The Board Game Discussion and Appreciation Thread

[Thingyman]

The Board Game Discussion and Appreciation Thread

Hey everyone!

Inspired by a similar thread on another forum and by my own increased interest in board games this past year I thought it might be fun with a thread dedicated to board games

After all, we do love playing games here, and werewolf/mafia does exist as board games/card games. Many of you might've even been introduced to the game this way (I wasn't, personally).

Anyway, this is a thread for whatever: Pictures, recommendations, reviews, random thoughts or exciting links or news. Or maybe you're looking for opponents on Board Game Arena or something :P

[Thingyman]

A Thingy Review #1: Tsuro

A 8½/10 for me. It does what it does pretty perfectly.

I remember first seeing this game on Wil Wheaton's TableTop show on YouTube, and I was just immediately hooked.

It's fast-paced, it's very light, it's tile-laying, and it has a dragon theme with excellent components to match! What's not to love?

My brother described this game as a competitive board game version of Snake, which I find to be a pretty good description. You can really play to mess others up, you can plan ahead, or you can just enjoy the puzzle aspect of it all.

Many would have this as a filler game in their collection, but I can honestly keep playing this. Unfortunately, this is one of the few games where the wifey and I disagree - she isn't as fond of it as me :/









(If you enjoy my pictures, you can follow me on IG: @boardgamehubby)

[Sett]

I thought I'd share this video here that I found recently, it's rather interesting.

[Sunbae]

Recently played Potion Explosion for the first time and it ended up being a blast

[Thingyman]

Recently played Potion Explosion for the first time and it ended up being a blast

I've heard very good things about this, but unfortunately it seems to be out of print or something? At least it's not in stock anywhere in Denmark :/

[Sunbae]

Recently played Potion Explosion for the first time and it ended up being a blast

I've heard very good things about this, but unfortunately it seems to be out of print or something? At least it's not in stock anywhere in Denmark :/

That's quite unfortunate

[lendunistus]

anybody played Pandemic?

[Boquise]

I played this game a year ago


and it was a blast.
1 person stands as the winner but it is all cooperative anyway.
1 player is murdered since the beginning and plays the role of the ghost. The rest are psychics who have travelled to the mansion where this grizzly event occured.

The ghost decides who the individual psychic thinks killed the ghost, what murder weapon was used and in what room the deed was done. All the options are visible for the players, but they do not know who is aligned with what.
The ghost does some pre-planning and drawing cards that they think will hopefully help the psychics get to their answer.

The players are on a timer. They start at trying to figure out (i dont remember the order) their suspect, and then to murder weapon and then to room. The main objective is to get every psychic across the finish line before the timer runs out. So psychics can help each other. The ghost will draw cards with abstract motives and assign them to the players in hope that they will figure out the clue. Like, one card is a picture of flowers, and there is a gardner as a suspect. So if a psychic unknowingly has the gardner as their suspect, the ghost should give them the flower card (if the ghost draws it, that is). The ghost is unable to speak, can only knock. One for yes, two for no (iirc).

Idk this is a pretty bad explanation and was quite a long time ago since i last played this. Was a jolly good time tho

[Sunbae]

Mysterium is excellent and a blast every time we play it.

I'd like to give some shout out to a couple of games more focused on cards: "Love Letter" and "Sushi Go". Both of these games are short, easy to pick up, yet provide entertainment game after game after game.

[nutella]

yeah mysterium is fun! also a fan of sushi go, and can plug ramen fury as well, kinda different but really cool

[Ampharos]

(If you enjoy my pictures, you can follow me on IG: @boardgamehubby)

ah, so that's why the thread exists

[Owner Of A Lonely Heart]

Some fun card games

Superfight <-best geeky arguments
Bad Medicine <- loudest or most painful laughing
Bring Your Own Book <-this is more of a book game than a card one to be fair

---
Just One is probably my favorite co-op game at moment

---
Geek Out! is probably my favorite trivia game (fictional rabbits) players take turns going around the table betting how many fictional rabbits they can name player who bids the highest has to list them off etc. there are of course a variety of categories in play

---
Betrayal at House on Hill - is probably my favorite tile laying game. One of these days, I still need to get my Scooby Doo edition of it to the table. The exploration is fun.

---
I don't care for Mysterium. I can put in x time to play the game. I can do everything right until the end. But if I mess up at the end, I just lose. We also can't talk about the final clue collectively, so maybe some would get it but the majority wouldn't. eh...

---
I don't care for in real life mafia. It feels more like a dexterity game if you get scum. You have act silently. If someone hears you, it is over.

[Boquise]

Mysterium is excellent and a blast every time we play it.

I'd like to give some shout out to a couple of games more focused on cards: "Love Letter" and "Sushi Go". Both of these games are short, easy to pick up, yet provide entertainment game after game after game.

I really like those two games, especially love letter and all its expansions. Me and my friends at uni did our own version with Swedish politicians, my brother illustrated the cards. Was a fun time

[nutella]

New one my bf and I have been enjoying, Kodama Duo. You make trees and it's really prettyyy






also gonna spontaneously list a handful of my other all time favs but probably forgetting plenty of great ones too
- Tokaido (usually one of the first that comes to mind as a favorite. it's just so gorgeous aaaaa)
- Root (v cute)
- Splendor
- Gizmos (some similarity to splendor but more complex and has cool lil marbles)
- Azul (hmm i just like games with uniquely satisfying little pieces huh)
- Bohnanza (the bean game!!! trading and stuff, cute art, also the Duel version is pretty different with a bluffing mechanic that is also fun)
- Sushi Go
- Ramen Fury
- Jaipur
- Dominion (the expansions have just gotten crazier and crazier tbh)
- Eminent Domain
- Nexus Ops (been a while but played a lot in college)
- Smallworld (ditto)
- King of Tokyo/New York (ditto; pretty silly but fun)
- Ascension
- Galaxy Trucker (that Czech guy who made Codenames has made lots of other good stuff, both this one and Space Alert have fun real-time-pressure stuff)
- Carcassonne
- Isle of Skye (sorta like carcassonne with extra mechanics)
- Coup (like Resistance/Avalon meets Citadels kinda?)
- Nothing Personal (eyy mafia theme. the "influence" mechanic is cool)
- Gloomhaven (was super into it for like 6 months or so, unlocked most stuff)
- Pandemic Legacy (lol, played through like half of it in 2020)

[Tangrowth]

Omg I'm so glad this thread exists, will post more later. But Mysterium is awesome, I love that game.

[Sett]

All I know is I played two campaigns of Anima: Beyond Fantasy and my DM made me feel like I was in a videogame.

[Thingyman]

anybody played Pandemic?

Mysterium is excellent and a blast every time we play it.

I'd like to give some shout out to a couple of games more focused on cards: "Love Letter" and "Sushi Go". Both of these games are short, easy to pick up, yet provide entertainment game after game after game.

I've bought both Pandemic and Mysterium, but have yet to play them. Hopefully will get to it soon!

It's funny how one can change with regards to board games. Because I remember a group of us trying to learn and play Pandemic in a board game cafe like 4 years ago, and after looking at the rules for 20 minutes we gave up and chose another game that we could more quickly learn and play.

But now I'm used to playing more complicated games, so I'm curious to know how the experience of opening the rulebook to Pandemic this time.

New one my bf and I have been enjoying, Kodama Duo. You make trees and it's really prettyyy






also gonna spontaneously list a handful of my other all time favs but probably forgetting plenty of great ones too
- Tokaido (usually one of the first that comes to mind as a favorite. it's just so gorgeous aaaaa)
- Root (v cute)
- Splendor
- Gizmos (some similarity to splendor but more complex and has cool lil marbles)
- Azul (hmm i just like games with uniquely satisfying little pieces huh)
- Bohnanza (the bean game!!! trading and stuff, cute art, also the Duel version is pretty different with a bluffing mechanic that is also fun)
- Sushi Go
- Ramen Fury
- Jaipur
- Dominion (the expansions have just gotten crazier and crazier tbh)
- Eminent Domain
- Nexus Ops (been a while but played a lot in college)
- Smallworld (ditto)
- King of Tokyo/New York (ditto; pretty silly but fun)
- Ascension
- Galaxy Trucker (that Czech guy who made Codenames has made lots of other good stuff, both this one and Space Alert have fun real-time-pressure stuff)
- Carcassonne
- Isle of Skye (sorta like carcassonne with extra mechanics)
- Coup (like Resistance/Avalon meets Citadels kinda?)
- Nothing Personal (eyy mafia theme. the "influence" mechanic is cool)
- Gloomhaven (was super into it for like 6 months or so, unlocked most stuff)
- Pandemic Legacy (lol, played through like half of it in 2020)

looks like a solid list. Most of these games are either already in my collection or on my wishlist with the exception of Ramen Fury, Eminent Domain, Nexus Ops and Nothing Personal. I'll watch some videos on those!

[lendunistus]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

[Boquise]

I randomly found a Mysterium in the local store a week ago so impulse bought it. It has been difficult getting a hold of one for quite some time.

Other than that, I recently acquired the DnD game Dungeon Mayhem. It is an excellent blast, easy to pick up (you need no knowledge of dnd to appreciate it), takes from 15 minutes to maybe 30 to complete and you win by being the last one standing. Players choose between four classes (in the first expansion): cleric, paladin, barbarian and rouge. In the second expansion you get ranger and druid too. In the third, you get 6 monster classes, so in total there are 12 options (and all three games together wasn't that expensive. I just clicked home the third expansion because the first two are such a good amount of fun. You can be 6 players at most but with 12 classes, I think it would be fun to somehow do a 6vs6 run after the pandemic is over.

Each class has the standard draw cards, attack, defend, heal, and extra action cards, but they also have class exclusive cards which changes it up. Every player starts at 10HP. If you are 6 people you can only attack the one on your immediate right and immediate left. And unless you use an extra action card, you can only play 1 card each turn (you also have to play a card, and if you use an extra action card, you have to play another card. If you are out of cards in your deck, you shuffle your discard pile. If you are out of cards on your hand, you draw 2 cards).

The game is pretty fun as a 1vs1 game too, but it truly shines with more players. What fascinated me is though the decks are only 28 cards each, there is a surprising amount of deep strategy a player can utilise. Rouge is on the paper the weakest class, but it truly shines in a larger game. I played as Cleric last time, and two rounds each I swapped my measly 2-4HP to max HP, through a Cleric exclusive card, with a player that had been attacking me beforehand. Was a nice troll tbh

Here are links:
Dungeon Mayhem
Battle for Baldur's Gate
Monster Madness

[LanMisa]

New one my bf and I have been enjoying, Kodama Duo. You make trees and it's really prettyyy






also gonna spontaneously list a handful of my other all time favs but probably forgetting plenty of great ones too
- Tokaido (usually one of the first that comes to mind as a favorite. it's just so gorgeous aaaaa)
- Root (v cute)
- Splendor
- Gizmos (some similarity to splendor but more complex and has cool lil marbles)
- Azul (hmm i just like games with uniquely satisfying little pieces huh)
- Bohnanza (the bean game!!! trading and stuff, cute art, also the Duel version is pretty different with a bluffing mechanic that is also fun)
- Sushi Go
- Ramen Fury
- Jaipur
- Dominion (the expansions have just gotten crazier and crazier tbh)
- Eminent Domain
- Nexus Ops (been a while but played a lot in college)
- Smallworld (ditto)
- King of Tokyo/New York (ditto; pretty silly but fun)
- Ascension
- Galaxy Trucker (that Czech guy who made Codenames has made lots of other good stuff, both this one and Space Alert have fun real-time-pressure stuff)
- Carcassonne
- Isle of Skye (sorta like carcassonne with extra mechanics)
- Coup (like Resistance/Avalon meets Citadels kinda?)
- Nothing Personal (eyy mafia theme. the "influence" mechanic is cool)
- Gloomhaven (was super into it for like 6 months or so, unlocked most stuff)
- Pandemic Legacy (lol, played through like half of it in 2020)

There is a game convention in my city every year where, among others, you can rent out board games for free. We played the game on the photo there once and it was a BLAST. Sushi GO and Bohnanza are also staples at home.

[Thingyman]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

[KarmaDope]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

You are not the first and will never be the last person to do that I'm pretty sure I did the same on my first every playthrough of it.

I'm sure you've seen some of my posts in the other site's thread but I'm currently doing a slow 2-player run through of Clank! Legacy. Would highly recommend to anyone, it's one of my top 5 Legacy games.

[Thingyman]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

You are not the first and will never be the last person to do that I'm pretty sure I did the same on my first every playthrough of it.

I'm sure you've seen some of my posts in the other site's thread but I'm currently doing a slow 2-player run through of Clank! Legacy. Would highly recommend to anyone, it's one of my top 5 Legacy games.

Haha, relieved to hear that

I actually just ordered Clank! (non-legacy one) home, so very excited to play that with the wifey. She and I have gotten really into deckbuilders. And we also just bought My City which will be our soft entry into legacy games. So we'll probably get Clank! Legacy at some point :P

What is your full top 5 list of legacy games?

[Thingyman]

A Thingy Review #2: Dominion

9½ out of 10.

I tried this a decade ago online without even knowing that it was apparently a groundbreaking game that invented the whole deckbuilding genre. I remember liking it back then, and playing it with real cards hasn't changed my mind! This will for sure be one of our most played games this year.

Even with just the core box we feel the game has a lot of replayability as there are so many combinations and strategies to try out. It's just a very satisfying game to play as you feel your engine growing mixed with the tension of actually getting points into your deck in time.

However, we will admit to having introduced a house rule: The bandit seems too disruptive, so we've chosen to not play with that card in future games :P

And I mean, the fact that this game has gotten so popular that it's spawned communities with mafia subforums is pretty telling. I think this will prove to be a timeless classic.

[lendunistus]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

this is exactly the same thing I did when I first started playing the game lol

I was so ecstatic when we finally “won” the game, but when I started playing online in other places I realised we had been playing wrong all the time

offer to join us is still open btw

[Thingyman]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

this is exactly the same thing I did when I first started playing the game lol

I was so ecstatic when we finally “won” the game, but when I started playing online in other places I realised we had been playing wrong all the time

offer to join us is still open btw

At what times of day do you play?

[KarmaDope]

You are not the first and will never be the last person to do that I'm pretty sure I did the same on my first every playthrough of it.

I'm sure you've seen some of my posts in the other site's thread but I'm currently doing a slow 2-player run through of Clank! Legacy. Would highly recommend to anyone, it's one of my top 5 Legacy games.

Haha, relieved to hear that

I actually just ordered Clank! (non-legacy one) home, so very excited to play that with the wifey. She and I have gotten really into deckbuilders. And we also just bought My City which will be our soft entry into legacy games. So we'll probably get Clank! Legacy at some point :P

What is your full top 5 list of legacy games?

To be honest it's not really a list as such because I don't want to have to give them rankings. It's just 5 games I consider to be legacy/campaign themed that are better than the rest, and I would recommend them first to anyone considering these types of games:

Pandemic Legacy Season 0, 1 and 2, and I would play them in number order. Some people recommend playing them in the chronological order that they came out in (1, 2, 0) but I think that if you're playing for the storyline, playing them in number order is better. If you're new to board gaming then 1, 2, 0 is probably better as 1 is the closest to "core" Pandemic, 2 has a twist on the mechanics and 0 takes the mechanics and makes them better, in my opinion, so people may find PLS1 boring after playing 0.

Gloomhaven, whilst not considered a true Legacy game as it can be reset, is on this list as well as it is one of the best games I have ever played and has a proper storyline.

Finally, Clank! Legacy as I said above, because it takes a good game in Clank! and makes it even better.

I've literally just woken up so I may add to this later and expand on some of the games!

[lendunistus]

pandemic is definitely very solid

there’s also 3 expansions and a $%#!ton of variants

we play it weekly using tabletop simulator every sunday on another server, you should join us!

Update: I finally got around to playing Pandemic.

At first, it felt like an impossible game... Until we realized that we'd read the win condition wrong. We thought you needed to find the cure AND eradicate all the tokens. After "losing" 4 games in a row, we were so close to giving up :P

In reality, we'd won 3 of the games, and we were actually one turn away from winning the last one even with the harder rules we imposed on ourselves.

I'll wait to give a verdict until we've played it again without a feeling of the game being impossible :P

this is exactly the same thing I did when I first started playing the game lol

I was so ecstatic when we finally “won” the game, but when I started playing online in other places I realised we had been playing wrong all the time

offer to join us is still open btw

At what times of day do you play?

we used to play every saturday at 10am CST but now we play every sunday at 9am CST (should be 16/4PM for you danes)

@Thingyman

[Kirschstein]

anybody played Pandemic?

Love it, and have played the first two legacy campaigns, they remain some of my favourite board game experiences.

However, the last time the better half and I tried to play it, we found it a little too close to home as various cities began to outbreak, playing the game whilst living through an actual pandemic isn't for us at the moment!

I'm hoping when we can visit friends again that feeling will have passed, as I'm looking forward to playing the prequel campaign.

[Shawn]

anybody played Pandemic?

Love it, and have played the first two legacy campaigns, they remain some of my favourite board game experiences.

However, the last time the better half and I tried to play it, we found it a little too close to home as various cities began to outbreak, playing the game whilst living through an actual pandemic isn't for us at the moment!

I'm hoping when we can visit friends again that feeling will have passed, as I'm looking forward to playing the prequel campaign.

First season of legacy is a legit GOAT game

[Sett]

Poppin' back into this thread to recommend ProZD's Board Game review series. It's one of the ways in which I've found some cool board games that I've played with friends.

I'll leave a link to the playlist (with over 120 episodes!) in this spoiler:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...une1sWxbl14w2N

[nutella]

New game!! Supported Gorinto on Kickstarter a while back, just received it and tried it out. Cool mechanics a bit reminiscent of Kodama and maybe a hint of Azul, with nice satisfying tile stacking.

[Sett]

Highly recommend this documentary. Go is the oldest board game to be played continuously to this date, invented in China around 2,500 years ago. It's simply incredible.

[Thingyman]

Me and the wifey just released our very first board game video - a top 10 list of board games from 2021. I thought you guys might find it interesting to check out. Also, as this is our very first video we also happily welcome critique and feedback

(We actually shot this a month ago, but the arrival of baby Leonora delayed the video :P)

[Thingyman]

More board game goodness!

[Guillotina]

@Thingyman

Do you know any board games that could be adaptable to Forum style?

[Wisdom]

Me and the wifey just released our very first board game video - a top 10 list of board games from 2021. I thought you guys might find it interesting to check out. Also, as this is our very first video we also happily welcome critique and feedback

(We actually shot this a month ago, but the arrival of baby Leonora delayed the video :P)

I'm impressed that I haven't played any of these games. My boardgame backlog is so big!

[Thingyman]

@Thingyman

Do you know any board games that could be adaptable to Forum style?

Sure, there are many. Mostly party games. I know Wavelength, Dixit, Telestrations (which we’ve called MS Paint) and Codenames has been played a ton on POG.

Fun ones to try out could be Snakesss and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong 😀

[Guillotina]

@Thingyman

Do you know any board games that could be adaptable to Forum style?

Sure, there are many. Mostly party games. I know Wavelength, Dixit, Telestrations (which we’ve called MS Paint) and Codenames has been played a ton on POG.

Fun ones to try out could be Snakesss and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong 😀

I'll check them out.

Thanks!

[Thingyman]

And here is the follow-up - our top 10 favorite board games of all-time!

[Thingyman]

Whoop whoop, the baby delayed us quite significantly... But here it finally is - a ranking of 50 board games from 2021

[Thingyman]

Me, the wifey and the baby went to Essen Spiel - the world's largest convention - and brought home 30 new games

[Thingyman]

As a follow-up to the last video, here are some first impressions on the 13 games we played down in Essen, some of which are still to be released. Spoiler alert: We deem 4 of them worthy of buying, and a couple of them in particular are very excellent!