Favourite board games

[Ginger Yellow]

Cheers both. It does look lovely.

There's a fantastic digital version of it, BTW.

[Jon]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g8tq

Good discussion on front row the other day on board games of the last 40 years.

[Ginger Yellow]

One more which didn't fit into my five but probably should: Hansa Teutonica. It's that rare thing, an extremely euro euro game which is also heavy on player interaction. Nearly every action you take is going to be messing with one or more players.

[Ginger Yellow]

Oh, and another: Undaunted Normandy. Takes the basic idea of a light 1v1 card based wargame like Memoir 44 or Panzer General, and refines the deckbuilding to perfection. Also, by modern boardgame standards it's very cheap. I've recently bought the campaign version, Undaunted: Stalingrad and am very much looking forward to cracking it open.

[Levin]

I've logged back into Boardgamegeek after a few years away. Dear god, it's terrible. I can't find any of the good writing and insight I used to read. Even geek lists seem to just be literal list of games now. Sorry, this feels like old man shouts at cloud.

I used to read Sit Down and Shut up but stopped after they seemed to go video focussed.

I played Hansa Teutonica at a London On Board meet up a couple of years ago, I really enjoyed it. I've a craving to play power grid. I just liked the markets mechanism and the way auctions worked.

[Ginger Yellow]

I've only ever used BGG as a resource for rulebooks and clarifications, player counts, links to reviews and occasional strategy tips. Can't say I ever sought insight there.

[Ginger Yellow]

Woohoo, my copy of Frosthaven just arrived.

[matt j]

When I was playing a lot of Mage Knight (solo) and trying to get our friends into other games, I was on BGG quite a bit and reading threads, top lists, etc, and there were definitely some great reviews/analysis.

When I substituted playing board games for playing more D&D, I just completely stopped going there.

I still play some games with the family, but mostly it seems to be just Rummikub lately.

[Levin]

I've never quite got what gloomhaven is. Is it like a advanced heroquest thing?

Has anyone played Root? It looks interesting and has loads of awards.

[Ginger Yellow]

I've never quite got what gloomhaven is. Is it like a advanced heroquest thing?

Sort of? It's a co-op campaign-based dungeon crawler (the original was very influenced by computer RPGs and ARPGs), where your characters' abilities are represented by an ever growing deck of cards, each with two possible actions. Each turn, you play two of them for each character, choosing the top action from one and the bottom action from the other (each one also has a default move action). The cards also have point values which work like initiative. Each enemy type also has its own smaller deck of cards, though they work a bit differently. When characters play their cards, they get discarded, and they can only be recovered to your hand by resting, which removes one card for the rest of the mission (some powerful actions also remove the card). Run out of cards, and the character is incapacitated for the rest of the mission. It makes encounters puzzly in a really interesting albeit sometimes frustrating way, as you have to use your cards efficiently while balancing the push-your-luck of initiative.

Has anyone played Root? It looks interesting and has loads of awards.

I have, a couple of times. It's pretty good and the asymmetry gives it a lot of replay value, but it's a lot to take on board at first (definitely don't play the birds your first game). There's a digital version which would be a relatively cheap way to learn the game before you decide if you want to commit to the physical.

[Levin]

Oh that sounds really interesting.

[Ginger Yellow]

There's a decent digital version, or Jaws of the Lion is a really good intro to the system - setup is much simpler, and it's cheaper.

[Mumpo]

Has anyone played Root? It looks interesting and has loads of awards

I've wanted to play a physical game of Root for ages now, having played a ton against the AI on Steam. Trouble is, every time I'm on the cusp of buying it I end up reading another review that says it's not actually that much fun because you spend most of the time beating down the player out in front (or if you're the player out in front, convincing others there's no way you're a danger). It does look gorgeous though, and I can't see any other games around that offer a more playable version of the COIN system.

definitely don't play the birds your first game

Ha, there's a player in our group who we could never let near the Eyrie because he will spend an absolute eternity analysing all possible outcomes as their list of actions grows.

[Ginger Yellow]

It does look gorgeous though, and I can't see any other games around that offer a more playable version of the COIN system.

There's a videogame, Vietnam '65, that might be up your alley.

[Levin]

Haha, I have 4 COIN games in storage that I'm never going to play