UFO

[Mr B]

Just as it says.. lets dig in deeper into UFO!!

Unplayed Fantastic bOardgames!

So, welcome.  8)

This forum is for the extraordinary games that has more or less nothing to do with BB.
And just to start with a small step out side if NUL.

I really can recommend BloodBowl: Team manager, the card game from FantasyFlight games.
There are one good expansion also, called Sudden Death.

I do recommend them both.
Four players are most fun, we have played it Lots and we are far far from bored of it yet.  ;D

Cheers!
/B

[J-Reedy]

Funny coinsidence about Terra Mystica that was discussed briefly in day 7 thread, we actually played it today after a hiatus of two months or so. Really fun game, especially when you usually undestand in the middle of the game what you should've done with the race you're playing. For example, I played with Giants today and realized in the third round that the 2 terraforms bonus from castle was once in every turn and not a one-off bonus.

We followed TM with three rounds of Legendary, not actually a boardgame but a deck building game like Dominion but with Marvel super heroes. I highly recommend it for any Marvel and Dominion fans.

I'm not registered in boardgaming geek, but my friend is and he has most of the current top 10 games, so I've played all of those. Eclipse, Terra Mystica, 7 Wonders and Agricola are all star favourites we return to every once and awhile. Blood Bowl Team Manager is also very good, as Mr B. recommended, we haven't played it recently but I think we'll have a go at it in awhile now that I got a reminder about it.

[Mr B]

I just wrote several comments here about 7-8 games.. and I acceently pressed some buttons and closed the crappy browser.. and along with it went everything... Gaah.

Some summery:
Terra Mystica is quite good, like it a lot.
Just cannot master it yet, but I like it..

Similar to Terras components is Eclipse and that is also good just getting dull in the middle of the game, to much at stake so it usually gets to a "Good, Bad and the Ugly" part... everyone waits the other to act.

Dominion has got less hours now, not sure why but it's a good one though.. any expansions that is fantastic for it or?
Like Quarriors, it was mediocre until we got Quartifacts and then it became very good in our opinion.

Game of Thrones is our latest and that's a good one.. just played one game so..
Found out we did a lot the wrong way, but we have a recap now on Thursday.. and it will be a 6 players game.
They say it's the best with 6 players.. cannot wait  ;D

Small World is a good piece also, with expansions it's getting very good with lots of different combinations.
Found Underworld less interesting than the "on-ground" version.

7 Wonders is very good also, like it alot with the build up during the game.

Pathfinder is on halt as we found it easy without the expansions... so getting them soon.

Cheers!

[Barmution]

Terra Mystica has a lot aha!-moments, at least for me. On Sunday we had a seriously epic game where we were 4 players and wound up with the following scores: 91, 91, 91 and 92. How's that for a close race?!

Other favourite games over the times are:
Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed: Epic space strategy that often takes 6+ hours to complete.
Eclipse: TIs little brother that's a lot more playable due to streamlined mechanics, but also a bit simpler.
Arkham Horror: Co-op vs Cthulhu/Old Ones and their minions. Pretty cool but you need expansions to get a challenge after figuring out the basic game mechanics. Takes time.
Talisman: Classic fun banter/beer game. Not so much a game as "roll the dice and see what happens"-experience.
Robo Rally: Another classic and light hearted game with fun mechanics.
Puerto Rico: My first intro to Euro style games. Still a favourite.
Agricola: Very fun but some of the occupations and improvements are a bit game breaking at times.
World of Warcraft: Time consuming, but with an excellent combat system. Too much downtime per player/faction.
Mage Knight: Awesome mechanics and theme except for runaway leader syndrome.
Age of Steam: Probably one of my all time favourites. Excellent, uncompromising mechanics that easily makes you capable of running yourself into bankrupcy.
7 Wonders: Fun little game. Best played in bouts of 2-3 games.
Dominion: Same as above. A bit too easy to set up evil combos, tho.
Factory Manager: Cool game. Decisions, decisions...

Games I don't like:
Battlestar Galactica: You can play how poor or good you want to, in the end only the crisis deck pulls decide your fate. Luck, luck, luck.
Settlers: Even w cities and knights expansion this was a bit overplayed with over group for some time.
Monopoly & Risk: Tricking people that they actually have to make decisions. How about you just play Yatzee when you just want to roll dice anyway?

Games I currently want to try:
Mice and mystics
Tzolkin
Legendary (will buy this based on J-Reedy's recommendation)

[tags]

Not playing board games as often as I like anymore, but firm favourites include:
- Agricola, Factory Manager, Puerto Rico, Robo Rally: Pretty much what Barm said, really like all of these.
- Dominion: I love it, and although I agree with potential evil combos, I find drawing randomized cards from a couple of sets can bring about so many unexpected twists that it rarely gets boring.
- Race for the Galaxy: Only played this at Barmutation's place, but I really liked it. Must be something about me and card games from the MtG(*) days.
- Lost Cities: Quite simple card-based game, but probably one of the best 2-player games I've played when it comes to longevity. Turns out more complex isn't always better.
- Shadows over Camelot: The only cooperative game I can remember really liking. The major problem seems to be that if there's a traitor, his/her job is often a bit too easy, as it is hard enough winning anyway. Still, had many a fun game with this.

More meh, can play, but not on the favourites list:
- A Game of Thrones: Although often fundamentally unfair when it comes to which house you are, it does provide interesting games with a mix of diplomacy and warfare/tactics. I find it is a bit too heavy on the diplomacy side of things though, and I do prefer games that focus more on tactics and resource management.
- Carcassonne: It has the appeal of being simple enough to play with people that are not die-hard board game fans. Problem is, it is also quite limited strategy-wise, a bit like Settlers.
- Netrunner: Decent 2-player board game, but never feels really fair as the two sides have so completely different rules

Dislikes:
- Settlers, Monopoly & Risk: Again, what Barmutation said.
- Arkham Horror: Something about this game just rubs me the wrong way. Not sure why.


Probably a lot more I've forgot, will add as I remember them.


(*) Magic: The Gathering disclaimer: Can't really fit this into any category with other board games, as I've spent so incredibly much time and money on this in the mid- to late 90's. I occasionally pick it up again, go to a pre-release event or something similar, but haven't really been playing actively since about 2000.

[tags]

I really can recommend BloodBowl: Team manager, the card game from FantasyFlight games.

Is that fun with two players, or do you need more to make it interesting? (I have no clue about the mechanics of it, if that wasn't obvious)

[Mr B]

I really can recommend BloodBowl: Team manager, the card game from FantasyFlight games.

Is that fun with two players, or do you need more to make it interesting? (I have no clue about the mechanics of it, if that wasn't obvious)

It works fine with two players also.. the more the merrier.
I find Four players the best.

[Mr B]

Cool, Pillar of Earth is a nice one also, could be a bit frustrating but that evens out.. normally.

Railroad Tycoon is quite fun when your 6 players.. man peoples are everywhere!

History of the World is also a good one.. take some time though.
Very good also with 6 players.

I find Carcassonne quite fun and fast.
Not that we play it that often due to all other games but, quite Ok.

And if you'd like Talisman there is also Relic Talisman but in Warhammer 40k style.

Just bought Small World Realms cool with all new maps works both versions and expansions.

Haha, and yes RoboRally is a old good one, was some years ago we played it but.. fun times, I have the first edition btw.

If you'd like the old Magic (I also played it during the mid 90 era) have a look at MM DOC, free computer card game, much like the old Magic.
Never seen a card game until DOC that could actually match Magic.

[J-Reedy]

Seems like Barmution has played lots of same games that I have. We also played Twilight Imperium before Eclipse became to be (Finnish designer, btw). TI is a good game, but tt's just that even with 3 players TI is likely to take at least 4 hours and last time we played Eclipse with 8 players, we got through it in 5 hours. So the economics of time work in favour of Eclipse. That's also why we only play Talisman every six months or so, my friend has all the expansions for it, so games usually take a long time. Mr. B mentioned Relic, very much in style of Talisman and works fine if you're into the WH40K fluff. Mage Knight is my favourite of these Talisman-like games but games tend to take a lot of time and there might be some waiting involved for out-of-turn players. Another Talisman-like game we've played is Spellbound, althought it has been awhile. I guess we stopped playing that when Mage Knight came about.

We used to play Arkham Horror also, haven't played it in a while though, don't remember why it got pushed back in the pecking order, might have to give it a new try. I think the best co-op game around is Pandemia (might be that I'm rooting for the Finnish designer), it's a bit challenging but really a true co-op game.

Legendary (will buy this based on J-Reedy's recommendation)

Legendary also has some co-op elements, there's no winner if players lose to the villain, winner is only decided if players win.

Damn, ran out of time, looks like my Civ 5 group is now online, so I'm off to Steam to do some Civ'vin.

[Mr B]

So we played Games with five players, one new to the game so have to go through all rules...
Which ment that we could not finish in time, so we stopped in turn 4, and played a game of 7wonders instead.

Getting another try tomorrow evening.. we will be 6 players but at least we know the rules now.

/B

[Mr B]

Kingdom Builder was quite fun.
Need more game on it to get a fare view of the game.
We have to expansions making it possible to play with 5 players.

King of Tokyo.. was also a fast average fun game.

[Barmution]

Anybody tried Age of Wonders 3 yet? I'm probably buying it for the easter holidays, looks like a worthy sequel to some amazing games.

[Mr B]

Ooh.. do not go there.
Several players have turned that one down immensely!

That's bb players who loved the previously versions.
This was quite sad but they brought up several bad things.
Like sige etc.. it has not survived 6h and everyone is disappointed not going to open up that game ever again.

I'd say it will drop quite fast so you can buy it for less money in a month or two.

[Barmution]

That's weird, I've heard exactly the opposite :o

On Rock Paper Shotgun they gave it a pretty good review and metacritic has it at 82/7.8(user reviews) and the gameplay videos look pretty awesome. People are talking down on the having to be logged in to play thing, tho, but that's not a big issue for me... hm. Maybe I'll have to curb my enthusiasm here.

[Mr B]

Hmm odd. There are three players who actually feels after 90min playing.. they are so bored with the battle they will unlikely start a new game ever again.

Sounds like it's the battle system that is the worst.