OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[freelunch]

On Saturday I played Cyclades, a four-player game with my three kids. as is the norm my 14yo daughter won (she doesn't play often due to study and extra-curricular-activities most weekends, but she wipes the floor with the rest of us in anything she attempts)

On Sunday we played Cyclades again, a three-player game this time - the game was falling into my 11yo son's lap, he had completed one Metropolis and was a turn away from grabbing a fourth philosopher and completing his second Metropolis. There was nothing I could do about it but I noticed that my 6yo son (usually a non-aggressive player, and a very quick study in games which appear to be designed for much older players) was placed well to capture 11's first Metropolis. I pointed this out to him, he pulled off the attack and proceeded to dominate the game from there on, making all his own decisions and eventually winning with a HUGE pile of coins in reserve behind his shield. Not bad for a six-year-old playing a new game for the second time (with a suggested playing age of 13+ on the box)

After that I played Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead, two-player against my 11yo son (he as Asia, me as Europe), victory went to him after Europe was overrun by zombies. I think I get the message now that it doesn't pay not to attack the undead with everything you can muster in the first turn, my idea was to boost my resource production from the first turn and churn out armies but it didn't go so well.

[LordMortis]

Remus, redrun, and I played Titan this weekend for the first time in forever. I won for the first time in much longer than forever. I got pretty fairly lucky with my musters even though it didn't look like I would and redrun accidentally suicided two of his fairly touch stacks in to me with bad luck on the rolls. This set me up for domination with desperation moves by the other two players further establishing my domination turn by turn. It's a rare win on my part so I get to savor it for a while.

[hentzau]

No boardgames played, but I did pick up a copy of Deadlands: The Battle for Slaugher Gulch for $30 at Anime Central. Been eyeing it for a while, and couldn't pass it by at that price. No clue when I'll be able to play it though.

[coopasonic]

I played Spider-man and friends memory game with my almost 4 year old. 3 wins, 1 loss. His memory is uncanny, but his strategy is terrible. He will consistently turn over known cards first while looking for a match. He sometimes wins capitulating on my reveals alone. It's a one dimensional game and impossible to get any sort of run going. If I can ever convince him to use a proper strategy I'm doomed.

[hepcat]

No boardgames played, but I did pick up a copy of Deadlands: The Battle for Slaugher Gulch for $30 at Anime Central. Been eyeing it for a while, and couldn't pass it by at that price. No clue when I'll be able to play it though.

I've been thinking about picking that up since Gencon last year. Let me know if it's any good.

I picked up Washington's War last week and I'm going to try and get a game in either Wednesday or Friday of this week if I can convince Seppe to join me. I've got this current love affair going on with GMT games after getting hooked on Twilight Struggle recently.

[Boudreaux]

Was visiting family so a fair bit of boardgaming over the weekend -

Played a couple games of Tales of the Arabian Nights, the new Z-Man version of the storytelling boardgame. I picked this up simply because it's unlike anything else in my collection, and it was a big hit. Everyone liked that the stories unfolded in almost random fashion, and even though it was clear that there was little room for strategy everyone really enjoyed the experience.

Also played a game of Cyclades, which is the other game I bought last week. I had heard so many good things about this that I did the rare "buy before you play", and it was a gamble that paid off. Great game, and I love how short it is.

Also had a couple of plays of Ra: The Dice Game, which is a fun filler.

Last night I met up with a couple of friends and we played the Game of Thrones Living Card Game - utterly fantastic. They did an unbelievable job of capturing the theme of the different houses in the books, and this might be the best game I've played in a long, long time.

[Vorret]

Played Jamaïca.

Cool, simple game.

[Fishbelly]

I managed to get in several games of Shadow Hunters with my students. The combination of art that pulls them in couple with the intrigue of determining which players are enemies and which are friends led to a fun, smack-talking time for all. It's become the new favorite of my classroom.

[freelunch]

Saturday: Gheos, four-players vs. my wife and two sons. we've had this game a while but only broke it out for the first time earlier in the week. At first glance it looks like just another tile-laying Carcassonne clone but there's a lot more going on in this game in which players are gods manipulating the land to hurt or help independent civilizations (who may follow more than one god, and so what hurts one player can also hurt another). we've played this with three and four players so far (it can be played with only two but we haven't tried yet), it is a lot of fun and can get pretty cutthroat. I see shadows of Populous here.

Sunday: Carson City, five players vs. my wife, daughter, older son and a friend of his. we hadn't played this before and it took three hours, I suspect we'll get it down around two with practice, certainly when played with only three or four. CC is a worker placement game with a lot more choices available than in Agricola or Stone Age. I'm looking forward to getting it on the table again soon.

also on Sunday, Cyclades again, four-player vs. my two sons and one's friend. liking this one a lot. the map feels a little cramped which encourages aggression early in the game. I'd like it if there were a couple of different starting setups, otherwise its all good.

[Lorini]

About 20 games of Dominion:Alchemy. It's a very interesting expansion but definitely a challenge.

[LordMortis]

About 20 games of Dominion:Alchemy. It's a very interesting expansion but definitely a challenge.

/needs to get our local Dominion owners to buy Alchemy so we can play.

[Zarathud]

On our last gaming session, we played Mystery Express, Lost Island and Kingsburg.

Mystery Express worked out better than I expected, except for the damn clock! I curse my inability to track visualizations of a clock hand while it's upside down.

Lost Island was a quick, interesting and lite cooperative game that seemed like a great value.

Kingsburg really benefits from the expansion which allows you to allocate a fixed amount of military over the 5 game years, rather than relying on a random dice roll. It also helps if you roll better than a 10 each production phase.

[Boudreaux]

Mystery Express worked out better than I expected, except for the damn clock! I curse my inability to track visualizations of a clock hand while it's upside down.

I picked up Mystery Express a few weeks ago, I was surprised at how good it is. And yes, the time cards are almost hilariously difficult to read. I kind of like that, plus the groans that new players let out when the time cards are dealt out the first time are entertaining.

[hepcat]

Mystery Express worked out better than I expected, except for the damn clock! I curse my inability to track visualizations of a clock hand while it's upside down.

I picked up Mystery Express a few weeks ago, I was surprised at how good it is. And yes, the time cards are almost hilariously difficult to read. I kind of like that, plus the groans that new players let out when the time cards are dealt out the first time are entertaining.

I was also in that game Zarathud mentions. I honestly just gave up trying to figure out the time after Arichnerd started flipping them over at a rapid clip while giving us all a look that seemed to say, "Oh yeah, suck it!".

However, Seppe got every single thing right at the end, including the time. That's not surprising though. If he's paying attention to the game in any capacity, you will lose...and usually quite badly.

[baelthazar]

I played Twilight Imperium last Sunday. Look upon these works ye mighty, and despair!

I'm hoping to set up another game, this time with 4-5 players, next weekend (June 5th). We had a good time, it was our first game with the new edition, but it went rather smoothly. The 3rd Edition seems to be much more friendly to "newer" gamers and gamers who got their start with Eurogames.

Until my next game, I leave you with this:

[freelunch]

most of my gaming this past weekend was with my six-year-old son as my older son was away on a scout camp and my wife and daughter were otherwise engaged.

we kicked off on Friday afternoon with Sorry Sliders! and Lost Cities. the first is a fun, cheap, portable alternative to "flicking games" like Crokinole and PitchCar while the latter is a little beyond my son at six, he understands the mechanics of the game but doesn't always make the best choices - the games were both his choices though, and its more about fun than winning

Saturday was my birthday, my gift from the family was a Crokinole board and much of the morning was spent playing it with one family member or another. In the afternoon I played Finca and Star Fleet Scramble with my youngest.

On Sunday I played more Crokinole with everyone, Carson City with my wife and daughter and Samarkand: Routes to Riches with my 6yo. CC and S:RtR are my big boardgame crushes at the moment. I've played CC with 2, 3 & 5 players and I think it has worked well each time, most fun with five but much quicker with two.

[Sudy Nym]

In all my time here, I don't remember ever seeing you before, freelunch. It is possible that I'm delusional, and there's no such thing as you?

[Zarathud]

A couple of games of San Juan and Forbidden Island. Quick, fun, and light games for family and friends.

[freelunch]

In all my time here, I don't remember ever seeing you before, freelunch. It is possible that I'm delusional, and there's no such thing as you?

anything's possible

[hentzau]

I got in a game of SPANC at the World Steam Expo this weekend. My daughter and I didn't have anything to do, and we made the mistake of wandering into the games area when they needed some more players to play a demo of the game. I was hoping to be able to get a demo of Malifaux, but they had packed up already.

And it was one of those demo games that I hated, because the MiB that was demoing it was kind of shaky on the rules, and the other guy that was playing was a sigher and switcher. You know the type, the kind the sighs in exasperation after every bad die roll and goes rummaging through his dice bag to get different dice because those dice "weren't working". Anyway, I won the game, which gave me a free copy of the game, but it's not really my cup of tea.

[hepcat]

I love the players who are convinced that the die they are rolling is "defective" if it doesn't give them what they want. I complain that the dice are against me if a game is going particularly bad, but I'll grab another set off the table only half-seriously. I'd never rummage through a bag to find "good ones".

It's also like you're reading my mind lately. I've been interested in Malifaux too.

[Chaosraven]

He should have gone for the Hackmaster Dice Cleansing

[LordMortis]

Jow brought by a game whose name I can't remember. It was a co op game where we were following the instructions dictated to us by CD. We each had plastic meeples running around a ship performing orders trying to save us from an Alien Invasion. It looked like a game I would "meh" but I really enjoyed it.

We also got in a game of Carson City. After reading the rules I figured it was going to be a waste of $60 for a game that was going to be Caylus clone with a little Puerto Rico thrown in for good measure on hyper quick time line. (Games are getting damned expensive, btw) but as it turned out I really like Carson City as well and it looks like there ought to be quite of bit of replayability there as well.

Got to love games that exceed your expectations.

We also got in a few games of Wizard and Three Dragon Ante. Games I usually fair poorly at. But This time, I was batting. 500 at both. So I got to learn a few games and win at a few familiar games I usually don't do well at. All in all a good weekend... of gaming anyway...

[freelunch]

Jow brought by a game whose name I can't remember. It was a co op game where we were following the instructions dictated to us by CD. We each had plastic meeples running around a ship performing orders trying to save us from an Alien Invasion. It looked like a game I would "meh" but I really enjoyed it.

sounds like Space Alert. I haven't been tempted - no CD player in the library where we play most of our games.

[LordMortis]

Jow brought by a game whose name I can't remember. It was a co op game where we were following the instructions dictated to us by CD. We each had plastic meeples running around a ship performing orders trying to save us from an Alien Invasion. It looked like a game I would "meh" but I really enjoyed it.

sounds like Space Alert. I haven't been tempted - no CD player in the library where we play most of our games.

I believe you are right. Games that require a CD (or used to require a video tape) take a big strike from me. But I'm willing to give anything a try once. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. The CD seems to act mostly like an egg timer with a few gaming glitches thrown in. I think it works.

[hepcat]

I have Space Alert but have only played one game...and that was just a half-hearted attempt to figure out the rules. The designer is the same guy that makes Dungeon Lords and Galaxy Trucker. While I enjoy Galaxy Trucker, I'm not a big fan of Space Alert or Dungeon Lords. I wanted to like Space Alert (having purchased the damn game), but I find his rules to be too "fiddly" for my tastes.

....i need to have a gaming garage sale one of these days.

[Defiant]

A couple of days ago, I played a couple of games

Chrononauts is a time traveling card game. You start off with the current timeline (cards that represent a lot of the years in the 20th century). Some years are linchpin years, that if they're altered, may cause certain later years to become paradoxes that can be patched with alternate versions. Each player has a role with their own version of history - containing three key years (one from our version of events, and two from alternate versions). Players are trying to get home by changing history to their own version. Players can also win by collecting historical artifacts, or collecting 10 cards in their hands. The game is fun and funny, although the beginning of the game relies a lot on luck since you start with no cards. SInce you only gain a card per turn and need to use a card per turn, you need to patch years in order to gain more cards. It's probably going to take 5-6 turns before the game really starts, I think (although the tuns go quick).

I also played Red November. It's a cooperative game where 3-8 gnomes try to fix a sinking a sub long enough to survive til rescue. It's fun and funny, and on the short end of cooperative games (maybe 90-120 minutes, at least with the 5 of us playing). There are a number of things that need to be repaired before their tracks (asphyxiation, heat, pressure) end, and certain timed events that could happen that need to be repaired within that time span (eg, Kraken attacks, missiles launched, etc). Fires and flooding can also happen in compartments. The timing is novel (every action takes a certain number of minutes on the track, and whoever is last on the track goes next, even if it was just their turn (but they did some action that was very quick). It does lead to a little bit of temporal paradoxs (I could be one step behind another player on the time track, I could spend my time going to their room and putting out the fire in their room and I proceed 11 minutes down the track, say. Now it's that players turn, and even though it took me 10 minutes past that point to put out the fire, they can treat the room as if it had no fire.)

Red November is kind of nice cause it comes in a really small box. Admittedly it may be too small to fit all the parts plus the board back into, but it makes it alot easier to carry.

[Zarathud]

Red November is kind of nice cause it comes in a really small box. Admittedly it may be too small to fit all the parts plus the board back into, but it makes it alot easier to carry.

The solution to fitting everything inside the Red November box is to cut some posterboard to set off the cardboard tiles and the cards vs. the other pieces. This is nicer than what I did, which was basically just making a "T" from posterboard:

[freelunch]

Saturday
one of my nephews plus three of his friends visited for several hours for boardgaming purposes. we played:
Incan Gold. my first time playing with eight players, fun but I think it plays better with slightly fewer (with five each player gets a share of more of the treasures)
Cyclades. five players, game was well-received but players mostly felt it was over too soon. better that than dragging on too long I suppose.
Castle Panic. six-player co-op game, I usually play this game with 3 or 4 players, with six it felt more difficult and we *just* won :)
Carson City. five players. saw a couple of different approaches to this game, one player concentrated on attacking other players exclusively while two others aggressively claimed land to hurt other players rather than for their own development plans. lots of fun.
Samarkand: Routes to Riches. currently my six-year-old son's favourite game, he and I played twice - once with my wife and once with my daughter and a visiting friend of my older son who said he'd rather play with us than play House Of The Dead: Overkill for Wii.

Sunday
in theory a gaming day for my small boardgaming group. very small turnout (one player) and he and I played:
Forbidden Island. co-op with my wife and six-year-old. we've had this game a week and given it a good workout (7 plays with various others). this one was a win for us, playing on Novice difficulty.
Crokinole. various two-player match-ups and one four-player team game which seemed to take forever - shooting from only one quarter of the board is much harder, for me at least.
Samarkand: Routes to Riches. three-player with my six-year-old. perhaps the best "family"/"filler" game I've played all year.

in the afternoon: a rare chance to meet a fellow OOer, Bruce is currently vacationing nearby and he dropped by to play:
Pandemic. co-op with my wife and daughter, using the additional characters from On The Brink. we lost.
Dominion. four two-player games using cards from the base set and Intrigue, Bruce and I won two games apiece.

and I rounded the day out with Duck, Duck, Bruce. a quick, fun kids' card game played with my six-year-old.

elsewhere in the house my eleven-year-old son had a couple of friends visiting for the weekend and they played games on and off over both days. I know Revolution!, Last Night On Earth, Cyclades, Castle Panic and Nexus Ops hit their table, and there may have been others too.

all in all, not a bad weekend of boardgaming :)

[Chaz]

I have Space Alert but have only played one game...and that was just a half-hearted attempt to figure out the rules. The designer is the same guy that makes Dungeon Lords and Galaxy Trucker. While I enjoy Galaxy Trucker, I'm not a big fan of Space Alert or Dungeon Lords. I wanted to like Space Alert (having purchased the damn game), but I find his rules to be too "fiddly" for my tastes.

....i need to have a gaming garage sale one of these days.

The rules actually aren't too bad once you start playing. It's one of those that looks worse on paper than it actually is. War of the Ring is another.

The best way to learn is to basically do what it says in the manual and play through the first game without the CD to get a sense of how everything plays out and resolves. Then play a few of the tutorial games with the CD. Don't give up on it yet, it's a fun game!

[hentzau]

Crokinole. various two-player match-ups and one four-player team game which seemed to take forever - shooting from only one quarter of the board is much harder, for me at least.

Um...that's how you're ALWAYS supposed to play. Even in a two player game, you only shoot from a quadrant, not an entire half of the board.

[freelunch]

Crokinole. various two-player match-ups and one four-player team game which seemed to take forever - shooting from only one quarter of the board is much harder, for me at least.

Um...that's how you're ALWAYS supposed to play. Even in a two player game, you only shoot from a quadrant, not an entire half of the board.

really? no wonder I've been doing so well. I guess even with dexterity games it pays to RTFM.

[hentzau]

Crokinole. various two-player match-ups and one four-player team game which seemed to take forever - shooting from only one quarter of the board is much harder, for me at least.

Um...that's how you're ALWAYS supposed to play. Even in a two player game, you only shoot from a quadrant, not an entire half of the board.

really? no wonder I've been doing so well. I guess even with dexterity games it pays to RTFM.

Easy mistake to make. Every time I walk into Cat and Mouse games, they have their Crokinole board oriented wrong. I know they are teaching poor souls to play it wrong...I always turn it every time I see it like that.

[Jag]

I'm looking for some good board games to play with my 6 and 9 year old boys. Obviously the 6 year old is the liability since his reading is not strong at all. I've heard good things about Settlers of Catan? Is that a good game to start with, considering that last game we played was Chutes and Ladders?

[hentzau]

My family all loves "Castle Panic", from my 7 year old son to my 10 year old daughter to my 14 year old daughter. They really get into the cooperative aspect of the game, and how tense it gets when you have a large number of monsters on the board that you have to clear out. On the plus side of things, since all cards are on the table, the older kids can help out the younger ones figure out strategy around card trading so they can use their attacks at the right time.

Also, my kids have enjoyed "The Adventurers", a fun little treasure grabbing romp. Lots of ways to die horribly in the game. Makes my kids laugh when I get crushed by a boulder.

[Jag]

My family all loves "Castle Panic", from my 7 year old son to my 10 year old daughter to my 14 year old daughter. They really get into the cooperative aspect of the game, and how tense it gets when you have a large number of monsters on the board that you have to clear out. On the plus side of things, since all cards are on the table, the older kids can help out the younger ones figure out strategy around card trading so they can use their attacks at the right time.

Also, my kids have enjoyed "The Adventurers", a fun little treasure grabbing romp. Lots of ways to die horribly in the game. Makes my kids laugh when I get crushed by a boulder.

Thanks. I'll check those out. I just read about Adventurers from QT3. What about Settlers? Good starter game or too long per game. Given my younger one's shorter attention span, short games are good to start with.

[freelunch]

I've never played Settlers but I'll second Jag's suggestions of Castle Panic and The Adventurers, both are great family games, easy to teach and quick to play and my kids play them often.

as mentioned above, my six-year-old's favourite game right now is Samarkand: Routes To Riches. he got the hang of it within a couple of turns of his first play, we played seven times last week and he's requesting it every day. It might be a bit much for kids coming from Chutes & Ladders, but I'm sure they'd catch on.

Another couple of games my kids all like and play regularly are Incan Gold and Finca.

[hentzau]

Personally, I've never liked Settlers, so I'm the wrong guy to ask.

Another good abstract game that my 7 year old enjoys is Blockus. And I think Qwirkle was mentioned above. No reading needed for that one either.

[Jag]

Ok. So where are you buying these. Online or at a specialty brick and mortar? I don't think the local toy store will carry them.

[hentzau]

90% of my purchases are made at B&M gaming stores. I like to support the local business. I will sometimes buy something online if I have troubles finding it locally.

As far as Qwirkle and Blockus, both of those are available at Target, I believe. I remember being suprised to see them on the games shelf there a few weeks back. But YMMV.

Castle Panic and The Adventurers I bought at gaming specialty stores.