Boardgame Thread: Let's organise a beexordgame night.

Kern · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:11

Finally beat 'Pandemic' on 5 epidemic cards last week. Now to do it on 6.

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12243

Re: Sherlock Holmes - I totally messed it up.

First case spoilers:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

We'd followed a few leads, checked out the articles about the arms fair and the shooting competition in the paper, went to the society gossip guy, and I decided that Count Von Schulenberg was the baddie because Allen was having an affair with the Countess. It was only when it was revealed to be Lord Ragland that I realised we hadn't even been to interview him.

Reading some of the other leads afterwards it would have been obvious why the invoices in his desk were suddenly all paid if we'd looked into his financial affairs a bit closer, and we also totally didn't pick up about the Spaniards Inn, instead of looking for a Spaniard, so I sent us after Hector del Guerra who basically gave us a three and a half hour time window during the murder when the Count was unaccounted for.

Total score: 5 points.

sdg · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:08

Mr Russell wrote:

Re: Sherlock Holmes - I totally messed it up.

First case spoilers:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

We'd followed a few leads, checked out the articles about the arms fair and the shooting competition in the paper, went to the society gossip guy, and I decided that Count Von Schulenberg was the baddie because Allen was having an affair with the Countess. It was only when it was revealed to be Lord Ragland that I realised we hadn't even been to interview him.

Reading some of the other leads afterwards it would have been obvious why the invoices in his desk were suddenly all paid if we'd looked into his financial affairs a bit closer, and we also totally didn't pick up about the Spaniards Inn, instead of looking for a Spaniard, so I sent us after Hector del Guerra who basically gave us a three and a half hour time window during the murder when the Count was unaccounted for.

Total score: 5 points.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

We decided right at the start that we wanted to go to either the factory or office, I forget which but it was the one that wasn't listed in the directory. I scanned the map and couldn't see the street address so we went off down another route of leads. I think at some point or another we suspected everyone and we even made the link with the advertisement in the newspaper for the reward for a missing earring but it wasn't until near the end when I still felt like we should have been able to visit the street address and I finally found the street name on the map. We went there and got the answers we needed to clear up the last of it. I think if we'd went there first we'd have solved it quicker but at the same time, we had a great time doing it and I'm looking forward to playing another one

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

sdg wrote:

I've not played Forbidden Island but I watched the tabletop episode with Forbidden Desert on it and it looks cool. It's on my wishlist and it seems to be great value for money as well. I've played King of Tokyo and enjoyed it, do you know if King of New York is the same?

Caveat: I've not played KoT, and only played KoNY once. But I read a few reviews before choosing the latter.

KoNY has some extra game mechanics over and above KoT, and these add strategic depth:

1) Smashing buildings now creates military units, who can attack monsters in the same map place as they are based on a new symbol on the dice.
2) The map now has half a dozen places and you can move around to find more buildings to trash or avoid the military.
3) There's a new "Fame" dice symbol; if you roll three of those, you become the "superstar", and from then on every one you roll gives you a free victory point until someone else rolls three "fame" symbols.
4) The longer you stay in Manhattan (the equivalent to Tokyo), the more points you earn each turn, so it rewards careful hoarding of healing cards so you can try and maximise your stay in the hot seat.

My understanding is that KoT is vulnerable to slightly cheesy tactics where you just keep rolling for maximum victory points, and KoNY doesn't have this -- choosing what to re-roll is really hard most of the time.

This does change the character of the game a little bit, from a 30 minute knockabout fun to something a bit more thoughtful (although still pretty lightweight mechnically.) That's more to my tastes though.

sdg · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:29

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

sdg wrote:

I've not played Forbidden Island but I watched the tabletop episode with Forbidden Desert on it and it looks cool. It's on my wishlist and it seems to be great value for money as well. I've played King of Tokyo and enjoyed it, do you know if King of New York is the same?

Caveat: I've not played KoT, and only played KoNY once. But I read a few reviews before choosing the latter.

KoNY has some extra game mechanics over and above KoT, and these add strategic depth:

1) Smashing buildings now creates military units, who can attack monsters in the same map place as they are based on a new symbol on the dice.
2) The map now has half a dozen places and you can move around to find more buildings to trash or avoid the military.
3) There's a new "Fame" dice symbol; if you roll three of those, you become the "superstar", and from then on every one you roll gives you a free victory point until someone else rolls three "fame" symbols.
4) The longer you stay in Manhattan (the equivalent to Tokyo), the more points you earn each turn, so it rewards careful hoarding of healing cards so you can try and maximise your stay in the hot seat.

My understanding is that KoT is vulnerable to slightly cheesy tactics where you just keep rolling for maximum victory points, and KoNY doesn't have this -- choosing what to re-roll is really hard most of the time.

This does change the character of the game a little bit, from a 30 minute knockabout fun to something a bit more thoughtful (although still pretty lightweight mechnically.) That's more to my tastes though.

That sounds like some good changes because King of Tokyo, while fun and a good filler, does feel very chance based.

lasermink · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1883

Sorry for just jumping right into this thread, but what is this Sherlock Holmes game you mentioned above?

Also, I love Table Top. Maybe just because I almost never get to play any games myself.

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12243

lasermink wrote:

Sorry for just jumping right into this thread, but what is this Sherlock Holmes game you mentioned above?

Also, I love Table Top. Maybe just because I almost never get to play any games myself.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/29148498 ... +detective
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/251 ... -detective

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8648

sdg wrote:

Joans wrote:

Are we missing something with Pandemic? We only lost our first game because we ran out player cards the turn before we would have cured the last disease and even though some unfortunate card turns sent our outbreak counter straight up to 5, we still won the second game comfortably enough.

That does sound unusual, might be worth having another read through of the rules to make sure you aren't missing something. How many epidemic cards are you putting in the deck and are you shuffling them in at regular intervals? Are you preparing the board first with diseases in cities before you start and then putting those city cards in the discard pile? Are you shuffling that discard pile and then putting it back on top of the draw pile when each epidemic card is drawn (rather than shuffling the discard pile into the main deck. So as you are constantly infecting the same cities.) Based on my experience, the first few times you play it is difficult to avoid outbreaks that chain and quickly go out of control.

Pretty sure we're doing all of that. It did occur to me that with two players, unless the player deck is harshly ordered against you, or you're careless with what you discard, then it should be easy for one of the players to pick up 5 of any one colour, whereas with more players I bet a lot of turns are used up just trying to exchange cards.
We won another game last night, but there was only two cards left in the player deck, so if we'd had to coordinate any card exchanges it might have been a different story.

sdg · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2015 14:18

Joans wrote:

sdg wrote:

Joans wrote:

Are we missing something with Pandemic? We only lost our first game because we ran out player cards the turn before we would have cured the last disease and even though some unfortunate card turns sent our outbreak counter straight up to 5, we still won the second game comfortably enough.

That does sound unusual, might be worth having another read through of the rules to make sure you aren't missing something. How many epidemic cards are you putting in the deck and are you shuffling them in at regular intervals? Are you preparing the board first with diseases in cities before you start and then putting those city cards in the discard pile? Are you shuffling that discard pile and then putting it back on top of the draw pile when each epidemic card is drawn (rather than shuffling the discard pile into the main deck. So as you are constantly infecting the same cities.) Based on my experience, the first few times you play it is difficult to avoid outbreaks that chain and quickly go out of control.

Pretty sure we're doing all of that. It did occur to me that with two players, unless the player deck is harshly ordered against you, or you're careless with what you discard, then it should be easy for one of the players to pick up 5 of any one colour, whereas with more players I bet a lot of turns are used up just trying to exchange cards.
We won another game last night, but there was only two cards left in the player deck, so if we'd had to coordinate any card exchanges it might have been a different story.

Now that you say that I realise that I haven'yt ever played it with two players. I think I've always just assumed that it may be more difficult because you only have two player role abilities to help but I guess what you're saying could explain it! Have you tried making it more difficult with extra epidemic cards or are you already maxing out?

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12243

You have to be in the same city as the other player, and also in the city of the card you are trying to exchange unless you have some abilities to the contrary.

Perhaps that's why you're finding it so easy?

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8648

Mr Russell wrote:

You have to be in the same city as the other player, and also in the city of the card you are trying to exchange unless you have some abilities to the contrary.

Perhaps that's why you're finding it so easy?

Gilly, we started with 4 and lost our first game, but I think it's probably time to move to 5.

Russ, for a two player game, you rarely have to exchange cards. There's 12 of each colour, so unless you discard too many or focus on one colour when the deck is actually set to give you everything but that, then 1 of the players will get 5 of each colour. Once you go up to 3 or 4, that becomes less likely and exchanging becomes a bigger part of the game.
Also our second game did involve the researcher that can give cards without needing to be in the right city.

I did wonder why Gaywood wasn't having the same issue with forbidden island, but you get at least two goes through the deck on that one depending on your starting level.

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12243

Joans wrote:

Mr Russell wrote:

You have to be in the same city as the other player, and also in the city of the card you are trying to exchange unless you have some abilities to the contrary.

Perhaps that's why you're finding it so easy?

Gilly, we started with 4 and lost our first game, but I think it's probably time to move to 5.

Russ, for a two player game, you rarely have to exchange cards. There's 12 of each colour, so unless you discard too many or focus on one colour when the deck is actually set to give you everything but that, then 1 of the players will get 5 of each colour. Once you go up to 3 or 4, that becomes less likely and exchanging becomes a bigger part of the game.
Also our second game did involve the researcher that can give cards without needing to be in the right city.

I did wonder why Gaywood wasn't having the same issue with forbidden island, but you get at least two goes through the deck on that one depending on your starting level.

And you're also limiting your hand to 7 cards? We've found it hard to collect 5 of each colour each time.

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8648

Yup. 7 cards.

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25585

Help folks!

It's our first wedding anniversary in a few days, and something something paper.

I'm totally out of my normal brain capacity for thought, and can't think of what to get. Russell suggested a new board game, specifically a co-op as I can't play competitive board games as I have absolutely zero competitive drive, so don't try to win, which makes it rubbish for others,

Anyway... Board games are kind of paper-ish, and we gave enjoyed a few co-operative ones (Sherlock Holmes, Pandemic, The one where you quickly roll dice like Indiana Jones...

Please does anyone have any suggestions for a co-op game that I can get and maybe even manage to play with baby brain (and goodness knows I am stupid enough at the best of times, but I've basically turned only semi-sentient.)

Morte · **Posted:** Thu Jul 09, 2015 18:30

The Lord of the Rings game is good with two players

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lord-Rings-Boar ... board+game

sdg · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:10

Mimi wrote:

Help folks!

It's our first wedding anniversary in a few days, and something something paper.

I'm totally out of my normal brain capacity for thought, and can't think of what to get. Russell suggested a new board game, specifically a co-op as I can't play competitive board games as I have absolutely zero competitive drive, so don't try to win, which makes it rubbish for others,

Anyway... Board games are kind of paper-ish, and we gave enjoyed a few co-operative ones (Sherlock Holmes, Pandemic, The one where you quickly roll dice like Indiana Jones...

Please does anyone have any suggestions for a co-op game that I can get and maybe even manage to play with baby brain (and goodness knows I am stupid enough at the best of times, but I've basically turned only semi-sentient.)

Forbidden Desert is a coop game that's meant to be good. Designed by the guy who made Pandemic so it has a similar feel. It's about trying to gather parts for your ship that's crashed in the desert, by clearing sand off tiles and looking under them. Cards are drawn that spreads more sand around or makes you dehydrated if you don't have shelter. It gets really good reviews. Forbidden Island is similar only on an Island setting that is slowly being flooded. I believe both games also include the mechanic of making them harder by adding more of a particular card to the deck and they're a great price.
Not a coop but a lovely and non combative game that you'd both probably enjoy even without a competitive drive is Takenoko. In it, you try to match conditions shown on cards by moving a gardener and panda around tiles to either grow or eat bamboo. The playing pieces are amazing, it's ittle wooden pieces of bamboo that stack together and a wee plastic panda and gardener. A really lovely and gentle game

If I think of any others I'll post again.

Kern · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:42

Hannabi (BGG link) is an interesting co-op. Everyone can see your hand, but you can't. Deciding what to play depends on how well the others have hinted to you what's where in your hand.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14487

sdg wrote:

Forbidden Desert is a coop game that's meant to be good.

The game being played on Tabletop (it looks good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMLP0gn4I6k

sdg wrote:

Not a coop but a lovely and non combative game that you'd both probably enjoy even without a competitive drive is Takenoko.

And Takenoko (i've not watched this one yet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv4n-e-hb_o

sdg · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:23

zaphod79 wrote:

sdg wrote:

Forbidden Desert is a coop game that's meant to be good.

The game being played on Tabletop (it looks good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMLP0gn4I6k

sdg wrote:

Not a coop but a lovely and non combative game that you'd both probably enjoy even without a competitive drive is Takenoko.

And Takenoko (i've not watched this one yet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv4n-e-hb_o

On Takenoko, I have introduced it to loads of people and every single one of them has enjoyed it. Basically as soon as you see the wee panda you'll be sold :luv:

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25585

That's brilliant. Thank you so much! Thank you for the suggestions... Off to Amazon go I xx

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25585

Ok, got Forbidden Island and Takenoko as one was cute and the other sounded good, too.

Have told Russell not to look in here, so if you are reading this right now Russell:

lappychops:

Goddess Jasmine · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 19:20

Forbidden island is great. We have played it lots. I like the sound of that panda game too.

Mimi, I hope you haven't bought them using Russ' Amazon account...

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25585

I'd like to reply that I'm not that silly, but I very much am

just not on this occasion.

I even remembered not to get it on the joint credit card.

sdg · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 21:46

Excellent, let us know how you like them! I've been tempted by the idea of forbidden island or desert so I'm sure they'll find their way into my collection at some point. Takenoko is one my favourite games

Goddess Jasmine · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2015 11:40

We popped into Village Games in Camden yesterday. Came out with Chrononauts and Mindtrap. Looking forward to giving them both a try later.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Forbidden Island is great, and it's accessible enough that non-boardgame-players can pick it up and enjoy it too (which I think isn't as true of Pandemic, which has moderately cluttered mechanics.) It's s inevitable I'll buy Desert at some point but so far I've put it off (faced with the choice on one new game, I picked up King of New York most recently instead.)

Goddess Jasmine · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2015 13:23

I'd agree with all of that Doc.

How have you found King of New York?

Has anybody got or played Marvel Legendary? Joans is talking about putting it on his wish list for Christmas.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14487

Goddess Jasmine wrote:

Has anybody got or played Marvel Legendary? Joans is talking about putting it on his wish list for Christmas.

Not played but it was last weeks game on Tabletop - looks like great fun

Grim... · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2015 15:39

Goddess Jasmine wrote:

Has anybody got or played Marvel Legendary? Joans is talking about putting it on his wish list for Christmas.

The chance of me not owning Aliens Legendary before the Cottage is incredibly slim.

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2015 20:19

Goddess Jasmine wrote:

We popped into Village Games in Camden yesterday. Came out with Chrononauts and Mindtrap. Looking forward to giving them both a try later.

I love 'Chrononauts'. For reasons that are beyond me, the 'videotape of the creation of the universe (on Betamax)' card cracks me up every time. And it took me a long while to work out why 'Emily' is a good name for a Brontosarus.

By the way, be very careful with the 1945 cards: all the patches for it affect the rest of the timeline in slightly different ways.

Joans · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 8648

We just had a game, although it was probably not the best thing to try just before bed. We did patch 1945, so I hope we did it right.
I liked my stegasaurus called Steggy.

Achilles · **Joined:** 15th Nov, 2008 **Posts:** 484

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Kern · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:36

Played 'Flashpoint' last night using one of the expansions that allows for additonal floors on the building and specialist roles (including a rescue dog). First game was a pretty diastrous: despite our valiant efforts the whole building collapsd as the fires in the basement and the first floor ruined the structure. Second game, reverting to one board, went off far better and all the civilians and their pets were heroically rescued.

This game grew on me. When I played it last year I wasn't that impressed but was glad I gave it a second chance. Like 'Pandemic', as the fires get out of control your team's carefully orchestrated plan becomes increasingly irrelevant. And the plastic fire-fighter pieces are pretty cool too.

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25585

We played Takeneko. I won.

It's a great little game. The design is particularly charming

Achilles · **Joined:** 15th Nov, 2008 **Posts:** 484

..........................................

Grim... · **Posted:** Sat Aug 01, 2015 18:41

This is the Legendary Encounters: Alien game.

It's very beautiful and very good fun, even if we did just get our asses kicked.

It's a deck-building card game, so anyone who has played Star Realms or any other Legendary game will know how to play it. 600 cards!

Achilles · **Joined:** 15th Nov, 2008 **Posts:** 484

..........................................

Morte · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 17:08

Dark Tower! Yes I had that one as a young 'un. It became an early mobile game once you realised it didn't need the board.

ApplePieOfDestiny · **Joined:** 17th Dec, 2008 **Posts:** 8293

We played Destination:Portsmouth on Friday so that none of you have to. You owe us.

myp · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 19:16

ApplePieOfDestiny wrote:

We played Destination:Portsmouth on Friday so that none of you have to. You owe us.

It was an epic game of skill and bravery.

myp · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 19:17

Proof!

Curiosity · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 21:32

Fuck me that is a shambles of a game.

myp · **Posted:** Mon Aug 03, 2015 0:05

Curiosity wrote:

Fuck me that is a shambles of a game.

For just £100 I could get the south coast full set!

http://destinationboardgames.com/region ... ons-1.html

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:55

Cross post with the kickstarter thread!

One of my favourite games, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, has a prequel on kickstarter right now. It can be played as a stand alone game or combined with the other games in the One Night series. If you don't have it, I recommend it. I've introduced it to a really wide range of people and they've all loved it and it's one of those games where every time you finish someone asks if you can play again. Each game takes less than ten minutes and it's like normal werewolf/mafia except there is only one night phase and lots of night actions. Brilliant fun!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/te ... ory_newest

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Aug 30, 2015 9:54

Ooo...UK and Pennsylvania maps for 'Ticket to Ride' coming in October. Wonder if it'll be here in time for Cottage. Knowing UK railways, probably not.

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Sep 06, 2015 10:34

So, gaming session yesterday. Key point was learning how to play Dominion. Nowhere near as complex as I thought, and great fun. Won my first game (admittedly with A LOT OF HELP in the first half), but lost badly on the second (with different cards in play).

Sushi go- fun fast hand passing game.

Played Machi Koro again. I still love the game, and it works best if people keep things moving. This time round, rather than lay out the buildings as prescribed in the rules, we shuffled them all together and dealt out 12 to start with, replacing them as they were bought. This made for a more interesting game as you could never quite tell if that high-scoring card was going to come out again.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:32

NetRunner:

It's effectively 2 games, as each player has different rules. A Criminal (player) must steal Agendas (point scoring cards) from The Corporation (player). The Corporation must score these agendas by placing the correct amount of tokens on them and score 7 to win. The Criminal just has to steal them to score. Or the Corporation can kill the Criminal.

To protect its Agendas, the corporation can place different types of security in front of them that the Criminal must pass through. To pass through them, the Criminal must both have the correct key, and the means to pay to upgrade them.

Criminals can also take cards from the Corporation's hand, the draw pile or the discard pile.

The Corporation plays cards face down until activated (at a cost). These ate known as servers. Security sits in front of Agendas cards. Non agenda cards can also be played with security in front as a trap to waste Criminals resources.

Resources are gained by playing cards from a players hand, or drawing from bank. Other active cards generate income.

The Corporation gets 3 actions per turn and a mandatory card draw, The Criminal 4.

Tge game I played last night was super fun.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:50

It sounds better from your description than from the 400 page manual.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:56

Curiosity wrote:

It sounds better from your description than from the 400 page manual.

Everyone agreed the manual is awful. It is surprisingly simple in reality.

Setting up a server is place any card (not ice or operation card) face down and that is it. Run a server is simple and then youook at the card and trash it at a cost or keep it if an agenda.

As the Criminal you put action cards in one row, bonus cards in another.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:39

I shall make it a priority to play a game or two of it at the cottage.

Be Excellent To Each Other

Boardgame Thread: Let's organise a beexordgame night.

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