The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Twiztid Elf »

Reka has been raving about this one.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by GreyWizzard »

Has anyone played the Ghostbusters board game?

I saw it in shop and it looked like a cool dungeon crawler like hero quest and whatever the space version was but baulked at the price with no real knowledge of it. It seems like it has plenty of content and the ability to build your own scenarios but I was curious if anyone else has had experience with it.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

Space Crusade :up:

I also saw the Ghostbusters one and was intrigued.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

Played a few games last night. One card game that stood out as a nice change was Exploding Kittens. Fast, fun and every man for himself. Although it wasn't played last night, another card game I'm also quite partial to is Coup.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

Ever played Grass Clutes?
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

no...but I do remember seeing it sold in a hessian sack.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

That's the one. Used to play it a lot in my 20s over spliffs, in fact we played it so much that the cards ended up getting marked in some way. Great game.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

Bought this for our next games night. I'm giving it a preemptive thumbs up but the photo keeps loading upside down even after I rotate the photo...so it might be a preemptive thumbs down. Click on the image to see it in the right orientation.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

I watched a video on that back in Adelaide, I believe I mentioned it to you back then, looks the biz!
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

Yep, it was one of the games I first considered buying when board game night began. We'd watched quite a few Will Wheaton vids. I chose Carc, then Battlestar instead. Recently I thought about it and decided it was time. It's quite a well set out game. 2 - 10 players but apparently that really drags out the play time. 4-6 is the sweet spot. You can also print out fan tracks from Boardgame geek. I'm looking forward to giving it a run. There's also four ways to play - easy or advanced, street or circuit.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

As someone who was the King of St Basils (and.pretty much.all other tracks you guys tried to beat me on ;) ) I believe street racing would be the shiz.

Maybe I'll come down to Melbs for a weekend again to see you now I'm back in Aus.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

huh...I don't remember you being all that good at racing games.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

Yeah, was quite awhile ago so understandable if it's slipped your memory. Can always refresh it in a game of Carve.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

So my wife bought me Star Wars: Rebellion for Christmas and I am excited and just a little bit intimidated by the sheer size of it as I'm quite new to the board game thing. I do own Game of Thrones but have yet to play it as logistically it's been bloody hard to get enough people together to play it (I live a fair distance away from my board game-playing friends too which doesn't help). Loved Hero Quest, Space Crusade and Battle Masters as a kid (still own all three too, in decent condition too!), but this is new. All the reviews say it nails Star Wars (playing as Empire or Rebels is like playing two completely different games, totally asymmetrical with different goals etc) but the manuals are arse and make it hard to learn the rules. So I'm watching YouTube videos before I even open the box properly.

Can't wait though! :D
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

that sounds interesting, I'll look it up over the weekend.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

Some reviews:
Rebellion feels like a Star Wars goodie box stuffed full of cards and leaders and ships. The game's length, combined with the many options, led everyone I played it with to tell me later that the game had stuck with them; days later, they were still reflecting on the experience or pondering alternate strategies.

When playing the Empire, I loved the wide variety of devious missions and the plans they allowed me to concoct; when playing the Rebels, I appreciated the objectives that could be achieved in surprising ways and with very few ships. Those are certainly marks of a good game, and Rebellion has a vibrant game system at its core.

But the fiddly combat system, numerous rules, and sheer length make me wonder how many times in a year I might actually get this to the table. Sure, repeated playthroughs with the same opponent might eventually lead to faster games, but I have very few friends willing and able to regularly commit to 3+ hour games. And without playing regularly, will I waste time reviewing the rules every time it does get pulled out?

Despite the fun the game offers, it feels simultaneously too slow (in terms of sheer time per round) and too quick (in terms of ending within five or six rounds). And its heaviness rules out casual gamers. A second edition that could be played in two hours and that streamlines the combat and ruleset would make this far easier to recommend widely. (Though that's probably not possible without stripping down some of the game's many options. Tradeoffs!)

Rebellion is a must-buy for Star Wars fans who already know they enjoy games of this length and complexity. For everyone else, search your feelings to see if the game's hefty price tag will justify its spot in your collection.
Star Wars: Rebellion review: A fully operational 4-hour board game
The Empire is able to build an enormous fleet of immensely powerful warships (and Death Stars, which yes can blow up planets), while the Rebels can only build a relative handful. To compensate for this, the Alliance’s roster of heroes are able to perform all kinds of weird and wonderful missions, hitting the Empire where it least expects it, while the Empire’s leaders perform more mundane tasks.

Both players/sides don’t just have different strengths, they’re after very different things. The Alliance has a secret base they need to protect while also skipping across the galaxy gathering support for their cause, which can be aided by completing secret objectives that the Imperial player doesn’t know about. The Empire, meanwhile, has to scour every system searching for that Rebel base, and once they find it, destroy it.

It’s a very cool design choice, one that’s unlike most other Star Wars strategy games, which for balance reasons usually makes both sides far more comparable. It means that every game of Rebellion really feels like the struggle at the heart of the movies; the out-gunned Rebels are constantly being harried, forced to rely on the brave actions of a few select heroes, while the Empire—while ridiculously powerful in conventional terms—has to fire at needles in haystacks.

Another thing I liked about the way the game’s victory paths are setup is that Rebellion is constantly in flux. This isn’t a game where one side will slowly overrun another until victory becomes inevitable. It’s a game where even if the Rebels are getting their ass kicked from one end of the galaxy to another, they’re still very much in contention so long as their base is secret and their best heroes are in play, since the game runs on a timer which essentially grants victory to the Alliance if they survive long enough (though you’ll need to complete objectives to hurry things along in the face of the Empire’s constant searching for your secret base).

For all its neat tricks, though, Rebellion isn’t without its problems. As already stated, the two manuals included in the game are a wreck, so you’re going to struggle initially to get even the basics of the game working properly. And while it’s cool having so many different things to do, from combat to construction to secret objectives to sending out probe droids, at times it can feel like it’s a bit too much, and the endgame can drag a little, especially if there’s a lot of combat going on.

Stick with it, though, and you’ll be rewarded. With its complex rules and disparate playstyles Rebellion isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve ever wanted to cut your teeth on a Star Wars game with a bit more meat on it than Fantasy Flight’s more recent offerings, I’d definitely recommend this.
Star Wars: Rebellion: The Kotaku Review
Bad manuals can't ruin good games, and Rebellion is a good game. I want to play more of it, and I want to play against a skilled opponent. But before I dive back in for another 3-4 hours at the table I'm going to wait a few months for some downloadable errata from FFG, or a proper user-generated manual from the community at Board Game Geek. Right now Rebellion is more frustrating than it should be, and for a game with this much potential that's a shame.
Star Wars: Rebellion is a great board game nearly crippled by an awful manual
Here’s how you know a board game is great: when it comes to an end and everyone starts packing up the pieces, all anyone can do is share stories from the game they just played. They agonize over their defeats and laugh about their craziest victories. They explain the strategies they were just about to do! The post-game conversation become a wave of “Do you remember when…?”

Each of my Star Wars: Rebellion games have ended this way. And each of them has ended with the other player(s) wanting to play again. I can’t think of a better endorsement.
‘Star Wars: Rebellion’ Is the Best ‘Star Wars’ Board Game Ever Made

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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

So my wife and I will be playing this today. I've set the board up according to the "first game" rules (it tells you where to put all the starting units etc, I believe in future games you can put them anywhere). And the Empire (my wife) starts with 3 Star Destroyers, a Death Star and a whole range of other units spread across six planets, while my Rebels have 1 Calamari Cruiser and a few other units on two planets (one of which is the hidden base so don't actually appear on the board until the base is discovered, they're off to the side for now. The top left orange square on the image in my above post). The Empire start the game with more than twice as many units as the Rebels.

The Death Star can destroy planets and if you know Star Wars you can fuck with the canon story. For example, you can blow up Dagobah and therefore prevent Luke from becoming a Jedi :lol: :up:
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

Now you just need to work out a strategy that makes the prequels never happen
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

Well that was fun! I managed to win as the Rebels. Had the game lasted one turn longer, I would have almost-certainly been annihilated :shock:

Chewie was not only seduced by the dark side and joined the Empire, he blocked Luke's attempt to liberate Kashyyyk :lol:
Luke did become a Jedi, but was later captured. He was still a prisoner at the end of the game
Han Solo never made it into the game
My secret base was discovered, but I managed to destroy the scouts that discovered it, and managed to survive long enough after that to complete enough objectives that the Empire ran out of galactic support. Despite one Death Star being one planet away, and a second Death Star being just behind :lol: :up: My plan if I didn't win when I did was to play the "move base" mission card, but I'm not sure if I would have been successful.

Nerve-racking but enjoyable. Would play again :up:
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

How/where do you guys store your board game collection?
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Cletus »

between five people would be the truest answer. Mine in a closet so people can't see my secret shame.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Twiztid Elf »

I picked up the latest hotness Azul, 2018 Spiel des Jahres last week.
After a few games I am solidly putting it in my tier 1 board game list alongside 7 Wonders and Pandemic.
Really, really awesome stuff. Highly recommended.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

Bought Mouse Trap the other week to try and get the boys into board games, teach them winning, losing, consequences etc but this isn't about Mouse Trap. I popped on some boardgame review site looking for something else for the kids and stumbled upon Rhino Hero. A simple game to learn where you stack wall cards and place a roof card on top then the next person has to place wall cards on specific placements. You only have roof cards in your hands and some have rules like miss a go, pick up 1, place the Rhino etc. Game is over when either the tower falls (person with least cards left wins) or you've played all your cards first. Quick games, roughly 5-10mims each game. Both the 4yo and 9yo picked it up right away and it's awesome fun regardless of age. Also got some great reviews. Cletus, this would be good for your kids too. Awesome game, very well priced, less than $30 shipped to my door. Got another game coming so will report back when that arrives and we've given it a go.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by Twiztid Elf »

I ordered a Tracey brand Crokinole board from Canada.
What have I done?
Oh well, that's the Series X saved money spent.
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Re: The Board Game thread (Modern board gaming)

Post by t0mby »

I've never even heard of that. I googled "Tracey brand Crokinole board" and it looks like a plate from the cupboard with some circles drawn on it. :lol:
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