What is your favorite board game?

[Coys1882]

Ended up buying Power Grid yesterday instead. What a fun game - virtually no chance involved which makes it a lot more fun.

[dsavillian]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Ended up buying Power Grid yesterday instead. What a fun game - virtually no chance involved which makes it a lot more fun.

Power Grid has some really neat mechanics that make it a really fun game. In particular, the bidding and market-driven resources are lots of fun when you play with experienced players.

[dsavillian]

Played an epic, 4 player game of the "new" Civilization board game yesterday. Came down to the wire when, on the last turn, 3 of us were one move away from victory. And then my wife backstabbed me and nuked one of my cities and proclaimed it the greatest play in the history of the world.

[malcolmk14]

Power Grid is a great game, we have a bunch of expansion maps - Quebec/Baden-Wurtemburg, France/Italy, and Spain-Portugal/Brazil. Each board has different market mechanics. We also have the expanded power plant deck. It is super exciting.

Playing some Agricola tonight. Pretty excited.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Power Grid is a great game, we have a bunch of expansion maps - Quebec/Baden-Wurtemburg, France/Italy, and Spain-Portugal/Brazil. Each board has different market mechanics. We also have the expanded power plant deck. It is super exciting.

Playing some Agricola tonight. Pretty excited.

Where did you get those boards? Just off the net somewhere? I think a custom Calgary (broken down by communities) or an Alberta one would be cool.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Playing some Agricola tonight. Pretty excited.

The guy at Discovery Hut really talked me out of Agricola yesterday because of the learning curve and large times between turns. Considering I knew the wives would be heavy into the wine last night it seemed like a good idea. I'm still very interested in buying this game though.

[dsavillian]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

The guy at Discovery Hut really talked me out of Agricola yesterday because of the learning curve and large times between turns. Considering I knew the wives would be heavy into the wine last night it seemed like a good idea. I'm still very interested in buying this game though.

I really like Agricola, but it is very much a solitaire game in a multiplayer environment. There's not a lot of interaction when you use the "easy" cards and some people find that boring.

The learning curve isn't that high, but it is difficult to pick up on the strategy in the first game, so the last few turns can be frustrating for new players.


Agricola shines when you have experienced players and use the "complicated" decks.

[Yanda]

Battletech is pretty sweet, and really easy to learn.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Battletech is pretty sweet, and really easy to learn.

I loved me some battletech in high school. My mom found all my old books and printouts and brought them over a couple weeks ago.

Have the rules changed at all since the mid-90s?

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Where did you get those boards? Just off the net somewhere? I think a custom Calgary (broken down by communities) or an Alberta one would be cool.

They have expansion boards at both Revolution games on 14th St NW and at Sentry Box on 11th Ave SW.

Originally Posted by Coys1882

The guy at Discovery Hut really talked me out of Agricola yesterday because of the learning curve and large times between turns. Considering I knew the wives would be heavy into the wine last night it seemed like a good idea. I'm still very interested in buying this game though.

Yeah my girlfriend isn't a big fan of Agricola because of the amount of reading it involves, but she loves Power Grid.

Agricola is typically played when it's just the boys. As for long time between turns, that's not my experience at all.

[OffsideSpecialist]

My dad and I always like to get intoxicated and play Cribbage when I visit. Great game for two people.

[Yanda]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I loved me some battletech in high school. My mom found all my old books and printouts and brought them over a couple weeks ago.

Have the rules changed at all since the mid-90s?

Ya its exactly the same

[dsavillian]

Lords of Waterdeep looks pretty good. I'm going to try and snag a copy this weekend

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...s-of-waterdeep

Worker placement + D&D theme = instant win in my books

[Coys1882]

So six of us have decided we're going to give traditional D&D a shot. Any suggestions on the best way to get started??

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

So six of us have decided we're going to give traditional D&D a shot. Any suggestions on the best way to get started??

Biggest thing is getting someone to DM.

If you are playing 4e:

You can get some premade adventures, or buy something like Dungeon Delve which almost turns it into a team Vs thing, which would really help everyone get used to combat.

then invest in a D&D insider subscription to have access to the character builder. It really helps new players with building characters and populates the power cards with your die rolls and modifiers.

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

So six of us have decided we're going to give traditional D&D a shot. Any suggestions on the best way to get started??

http://paizo.com/beginnerbox

Pathfinder is basically D&D 3.5 which is arguably better and more popular than v4.

You should be able to get the starter set at Sentrybox

[dsavillian]

Lords of Waterdeep is pretty good. Short, easy to learn, great theme and lots of fun.

[Flames89]

Originally Posted by dsavillian

Lords of Waterdeep is pretty good. Short, easy to learn, great theme and lots of fun.

I am interested in hearing more about this game. I am looking for another game to build upon the Catan and Ticket To Ride scene, and I am thinking of LoW. Some thoughts:
- We are new to resource management games
- My wife/friends may have a tough time getting over the D&D theme
- I am hesitant to get into Agricola because of the "multiplayer solitaire" aspect of it. We like some interaction.
Still recommend it? Other ideas?

[troutman]

^^^^ Dicetower creates a number of Top Ten Lists:

Gateway Games

Gateway Games, part 2

Gateway Games - part 3

Try Carcassonne, Dominion, Pandemic, Pirate's Cove

Later, El Grande, Puerto Rico, Princes Of Florence, Power Grid

[dsavillian]

Originally Posted by Flames89

I am interested in hearing more about this game. I am looking for another game to build upon the Catan and Ticket To Ride scene, and I am thinking of LoW. Some thoughts:
- We are new to resource management games
- My wife/friends may have a tough time getting over the D&D theme
- I am hesitant to get into Agricola because of the "multiplayer solitaire" aspect of it. We like some interaction.
Still recommend it? Other ideas?

The D&D theme is not really necessary to the game at all, but for those who are familiar with the genre it adds a bit extra to the game.

It's a much easier game compared to Agricola and we found that it was less "multiplayer solitaire" than Agricola.


The concept of the game is as follows:

- Each player is a Lord/Lady trying to gain favor in Waterdeep
- Each player gets agents to send around the city doing work for them. Usually this involves collecting "adventurers" aka. those little wooden cubes that are called Thieves/Clerics/etc.
- Each action square on the board can only be used by one player per round, so there is direct conflict over the limited resources available
- Each player has a series of quests to complete. You complete a quest by spending a combination of wealth and adventurers. Quests often reward victory points and usually offer some additional benefit as well.
- You earn bonus points for completing quests that match your Lord's persona
- You can also build extra buildings around town to unlock new actions for your agents. The owners of these buildings get a benefit if someone else uses them.
- Each player has a hand of cards that they can use to help themselves or hinder their opponents.



The game is really easy to learn. It only took my wife an I an hour and a half to finish our first game (set up, learning and completion).

The theme isn't necessary at all (my wife kept calling the wizards the "purple guys") but if you want to participate in the theme you can.

It's $50, so it might be a "try before you buy" game if you don't have a lot of experience with games like this one. If your group is new to games like Agricola, I'd recommend this game over Agricola 9 times out of 10.

I should also mention that my wife hates Agricola, but she really enjoyed this game.