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Hey everyone,

Yesterday I took a trip down to my flgs to purchase some comics. I usually do not pay much attention to the large selection of board games in the store but yesterday was different.

To cut to the chase, I was very interested in the games but knew nothing of them besides Munchkin (played at a friends), Greed Quest (bought it), and Wasabi (an awesome game I will buy soon).

In the back of my DH core book there is an advertisement for Twilight Imperium which I think looks cool.

So Dakka give me some suggestions on games (please provide a bit of detail on the game rather than just typing something to the effect of WARHAMMER DERP! lol)


Per Dakka suggestions I plan to buy:
Axis and Allies
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Bootleggers
Chaos in the Old World
Citadels
Cutthroat Caverns
Game of Thrones
Gangs of Mega City
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Munchkin
Pandemic (Just bought)
Race for the Galaxy
Red Dragon Inn
Settlers of Catan
Shadows Over Camelot
Shogun
Slaughter Gulch
Talisman
Twilight Imperium
Vegas Showdown
Zombies!!!

Our group likes "Bootleggers" which is a game about running hooch during prohibition. At the start of the turn you flip over a number of cards equal to the number of players. There is always also a vehicle to purchase so you can move more hooch. You then bid for initiative each turn once you see which cards are available. The cards can either give you immediate effects like more gang members. a backwater still or an upgrade to a speakeasy or they can be saved for later (things like calling in a hit, stealing another gang's shipment or closing a busy speakeasy). You then make your hooch, assign it to your fleet of trucks and then make any deals with players as you see fit (selling extra crates of hooch to folks with more trucks, deals to open speakeasys, promises of future card plays, etc). Some tough decisions to make during the game. Is that card to perform a hit worth bidding your best initiative card for? Do you save your gang members and try to open a large speakeasy yourself (giving you the ability to determine if anyone else can sell hooch there and skim profits off each sale) or do you put in just enough influence to keep anyone from skimming profits but giving you somewhere other than the local dive to sell your stuff (the larger the speakeasy the more money each crate of hooch is worth.)? First player to $100k wins. Most games last about 10 turns with a game finishing at 12 turns.

We also like "Vegas Showdown" where you build your own casino. Each turn a number of resources are flipped and you bid on one item. If you don't like any of the items or the bidding gets out of control you can spend the turn promoting your upcoming casino and save yourself some cash for later turns. On top of each resource giving you a certain amount of income and fame (fame is the ultimate determining factor for who wins) they need to be laid out onto a floor plan in a way that gets every tile back to an entrance. It sounds easy until you start purchasing some of the larger lounges and eateries. One misplaced tile can cost you a few turns tearing things down to rebuild them in a better spot and if they're not on the floor plan when the game ends you get nothing for them. Also, a big purchase could mean you're broke for the next few turns and your opponents get great deals on the stuff he needs (you can't drive up the bid if you don't have any money.) Do you nickel and dime your way to riches with slot machines and cheap eats or do you go for bigger gains with the larger sportbooks and nightclubs? You get bonus fame for filling up the floor plan but as stated before larger tiles can be harder to place and folks can outbid you on pieces that will fit the space you have left on your floor plan.

Good news and bad news about these two games. Both are now OOP so if your store doesn't have them they likely never will (boo.) Good news is that most stores blow these titles out at a discount since they are OOP (Vegas Showdown was going for $5 at many stores when Avalon Hill pulled the plug.)

Battlestar Galactica is a good game by Fantasy Flight games. Players a dealt a card that tells them if they're a cylon or not. If you get the cylon card your job is to sabotage the fleet and get them wiped out but not get caught. Otherwise your job is to keep the resource levels above 0 and meet the needed challenges to prep the ship for jumps to get you to Earth. I've seen folks openly announce their cylon allegiance and start drawing the cylon event cards in hopes of having the pursuing cylon fleet wipe out everyone but most folks that win as the cylon do it through less extreme measures by helping the Galactica fail important mission cards or burning through already depleted resources. It's possible that no one ends up the cylon but a particular choice by a player immediately makes them suspect and the group tears itself apart from the inside (almost as much fun to watch as the cylon fleet blasting you to pieces.)

You really can't go wrong with any fantasy flight game. Twilight Imperium is a fine example, though it is an all night kind of game.

Games that I own and recommend -

Chaos in the Old World - You play as one of the 4 chaos gods in a bid to destroy the old world of Warhammer. Each god plays differently, and no two games are the same. 3-4 players, best with 4.

Red Dragon Inn If you find it, buy it. It's reaching the end of it's print run, and hopefully a new one will be out soon. You're a party of adventurers relaxing at an inn after a successful adventure. The only way to win is to be the last sober person that still has coin. Obviously meant as a drinking game, it's good even without the booze (I've only played with booze once). Each character is played via a deck of cards unique to them, and each plays with a very different style. There is a difficult to find expansion, but hopefully, they'll reprint that when the the second expansion comes out. 2-4 players, up to 8 with the expansion.

Cutthroat Caverns - You're a party of adventurers that have found The Ultimate Artifact of Incredible Power. Whoever gets it will be set for life, and first pick of the treasure always goes to the party member that kills the biggest and baddest creatures left in the dungeon. Between you and the exit lie at least 9 encounters. Who among you will steal the most kills, and push the most people in harm's way? A caution! The difficult of each creature and encounter is based on the number of people who started the adventure, not how many are currently playing. So, if you kill your friend off early, you may just die yourself. As the game's tagline says: "Without teamwork, you will never survive. Without betrayal, you'll never win." 3-6 players, card game.

Valhallan42nd wrote:You really can't go wrong with any fantasy flight game.

I would have agreed to that up until last week when I bought Battles of Westeros.
Very dissapointed with the quality of the pieces. Way to small and fiddly.
Took me over 3 hours to assemble all the troops and some still do not stay together.
Combined with the warpage of the soft plastic, it looks crappy.
Also, the completely unadorned board, but tons of card components that are laid on the table is a negative.

+1 on Cutthroat Caverns. It works best with at least 4 players I have found.

You can find Bootleggers for $13.59 here http://www.ccgarmory.com/bobogap.html

Well worth it.

Fantasy Flight Games are usually filled with great components, but their rulebooks generally stink. They're more of a reference than a how-to-play. Think of it this way, would you use a dictionary to learn English, or would you use a book titled How to Speak English? Both have information you can use, but only one teaches you how it all goes together. FFG manuals typically lack that so you end up having to study them to figure it out. Boardgamegeek often helps out there, too.

James

The Descent games are pretty entertaining and, in a zoomed out way, so are the Runbound games. I've used both as substitutes for D&D when I don't have the time or haven't done the prep to play a "full" RPG.

Twilight Imperium has a reputation for taking an enormous amount of time. That has made me steer clear.

The Deadlands board game, Slaughter Gulch I think it's called, is very fun if like that zany Weird West/Victorian Steampunk action.

Talisman: Originally by GW, now release I believe by Fantasy Flight games. It's a sword / sorcery race to the crown game that I've been playing for years. Highly recommended. Fantasy / RPG-ish elements.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Produced by WotC, this game focuses on a group of explorers who become locked in a haunted house. As the group explores the creepy old mansion (creating the board as you go), something eventually triggers the "haunt". The haunt is one of 50 scenarios included with the game, and turns one of the heroes into ... something. After that it's a mad dash for the remaining heroes to escape while the traitor tries to enact his nefarious plan.

Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game: A movie-esque game set in a small town overrun with the walking dead. Our heroes try to fend off zombies, find necessary supplies and in the end survive. It's fairly easy to learn, with a modular board that allows for a good number of variations for a single scenario (there are actually 8? scenarios with the game I believe). It has some adult-ish themes, but always presented very very light heartedly and tongue-in-cheek. (For instance, one Zombie card is called "This might be our last night on earth" and causes a male and female survivor sharing a space to miss their next turn...)

Robo-Rally: Worker robots controlled by various computers (that's you) race around a manufacturing plant, dodging lasers, riding conveyor belts and slipping past machinery designed to crush you flat... all for the amusement of the bored master computers. It's like Tron, but with hyperactive robots instead of Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges. Hilariously fun.

Twilight Imperium: You mentioned this one already, but I figured I'd mention it again. I'm a bit fan of this game, which is sort of like Risk in space with politics. I will warn you that it has a steep learning curve so it can take awhile to fully understand the rules. It is also a bit of a long game though. I've had sessions take 3 to 4 hours...

Settlers of Catan: The gateway drug for modern board games it seems. It's a nice laid back game of trade, colonization and expansion. Completely non-aggressive; no fighting, no troops, nothing like that. It's a great game for a laid back night, with a couple expansions out that can completely change the game play if you're bored with the basic game. Highly recommended if you have people on the fence about board games past Monopoly.


I've really been enjoying board games a lot lately, as I'm several hours from my Warhammer/40K comrades now.

Manchu wrote:Twilight Imperium has a reputation for taking an enormous amount of time. That has made me steer clear.

The new version has some very cool ideas and speeds things up a bit, but one definite issue is that as-shipped there is a 'strategy' card that gives out 2 VPs (out of 10) that can make the game somewhat anti-climactic. FFG has proposed several suggestions to deal with it.

The previous edition had some cool events that would kick in and make things interesting that i don't believe are in the current game. For example, in one game an alien fleet was spawned that everyone had to team up and fight, which caused some fun and helped break up the usual 'uneasy peace' as no one wants to be the first to attack.

streamdragon wrote:Settlers of Catan: The gateway drug for modern board games it seems. It's a nice laid back game of trade, colonization and expansion. Completely non-aggressive; no fighting, no troops, nothing like that. It's a great game for a laid back night, with a couple expansions out that can completely change the game play if you're bored with the basic game. Highly recommended if you have people on the fence about board games past Monopoly.

I have only played this on Xbox360. But it plays well there.

streamdragon wrote:Talisman: Originally by GW, now release I believe by Fantasy Flight games. It's a sword / sorcery race to the crown game that I've been playing for years. Highly recommended. Fantasy / RPG-ish elements.

How could I have forgotten Talisman? It's great fun, has a fair few expansions, and the production qualities are awesome.


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Zombies!!!, a tile-based non-cooperative game, is also a lot of fun. Each turn, you build the board, trying to move your character further toward safety and the others farther from -- while also attacking them with zombies! Also has a goodly amount of expansions.

Zombies is pretty good. Has anyone mentioned Small World? I have it, but have not had a chance to play it.

Gangs of Mega City one is really good, it is almost exactly Necromunda but simpler. (Necromunda was originally going to be Judge Dredd, but they lost copyrights to it, so mongoose got them and made this)

Thank you everyone for you suggestions I will read through them all after I am done with college for the day (I am so bored! Why cant their be a Warhammer or at least MathHammer class lol)

More suggestions are welcome!

Also if you have not today, please click my adoptable!

Pandemic is a really fun game where you all cooperate against a spreading disease. One of my favorites.

Great ones I've enjoyed the last couple of years.

Pandemic.
Chaos in the Old World.
Shogun.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

And some card games (non-collectible).

Citadels.
Death Angel.
Race for the Galaxy.

I recomend Ideology if you want a real world geo-political simulation. So accurate that I've seen some pretty bad fights among my friends because of it. So...maybe I don't recomend it.

sarcastro01 wrote:Our group likes "Bootleggers" which is a game about running hooch during prohibition. At the start of the turn you flip over a number of cards equal to the number of players. There is always also a vehicle to purchase so you can move more hooch. You then bid for initiative each turn once you see which cards are available. The cards can either give you immediate effects like more gang members. a backwater still or an upgrade to a speakeasy or they can be saved for later (things like calling in a hit, stealing another gang's shipment or closing a busy speakeasy). You then make your hooch, assign it to your fleet of trucks and then make any deals with players as you see fit (selling extra crates of hooch to folks with more trucks, deals to open speakeasys, promises of future card plays, etc). Some tough decisions to make during the game. Is that card to perform a hit worth bidding your best initiative card for? Do you save your gang members and try to open a large speakeasy yourself (giving you the ability to determine if anyone else can sell hooch there and skim profits off each sale) or do you put in just enough influence to keep anyone from skimming profits but giving you somewhere other than the local dive to sell your stuff (the larger the speakeasy the more money each crate of hooch is worth.)? First player to $100k wins. Most games last about 10 turns with a game finishing at 12 turns.

We also like "Vegas Showdown" where you build your own casino. Each turn a number of resources are flipped and you bid on one item. If you don't like any of the items or the bidding gets out of control you can spend the turn promoting your upcoming casino and save yourself some cash for later turns. On top of each resource giving you a certain amount of income and fame (fame is the ultimate determining factor for who wins) they need to be laid out onto a floor plan in a way that gets every tile back to an entrance. It sounds easy until you start purchasing some of the larger lounges and eateries. One misplaced tile can cost you a few turns tearing things down to rebuild them in a better spot and if they're not on the floor plan when the game ends you get nothing for them. Also, a big purchase could mean you're broke for the next few turns and your opponents get great deals on the stuff he needs (you can't drive up the bid if you don't have any money.) Do you nickel and dime your way to riches with slot machines and cheap eats or do you go for bigger gains with the larger sportbooks and nightclubs? You get bonus fame for filling up the floor plan but as stated before larger tiles can be harder to place and folks can outbid you on pieces that will fit the space you have left on your floor plan.

I am liking the sound of these two games.

Shadows over camelot - you play vs the game. Quite good pressure builds so it gets exciting towards the end.

Valhallan42nd wrote:You really can't go wrong with any fantasy flight game. Twilight Imperium is a fine example, though it is an all night kind of game.

Games that I own and recommend -

Chaos in the Old World - You play as one of the 4 chaos gods in a bid to destroy the old world of Warhammer. Each god plays differently, and no two games are the same. 3-4 players, best with 4.

Red Dragon Inn If you find it, buy it. It's reaching the end of it's print run, and hopefully a new one will be out soon. You're a party of adventurers relaxing at an inn after a successful adventure. The only way to win is to be the last sober person that still has coin. Obviously meant as a drinking game, it's good even without the booze (I've only played with booze once). Each character is played via a deck of cards unique to them, and each plays with a very different style. There is a difficult to find expansion, but hopefully, they'll reprint that when the the second expansion comes out. 2-4 players, up to 8 with the expansion.

Cutthroat Caverns - You're a party of adventurers that have found The Ultimate Artifact of Incredible Power. Whoever gets it will be set for life, and first pick of the treasure always goes to the party member that kills the biggest and baddest creatures left in the dungeon. Between you and the exit lie at least 9 encounters. Who among you will steal the most kills, and push the most people in harm's way? A caution! The difficult of each creature and encounter is based on the number of people who started the adventure, not how many are currently playing. So, if you kill your friend off early, you may just die yourself. As the game's tagline says: "Without teamwork, you will never survive. Without betrayal, you'll never win." 3-6 players, card game.

These are on the list

jamesmhebert wrote:You can find Bootleggers for $13.59 here http://www.ccgarmory.com/bobogap.html

Well worth it.

Fantasy Flight Games are usually filled with great components, but their rulebooks generally stink. They're more of a reference than a how-to-play. Think of it this way, would you use a dictionary to learn English, or would you use a book titled How to Speak English? Both have information you can use, but only one teaches you how it all goes together. FFG manuals typically lack that so you end up having to study them to figure it out. Boardgamegeek often helps out there, too.

James

Thank you for the link, I want this game

Manchu wrote:The Descent games are pretty entertaining and, in a zoomed out way, so are the Runbound games. I've used both as substitutes for D&D when I don't have the time or haven't done the prep to play a "full" RPG.

Twilight Imperium has a reputation for taking an enormous amount of time. That has made me steer clear.

The Deadlands board game, Slaughter Gulch I think it's called, is very fun if like that zany Weird West/Victorian Steampunk action.

Slaughter Gulch, has my attention now. Have you played it?

streamdragon wrote:Talisman: Originally by GW, now release I believe by Fantasy Flight games. It's a sword / sorcery race to the crown game that I've been playing for years. Highly recommended. Fantasy / RPG-ish elements.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Produced by WotC, this game focuses on a group of explorers who become locked in a haunted house. As the group explores the creepy old mansion (creating the board as you go), something eventually triggers the "haunt". The haunt is one of 50 scenarios included with the game, and turns one of the heroes into ... something. After that it's a mad dash for the remaining heroes to escape while the traitor tries to enact his nefarious plan.

Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game: A movie-esque game set in a small town overrun with the walking dead. Our heroes try to fend off zombies, find necessary supplies and in the end survive. It's fairly easy to learn, with a modular board that allows for a good number of variations for a single scenario (there are actually 8? scenarios with the game I believe). It has some adult-ish themes, but always presented very very light heartedly and tongue-in-cheek. (For instance, one Zombie card is called "This might be our last night on earth" and causes a male and female survivor sharing a space to miss their next turn...)

Robo-Rally: Worker robots controlled by various computers (that's you) race around a manufacturing plant, dodging lasers, riding conveyor belts and slipping past machinery designed to crush you flat... all for the amusement of the bored master computers. It's like Tron, but with hyperactive robots instead of Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges. Hilariously fun.

Twilight Imperium: You mentioned this one already, but I figured I'd mention it again. I'm a bit fan of this game, which is sort of like Risk in space with politics. I will warn you that it has a steep learning curve so it can take awhile to fully understand the rules. It is also a bit of a long game though. I've had sessions take 3 to 4 hours...

Settlers of Catan: The gateway drug for modern board games it seems. It's a nice laid back game of trade, colonization and expansion. Completely non-aggressive; no fighting, no troops, nothing like that. It's a great game for a laid back night, with a couple expansions out that can completely change the game play if you're bored with the basic game. Highly recommended if you have people on the fence about board games past Monopoly.


I've really been enjoying board games a lot lately, as I'm several hours from my Warhammer/40K comrades now.

Sweet Emperor, I am going to be broke this year. All these good board games + video games I want

A Black Ram wrote:Gangs of Mega City one is really good, it is almost exactly Necromunda but simpler. (Necromunda was originally going to be Judge Dredd, but they lost copyrights to it, so mongoose got them and made this)

rdlb wrote:Pandemic is a really fun game where you all cooperate against a spreading disease. One of my favorites.

Gangs of Mega city is on the list now, and pandemic as well I keep hearing about it.

Mannahnin wrote:Great ones I've enjoyed the last couple of years.

Pandemic.
Chaos in the Old World.
Shogun.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

And some card games (non-collectible).

Citadels.
Death Angel.
Race for the Galaxy.

Thank you for your recomendations, I am interested in the Citadels and Race for the Galaxy games. Can you tell me more?

KamikazeCanuck wrote:I recomend Ideology if you want a real world geo-political simulation. So accurate that I've seen some pretty bad fights among my friends because of it. So...maybe I don't recomend it.

Sounds like my kind of game lol

Cosmic Encounter
Axis and Allies
Star Wars Risk (its not just risk with different pieces there are extra rules)
Game of Thrones

Citadels is a nice, inexpensive (I think ~$25 for the current version, which comes with an expansion), compact game which is playable with 2-8 players. You each are racing to be the first to build 8 buildings in your area of the city. Each round you each also secretly pick a role (architect, warlord, bishop, assassin, thief, king, merchant or magician; although the expansion introduces eight more) which gives you special abilities. Easy and quick to learn and teach to non-gamers, but has some depth and a factor of trying to out-guess opponents.

Race for the Galaxy you're racing to settle planets and develop technologies; you have a hand of cards which is BOTH the stuff you can build AND is the "fuel" or "mana" you burn to actually play the other cards. So the game is a constant series of hard choices between what cards to actually play and what cards to burn/discard to play the ones you actually use. This one is playable 2-4, and has three expansions, but is darn cool just with the base game.

Yeenoghu's mention of Game of Thrones is an excellent one. If you like conquest/negotiation/backstabbing games like Diplomacy, Risk, etc, this is one of my favorites.

Shadows Over Camelot is a great choice too. Both it and Pandemic are games where the players cooperate against a difficult game; although in Shadows there's also a chance that one of you is a traitor. Really fun; my wife loved it when she tried it. Wound up being the traitor and nearly beat us all.

Of the five above, I recommend Citadels, Shadows and Pandemic for also hooking in non-gamers like wives and family. GoT & Race are a bit more intricate/in-depth and will appeal more to serious gamers.

Seriously, just listen to the D6Generation podcast. That's where I get most of my game recommendations. A small warning, they may make you go broke from all the games they mention.

Yeah, those guys are part of my boardgaming group.

Valhallan42nd wrote:Seriously, just listen to the D6Generation podcast. That's where I get most of my game recommendations. A small warning, they may make you go broke from all the games they mention.

All the people on here are going to make me go into debt lol

Slaughter Gulch, has my attention now. Have you played it?

Yes and had a lot of fun. It's simple enough to learn fairly quickly and complicated enough to involve a decent amount of strategy -- which is a very important balance for me. The Weird West setting is also a nice break from fantasy and scifi. Plus, the production values are very high, if not quite FFG-level. The same company made the Zombies!!! game I mentioned.

I recently tried Death Angel (the non-collectible card game based on Space Hulk) and while it's pretty I can't recommend it. It's tough to learn, pretty rough on you if you haven't learned the rules thoroughly, and just not a lot of fun unless you're already a big 40k fan.


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Mannahnin wrote:Yeah, those guys are part of my boardgaming group.

Goddam it, Mannahnin, I am green with envy.

Spoiled, I guess. Those guys were also opponents in my first 40k league, too.

I tried Death Angel recently and really liked it; It was complex and took a while, but I thought they very cleverly captured a lot of the feel of Space Hulk. Definitely another game that's better for serious gamers/GW fans, not so much for spouses and such.

How was that Chaos Gods in the Old World game?

It's really awesome. Strategically-challenging and oozes flavor. The gods each play in ways that thematically make sense for them.

You really need four players to best enjoy it, though.

Also, be sure to print off the one-page errata from the website. Slaanesh is really broken without it.

Board games: Catan, Risk and Dust Tactics are the top of the shelf right now around here.

Non-board: Fluxx and Munchkin, though the latter can be something of a pain.

Citadels is easy to learn but hard to master, as the saying goes. The theme has wide appeal and being a card game it is quite visual and plays in a small space. It uses a lot of action text which is a drawback for the hard of reading.

Carcassone: a classic Euro game in which you build up a mediaeval landscape by drawing and laying tiles that have bits of road, cities and so on. The objective is get the most points from the landscape by the placement of your followers. The rules are simple.

Settlers of Catan was covered above. Some people don't like the luck element.

Boardgamegeek is an excellent site if you want to find out more about board games. The main thing is to identify the kind of game you like, and stick mainly to that sort.

For example, I hate abstract games, I am happy with a luck component, and I prefer games with a strong theme (the opposite of abstract) usually involving competition and conflict. Although I've got Race For The Galaxy, I don't like it a lot because it feels like four people playing solitaire around the same table. There is very little chance to influence or affect other players.

www.boardgamegeek.com