Board Game thread

[RPS]

Jealous, @apsham

My daughter has taken a liking to Catan and we have played a handful of games recently. Will transition to Ticket to Ride shortly. 

[Krabby]

Mrs. Krabby and I made it our goal in 2022 to play 1 board game per week - well that got kind of derailed with buying a new house and what not, but we worked on getting down the number this past weekend! We played: Death at the Dive Bar, Dragonwood (x2), Pay Day, Sequence, Blokus, Disney's Haunted Mansion. Hoping to keep the pace and get back on track

[TheGrandAvatar]

6 hours ago, Krabby said:

Hoping to keep the pace and get back on track

This just makes me nervous for when it's Monopoly night at the Krabby Kingdom. 

[apsham]

On 09/08/2022 at 19:28, RPS said:

Jealous, @apsham

My daughter has taken a liking to Catan and we have played a handful of games recently. Will transition to Ticket to Ride shortly. 

Oh man, Catan is something I wish I got to play more! Most of my games are played solo or with my partner - and although I found a ruleset for Catan that works pretty well with two people, there are just other things I'd rather play that work better at those counts.

9 hours ago, Krabby said:

Mrs. Krabby and I made it our goal in 2022 to play 1 board game per week - well that got kind of derailed with buying a new house and what not, but we worked on getting down the number this past weekend! We played: Death at the Dive Bar, Dragonwood (x2), Pay Day, Sequence, Blokus, Disney's Haunted Mansion. Hoping to keep the pace and get back on track

I was trying to do at least one board game a day for a while. I did it successfully for a couple of months in a row and then it dropped down. I get to play a ton with my partner when she's out of school like now in the summer, but other than that it's mostly me playing solo or with my friend across the street.

[RPS]

1 hour ago, apsham said:

Oh man, Catan is something I wish I got to play more! Most of my games are played solo or with my partner - and although I found a ruleset for Catan that works pretty well with two people, there are just other things I'd rather play that work better at those counts.

I was trying to do at least one board game a day for a while. I did it successfully for a couple of months in a row and then it dropped down. I get to play a ton with my partner when she's out of school like now in the summer, but other than that it's mostly me playing solo or with my friend across the street.

I'm not a huge Catan fan but my extended family loves it. It's great because it's incredibly simple and intuitive, but once you know the game, it becomes an exercise in dice rolls and patience.

[apsham]

45 minutes ago, RPS said:

I'm not a huge Catan fan but my extended family loves it. It's great because it's incredibly simple and intuitive, but once you know the game, it becomes an exercise in dice rolls and patience.

I guess that's where stuff like Cities and Knights and the other expansions kind of helps - but it adds complexity which as I've found is the balance to introducing other people to the hobby.

[lanky316]

I don't think it has all the expansions and stuff but if you want to play a bit more Catan it's on boardgamearena so can play a few games online. I know it's not the same but an option there.

[apsham]

I forgot they added that - I even got a subscription back to that recently.

[RPS]

10 hours ago, apsham said:

I guess that's where stuff like Cities and Knights and the other expansions kind of helps - but it adds complexity which as I've found is the balance to introducing other people to the hobby.

I have tried them but I found it made it extremely unlike Catan and thought I would rather try something new.

I do find the Seafarer expansion and adding in water tiles and boats actually makes the game better. In base Catan, you can ignore brick and to a lesser extent sheep and start steam rolling people early on. Each time we play, I normally have a city within the first 3 rounds and my family gets upset. I mean, at have literally played the game 50 or so times and no one realizes taking the best hay and rock spaces is your best initial move. 

But adding in boats and other islands forces players to better balance resources because moving in the water and around the base island becomes super important. It also may make you build your first settlement on a coast, which I rarely do. Maybe it is great to build a city, my normal first move. But if there is an island with better resources, you may want to do that. And if I see others going there, I may start racing a player. Also adding in another consumable - a boat - means you have more to consider when trading. 

[apsham]

Sharing this here because I know a lot of people like role based games - and I never thought I'd find one that works best with 2 people.

 

So it's called Mantis Falls and it plays 2-3 people only - but it works best with 2. It works based off a simple premise - you live in a 1940s mafia controlled town and you saw something you shouldn't have, so you need to get out of town before sunrise. The only thing is, the person that you're with might be a fellow witness or they might be the assassin sent to kill you. Before you play - you shuffle up the 3 roll cards and then each of you takes 1 - so if you're playing with just two players, you are in a situation where you are either playing a co-operative game or a 1vs1 game - but the only way you would know for sure is if you have the Assassin role - otherwise, you might just be two Witness roles trying to play the game out properly together.

Either way, the way you play the game remains basically the same - and sometimes bad things might be forced to happen based on what is in your hand. It's an ingenious system. I haven't played it with three - you add a new set of cards for that, and it's still good I just don't think it's AS good. The box also comes with 2 expansions you can add in, sleeves for the cards and a lot of really great looking and feeling components.

[Captain Kirk]

Does anyone have any recommendations for solo board games?

[Dan B.]

On 18/11/2022 at 19:01, Captain Kirk said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for solo board games?

I've played a lot of Final Girl (a dedicated solo) lately, so I recommend that especially if you're into slasher movies: https://www.vanrydergames.com/finalgirl  Getting everything for it can get a bit pricey though, so if you're on the fence maybe get the core box and one film box (Hans/Camp Happy Trails is probably the best to start with) and then get the other four film boxes if you like it.  One of the hooks is that with multiple film boxes, you can mix and match player characters, villains and settings for more replay value.  There's a second season (five more film boxes) coming out next year.

Vagrantsong (https://www.wyrd-games.net/vagrantsong) is also very cool and can easily be played as a solo (even with one player controlling two or three characters works), though it's at its best with another person or two as a co-op.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Dan B.

[K]

On 19/11/2022 at 01:01, Captain Kirk said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for solo board games?

@apsham How is WingSpan solo play?

[apsham]

9 hours ago, K said:

@apsham How is WingSpan solo play?

It's feels relatively close to a two-player game, but the game itself is pretty much multiplayer solitaire anyways. Once you learn how to run the automata it's pretty quick and easy to do... it just shakes things up a bit so you can't do EVERYTHING you want to do without worrying if a resource or card might leave the tray before you have a chance to.

Mechanically, you just flip a card and based on where you are in the game - the opponent might take a card, take some food, go up towards the end of round goals that you are both competing for, etc.

Much like 2-player Wingspan it's quite a bit different than a 3-4 player game where cards that have powers like 'when your opponent does X you get to do Y' are far more useful, but they can still function in the solo mode due to the way the cards come out - some will let you access your pink powers, and depending on your opponent that can actually make it MORE likely to get than in a 2 person game.

I'd recommend it, but Wingspan is overall one of my favourite board games.

As alternative;

- The digital version of the game, which is totally on Black Friday sales, has the solo play build in as well as access to the first expansion on the cheap. And it also lets you play against AI, but at the same time you do kind of lose the feeling of having all those awesome bird cards right in front of you.

- Wingspan Asia is juuuuust about it come on, and not only is it an expansion, but it's also a smaller footprint game that is playable at 1-2 that would give you a feel of how things are before you decide to grab the bigger box - but then again the bigger box is also just on sale quite often these days anyways

As an aside, I just got this;

The Wingspan Nesting Box - which is made to support all current and future expansions and I'm mid-sleeving all of the cards. I kind of like this game.

[Colly]

FYI cheapest I've seen the board game: https://www.board-game.co.uk/buy/black-friday/?page=1

I haven't got it, so very tempted.

[apsham]

On 18/11/2022 at 20:01, Captain Kirk said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for solo board games?

I could blab on and on for a while, but this list here that is done yearly on Board Game Geek just ended and it takes in votes for everyone and contains opinions, and links directly to more information on the games, etc. So it's a very good place to start. Some of the games are on here as a legacy - they reeally aren't printed anymore but they have a few people that are going to vote it their favourite game forever - so it'll be on there for a while.

I personally have been playing a lot of Heat: Pedal To The Metal, Final Girl, Calico, Raiders of Scythia, Baseball Highlights: 2045, Great Western Trail, Everdell, Roll Player, Cartographers, Hadrian's Wall, Obsession, Mage Knight and Spirit Island.

...yes I mostly play solo. That or two player, and I've probably had first hand experience with the vast majority of the games on this list if any catch your eye just let us know!

 

[Colly]

@apsham Have you got a link to the list?

[apsham]

...oh I forgot to link it, huh?

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/306154/2022-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200

It starts at 200 and works backwards, though the creator might re-order it now that the countdown is finished. Also included are videos from four of the creators that I trust/watch the videos of the most as they go over the list.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

For anyone who has to play solo most of the time, consider joining yucata.de - it's an online boardgame site with loads of choices to play people online. It's where I do most of my gaming these days as you can dip in and out of your games over hours, days or even weeks, so it's less time consuming.

[lanky316]

Oooh, not familiar with that one. I do spend a lot of time on Board Game Arena though. Recently added Memoir '44 and do have Wingspan on there too.

Given all my years of tabletop wargaming, my performances on Memoir have been shambolic but it's still been good fun.