The Board Game thread.

[Dexter345]

I have seen that in Dominion, but I have seen other strategies, too. To be fair, I don't think I've ever played a two player game, only three or four. I feel like a lot of what you need to do is determined by what your opponents do and which cards are in play. In certain setups, the easiest path to victory is to just buy a lot of gold and silver and go for Provinces. In others, the Action cards have more value.

Really, one thing I like about it is that it's never just a run for victory points right from the beginning, because victory point cards are worthless during your turn, but they're what are necessary to win. So typically in my group, the first half of the game has us building our decks, then the second half has us scrambling for victory points. We probably end the game by buying all of the Provinces about half of the time.

[Simon Strange]

My problem with Dominion is namely the Province rule (esp. in 2 player games) where if you deplete it, the game is over. 99% of the games I play end up being mad grabs for them due to the value to card ratio that ends up in your deck. There's really no motivation to grab Estates or Duchies, and most the people I've played with skip them in lieu of Gold in order to fund the later purchases of Provinces. Seems like the 'end game' should either be 3 kingdom cards end, or all the estate/province/duchies get taken. Otherwise the games end up being pretty one-dimensional.

You ever run into that or played variants that go that route? That's kind of why I link Ascension, you never end up with hands that do nothing for you, nor in situations where you're simply going after one card to win.

When I first bought Dominion, I thought that all three victory piles had to be depleted to end the game. We played maybe 8 games that way, before we corrected ourselves. In my experience, playing to "Provinces out" only makes the games MUCH better.

I agree with Dexter - the first half of the game is a mad dash to get big-money hands (through card draw or money cards) and the second half is just a VP grab. That actually works very nicely for us - we usually buy about half the Duchies by the time Provinces run out. If you've only got 1 or 2 times more through your deck, you need to buy VPs EVERY turn - so any turn with less than 8 coins is a Duchy (or Estate) buy. The person who buys a Duchy or two early on has a big advantage - we also tend to trash our 3 initial Estates whenever possible.

I really think you will find that keeping yourself open to buying both Duchy and Province cards will give you a higher win % than waiting to buy Provinces exclusively.

[Mr. Gobbldigook]

Played last night on earth last night, and Arkham horror for the first time the other night. Both of those games are awesome. I'm super excited to play Arkham again. our campaign failed at the last second but was intense. so I'd like to give it another go and beat the fuck out of the ancient one.

[Scroll]

Played a game of Last night on earth myself a short while back, it felt pretty damn shallow but it has a lot of charm. The special rules for certain weapons added a little amount of depth and reminds me of the recent game we've played on the forums.

I've heard good things about Mall of horror as it brings across the themes really well but I believe it's out of print.

[Dexter345]

Board game night tonight! I will hopefully get Shadow Hunters to the table.

I've been hearing a lot of Descent 2nd Edition. Have any of you guys tried it?

[Scroll]

Wait wait wait. Is it shipping now? I've reading up on it since it was announced but I guess it's being actively promoted?

[Dexter345]

I don't know if it's out in the UK yet, but people in the US are posting session reports, so I can only assume it's been released.

[Scroll]

Well I'm checking with my local shop and seeing if I can reserve a copy. It almost sounds too good to be true. The knock out system alone improves it quite a bit.

Helps that it isn't massively expensive either.

[Dexter345]

I've been reading a lot about it. Most people prefer it to Descent 1st Edition, because it's a lot less fiddly while still maintaining the same Overlord vs. Heroes thing. What really interests me about it is the campaign mode, where you gain skills and abilities to use for future encounters, and the objectives for the encounters aren't just "kill the other guy."

[Simon Strange]

Board game night tonight! I will hopefully get Shadow Hunters to the table.

As much as I wanted to like Shadow Hunters... I really don't. It doesn't seem very strategically interesting, and the games just don't seem to evolve into very interesting states. Bang! Does a much better job. I don't see a reason to play Shadow Hunters ever.

[Scroll]

Shops getting Descent in the next couple of weeks and I'm on the list. Shame I really can't afford it but oh well.

[Twonunpackmule]

Shops getting Descent in the next couple of weeks and I'm on the list. Shame I really can't afford it but oh well.

I own it. I haven't played it yet. Trying to get a game in this upcoming weekend.

I did play Arabian Nights and Ghost Stories last gaming session. Both are recommends.

[Nihil]

Played last night on earth last night, and Arkham horror for the first time the other night. Both of those games are awesome. I'm super excited to play Arkham again. our campaign failed at the last second but was intense. so I'd like to give it another go and beat the fuck out of the ancient one.

I want in a game of Arkham so bad.

[Scroll]

I own it. I haven't played it yet. Trying to get a game in this upcoming weekend.

I did play Arabian Nights and Ghost Stories last gaming session. Both are recommends.

Heard Ghost stories is pretty hard to win as it were.

Don't know why I decided to get get Descent Second edition right away, not gonna have a group together till the end of august most likely.

[Dexter345]

Ghost Stories isn't too bad if you play on the easiest difficulty setting. I think we have like a 75% win rate there. I don't think we've ever won on any of the higher difficulties though.

[Scroll]

I cracked and bought Descent second edition at a local place in Oxford. Only just opened it but the figures looks superb. I'm probably going to play a dwarf on my first go.

I'm going to try and get a game in this weekend and I'll post my impressions then, but seriously I'm shocked with how many great figures you get in the box.

[Dexter345]

One thing that I've read is that a lot of people complain about the dwarf because many of the encounters require speed and he's the slowest. He's got his uses, but that's just a heads-up.

[Scroll]

Yeah I've had a few two player games today and he is really fucking slow but when he gets there he can use his heroic feat to gain an extra action so you could basically do three attacks..

It seems pretty fluid on the basic rules but I'm looking forward to doing a campaign and gaining experience and items.

[Dexter345]

That is why I'm excited to try it. I don't care for the fantasy genre, but having a board game with a persistent campaign sounds totally cool to me.

[Scroll]

The campaign map looks sick. I've heard it's meant to be less grand than the full expansion that came out for first edition but there's plenty of things to do and lots of abilities to unlock and such.

I kinda want to give FF more of my money.