Board Game Night!

[wildbil52]

If you have a regular board game night, this is where you can post what you played, how great or not great it was, and pictures of the festivities if you like.

Last night was the first time I attended the Open Board Game night at Battlegrounds Gaming in Norwalk, CT.  Went there with a couple of friends and made a couple new ones.  I taught the group how to play Carcassonne:

[img width=700 height=700]http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m503/wildbil52/photo1.jpg[/img]

And we finished the night with Ticket to Ride:

[img width=700 height=700]http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m503/wildbil52/photo4.jpg[/img]

Hope to learn a few new games next time.

[Rajaat the Warbringer]

Some friends and I are playing Munchkin tonight, and maybe Zombies!!

[wildbil52]

Some friends and I are playing Munchkin tonight, and maybe Zombies!!

I have yet to play Munchkin.  We almost played Cutthroat Caverns last night but we didn't have enough time.  I'm reading up on Eclipse right now.  I REALLY want to try it.

[singlebanana]

A group of my friends are thinking about having a monthly event in which the host goes to a thrift store and purchases a random game for everyone to play.  The worse the better.  That's what beer is for.  I recently found a copy of "Trump," which looks genius.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Cosmic Encounters every Saturday morning.

[Zagnorch]

I recently found a copy of "Trump," which looks genius.

You can follow that up with...

[img width=400 height=400]http://a1708.g.akamai.net/7/1708/110/AH0562216453537/www.shopnbc.com/media/products/N/N52309_400.jpg[/img]

As for myself, the only board game I'm really interested in is Battleship. And even then, it's the electronic Advanced Missions edition, complete with air strikes, torpedoes, and radar scanning.

[img width=467 height=500]http://0.tqn.com/d/boardgames/1/0/T/G/tf06-battleship_advanced.jpg[/img]

Now that I think about it, it's right on the fence between a proper board game and a video game.

Sadly, I rarely have time to play it with others, so usually I play with by myself against the computer.

Considering how reclusive I am, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with holding a board game night...

[wildbil52]

Last Wednesday we played Ascension and Dixit.  I had played Ascension on iOS so I knew how to play but playing on a board for the first time was great.

I had never heard of Dixit.  It was very interesting.  Each player is dealt 5 (oversized) cards, each with a picture on it.  One player then creates a sentence, sings a song, makes a sound, anything that relates to what is on their card.  Then every other player chooses a card in their hand that relates most to the sentence/song/sound.  The cards are then placed on the table and each player has to guess which card the sentence was made from.  It was a VERY interesting and fun experience.  Great board game for the casual crowd, or to play in between a couple of more serious or complex board games.

I bought Puerto Rico for my wife's birthday.  Hopefully it arrives by tomorrow so we can play it at the net board game night.

[wildbil52]

Board Game Night at Battlegrounds again last night.

One of the regulars bought a game called Hex Hex.  He described it as a "stab your friends in the back" game.  Not usually my kind of thing, but we decided to give it a try.  Every player is dealt a hand of 5 cards, each with an action written on it like "deflect left", "deflect right", "send across the table".  When the first round starts, the first player takes a cardboard chip, the hex, and chooses a player at random to target.  Once the hex is in front of that player, they must play a card to deflect it away to someone else.  There are also defensive cards that can be played like "send the hex back to the player who targeted you", and "deflect right and boost" which then makes the hex more powerful.  When the hex lands on a player who cannot deflect it away either because they have no card that can be legally played or they have no cards left, the hex explodes and damages that player.  It's like an extreme game of hot potato but you use cards to determine where you are able to send the potato

I did not like this game.  The idea is kind of cool, but there are SOOO many cards that cancel, reverse, nullify, and destroy cards that you intend to use that the game becomes more about luck than skill.  If I was dealt the 5 cards that the winning player was dealt, I would have won that round.  I hate to say something like "it would be a good game for $10" but...it would.  It would be a cool "ice breaker" type game to play once before you get into something better/deeper.

We then played a card game called Werewolf.  This game sells for about $12 and is easily the best $12 that I have spent on a card game.

If you've ever played Mafia, Assassin, or Witch Hunt, it's essentially the same game.  There are 9 players total, which makes it a great party game.  In the standard version of Werewolf, one player is the mayor and the other 8 are villagers or werewolves.  The players are dealt one card.  There are 6 villager cards and two werewolf cards.  Once the players know what role they are playing, "night falls", everyone puts their heads down, closes their eyes, and continuously taps their hand on the table to make it harder to tell what is about to happen.  The mayor calls for the werewolves to put they heads up, the werewolves then see each other, and then put their heads back down, then the mayor wakes everyone up and is killed.  Everyone, as a group must then try to figure out who the werewolves are.  Everyone votes, including the werewolves, and the two players with the most votes get 30 seconds each to convince the group that they are NOT the werewolf.  The group votes again just between those two players and the player with the most votes gets lynched.  Night falls again and the net round begins. From now on, every time night falls and the werewolves raise their heads, they can choose one player to kill in the night.

The object is to kill both werewolves before they kill all of the villagers.  Very simple concept, very fun.  Highly recommended if you are looking for something simple with a large group of people.

[wildbil52]

Had a few friends over last night for beers, Rangers playoff hockey, and Ticket to Ride Europe.  I love Ticket to Ride.  Super fun, easy to learn, and a surprising amount of depth for how simple it is.

Europe adds ferries, which require locomotives to claim, and tunnels, which allow you to use an opponents route as your own.

If you are considering playing designer or euro board games and you aren't sure where to start,  I would recommend Ticket to Ride (US board) and if you love it, definitely give Europe a try.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Board Game Night at Battlegrounds again last night.

One of the regulars bought a game called Hex Hex.  He described it as a "stab your friends in the back" game.  Not usually my kind of thing, but we decided to give it a try.  Every player is dealt a hand of 5 cards, each with an action written on it like "deflect left", "deflect right", "send across the table".  When the first round starts, the first player takes a cardboard chip, the hex, and chooses a player at random to target.  Once the hex is in front of that player, they must play a card to deflect it away to someone else.  There are also defensive cards that can be played like "send the hex back to the player who targeted you", and "deflect right and boost" which then makes the hex more powerful.  When the hex lands on a player who cannot deflect it away either because they have no card that can be legally played or they have no cards left, the hex explodes and damages that player.  It's like an extreme game of hot potato but you use cards to determine where you are able to send the potato

I did not like this game.  The idea is kind of cool, but there are SOOO many cards that cancel, reverse, nullify, and destroy cards that you intend to use that the game becomes more about luck than skill.  If I was dealt the 5 cards that the winning player was dealt, I would have won that round.  I hate to say something like "it would be a good game for $10" but...it would.  It would be a cool "ice breaker" type game to play once before you get into something better/deeper.

We then played a card game called Werewolf.  This game sells for about $12 and is easily the best $12 that I have spent on a card game.

If you've ever played Mafia, Assassin, or Witch Hunt, it's essentially the same game.  There are 9 players total, which makes it a great party game.  In the standard version of Werewolf, one player is the mayor and the other 8 are villagers or werewolves.  The players are dealt one card.  There are 6 villager cards and two werewolf cards.  Once the players know what role they are playing, "night falls", everyone puts their heads down, closes their eyes, and continuously taps their hand on the table to make it harder to tell what is about to happen.  The mayor calls for the werewolves to put they heads up, the werewolves then see each other, and then put their heads back down, then the mayor wakes everyone up and is killed.  Everyone, as a group must then try to figure out who the werewolves are.  Everyone votes, including the werewolves, and the two players with the most votes get 30 seconds each to convince the group that they are NOT the werewolf.  The group votes again just between those two players and the player with the most votes gets lynched.  Night falls again and the net round begins. From now on, every time night falls and the werewolves raise their heads, they can choose one player to kill in the night.

The object is to kill both werewolves before they kill all of the villagers.  Very simple concept, very fun.  Highly recommended if you are looking for something simple with a large group of people.

Actually, my roommate and her friends played a variant of that this weekend, using Uno cards.

[phoenix1967]

I personally HIGHLY recommend 7 Wonders! With or without the expansion. This is your basic card-draft-and-pass game, but with it's simplicity comes a surprising degree of strategic depth, especially with experienced players. Everyone gets a wonder from the ancient world, and then has to balance investing into cards that develop science, military, community, and economy. Most points wins. This one's available on brettspielwelt.com for those that want to try it for free. I LOVE this game!

A great party game is King of Tokyo (up to 6 can play). But this one's getting hard to find. I've reserved my copy at the vendor booth that will be at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH May 31-June 3rd. If any RFG'ers in the Ohio area are going to be attending, let me know so we can meet up. It's a fun Yahtzee-type game where you play as a monster from a pseudo-Godzilla universe and gain points for each turn you survive in Tokyo. There's also energy cubes to collect and use for purchasing ability cards to enhance your monster along the way. This one is a blast!

Another strong game is Power Grid. However, this isn't as newbie-friendly. It's a pretty intense strategy game that will likely take about 2 hours to play.

I haven't bought Ascension yet, but I've played it and really like it's mechanics. And it's different enough from Dominion that it provides a unique experience. I haven't tried Thunderstone yet, but after playing Ascension I don't think I'm interested in Thunderstone any more.

[wildbil52]

7 Wonders and Power Grid have been on my radar for a while but I haven't been able to play them yet.  king of Tokyo sounds like fun!  I'll have to keep an eye out for it...

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Played the Resident Evil card game this weekend. Also, sounds like we're picking up 7 Wonders and Dominion some time soon.

[wildbil52]

Played the Resident Evil card game this weekend. Also, sounds like we're picking up 7 Wonders and Dominion some time soon.

Showed Dominion to a friend a few weeks ago and he bought it the next day.  It's a great game.  Let me know how you like 7 Wonders.

[wildbil52]

I've actually heard really good things about the Gears of War board game.  Maybe I can give that one a try this Wednesday at Battlegrounds. 

Going on a cruise in a few weeks and their website says they have board games in the game room but I'm afraid that they mean Monopoly and Sorry.  Wondering if I should sneak Puerto Rico on board...