What game did you play last?

Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
Posts
14,762
Location
Barnet, London
For only the second time this year, had some friends over yesterday. In around 9 hours, somehow we only managed to play one game of Splendor, Lanterns and Formula D.

The latter of these took most of the time, I think close to four hours with 7 of us playing. I don't think it was just because I passed the leader in the final part of the second lap that I enjoyed it so much. It's actually a really well thought out game with decent mechanics (not car mechanics... game mechanics) emulating well the speeding up and then slowing down for nasty corners.

Mqi8KxXh.jpg

Really enjoyed it. The only odd one was it allowed one guy to go up a gear into a corner, to 6th.... roll a 30, leap into the lead, spin and start again next roll in 1st gear, which was fine because it was just more bends?!? Maybe we missed something, but seemed odd he didn't die basically. (He lost all his tires, but didn't have that much anyway).
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Posts
8,906
Location
In the pub
Dresden Files
One of our group hadn't played before so had 3 games (books). Still good.

Drinking Fluxx
Fluxx with alcohol. Can get very messy. Incredibly funny though
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
24 Dec 2002
Posts
2,661
Location
Barton upon Humber
had a kids gaming afternoon after work yesterday, started with a Toys R us edition of busy buzzy bumbles but with ladybirds... terrible as a gamers game but with 2 kids its a good quick bit of fun.

followed by qwirkle cubes

final game was a print and play scythe mod from BGG - My little Scythe - a my little pony themed simplification of scythe.

i had to print off the board, base the models and i made the apples myself, took a couple of days to make it and about £25 but worth it as its a few years yet until the youngest will manage scythe.

WU2mQD4h.jpg
1sL7y6Rh.jpg
el3CsAih.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2006
Posts
8,336
Did some research before going away on holiday and bought "Port Royal" for the wife and I to play while away. If you don't know it's a card game based around pirate ships in a port. The aim of the game is the first to get 12 victory points. Points are won by making money from a push your luck mechanic when you keep turning cards until you are either take what is on offer or go bust. The money you make then goes into buying cards worth different victory points. The cards you buy also give you special abilities to aid you in either making more money, saving money or directing the game in a number of ways to your favour.

It's a very good game with a few different strategies to win. However we found that initially we were both chasing the same high value victory point cards by meeting a certain criteria. So it was just a waiting game - who would grab certain cards first. It made no sense to follow any other strategy as this was a fast track to a win. However we brought in our own house rules and removed 2 of these high value cards and suddenly the game came alive and meant you needed to buy far more low value cards and really develop a long term strategy.

The game is very thematic and everything you do make sense in the context of the theme which was a big part of engaging us and making it so enjoyable. So yeah, highly recommended, brilliant mechanics for only having a deck of cards. However in my opinion needs the high value cards tamed when there are only 2 players as it unbalances things. (It plays up to 5 people).

https://www.pegasusshop.de/spielregeln/4250231705595_gb.pdf

The year before I bought "Artifacts Inc" and we never really got into it. It seemed a bit deeper than Port Royal. However I think Port Royal might be our gateway into Artifacts Inc and will give it another shot soon.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
6,056
Port Royal is indeed a good game, though I think it needs the expansion (which introduces contracts and "donation boats") to really shine and it's best with 4-5 players where the deck cycles faster.

Artifacts Inc, on the other hand, didn't grab me at all when I played it. Not a very good game IMNSHO.

Quiet night on Sunday. We played Belfort, which I won as usual :D

Then we played a round of Arkham Ritual, a new filler game I picked up. It's a game for 3-7 players (more is better) which is best described as "reverse Love Letter". Everyone has a card, which is either blue or red and comes in various kinds - items, events, possibly even Cthulhu - and that card determines whether or not you survive the ritual. The trick: you can see everyone else's card, but not your own. One player draws a card, looks at it and decides who to give it to. That player can either discard their current card and keep the new one, or choose someone who hasn't already passed the card to take it. The process repeats until someone takes the card. Cards are drawn until either the deck runs out, someone discards an Elder Sign or a Gate while someone is holding Cthulhu, or everyone refuses to take a card. The object of the game is to survive the ritual by ending the round with a blue card that doesn't match anyone else's item - unless someone has the Cultist, when you need a unique red card instead. Everyone who doesn't survive loses sanity equal to the number of players who don't survive. The game ends when one or more players loses all 7 sanity points, upon which the player(s) with the most sanity left wins.

The game we played lasted three rounds. In the first round, everyone survived. In the second, everyone failed to survive. In the third, everyone bar one person failed to survive. Much laughter was had.
 
Associate
Joined
14 May 2011
Posts
1,132
Location
Cornwall, England
Me and my niece had a go at the 7th Continent earlier this week, probably should have sat down and watched the 'how to play' video that the book recommends as the rule book isn't the best written one I've seen... I've seen worse but it could do with some improvement to make it quicker to get into playing the game; you shouldn't need to watch a video to be able to play a board game.

The card pieces are well produced, better than most Kickstarter projects that I've backed and I like that once you've setup you don't have to fiddle with re-arranging things to fit it all back in the box as everything (minus the expansion cards) fits into the box with the cards standing in their trays. The minis could have been a little bit larger as I like to paint mine and they'll be a bit of a chore to do nicely in their current size.
It appears to be possible for the game to go on for a horrendously long time, I guess that's why it has a method for saving where you are in the game and resuming it at a later date...

Not sure it's a game that I'd take to my games club as I think it'd need too much commitment for people to want to keep continuing each week.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2003
Posts
1,670
final game was a print and play scythe mod from BGG - My little Scythe - a my little pony themed simplification of scythe.

i had to print off the board, base the models and i made the apples myself, took a couple of days to make it and about £25 but worth it as its a few years yet until the youngest will manage scythe.

Great work!
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Posts
8,906
Location
In the pub
This War of Mine finally arrived.
The quality is fantastic, my missus can't wait to get the paints out and the cards are nicely done
You play against the game with the cards and die rolls deciding what happens. You may get bonuses to certain actions depending on the characters in play.
The instruction manual is simple. Just follow it through and decide what to do.
Locations when yoy go out scavenging at night are just a case of turning cards ang gaining reources although you are very limited in what you can carry.
Unlike the PC game, you can't build up large stockpiles cos when the box has run out, thats it.
Its up to 6 players, each taking a turn to decide what the survivors do. I think it works best as a single player or 2 player game though.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Dec 2002
Posts
1,542
Location
Cardiff
Played some Massive darkness last Saturday, great fun, looking forward to playing some more.
Played Scythe last night which was also great, plays a bit like civ.

Tempted to refresh my knowledge of the Myth rules and try it again
 
Pet Northerner
Don
Joined
29 Jul 2006
Posts
8,025
Location
Newcastle, UK
yesterday I played Spirit Island and 7th Continent the latter taking about 5 hours and only half way through the first island / quest. Both good fun however I can;t see us getting much replayability from 7th continent once we're done
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Posts
8,906
Location
In the pub
Long weekend away at friends gaming with other friends.

Bears vs Babies
Formula D
Dead of Winter + Long Night expansion
Robo Rally
Camel Up
Mice & Mystics
Secret Hitler
Zombie Dice
Word Whimsy
Cards Against Humanity (all expansions as its traditional)
Tsuro
 
Soldato
Joined
24 May 2009
Posts
20,154
Location
North East
Has anyone here played Munchkins and could/would recommend its suitability for kids?

My 6 year old is showing a real interest in board games, rpg's and fantasy stuff and I'm trying to encourage it.

Was wondering if Munchkins is any good as it looks family friendly and might be a laugh.

Any advice appreciated :)
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Posts
8,906
Location
In the pub
It will be fine for younger children as its very simple to play.
A word of warning though, do they get upset when things don't go their way? The games main mechanic is to stitch the other players up when they fight monsters
 
Soldato
Joined
24 May 2009
Posts
20,154
Location
North East
Yes my son hates it when he doesn't win :p

That being said he's old enough now (6) that it's time for him to start learning he can't win at everything whenever he plays with me :p
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
6,056
Munchkin is a bad game and takes way too long. Play something like Celestia instead (take out all the special cards apart from Jetpack if you need to make it even simpler).

Last night was Andrei Novac night for me. Started by breaking out Praetor for the first time in a while. It's a smart city building worker placement game where your workers gain experience so they can produce more but eventually retire (and score points) once you've used them enough times. Then I got one last play of Versailles in before selling it to one of the other players. I really like the basic mechanic of the game - you send workers one at a time along a circular route to perform actions, with better actions needing you to stack workers - and it's great for hobby newbies to learn as a "first serious game", but there's an element of the design that encourages anti-fun play if anyone is competitively minded.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
6,056
You should pick up the Love Letter 5-8 player expansion. Even if you don't play at the larger counts, most of the cards can be exchanged with cards of the same value from the base set to increase variety.

I have been remiss in posting my plays to this thread. Sunday I played Trajan, which is always good, and Spirits of the Rice Paddy, which I didn't really enjoy.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 May 2004
Posts
6,116
Location
Derby
Didn't know about the Love Letter expansion. I'll have to look out for it.

Tonight, a friend and his wife popping round for a games night. Talisman for sure, 4 players, mix things up a little :), then Blood Bowl for me and my mate whilst the woman look after the kids :D or possibly play a game by themselves. Going to be a good night I think.
 
Back
Top Bottom