a huge Heroscape fan, too. My set and all of its absurd amount of add-ons are at my best friend’s house as I didn’t have space to keep them when I moved a few years back. This was fortunate, as they asked me to babysit their kids a few months back (aged 10 and 6), so I pulled it all out of the garage and we went to town. Pretty rad.

I remember back in the day that some people were redoing the stat cards to fit on normal-sized cardstock, as the ones that came with the game were just stupid shaped. You might have a look around the net (and bgg in particular)- you might find them around.

6539

I played a small fortune for some heroscape a while back (2009/2010) but never got to play it much as it was under a pile of boxes. But now that I’ve moved house it’s out and proud!

I never managed to get any castle walls. I was after a set for ages, but it looks like not many were sold in the UK, and for those that were not many end up on eBay :(

If you say which figures you’re missing cards for I could always scan in the cards if I have them. Though I expect a full list is already on bgg or yhe heroscape fansites already.

It’s a shame they cancelled it. I can’t see such a toy not being a great money earner.

6540

The funny thing is that it was a yoooooge earner. I think it may have to do with certain add on sets not doing so well as opposed to others. Some packs were always on the shelf while others sold out immediately. Then they had to be set up as a BOGO. I remember lots of add on BOGO sales. Good for players. Not so good for retailers.
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