Saw all three and one of our group bought Alchemist but we haven’t played it yet so no impressions. We came a little closer to playing Onward to Venus, by which I mean that we played Mythotopia and that was at the same stand! Mythotopia rates for me as an excellent, thoughtful, well paced euro-style strategy game. It is devoid of theme but the mechanics seem good enough to shine on their own.
Kanban was very popular indeed but my mind began boggling as soon as I glanced at the board. I did a BSc in Management, which gave me as much insight into Kanban as I’ve got an appetite for!
hepcat
1842
Nice! Thanks to both of you folks for typing up the experience for those of us who couldn’t make it!
Seconded on Orcs, Orcs, Orcs. The set-up reminded me strongly of Castle Panic which is fun but . . . a little too basic for my tastes. If the complexity has been increased I might be interested.
I both played and bought Evolution and want to play it again, lots. I found the trait combinations interesting, tactical and funny. My most successful species was a fat, long-necked turtle :-)
Krosmaster sure looked pretty!
hepcat
1844
I’m curious about Nations the Dice Game. I hadn’t heard anything about it prior to seeing Newbrof mention it above. Any of you guys get a chance to try it? Thoughts if so?
For Those who like Fragor games, Poseidon is up on kickstarter for a 2nd print. I own this game and it is very cool. Essentially you are building a reef and trying to free your friends from an evil octopus. The game is gorgeous. It’s very quick and very light. The coolest feature of the game is you building up a wave of dice at some point the wave comes crashing down and dice fall on the board which you then eat. If you are not familiar with Fragor games you need to know that their games are more about looks than substance. I’m not saying their games are bad, just light.
We had our first board game day in a while this weekend. Here’s what I played:
Cold War: CIA vs KGB Tom introduced me to this one a few weeks ago and though we didn’t finish our game we both agreed that I was amazing at it and I would have won pretty easily if we had played to the end. He mentioned this was getting rebranded as a Star Wars game next year so I went and picked up a copy now because whatever, Star Wars. I really like this. It’s a great two player simple card game that’s basically 21 except the cards have powers and also there are spies. What’s not to like?
Innovation I like this game a lot but I am terrible at it. I spent the entire game looking at cards that were completely worthless to me. I’m not even sure I scored an achievement. Yet I’m always the one who suggests we play it. Someone make me better at Innovation.
Terra Mystica Little late to the party on this one but I just got my copy a couple of weeks ago. This was my second game and both games had new players at the table so we used the recommended starter setup both times. In both games I let everyone else pick their factions first and both times I ended up as the witches. I guess people don’t like witches. I’m pretty bad at this one too but I really like it. I just wish there was more to the cult board than scoring victory points, though. When I saw that for the first time I thought getting to the top of the track was going to give me something cool, like the fire track lets you burn down a building or something. C’mon son, let me burn down some buildings.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf It comes as no surprise to me that five player Werewolf is not amazing. But, we needed to kill 20 minutes while waiting for the pizza to show up. I think the rulebook’s suggestion that you add all three villagers in to a five player game isn’t great, either. The pizza did show up at the end, though, so if you’re hungry for pizza this is the game for you.
Chaos in the Old World Still the best. I played Tzeentch this game (he may be my favorite) and managed to take over a nice chunk of territory in the SW part of the map (down near where the Old World cards go). Slaanesh was kind of boxed in on the opposite corner of the map so I used all of my teleports to send Khorne down his way. Nurgle had a pretty rough game and never got off the ground but the rest of us were neck and neck at the end of round six with Khorne needing a single kill to win by dial advancement. Fortunately we Chaos carded him out of three different fights and he missed his roll on the only fight he was able to get so I won the game by one point over Slaanesh. Man I love this game.
Any chance one of you has played the Clash of Cultures expansion yet? I hope it’s half as awesome as I already think it is. It adds 14 civilizations with 3 unique advancements and a leader. And there’s elephants! And new city pieces! Such drool. Very asymmetric. Wow.
Mike,
Could not agree more on Chaos in the Old World. Probably my favorite game. It just does everything right. I was just asking about Clash of Cultures. What are your thoughts on that game?
I played Chaos in the Old World this weekend too! It’s probably been 2 years since I last played. We always play with the expansion pack now. I feel like Slaanesh has become overpowered with her/his new cards and upgrades which seemed to have a lot of great routes for noble movement. We had the “Electors Sue for Peace” card come out the second turn which stops combat in two areas and Slaanesh got to place the event tokens on two locations with nobles. The player got double dial advancements for the rest of the game till they won and due to that event card, the rest of us generally felt unable to stop them. That was disappointing. That aside, it was a great reminder how ridiculously fun that game is. I love it. Need to get it to the table more.
ShivaX
1849
I really wish our group had 4 people because Chaos looks like the best game ever to me. Sadly we only really ever get together 3 anymore, so it isn’t really a great option.
This is kind of an odd question, I suppose. A guy who I know somewhat – we’re not close friends, but he lives nearby – is a big boardgamer, and has invited me over this weekend to join in with his group. I don’t know anyone else there, I’ve never been in a board gaming group, and to be honest I’m a bit shy around strangers. So I’m hesitant to spend an afternoon with folks who know each other well, and I’m the newcomer. I don’t know what games he has in mind either.
Anyone else every face this sort of thing? I know people show up at their local game store and play with complete strangers, but this is a group of friends, and I know only one, and only slightly.
hepcat
1851
Just go and see what happens. It will either work or it won’t. Be polite and don’t show up with a greasy bucket of chicken and then proceed to touch all the cards for the game while you eat. If you lose, be gracious. If you win, be gracious. If the others fail to do the same, flip the table and announce they didn’t pass your test and you’re taking a house pet as penance.
But seriously…don’t go with a cat if you do. Too high maintenance.
Just go and have fun, my man.
This has happened to me a few times, and it’s usually not a problem. You know someone there, the group is probably excited to have another player, and you’ll be fine. Be polite, pay attention to group norms surrounding table talk, etc.
That was actually the situation I was in this weekend playing Chaos. Everyone’s different, but I think board games are the easiest social situation to be in with a bunch of people you don’t know. The game will prompt everyone to interact with everyone else and if you’re socially uncomfortable with the group, the game is a nice focus point to take off the pressure of purely socializing.
Andon
1854
Best thing I ever did! Jump in there and meet new folks. If you want to boardgame more and try out new games this is your best bet.
hepcat
1855
Meetup.com is a fantastic way to meet fellow gamers in your area too. Just do a search for boardgames and I’m sure you’ll find something. We have about 3 or 4 such groups in the Chicago area…
…none of which I ever really attend with an regularity whatsoever. I really do need to practice what I preach. :(
Thanks for the encouragement, folks. I’ll give it a go!
Randy,
Clash of Cultures is a great game that’s hard for me to get to the table (because of game length for new players and learning curve) so I’ve recently decided to make a real effort to play it instead of just waiting until game day and trying to squeeze it in. I talked it up to 3 gamers I work with and we’re staying late tomorrow to play a game. If that goes well I’m going to try and make it a semi-regular thing.
Most of the rules in CoC are very intuitive and only need to be explained once (which is pretty amazing given how many there are); where the learning curve really comes in is the advancements board (the tech tree of CoC, though it isn’t really much of a tree) that you just have to see a few times. In fact this is one of a very few games where I would recommend the included short game variant for new players (which still runs pretty long, probably 3+ hours with 4 new players) because it gives you a chance to try out a few more advancements in a shorter time, figure out what works and then start over again instead of playing out a 5 hour game where you’re not happy with the techs you chose. Of course, with experienced players the game should never get close to 5 hours, but I could see that happening with 4 newbies.
I’m really excited about this expansion, while I would have preferred custom tech boards for each civ I guess the cost of printing 14 new boards up would have meant either fewer civs or a big price increase. Just can’t wait to see these battles with mixed armies of soldiers, elephants, cavalry and the leaders.
Michael Barnes wrote a great review of the base gamea couple years ago that got me to pick the game up and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s worth checking out.
It’s not, and three is a tough number of players to work with. I’ve got a few games I tend to go for when we have three players: namely Kemet, Brass, Innovation and Antiquity (if you’re not into the whole brevity thing). I haven’t tried it yet but I’ve heard good things about Clash of Cultures with three.
geewhiz
1858
Yes, I went to a big board gaming meeting and it can be hard if there are clicks of people already established, but it is like work, I had to introduce myself and slowy people get to know you. I message the group about games I just received and I will bring it and people are quick to want to try something new. Great way to meet people. ;)
I also make certain to say hello to new people because I know what that can be like.
The great thing is now I have a group to play games with.
It plays great with 3 players. 2 Players you need to typically be more selective with which races you play, but 3 should have no problem.
Oh really? I heard that you should strictly only play it with four players (or five if you have the expansion). That’s the only reason I haven’t picked it up before now.
