Great Board Games - Recommendations and Discussion

[clowntable]

Gem game sounds interesting. Btw, I'm always looking for nice game mechanics. Feel free to list the best/most innovative/strangest you can think of

[clowntable]

I got Smallworld today, won't play it this weekend though. I also played Boomtown (smallish card+dice game) and it's kind of fun. You wager gold for mining rights that produce different amounts of gold on a certain dice roll (two dice a la settlers), roll each round, wager for new rights etc. There's some additional stuff but outbidding people is fun enough already

Alos there's an advent sale going on at one of my online sources with a reduced game each day. The following look interesting, comments on any of them would be appreciated:
- A Castle for all seasons
- Sylla (this looks really great, will get it for sure)
- Scepter of Zavandor
- St. Petersburg
- League of Six
- Chinatown
- Macau
- The end of the Triumvirat
- The Dutch Golden Age

[chuckleslovakian]

Played St. Petersburg. Thats a fun building card game, get most victory points type game. Haven't played the others.

[derwipok]

Buy 'em all

[clowntable]

Originally Posted by derwipok

Buy 'em all

I probably will, at least 60 Euro worth for free shipping
milan-spiele.de in case you're interested

[Luckbox Inc]

i haven't read this thread but has stratego been mentioned?

i've just started playing it and its awesome

[clowntable]

I think someone mentioned it. I have it somewhere and played it a lot when I was younger. It's a great game for sure but I have a feeling that it can become somewhat predictible. Either way mine-placing mindgames are always fun and the Spy-Marshall (or whatever rank the dude that the spy can kill has) is a fun mechanic

[Pyromaniac]

Originally Posted by clowntable

I got Smallworld today, won't play it this weekend though. I also played Boomtown (smallish card+dice game) and it's kind of fun. You wager gold for mining rights that produce different amounts of gold on a certain dice roll (two dice a la settlers), roll each round, wager for new rights etc. There's some additional stuff but outbidding people is fun enough already

Alos there's an advent sale going on at one of my online sources with a reduced game each day. The following look interesting, comments on any of them would be appreciated:
- A Castle for all seasons
- Sylla (this looks really great, will get it for sure)
- Scepter of Zavandor
- St. Petersburg
- League of Six
- Chinatown
- Macau
- The end of the Triumvirat
- The Dutch Golden Age

I haven't played any of those

A Castle For All Seasons often gets compared with Pillars of the Earth - same designer, same idea.

Sylla is inspired, I think, by St. Petersburg.

Macau sounds interesting.

& I own an unplayed copy of Zavandor. Not likely to play it in time to give you pre-buy feedback though. (you'll probably buy & play yr copy before I get the shrinkwrap off. let me know how it goes )

[Cueballmania]

Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

i haven't read this thread but has stratego been mentioned?

i've just started playing it and its awesome

I had a pretty awesome miner race earlier this year where my friend ****ed up a move and I could disarm his bombs before he could mine.

[kokiri]

I asked my dad about the list of games - he plays a truck load, as should become obvious, he said as follows:


A castle for all seasons: I have owned this for about a year but not yet played it and in no great rush. Seems OK from reading the rules but can't see it ever being a regular game.

Sylla- Not played this and never seen anyone playing it. Curious as the internet reviews are quite positive

Scepter of Zavandor. - Reworking of a game called Outpost. This is a classic economic growth game – fall behind and you’ll never catch up. Good game played it a few times (4 to be precise) but I have rated it poorly on the geek as I never get the economic engine going as well as my fellow players.. I have a copy and you are welcome to it.

St Petersburg. Good game – own it in fact two copies by accident. Experienced gamers who have a great knowledge of the cards in the game do better than amateurs and newbies. But it is still an interesting game in which the choice of which cards to buy is always a challenge. Played it 18 times

League of Six - Very good game – each of the mechanics involves tricky decisions. Played 6 times all enjoyable even when not winning.

Chinatown – a very good negotiation game played it 4 times since 2004 but many time before that. Will play it any time it is suggested.

Macao - Played 2x but not as enjoyable second time as first when I barely understood what was going on. Has lots of cards with writing on so don’t buy the German version!

End of the Triumvirat. - Did not enjoy my 3 plays of this game. Has a very weird turn order mechanism. Happy never to play it again.

Dutch Golden Age - played once and I really liked it but my fellow players didn’t so it has never seen the light of day since.

Preference order :
Chinatown
League of Six
St Petersburg
Dutch Golen Age
Scepter of Zavandor
Macao
End of the Triumvirat

Not ranked castle for all seasons and sylla

[pwnsall]

I find it odd he thinks he remembers how many times he's played

[clowntable]

Thx kokiri. I'm semidecided that I'll probably just buy all of them to have a decent bunch to try for next year. Hopefully the 24th door is smth. like 10% off for orders >X or somthing. Better be big, the graphic of the door already has a different look with a big wrapper around the door

Additions to the calender since my last post:
- Senji
- Guatemala Cafe
- Neuland
- Letter of Marque

After reading up on all of them, watching video reviews when available etc. League of Six and Sylla look best and I have heard only good things about Chinatown and St.Petersburg so those 4 are almost locks.

[Zurvan]

Originally Posted by pwnsall

I find it odd he thinks he remembers how many times he's played

If he spends a lot of time at board game geek (he seems to judging by his comments) you can enter on there when you play a game & it tracks it all for you

[Luckbox Inc]

Originally Posted by clowntable

I think someone mentioned it. I have it somewhere and played it a lot when I was younger. It's a great game for sure but I have a feeling that it can become somewhat predictible. Either way mine-placing mindgames are always fun and the Spy-Marshall (or whatever rank the dude that the spy can kill has) is a fun mechanic

hardest part for me is remembering the damn pieces and not acting impulsively

the guy I play with is a huge pothead so every time I'm over there I smoke which makes both of those things difficult

I've tried using a chess-style-notational-system like repeating to myself "his #1 is on D7" but I fail at even that

I really feel like I would win every game if I didn't misremember and/or make stupid makes

I had a great game yesterday though where I mined up the left side and center, put most of my top pieces on the right side and just marched stuff down and won

but then my other couple games were full of retardation

**I also think even though there is certainly plenty of room for deducting your opponents pieces— there are also a ton of metagame aspects that are equally if not more important when you play with someone regularly

[gusmahler]

Looking forward to Christmas, as I just bought Dominion. It's technically my daughter's Christmas present, but whatever.