Caverna hype is real, cracked top 25 on bgg.

I thought the theme was reasonable enough. I really like the game a lot though. It's a little on the lengthy side especially if you're playing it for the first time. Its easy to get bogged down trying to optimize every little action. As long as you cap the length of a person's turn or play with people who aren't bean counters then it moves along reasonably.

Thanks for all the recommendations! Ill check a few out and eventually report back

Enjoyed playing games online the last couple of days. Check out this free site:
boardgamearena.com

I've only played:
Jaipur (quick two player card game, very fun)
Targi (two player worker placement game, medium long...very interesting)
Libertalia (role selection, screw other player type game, quick)
+ Takenoko 1x didn't enjoy it quite as much
There's quite a few games other games on there I'd like to try.

I own Jaipur and Targi and have since ordered Libertalia

Wouldn't mind playing with some POGers, willing to teach/play slowly. My name on there is clowntable as well. I'd love to organize a ~4 player group of Libertalia or a couple of games of Jaipur or Targi.

I think Libertalia is very much in the spirit of POG so I'll give a cliffnotes overview in the hopes of organizing some play sessions.
- Arrrrr...pirate theme
- There's six spaces for cards and loot below
- Each player secretly selects a card from his hand to play at the same time, if all have selected -> reveal (players start with the same 9 cards so you know what everyone has and can keep track who play what...then in the next rounds you keep leftovers and add new ones so the cardpool starts to get different)
- Cards are ordered by the rank printed on it (a captain has a high rank, the monkey has a low rank :P)
- Cards can have day and night abilities (+end of game abilities) as well
- Starting with the lowest, working up to highest the day activities are resolved (this can be stuff like "kill the highest rank", "gain two money" etc.)
- Then going the other way the highest remaining player picks a piece of loot and puts his card in his den (this is basically used for end of game stuff i.e. if you have the gambler alive at the end of a round you get 8 money)
- Loot can be stuff that gives different amounts of money (treasure chest, jewels, barrels), kills a guy to your left/right (sabre), gets you minus points at the end (cursed skull) or kills off your card before it goes to the den etc.
- Night activities are triggered every time by the cards in your den that have them (could be something like "gain two money each night if you're the only guy with this card in the den") after this pick loot phase is over
- Theres 3 rounds of 6 cards...usually plays in 15 minutes total once you know the cards a bit. Loot and other stuff is converted to money=VP after each round and then everything resets
- Fun bluffing/trying to figure out what the other players will play etc...very POG-esque example...
- There's a gold chest and a sabre...if I don't take the sabre one of my neighbours will and will kill this valuable character I have in my den...but maybe someone else will get it and I can pick up the juicy chest. Oh wait a minute we all started with the card that kills the highest ranked card...I think it's likely someone will play that so maybe I should try to figure out how to play the 2nd highest ranking card....arrrrrr screw it I'll play this lowely guy who doesn't have to pick up loot to avoid one of the bad loot tiles...arrrrr

Rules: http://boardgamegeek.com/file/downlo...a_regle_US.pdf

Post ITT if interested, will be gone till midnightish euro time today but would be free on Sunday (I'm around for about one more hour if someone wants a quick game now).

Edit:
If you create an account there, PM me your name here so I can add you to my friendlist

Anyone playing anything new these days?

Ultimate Werewolf: One Night is an absolute winner if you need a good party game and I have yet to introduce it to someone who doesn't like it.

It has semi-replaced The Resistance in some of my groups but TR still holds a higher place for some; UW:ON is much more chaotic given the finite time frame in which a decision needs to be made. You need to be a better liar in TR and your story needs to make a lot more sense, because in UW:ON its much easier to bluff. Lots of fun from both, nonetheless.

Would like to make some more additions as nothing really needs to be trimmed down in my collection; I've yet to really read much about the three SdJ nominees for this year (Concept, Camel Up or Splendor) but the first two seem like good party games. Never heard of any of the Connoisseur games either.

We've played terra mystica a bunch of times now (3 and 4 player games), a new favorite! Thanks so much for the recommendation, ill try to pick up the other games when we can.
Im a little iffy on the mana/magic mechanics, but there is alot of interesting little things going on that can make big differences. Do feel that the game sort of forces you into a strategy that goes along with the randomly generated bonus/round. If you happen to have selected a race that is not conducive to those bonuses, I feel that it makes you incapable of winning against decent opposition.


Other than that Ive played some Race for the Galaxy and it seems like a fun, short board/card game. Nice addition to our quick lil game library and can take the place of dominion for that some nights I think.
Are the expansions worth getting?

RftG is one I have not played but have considered buying, mainly as it is a card playing game rather than board based, and for its space theme which is one that I don't have in my collection that I would like to.

I've heard a common criticism of RftG is that it is not friendly to new players and all the cards really need to be understood in order for a player to get anywhere? True? I've not played it or any of the expansions.

RftG is available for free online at BGA

Have never tried it, but if someone wanted to give it a whirl it's there for you.

We played a four player game out of the blue without prep the way we always do: watch a small intro on youtube and figure the rest out ourselves with the booklet. This worked fine, im guessing that it wouldve gone smoother if someone had played it before, but all this meant was that it took a bit longer. It looked overwhelming at first, but we figured it all out quick enough, wasnt overwhelming to play.

As for online/pc, Ive played with a downloaded keldon AI (found here) a few times and the AI is beating me by alot, only win I managed things went my way considerably the entire game.

This criticism is pretty overblown imo.

Sure there's a steeper learning curve than cribbage, but it's not nearly as confusing as first advertised.

bump

i need to learn race for the galaxy on boardgamethingy

Never got around to learning it, or buying it (yet).


Most recent purchase spree for me was Last Will, Dominant Species and Coup.

Coup upon reading of rules looks like a melding of a bit of werewolf, The Resistance (same universe, after all) and Saboteur or something. Haven't played it yet but should be a good filler.

Haven't learned the other two yet to bring them to board game night.

Friends also bought Agricola, BSG The Board Game, and Android Netrunner. Also one guy bought Arkham Horror which we attempted to start learning last night and it is a handful. We only got through setup and very basic movement and encounters and then had to put it down, as we had been reading for almost 90 minutes. Lots and lots of fine detail to that game, will take several sessions just to walk through it and understand but if you have a committed group it looks like it could be lots of fun.

Also have played several iterations of Forbidden Desert recently, it is a hit with the group but after a few plays already I am a bit tired of it. Perhaps co-op games aren't my specialty; not the biggest fan of groupthink, I end up getting a bit bored. Granted the game is not easy when you play with >2 people, it has challenged us.

Coup is enjoyable. Relatively quick game that is easy to pick up, yet still has some complex spots. Sometimes the game can play itself out, but since the games never last too long it isnt all that annoying and you can fire up another one right away.

Been buying and playing some POGy games recently. Resistence+Avalon+all addons is on order, own Coup and One Night Warewolf which is amazing. WW Inquisition or whatever it's called is also good. Played some Love Letter and Masquerade which are also POGy.

Other than that...mostly Android:Netrunner

I own this and a couple of expansions. Have picked up Eldritch Horror this year and it's a lot easier to setup and learn while still being an awesome game. Would recommend this over AH any day of the week. I still like both but AH is fiddly and hard to learn. Once you got it down it can be very thematic and tons of fun though

+1. I think the biggest complaint is the complex icons. I actually think they are very intuitive and quite helpful after a couple of plays. It's an amazing game. Only valid criticism I think is that there's very little player interaction but I don't mind that one bit.

Some of the other games I've bough that I would recommend:
- Andean Abyss: The entire COIN series is pretty much a masterpiece. I picked up this one because the Columbian history was the most interesting theme for me. There's also Cuban revolution (Cuba Libre), Afghanistan (A Distant Plain) and most recently Vietnam (Fire in the Lake). It's basically a four player wargame (can be played with other playercounts, solos very well) with no hidden information and very clever card driven historical (and alternate history) events. There's usually one government faction, one criminal faction and two insurgent factions. Really amazing, anyone interested in any of the themes should pick it up. It's lengthy but I have played the shorter game rules for AA and it's pretty good.
- Terra Mystica...very fun/deep, variable player powers. Kind of like Small World meets heavy Euro
- Robinson Crusoe: Amazingly thematic coop. Hard and fun. I think Ghost Stories will forever be my number one but this one is excellent. Hoping that the campaign expansion will finally arrive...preordered since forever
- Android: Netrunner: Great card game...just amazingly good. I also own the Star wars LCG and it's also great but I currently prefer A:NR
- Lewis and Clark: very fun racing game of sorts, nice theme, beautiful
- Concept: Technically a party game but we just put it on the table, draw random cards and have someone explain them. Pretty amazing game..****;dr: You have a huge board with concepts on them (man/woman, big/small and more abstract stuff) and try to explain a word or phrase by placing markers (you can create subconcepts as well) on the board. You can only say yes. So something like "Master Yoda" could be "man", "fictional", "green"...subconcept..."movie", "conflict", "star shape". That's a pretty easy one...there's a lot tougher stuff

And my Brimstone megabundle and Cuthulu wars are very eagerly awaited kickstarters/preorders.

Concept sounds great, I'll look that one up.

Just recently am getting back into board games(got the blood flowing after I found the online show TableTop) and got Crusoe after watching a bunch of reviews on it. It does kick ass. It's interesting just to hear people talk about it as it comes across as if they were really immersed into the game.

b

I'm really surprised as all the light games that all y'all poker players play. Very little by way of meaty games. Not giving grief, just surprised is all.

Is it just a 'you like what you like' kinda thing or being unaware of the meat that is out there?

what do you consider a 'meaty' game?

b

I'm assuming it means deeply strategic.

The light game/filler fad, at least for my group, is mainly because these days we always get in the 5-7 range for games nights. Tough to get into meatier games for that size if you don't split into two groups, and there's almost always at least one person who wants everyone to play together or is a slow learner. So we inevitably pull out something like Resistance, Werewolf One Night or Coup.

Initial thoughts on Coup: terrible two player game. Seems good with 5-6 which BGG recommends. Not the hugest fan of how most rounds finish heads up. Would definitely not recommend it over Resistance or WWON. In fact I hate it so much with 2 that it makes me realize I need a good 2p game or two. Suggestions?

Off the top of my head;:

Crusoe.

Forbidden Desert
Pandemic
(for those 2 you may have to play 2 characters, but it still works. Crusoe with 2 players you use an NPC so you kinda of play 1.5 characters.)

Also depends on what type of game you're looking for for 2 players.

b

Something a bit meatier perhaps. I've never played Twilight Struggle nor do I owe a wargame which I would like, so maybe that is option 1A right there.


Already own Forbidden Desert so I would probably pass on any more co-ops or a Leacock design.

Anyone wants to play Puerto Rico and guide me through?

Twighlight Struggle is a great game.

Puerto Rico was okay. Nothing really noteworthy about it, imo.

I'm looking forward to the next round in the ongoing Risk Legacy game that my board game group recently started.

I've just met or know very few people who have tried TS -- I don't mind reading lots of BGG reviews and they can be very helpful, but it's tough to get a full sense of one's taste of games.

I remember buying Puerto Rico simply for its acclaim. Felt shallow as I purchased it and had never played or knew anything about it. But it is definitely one of my favourites in my collection, and one I wish we played more. I don't think many of my group appreciate the depth of the game; I typically stomp my group when I play it, even against people who have had at least several plays before.