Doh!! I had completely missed this thread and started a different one in the wrong bit of the forum... Oh Well. Playing a fair bit of Arkham horror and BSG at the moment: definitely a fan of stupidly complicated co-op games. Trying to find games that I enjoy as much but don't take most of a day.
I've been playing Stone Age recently and it's super fun. If you haven't heard of it, t's a worker placement game like Agricola or Le Havre which are also excellent. I still haven't gotten around to picking up Dominion, but I think it might happen soon.
So I finally moved into the world of more interesting board games a few weeks ago, gone were monopoly and risk, in was...catan. Ok, fair enough, its not exactly the most complex game but it was a hell of a lot of fun and didn't take forever to finish so its a winner in my book. Interesting story, on our first game I was the only one who knew the rules and I still came last on points :/
we also wanted another game so we weren't playing the same one all the time, so we bought Wrath of Ashardalon (£40 over here, £30 from america, figure that one out :?). anyway before we start playing I wanted to know the rules and I think I have just about got it apart from one thing. There is a card called 'Ashardalon Arrives' which I drew during my practice game, it says it cant be cancelled and unlike other adventure cards, it doesn't mention a quest you have to be playing for it to be activated. I played as though it were allowed, the big bad dragon showed up (just as I found the exit and was fighting the boss) and chomped down on my poor dwarfs head before I was transported away, then I was ganged up on by legion devil before being killed by a Grell :[ . But that cant be right can it, it cant just show up unless you are playing an adventure which says so can it? Not on my first ever game, not when I just reached the exit because, well, that's just not fair.
I don't have WoA, but Castle Ravenloft, so I can't be sure. Was that a monster card you drew or an encounter?
To be honest, it isn't necessarily too bad a thing. After getting used to the rules and learning how to play properly, we've found the Castle Ravenloft scenerios a little bit too easy to complete using the standard rules. But of course that all depends on what cards you draw. Fuck traps, they are evil. (Fucking traps...)
Give it a few more goes, it will work out. You'll beat a scenario easily then play it again and get murdered, all good fun.
it was an encounter card and it had adventure written on the top, which I think means they are only used in a few adventures, but I looked through the adventure book and none of them say you need that card, which made me think that it really is a card that can come up in any adventure. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining because I think we will have a lot of fun playing, but, it was my first game ever and the big bad dragon (the model is more than three times as tall as an adventurer) shows up to say hi.
On page 4 of the rulebook it's listed as one of the components that you set aside until it's required by an adventure, although as you said, where in the adventure book does it tell you when. I've found that there is a certain amount of assumption needed in the two D&D games so you should probably just use them in the adventures where it tells you that the Big Bad makes an appearance. Or do what I do and have them in every adventure because I feel that the game doesn't beat you down enough. You are running around his joint killing his minions and stealing his shinies so he's probably going to take umbrage towards that.
As for other dungeon crawlers I bought Descent a few days ago despite not having anyone to play it with. I just had to, it was sitting there on the shelf tempting me and they didn't have the Lord Of the Rings card game and any of the expansions which is what I was intending to buy (Cardboard Children strikes again). I have nowhere to store it so I've got it across 2 stools and am using it as a coffee table for the interim until I work something out. Somehow I don't regret my purchase. I suppose that I could just think up some solo rules for it but it looks quite complex, it might be too much of an ask.
Anyone here ever use BrettSpielWelt? My friends all suck so I've been playing games on there, it's a website with a java client where you can play lots of games like Catan, Stone Age, Agricola, Carcassone, Dominion and a lot more. It's German based but a lot of the people who play it speak English.
Never tried BrettSpielWelt but I've heard good things about it. Since it was posted here, I have used ZunTzu to play Carcassonne online. It has a really lovely client, including integrated voice chat. Works great.
that makes sense, I have also found that several cards simply aren't suited to a single player game (encounter cards that deal damage every turn if you aren't on a tile with another hero). I think I will sort through and figure out which cards are suitable to use in each adventure so we aren't drawing out cards we have no way of dealing with, I want the game to be fun after all.Originally Posted by Spacewalk
tbh I am kind of glad I played a few practice rounds and got some potential problems out of the way before I start playing with anyone else. in the long run it will mean less stress for everyone in a game I hope to be playing for a long time.
edit: erm, well this is kind of worrying but the game is supposed to have 42 models isn't it, because I am only counting 39 and no Kobold dragonshield.
Last edited by 8-bit; 07-07-2011 at 02:11 PM.
Can anyone recommend some 2-3 player board games I could play with my dad and brother? Ideally they need to take 1-2 hours to play and have fairly simple rules. Heavy fantasy themes would probably put them off, also. I get bored (ha ha) of the standard catalogue of family board games, although they enjoy playing Risk and Monopoly.
2-player war game I would heavily recommend is Memoir '44.
I adore the fantasy version Battelore and when I got to demo it to a few rpsers at our social meet up they all had good things to say about it (Rab may cover Battles of Westeros soon which is the updated version of Battlelore -sort of, as it different rules etc)
Memoir '44 uses the same mechanics, but in WWII. You have tanks, infantry and artillery. It may look overwhelming when set up, but your orders are limited by cards and you only have a few cards in your hand which say things like 'activate 3 units on your left flank'.
Games play under an hour, so play a scenario. Then flip it around and play the opposing -or get a game in with each.
As much as I loath suggesting giving Risk any more money there are more variants of Risk out there if you can bear playing them. Risk Tactics is, I think, the latest version out which is supposed to offer more strategy and quicker play.
When it comes down to it, games are great if played with the right people, so if you are lucky enough to have a group then anything works.
Try London on Board for free and easy boardgaming
Memoir '44 is a fantastic two-player game as Temple says. It's a war game with simple enough rules that anybody could get into it. It's also infinitely expandable. If you're enjoying the base game then you could go on to fight campaigns on the Eastern Front, Mediterranean, Pacific and more. You can give the game a try online at the manufacturer's site here.
Finding games that are great for three people is a little more tricky. Dominion and Pandemic work well with two or three (They're only on my mind as they're ones in my collection). Having a co-op game might be interesting for your family. It can, however, be problematic if one player tries to take over and tells everybody else where they should be sending their pawns. I haven't ever seen that event, but I know others who are very disillusioned with the game for that reason. Possibly Settlers of Catan? You can't really play it with fewer than three players but it's a classic game.
Links to demo/review videos here for Dominion, Pandemic and Settlers.
Last edited by EndelNurk; 10-07-2011 at 11:18 AM.
One more thing, DOminion, Pandemic, and Settlers are all on BrettSpielWelt so you can try them for free and see if they're the kind of game you would be interested in. Maybe we could get a couple more people from here and do an RPS game, which would be more inviting than trying out a game for the first time with a bunch of random people from the internet who may or may not be German.
A light wargame like Nexus Ops is always fun with odd numbers of people. I would also look into a cooperative game like Pandemic or Space Alert (more the latter than the former).
@Last -oh that is dangerous to my financial wellbeing.
You know what I suddenly realise? I realise I really need roborally to fulfill my spiritual needs. And that karate game and ... well time to watch the video because I'm sure every other game Quinns mentions I will to need.
Try London on Board for free and easy boardgaming
I've ordered Citadels already. I don't think I agree with Quinns in general, for example none of the not-Cardboard Children games appealed to me at all, but the way they discussed Citadels made it sound fantastic.
Yeah I'm probably going to pick up Citadel myself, it seems really interesting and I'd love to have a game that I could play with both only one other person or in a group of 7 people.
I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. That's why I decided to try out a solitaire board game tonight. It was Ottoman Sunset, a modest game which came in a baggy, in which you must hold off the encroaching Entente powers during the empire's real-life last days. It's a challenge, very well-paced (or maybe I'm just good at shuffling cards?), but I'm not sure how much strategy is actually involved.
Any other solo recommendations are welcome.
Pandemic (yes, I will mention it every time) works okay as a solitaire game. It's not designed for it but it's a coop game against the game system so you can try it. Just pick two characters and play them both yourself. Death Angel should work as well as the genestealers are not run by another player but move based on game rules. It's brutal but fun if you like that sort of thing. This guy isn't so keen though and he seems to be a fan of Ottoman Sunset.
Have just got Citadels. It really doesn't work as a solo :( but looks like it will be fantastic.
Last edited by EndelNurk; 21-07-2011 at 07:49 AM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
