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User
Reviews 4
Approval 96%
Soundoffs 60
Album Ratings 4700
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Last Active 09-06-22 1:37 pm
Joined 09-24-05
Review Comments 6,360
| Board Games I’ve Been Enjoying Lately
Any other board gamers on Sput? Relatively new hobby for me, or at least to this extent. Traditionally I’ve only played things like Catan and its expansions, Risk, Clue, etc. Over the last year or so I’ve started trying to dive into weightier games and it has been a fun journey so far. Here are some recent favorites. | | 5 |  | Fishmans
Long Season
SUSHI GO PARTY 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Great card drafting game, but you really need to have more than two people. It’s “playable” with two, but since you’ll just be passing the same two hands back and forth, it really causes a lot of the best gameplay elements (namely the first-pass risk of taking a Sashimi or Wasabi card) to become truncated and the guesswork becomes limited. A third player develops things exponentially, and four+ becomes a full-blown riot (most I’ve played with is six). The central Menu Board is nice for newbies to have something to reference when playing and many of the cards and their powers are self-explanatory and well understood after a practice round or two. (Only thing that trips some people up is the dessert, esp. the fruit. But they eventually get the hang of it.) Wouldn’t mind another expansion or two with some new cards, but this is a great “party” game to bring along with groups of people. | | 4 |  | Jane Siberry
The Walking
PATCHWORK 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
So quaint, so simple, and so much fun. The one board game that I’ve successfully pitched to my wife, my mother, and many other friends. Addicting gameplay style with a tetris-esque packaging aspect that everyone can easily understand but provides a lot of challenging decisions based on the available tiles and other considerations like cost and time. There’s a ton of intricacy in this little package, and the fact that it can be setup, played, and put away in under 30 minutes means you won’t need to block off an entire evening just to get a game in. | | 3 |  | Iron Maiden
Powerslave
7 WONDERS DUEL 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
The worst and only negative part about this game is the scorekeeping. It can be a bit cumbersome to calculate how much you might owe for a specific card based on yours and your opponent’s buildings, and I’m sure I’ve overlooked certain costs several times without realizing it. (This is alleviated by digital implementations of the game, which handle all the math automatically, obviously.) That aside, this is one of my favorite two-player games with a great card-drafting mechanic that will find you making selections based not only on what will benefit you the most, but also screw your opponent over equally as much if possible. Fairly simple to teach while including exponential depth in the number of core strategies available (will you win by Scientific superiority? Victory points? Military supremacy? Resource hoarding?) and if you’re playing without someone who knows the game, it can be relatively quick, upping the replay value. | | 2 |  | Rare Bird
Rare Bird
WINGSPAN 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
This game gets a lot of attention and praise and it’s evident why – it’s a great engine-builder that includes a massive number of unique cards and goals while retaining a fundamental, turn-based system that makes learning very simple. Boiled down to its essence, you have only four options on your turn. It’s optimizing those available turns by selecting the most rewarding and fruitful options that presents the challenge of the game. Whenever introducing non-gamer people into games beyond MONOPOLY and SCATTERGORIES, this is typically the one with which I start. It introduces a bunch of contemporary concepts and requires careful consideration without becoming too overwhelming. I only have the EUROPEAN expansion thus far but am eyeing up the OCEANIA one right now. | | 1 |  | Pink Floyd
Animals
ARK NOVA 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Absolutely in love with this game right now. It borrows some mechanics from previously established games like TERRAFORMING MARS, BRASS, WINGSPAN, and EVERDELL, and combines them with a few fresh ideas and an amazing milieu. There’s something about the building of a world-class zoo that I find both relaxing and appealing, a sentiment that perhaps won’t be shared by everyone. (It is for similarly opposite reasons I find BRASS somewhat boring.) From a distance, it’s a complex game with a ton of minutiae of which to keep track, but the core gameplay is quite simple, making it surprisingly approachable for a heavy board game. One-player variants are awesome, too, since I can never find anyone willing to play! (My wife likes looking at the animal cards but can’t be bothered to learn that game, alas.) | |
tectactoe
03.07.23 | Let's talk board games. What have you been playing lately? What are your classics, favorites, all-timers? Any recommendations welcome - I'll tell you if I've played 'em or not (and if not, will surely add them to my ever-growing queue). | IsisScript80
03.07.23 | This is... interesting. Didn't see this coming as a thread, but conversely no reason why it wouldn't either.
This is a realm I have very little familiarity with... my only current interaction is turning my little one (who's 5) into a greedy capitalist with Junior Monopoly (which is great... excellent streamlining of the adult game), and that's it currently. Although, on a whim, my partner and I got a co-op, borderline RPG thing called 'Forbidden Desert' as our buddy recommended it, but we've yet to crack it open. It looks somewhat intriguing... | dedex
03.07.23 | 7 Wonders Duel is GOAT duo board game
me and the lads been tearing Terraforming Mars for over a year now, we just can't get enough of that one
also Dune is pretty cool
will peep Ark Nova, seems like our alley | tectactoe
03.07.23 | Haven't played DUNE yet but it's on my list. Love TERRAFORMING MARS, though the trouble is finding people to play with me haha. My wife will play some stuff like PATCHWORK and AZUL but anything heavier than that and she's out. What's nice about ARK NOVA is that its solo-mode is quite fun (more so than that of TERRAFORMING MARS, imo) and a few community users have created a "solo bot" to play against that emulates multiplayer more closely and is awesome. So I end up playing ARK NOVA by myself a lot because I only know one person who's willing to play with me and I see him maybe once a month (if that).
ARK NOVA has a lot of overhead information that can make the first play-through seem overwhelming, but honestly it's all very intuitive and easy to pickup once you play a couple games.
@Isis: Haven't heard of FORBIDDEN DESERT - looks interesting, though! I'll have to check it out, too... | Cimnele
03.07.23 | i love boxed games like this. feel like Space Hulk's never been bettered but I like reading about new games!!! i guess i ended up in more of a ccg/tcg niche though, weird dead card games on my shelves | tectactoe
03.07.23 | OBSESSION is another one that I *just* started playing. Seems fun so far. Have only played it online (BGA) because it looks like physical copies are currently out of print and, like, $80+ on eBay and secondary-sale sites. | tectactoe
03.07.23 | @Cim: I used to play the digital version of MtG when I was younger. I loved it because I loved the game and its mechanics but could never be arsed to spend money on new card packs, or "hunt" for cards I needed, or keep up to date on which cards are now banned or acceptable, etc. Not to mention scorekeeping and keeping track of all the various spells can become a headache - the digital versions alleviate all of that haha. | dedex
03.07.23 | im fortunate enough to be part of a solid group of 6-7 friends who all like board games, so playing a big one isn't too difficult
The OG 7 Wonders is great too - its biggest advantage is that the number of players doesn't impact the game length, as everyone is supposed to play "at the same time" | DadKungFu
03.07.23 | Been having a lot of fun with Machi Koro lately, imagine Monopoly of it wasn't broken and you're building a neat little town and collecting coins and cards, great time | MarsKid
03.07.23 | Haven't heard of these, will check back in when I read through 'em.
I don't get around to board games as much as I used to, but my friends and I fell in love with a game called ADRENALINE that's basically an FPS put into a board game format, but actually it's a fast-paced resource management game in disguise. Pretty entertaining with a lot of different ways to win and do damage. | bc013
03.07.23 | I'll have to check out Ark Nova, it sounds like it's my type of game. My family and I have really enjoyed Sagrada (including all expansions) and Red Rising, which I picked up on sale for less than $10. However, 7 Wonders with all expansions (Cities, Leaders, Armada) is hands down our personal favorite. I'm really excited to try out the newest Edifice expansion for 7 Wonders. Has anyone played it yet? | tectactoe
03.07.23 | I've actually never played the "non-DUEL" version of 7 WONDERS (again, mostly because I have a difficult time finding more than one other person to play games with me lol). I do like the PANTHEON expansion of DUEL, though.
@Mars - ADRENELINE looks interesting... | GhandhiLion
03.07.23 | 4 rules | tectactoe
03.07.23 | Agreed. One of the only games my wife will play with me, too. | GhandhiLion
03.07.23 | Oh I meant the album | tectactoe
03.07.23 | :o(
but also agreed | anode
03.07.23 | Catan is the goat for me. Haven’t heard of any of these though | Minortimbo12
03.07.23 | Dominion
Ticket to Ride
Risk
Love Letter | Minortimbo12
03.07.23 | Dungeons and Dragons | dedex
03.07.23 | i don't like to play Catan these days tbh, the randomness of dices make it really a chance-based game. quite infuriating when you just need a 10 on that sheep to win but that mf doesn't come up and nobody wanna give you sheep | dedex
03.07.23 | Dominion [∞] hell yeah | Zig
03.07.23 | Dixit | MarsKid
03.07.23 | "ADRENELINE looks interesting..."
I'd recommend it! It takes a game or two to grasp fully, but after that, it proceeds smoothly, is easy to set up, and has some entertaining strategy to it. | SchoolboyQAnon
03.07.23 | Been painting my 2009 copy of Space Hulk and some Sicarians for 40k KillTeam and having a blast. Haven’t played much other than Escape The Dark Sector with my girlfriend, she’s been super into it lately. | tectactoe
03.07.23 | Once I started playing the CITIES & KNIGHTS expansion of CATAN, it was tough to go back to the "base" game, even with SEAFARERS added. And I agree that the dice roll mechanism is off-putting. There are turns where you literally can't do shit unless e.g. a 5 or a 9 is rolled and that's frustrating. Still have a soft spot for the game tho.
Need to look up DOMINION. See so many people praise it but I've never actually tried to learn it myself...
TICKET TO RIDE is a good one. | anode
03.07.23 | I mean you gotta set yourself up in a way that you have the consistent resources you need. If you relying on anything below a 9 or 5 then you in for a tough time normally. There’s always gunna be dice luck and placement luck but I feel like there’s luck in almost all board games | tectactoe
03.07.23 | I mean, of course you can't set up shop on a bunch of tiles with 4s and 11s and expect to do well but the randomization element of dice is still quite high, and you can still be on great numbers like 6/8 and go plenty of turns without getting any of the resources you need which can total stalemate you in that game.
Sure there is almost always *some* element of luck unless we're talking about, like, CHESS or GO or whatever, but some games do a much better job of mitigating that luck from being a complete hamstring to simply forcing you to adapt or change your strategy. For example, in both ARK NOVA and WINGSPAN, there is a luck element in which cards are drawn. Maybe in your head you're wanting to set up a specific engine or plan and you need a certain type of card to make that happen. You draw some cards and don't get the one(s) you need. But even though those cards don't dovetail with your original plans, they aren't useless and won't leave you totally stranded either- you'll still be able to utilize them to some extent in almost every case, you just might have to adjust or adapt your original strategy a bit. In CATAN's case, cold dice can quite literally lose (or win) you the game, and if you're not getting the resources you need, there isn't much you can do to circumvent the crappy rolls. | anode
03.07.23 | True, pretty much my only other board game experiences are clue and monopoly and risk and scrabble and chess. All the basic bitch board games haha | tectactoe
03.07.23 | I wish I was better at chess. But watching people who are really good is so discouraging. Feels fruitless. | anode
03.07.23 | Yeah easily my favorite game none of the others really compare. But yeah I could see that at the lower levels. I was fortunate cause my dad is really good and taught me at a young age and I went to a bunch of tournaments and took a bunch of lessons and stuff as a kid | bc013
03.07.23 | @tectactoe We like 7 Wonders Duel as well, especially while traveling. It took a while to find a group of friends willing to give 7 Wonders a shot (most people see the rulebook and instantly get scared). At first, many of our friends were hesitant to play, but now we regularly play with seven people and often have to rotate which friends get to join. Funny enough, it took several of my friends seeing my kids play the game to convince them it's not too challenging to learn...Adults seem to dislike being outsmarted by kids so they tend to be more willing to learn new games.
Also, Catan, including its numerous expansions served as our introduction to the world of non-standard (monopoly, clue, etc.) games. It holds a special place in my heart, but I agree that the randomness of the dice became too infuriating over time. I reached the point, where it felt like strategy was often outclassed by luck. | bc013
03.07.23 | @anode, I recommend you check out Splendor and Ticket to Ride. They are both great games with plenty of replay value. They also strike a good balance between skill and chance which makes them enjoyable. | Storm In A Teacup
03.07.23 | I played like 200 games of chess in January and burned out rather quick | KnewUser
03.07.23 | Personally, I like Catan, but I have extremely good luck when I play 🙃 Also, had the chance to play Sorry at work & it really made me feel like a kid, but in a good way. | Dreamflight
03.07.23 | I love Sushi Go!!! It's so addictive.
If you like Seven Wonders I highly recommend Stone Age.
| Minortimbo12
03.08.23 | Oh yeah Catan, Splendor, and Sheriff | Purpl3Spartan
03.08.23 | Secret Hitler is a very fun game | tectactoe
03.08.23 | Only played SECRET HITLER once, remember it being pretty fun. The problem is that I so rarely have enough people (1) together in the same place, and (2) willing to play a board game lol. There was a kickstarter for a game called HOLLYWOOD 1947 that finished a little while ago and it looks like a fresh riff/spin on SECRET HITLER, with the added element of having a "neutral" side. | anode
03.08.23 | Oh I forgot about secret hitler. Love that game because it gives you an opportunity to lie with no consequences. Yeah the fact that you need exactly 5 people makes it tough to play haha | Zig
03.08.23 | CITADELS is also pretty good. | Lichtbringer
03.08.23 | i love board games and it's been a while since i've tried a new one. which one of the ones you mentioned would you recommend in terms of being the most easily accessible? | tectactoe
03.08.23 | @Licht - Depends slightly on what board games you're already used to or comfortable with. But at the very least, SUSHI GO PARTY and PATCHWORK are accessible and easy for just about anyone to pick up. (If I can teach my wife & mother how to play in less than ten minutes, I'm convinced anyone can learn lol.) AZUL and TICKET TO RIDE are two other really fun, easy, and accessible games that anyone can learn quickly. (Didn't list them here because I only chose games I've discovered recently.)
I'd put 7 WONDERS DUEL and WINGSPAN around the same category - a bit more complex/involved than the previously mentioned games, but nothing too hard to learn, especially if you've played board games before. For the former, the scorekeeping can be a tiny bit cumbersome, and for the latter, you'll find that people often get decision paralysis. But really neither of them are difficult to learn, however, the implications of your actions on future turns has a greater depth imo.
ARK NOVA is the only one of those five that I'd not recommend to someone unless they were already familiar with "heavier" board games (like TERRAFORMING MARS, DUNE, TWILIGHT IMPERIUM, BRASS BIRMINGHAM, SCYTHE, things along those lines). In all actuality, the decisions in that game aren't particularly convoluted or complex, but there are a *lot* of downstream effects and small minutiae to keep track of, which can be overwhelming for someone who is only used to simpler games. There are lots of moving pieces, and lots of various things of which you need to remain cognizant. But once you play it a few times and get the hang of it, it really does become much simpler.
For reference, what games have/do you play? | Lichtbringer
03.09.23 | i don't get to play much these days, but used to nerd out on catan mainly. others i've played are monopoly (duh), stratego, risk. basic, entry level stuff, i guess. thank you for the thorough response, i'll probably end up ordering one of these from amazon! | combustion07
03.09.23 | I'm not familiar with any of these. I play some board games with my nieces and nephew when I spend time with them. For the most part we play Clue (I have a Simpsons edition and they tend to go for that), Payday, Frustration, Sequence and Monopoly. We also play chicken foot with the dominie's and Yahtzee and Bones with dice. Card games wise it's all Uno, Black Jack and a fun one I've never seen anyone mention called Mile Bornes which is a card game involving cars where you can give opponents flat tires and whatnot. Might be spelling the last one incorrectly. I believe it's a German game. I'll have to check some of the ones mentioned here to try out. Bookmarked | Egarran
03.09.23 | Hi good friend tec!
I have played a lot of RUNEBOUND. It's a classic gameplay. Players move around the map based on dice rolls, fight monsters, do missions, and gaining XP, money and weapons. Just how I like it.
The best party board game for me is ROBORALLY. Just a genius game.
A close second is MUNCHKIN. Perfect blend of D&D silliness and card game.
Of course above all this is MAGIC THE GATHERING. Playing Commander with 3 friends is one of my favourite things, but it takes a lot of preparation and rules knowledge. The great thing is, you don't have to use a cent on it - you can print all the cards for free. | tectactoe
03.09.23 | I've never played MUNCHKIN myself but I do know that in the uber-nerdy board-gaming community, it's often considered a game that lasts way longer than its complexity would dictate. (See also: MONOPOLY.) And that's kinda always put me off of playing or even learning it. Maybe I will give it a shot, though.
The XBOX Live Arcade version of MAGIC THE GATHERING was so amazing. Could earn fake in-game money to buy booster packs or take them to the trading market and trade/buy specific cards from other people. It really does seem like the type of game that lends itself perfectly to the digital world. I just can't imaging buying physical booster packs these days in search of specific cards to build a deck. The thrill of the 'unknown' was there when I was a kid (esp. with POKEMON), but that was also coupled with the carelessness of youth - no real bills or responsibilities viz., a lot of disposable income. If I started coming home with packs and packs of MTG cards everyday, my wife would probably divorce me. | Donchivo
03.09.23 | I love ROBORALLY too.. it just has one flaw to me: if one player is just better at planning than the others and has and advantage, it might be clear who will win very early on in the game.. there is no balancing system. Even worse: if one robot is ahead of the pack, chances are its lead will even increase with all other robots shooting and shoving each other, slowing each other down. | Donchivo
03.09.23 | I do love PUERTO RICO, a build up game with some semblances to CATAN, but way more depth and more strategic, which allows you to employ different strategies to win. Really great game! | tectactoe
03.09.23 | Ooooh, PUERTO RICO is one I've been meaning to check out for a while now. | Vinnymcscoop
03.09.23 | Has anyone play Killer Rabbits and the Magic Carrot. It's like Munchkin, but I guess with rabbits. It's a fun game, but it's hard to follow the directions. | MarsKid
03.09.23 | lol Munchkin is so seriously but it's the one my friends and I take *very* seriously for some reason. Munchkin night often turns to bloodshed if we aren't careful lmao, it gets competitive as hell.
Secret Hitler is basically like mafia, right? I've played a ton of mafia back in my day and have hosting experience. | Egarran
03.09.23 | We banned Kneepads of Allure from Munchkin. They generated too much salt.
> if one robot is ahead of the pack, chances are its lead will even increase with all other robots shooting and shoving each other, slowing each other down.
Well tradition is you gang up on the leader. | MarsKid
03.09.23 | Nothing is worse than losing a game to the Cleric auto-win card. I forget the name. Divine Intervention, maybe? It's the only card that can just win the game if used to get to level 10.
There was one time I could have used the wand card to bring it back from the deck and win that way, but decided that was just too janky lol
My favorite game though was when I was actually pretty behind (level 5/6 area) while everyone else was knocking on the door of either 9 or 10. My one friend had reached a point where everyone had exhausted their resources trying to stop him, so the win was basically a formality.
Me being a low-leveled dude, I decided to jokingly suggest, "Hey, can I help you fight the monster? For old time's sake."
He shrugged, smiled, and said, "Sure, you can help!"
Which then allowed me to play the monster vanishing card. The monster was taken away, and he didn't get the next level. He just stared blankly for a moment before it started he started to realize what exactly I pulled.
Best part was I somehow came back and won that game, too. | Sinternet
03.09.23 | i love board games but prefer quick pickup ones
not a board, but fuck honestly the saltiest i have ever been has been playing monopoly deal, def recommend | MarsKid
03.09.23 | Yeah tbh I've never played a game that required a long set-up, my friend group almost always gravitates towards games that we can dive into on the fly but have a level of depth that you can appreciate over time.
Also, we like even simpler shit like Jenga, we play the SHIT out of Jenga. | tectactoe
03.09.23 | SUSHI GO PARTY is a perfect one for lots of people + quick set-up time. Easy to teach/learn, too. | tectactoe
03.16.23 | Played PANDEMIC for the first time, surprisingly. Fun game and it makes for a neat cooperative experience. | Donchivo
03.16.23 | Any of you guys into TWILIGHT STRUGGLE? That one has me quite hooked lately. Amazing game, transferring perfectly the cold war paranoia, instable stability and being on the edge vibe to a board game... | tectactoe
03.16.23 | I've heard nothing but good things about it but have always been afraid to try it out due to the daunting play time and weight. How long did it take you to learn and how long do games typically last? It does look awesome, though. I love the cold war vibes. | Donchivo
03.17.23 | Yeah, playing time is crazy. I don't think we ever finished a game below 4 hours... But it doesn't feel long at all. The many possibilities make every round exciting. The variety of events that can occur (all real events from Cuban missile crisis over Muslim revolution, chernobyl to creation of Nato and waaay beyond that) are interesting and well translated into the game mechanics to make the experience highly immersive. Also the game is not that hard to learn but definitely hard to master. So that it doesn't get old but is fun from the first match. | tectactoe
03.21.23 | This sounds like something I wish I would've learned years ago. Between work and two kids, finding a four-hour slot of free time is nearly impossible haha, but man it does sound fun.
Do you know if there are any online or digital permutations of the game? Some games that take longer, like TERRAFORMING MARS, I haven't played the physical version in years. But I do play on the iOS app regularly. Or OBSESSION, I can play on BoardGameArena. The digital aspect helps with automatic setup, scoring, and bookkeeping, making games go by much faster. | Donchivo
03.24.23 | Hey! No, I am not aware about a digital version of the game. But that doesn't have to say that there isn't as I am a kinda offline guy regarding board games...
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