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Topic: The Board Gamer's Thread

Posts 1 to 20 of 22

Dichotomy

With all the hype surrounding the Pro and a focus on who has the best technology seemingly the hot topic of the generation, I thought it was a good time to kick back, ignore all that and ask if anyone enjoys a good board game every now and then? Personally I'm loving them at the minute, they seem to be going through a golden period at the moment with the last few years filled with excellent release after excellent release. Best thing of all though is playing them as a group in the same room - Nintendo championed local multiplayer and were mostly ignored for it, but I think they were really onto something with this.

So anyone else enjoy them, and if so what do you play?

Edited because I hit enter on the tags which posts the entire message and then had to finish off the topic quickly - was going to finish with I'm currently enjoying Dead of Winter, Eldritch Horror and just getting in to Star Wars Rebellion. Looking forward to trying Cosmic Encounter and Caverna.

Edited on by Tasuki

Dichotomy

Tasuki

I think the last time I played an actual bored game was when I was a kid. I played some like Monopoly and Clue on a system like NES and SNES. Honestly when I was a teenanger/young adult I played Dungeon and Dragons more then bored games when I got together with friends and we were not playing video games.

RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.

My Backlog

PSN: Tasuki3711

mrobinson91

I've not much experience with board games (other than than the family ones) but every weekend play Magic The Gathering and also getting into Warhammer. My friends have some boardgames like Firefly so will hopefully get round to playing that soon

I AM SIEGMEYER OF CATARINA AND YOU SHALL FEEL MY WRATH!

PSN: mrobinson91 | Twitter:

Dichotomy

@Tasuki: One post until they are referred to a bored games lol - hope that's a typo I used to play a few back when I was younger, but I think they've come a long way since then. Monopoly and Cluedo (in the UK) are well known ones, but aren't exactly the most engaging games in the world and not really the type of game I play these days. I feel to some extent board games are viewed a lot like computer games were viewed back in the 8-16bit era - a geeky hobby mainly for kids which is a shame because, as I said, there are some really good ones on the market now.

@mrobinson91: I used to play Magic (and keep on meaning to sell my cards - some of them are silly prices these days), but it degenerated into who could buy the best cards for whatever variant we played. I ended up liking draft more as you got what you got, but it is still a relatively expensive way to play a game. Not played Firefly, but loved the show and recall the game was pretty well received so hope it goes well when you get round to it.

Dichotomy

Tasuki

@Dichotomy: Yeah that was a typo lol. If you like board games I highly suggest checking out Cinemassacre on YouTube particularly the one show they do called Board James.

RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.

My Backlog

PSN: Tasuki3711

Dichotomy

@Tasuki: Think I've watched some of their retro stuff, but not anything on board games, I'll have a look. It's pretty hard to find many board game reviews on YouTube that have that charismatic spark, which has the unfortunate effect of compounding the idea they are not fun, however there are a few channels which do some justice to the medium. If you have any interest at all it is worth giving the nice people at Shut Up and Sit Down a chance as they do a decent job of showing why the games can be fun. In fact their introduction to board games video is an enjoyable, if not slightly outdated, watch:

Dichotomy

RR529

I do enjoy a game of Chess every now & then. Way, way back in middle school I'd play a few games with friends in the library in the morning before classes started, good times. Nowadays though, none of my friends or family are really interested in playing nowadays though, so I just get in the occasional game on my tablet against the CPU.

Not a board game, but I also played some Yu-Gi-Oh! back when that was the thing (again, back in middle school). I had built a dragon themed deck, since I was all into dragons at the time (I had 3 Blue Eyed White Dragon cards, which was my favorite one).

Edited on by RR529

Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)

Shellcore

I host a bi-monthly board gaming group at a local pub. We play all sorts from Catan to Ultimate Werewolf. Seen a lot of board game cafes pop up in nearby cities. The way I see it, more people are playing board games than ever and are increasing seen as being more acceptable to play than video games, due to the "in the same room" social aspect of them.

Plenty of great youtube channels available to take a look at. I am personally enjoying Scythe, a great mech, resource management game. The world of which is being used as the basis for a new top down strategy video game.

PSN: Aleks-UK

Speedy67

I like a good ol' board game, gotta say. Not one for obsessing over Dungeons & Dragons or anything like that, but I am quite partial to a game of Risk, Scrabble, Monopoly, Chess, Settlers of Catan, etc. My favourite, really, would be Subbuteo, but I don't know if that quite counts as a 'board game' or not. I love the strategy and fun of Risk, in particular, but generally I just love the togetherness 'n all brought about by a board game.

We all know the world needs Kentucky Fried Duck.
My website: https://stuffandthatreviews.wordpress.com/

PSN: Skymister01 | Twitter:

Dichotomy

@Shellcore: It is a bit better near where I live than it used to be, but still doesn't compare to the 90's for access to places to play. Have played a bit of Catan, but only eyed up One Night Ultimate Werewolf so far, looks like it would be fun though. I find for most board games I get the same reaction on getting new players to play them as I might from getting someone to try out a deep turn based military strategy game - i.e. one of someone thinking how they can politely leave. Having said that I've had some luck starting with Pandemic (pretty easy to understand and a decent theme) and moving on to slightly more complicated things from there. Don't know much about Scythe othe than I think it was a kickstarter game from a bit back? Kickstarter has actually been a great thing for board games and if I had the money I'd be trying out far more of them given the extras you usually get for backing them.

@Speedy67: I'd class Subbuteo in this thread, maybe I should have been a bit more broad and gone for table-top gaming. Not played that game for years, but even in my adult life I'd likely jump at the chance of playing it again if someone offered.

@RR529: Chess is a timeless classic, but I don't get to play it so much myself these days. Easiest way to get a game now is to play a drinking variant, it is interesting from a strategy view point though because you want to win the game while taking the fewest number of pieces (in general I pace myself when drinking and don't like to binge). At the same time you might decide to sacrifice pieces to make your opponent drink, the last game I played my opponent thought they had me on the ropes by taking piece after piece, but I managed to maneuver them into a position they couldn't escape from which was probably helped by the multiple shots of whisky they'd imbibed.

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themcnoisy

Chess is my board game of choice, quickly followed by poker and chase the ace - I have some cool rules for chase the ace as a drinking game. With the recent board game revolution I'm usually nonplussed by the lengthy rules and time commitment. We have well over 20 board games in our house and only the cards, chess, cluedo and snakes and ladders pop out infrequently. Maybe I'm too long in the tooth and prefer the instant gratification of computer games.

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

Dryst

When I was young (pre console days) board games were pretty much it gamewise. And the best were the military ones made by Avalon Hill. Which you could usually only get at hobby stores.

And this was a truly amazing game when it came out:

http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/post-1401-1176770719.jpg

Pretty simplistic now - but back then it was something else. I still have my copy that I bought the day it was released.

One really odd thing that happened to me - when I was in high school we had a board game club and we would play some of the Avalon Hill games by mail. I wound up playing against a guy in California (1968 or 1969) who a few decades later would turn out to be a really vicious serial killer. Still kinda spooks me out.

"I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams."

Dichotomy

@themcnoisy: Define too long in the tooth I'm pretty old myself and have been an avid gamer since the early C64 days, but I still think both mediums can co-exist. As I alluded to in my opening post I think board games now fill a space that was once part of computer/console gaming too - the local co-op/competitive play. Playing online is OK, but I think I'll always favour playing games with nearby allies/opponents. It also allows for mechanics that fall flat without an actual presence there. I also believe nostalgia is only part of the reason people tend to look back on video gaming fondly, among other reasons I think sharing an experience is always going to be a positive memory which is something mostly lost in today's online world.

I would also say there were a good mix of games that have varying degrees of complexity, but that isn't to say the easy to pick up ones are worse - simple rule sets can make for very deep games or ones which are just great fun for a group, much like with video games.

@Dryst: It is still hard to track down most games (at least where I live), even going online Amazon are a bit hit and miss with stocking them (although I tend to use sites that deal solely in that side of gaming to support them). I always enjoy looking at old games, there are some real gems out there and the next game I'm looking forward to playing, cosmic encounter, actually originated in the 70s. For war/military games I've heard Memoir 44 is really good, but personally have not played any in that category for 15+ years (too many games, too little time).

It would be a bit spooky finding out you had associated with someone like that. I've known a couple of people who have since been convicted of crimes which is enough of a strange feeling, but a serial killer is something else. I'm guessing though with some of the temper tantrum teens most people have played against online there is a decent probability one of them could have committed murder, but the anonymity offered online means we'll never know.

Dichotomy

themcnoisy

@Dryst: "who a few decades later would turn out to be a really vicious serial killer. "

Hope you let him win.

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

Dryst

@dichotomy

I have a really large collection of old and new board games. (I have collected them pretty much all my life - and I have also gone to thrift stores most of that time too - although nothing much shows up anymore it used to be common to find really obscure and neat games - my best find (back in the early eighties) was a near mint copy of this:

http://coolandcollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/todd_s...

One thing I really like about the more modern games are the use of miniatures - much more appealling than squares of cardboard that more or less look alike.

@themcnoisy - I actually won but fortunately he stayed in California and I stayed in Minnesota, South Dakota and Colorado. Unlike R2D2 and 3CPO I didn't have to face my adversary in person. ^___^

"I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams."

Dichotomy

I've had a busyish month for board/tabletop gaming and tried a fair few new (to me) games. Got around to playing Cosmic Encounter and my group love it. Each game feels different thanks to each alien's power changing how the game works and you react to it. It really does feel like you are part of some crazy galactic UN body with all the double dealing and backstabbing going on. In summary it's a great game with a rubbish name.

Also played Codenames which is a really good short game ideal for getting out at parties, or the like, as an icebreaker. Basic premise is you lay out a 5X5 grid of words and two players know where their teams points (agents) are in the grid. They are then, in turn, allowed to say one descriptive word and a number before the rest of their team examines the grid and tries to figure out which words relate to the one they've just heard, with the number telling them how many words they should be looking for. First to uncover all their agents wins, but there is also an assassin out there and that is a loss if it is uncovered.

Another game I played was Samurai Spirit, a deceptively simple card game based on Seven Samurai where you have to protect a village from raiders. Good fun, but not figured out a good strategy to win yet. It is a completely cooperative game so promotes discussion throughout as to how we are going to lose this time.

Timeline was my final new game (I think) where you have a series of events from history in front of you and start with one event in the middle of the table for which the date is revealed (one side of the card has the event while the other (hidden) side has the event with a date printed on it). Then, starting with the youngest player, they decide where one of their events goes in relation to the card in the centre of the table (for instance the event in the middle of the table might be when Europeans discovered Brazil and they might decide to play the invention of the automobile which they believe is after Brazil so put it to the right of Brazil). If they are right the card stays in place on the table and the next person has three possible points they can put a card. If they are wrong the card is removed from the game and they draw a new one. First player to exhaust their hand wins, with the exception that a full round must be complete (the youngest player must be reached again before the round ends). If more than one player exhausts their hand then there is a sudden death penalty shootout where each remaining player takes a card from the deck and place it until only one player is left. It is another good game, a great alternative to things like Trivial Pursuit that is really easy to explain, but really needs more than one set to shine (each set is themed, but they can be mixed to make it much harder for players to remember dates after repeated playthroughs).

@Dryst: Still trying to figure out what the game in the picture is, I think the picture of the man should give it away, but is it James Bond? And the bits vaguely remind me of Tracy Island, but nothing else really does.

Dichotomy

Dryst

@dichotomy - Bah humbug - I spaced putting the name in - it is called "Message From M" and is indeed a James Bond themed game.

"I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams."

SuperJoon

I love a good board game, plus card game such as Cards against Humanity.

Latest board game I purchased was Pandemic and Exploding Kittens... Both brilliant in there own way! Pandemic is hard but rewarding when completed. Takes a lot of team work as well!

Would highly recommend to anyone

PSN: SuperJoon84 | Xbox GT: SuperJoon

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BoyFromMars82

Plenty of junior based board games currently. Plus the kids love a game (or ten) of Uno.

BoyFromMars82

PSN: BoyFromMars82

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