Re: What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Has anyone here played The Old King's Crown? It's been a couple months since I've gotten any board games played and I am thinking of either that or trying Arcs with my online board game group. Something new and interesting that I would learn and teach to try and get back into the habit of things. I'm very tempted to pick up both IRL as well but I wanted to gauge some opinions.

I watched a stream of it while they kickstarted it. It looked sort of interesting, though a bit fiddly. More directly a trick taker than Arcs but with a lot of chrome and asymmetric faction decks. My recollection of watching that playtest version was that I didn't like the victory conditions very much.

Gary Sax wrote: All my opinions of this are on here in the thread on these forums, fwiw, it's just that people don't read the game specific threads here mostly.

Guilty as charged; 99% of my visits here are to the "Recent Topics" shortcut, so if there hasn't been a recent post to a thread I forget it exists.

On-topic, the kid and I played a couple runs of DEAD CELLS this morning, based on the popular and award-winning video game.

For those not familiar with the latter, it's a "Rogue-lite" or "Roguevania":

A "run" = one play of the game, that results in either death (mostly) or beating the final boss (rarely).
"Roguevania" = side-scrolling platformer like Castlevania, but with roguelike elements.
"Roguelike" = procedurally-generated levels, permadeath, designed to be hard.
"Rogue-lite" = a little easier than a true Roguelike, because during or after a run, you can unlock some things to make the next runs easier.

The board game (a co-op) seems to capture all of these quite well, accounting for the different medium. Our first run was mostly confusing (due to the rulebook). We died quickly. Before the second run I re-read the rulebook and that cleared stuff up. We got farther and spent our energy on strategy instead of trying to figure out how to play.

There's a lot of stuff on the table when set up:
- A "mutation board," which has a bunch of half-sleeved recesses. When you unlock cards, you slide them into the recesses. When you put the game away, you fold up the board and all your cards stay put. So far the kid and I have unlocked "start with a free piece of equipment" and "start with a bit of money."
- A "biome board." This is the current level. You start in the "Prisoner's Quarters" and there's six others. Each biome has a tuckbox with various cards and tokens. The board has various paths you can take -- usually some paths have more risk/reward. Biomes have exits that lead either to another biome, or to a boss fight.
- An "annex board," which holds things for your current run: decks of cards representing monsters, equipment, and "blueprints" (new equipment which, if discovered, is permanently added to the equipment deck).
- A combat board, for tracking combat.
- Four decks of cards, for things you can unlock at the end of the game.
- Each player has a board to track health, equipment, and various themed unique upgrades.

The core loop is very simple actually. Move, flip over the token in your new place, resolve it. If someone dies or you beat a boss, then go to the "end of a run" procedure. Otherwise, repeat.

Combat is simple and fast, but the variety of monsters means that the tactics will be different and sometimes tricky. Some monsters drop good loot, but others might be more dangerous. Over the course of several runs you'll unlock more tactical options, which is a nice way of introducing more complexity in a gradual way.

The end of game procedure lets you spend "cells" (a type of loot) to purchase cards from upgrade decks. The decks are generally themed as offense, defense, and tricky stuff. Plus one wildcard deck that I haven't figured out yet. Most of the decks have an order and are not supposed to be shuffled. When you purchase a card, you draw it from the bottom of the deck. You're not supposed to look at the decks, to preserve surprise.

It's not a true legacy game -- no ripping up cards or permanently altering components. You can always reset the game back to its starting point -- undo all the upgrades, re-stack the decks in their original order, etc. You don't need to keep the same players, or even the same player count, from game to game.

After two runs (and halfway through a third, which we will finish later today) it's really fun. First run was rough due to rules issues, but now we are digging it. Get gold to buy equipment to get farther? Get cells to buy more unlocks?

There's some limits on communication to prevent the common coop issue of quarterbacking/alpha gamer/lead dick. Outside of combat, you can discuss whatever you like, but one person has the "first player" token and gets to decide. You're not allowed to discuss combat cards. When combat starts, you can only say a single thing about what you're doing -- "I'm going to attack in rounds two and three" -- but nothing specific.

The only thing I don't see from the video games is the concept of different character builds. Equipment and loot that you can find on any one run are random, but chosen from the total pool of things you've unlocked. Based on personal preference, and/or first few upgrades, you might choose to do a melee heavy build, or a ranged build, a fast hit-and-run build, one focused on laying damaging traps, and so on. At least so far, there's not a lot of ability to choose this. There are, however, four different PCs to choose from that have unique upgrades and combat decks, so maybe that's where it comes in.

Preliminary rating 8/10. Fun!

I'm digging Dead Cells too. I think the bulk of gameplay is serviceable. Fun, even, But the real pull is the dangling carrot of new content and the Rogue-lite stuff.

I continue to play Dead Cells with the kid. We are now beating our heads against more difficult challenges, and the game continues to reveal its charm through the promise of more things, which will make future games easier. Charlie mentioned that the base game is fun and it is. But the conceit is the future promise of tantalizing yet unknown rewards. Unlike other legacy games I’ve played, there’s quite a bit of randomness and choice in how you approach it. You can have (at most) six powerups for a particular attempt, and you can discuss what you need, and swap out other powerups if those work better. As a pseudo-legacy game you can play it without previous players, yet this loses the iterative core that keeps me coming back. The physical production has a handful of errors, and other tactile aspects that bring suboptimality into it. Yet it is very close to being a triumph. 8/10, approaching 10.

MON. Abstract card game. Climbing-ish? Samurai themed, light, pretty fun. 6/10.

MANTIS. Push your luck party card game, forgettable. If the Oatmeal Guy illustrates a game (Exploding Kittens, etc.) you can probably skip it. If you think farts and tacos and “wacky” humor are amazing, then go ahead. 2/10.

THE BLOODY INN. Tableau murdering. The economy of the game is really tight and makes you work like hell to beat it. 8/10.

SUB TERRA. The classic. 5p, I tried not to be too much of an alpha jerk. I found the exit, the rest died screaming as they were pulled into the darkness. 10/10.

KINGSBURG. It is cozy and inoffensive. 4/10. Might pick it up for my mother, who lives in a town of the same name. She’d like it.

CAMP GRIZZLY. The grail game. A tragedy, really needs a 2nd edition with a developer to tighten up the rules. But it tells a story, in this case one where three teenagers were murdered by a serial killer while trying to lure him into a deadly trap to save the preteen campers. We play this every Halloween and my friend posts a picture to r/boardgames to see angry nerds seethe. 10/10.

I'm still enjoying Dead Cells as well. It's really caught on with my group as everyone is loving it and we've played it a lot. Hit double-digit runs. There's something about how fast it delivers its rewards, the loop is incredibly short and responsive, which keeps us coming back.

Feel like I've experienced enough of it to write a review. I have a semi-ambitious idea that I'm outlining. Probably going to work on it for a few hours tomorrow.

Still carrying on with the four campaigns (Betrayal Legacy, Tainted Grail, Sword & Sorcery, Gloomhaven: JotL) and Machina Arcana on different days over a 2 week cycle - lots of fun.
I have tried getting some horror themed games out for people at the game club this week but no interest at all, they all have their favoured types of games (mostly euros or lighter) and a themed evening (with games like the original Buffy, Fury of Dracula, Arkham or Eldritch Horror, Dead of Winter, Cthulhu Death May Die) is just not in their wheelhouse.

My old gaming crew came out for the weekend, so it was time for, as my eldest asked incredulously “Eight hours of gaming?” (It was more like twelve across Friday and Sunday)

We got in all our standards: Greed, The Crew, Speicherstadt (one player grabbed four of the five cards that turn cargo into money, so I had to police his ship prices pretty hard to give the rest of us a chance), Hansa Teutonica (the British map absolutely broke me, but on the standard map they let me get trading houses on both ends of the action upgrade city and ran that connection for easy points and the win), and Ra (players with the 13,12 and 11 tiles were absolutely bullied in our third game and went two rounds without spending them).

My two eldest joined us for Just One. Kind of funny to see a seven-year-old’s clues. Very literal. Octopus was ‘slimy’ and nail was ‘sharp.’ Also tried Marvel Remix as an alternative to Fantasy Realms. I maintain it’s a better, more open game that finds more combos in icons and card types than specific cards, but the scoring still grinds everything right down. Requiring a villain card whose penalties you have to work around is a nice little spanner in the works of pursuing an ideal hand. Waiting for the rest of the crew to wake up, I taught one Pocket Paragons. Just this great balance of feeling clever and lost, but also never out of it if you can just nail their rest.

Finally cracked out the expansions (just new ship designs and some new components because I am not ready for intruders) to Galaxy Trucker. It was like playing for the first time again. Our ships were garbage, and only two of us ended the third round with any money. It really loses something when you’re playing well and not laughing at a small meteor taking out the exact right piece to break your ship in half.

Cat in the Box was a dud. The eventual winner said he hated it no fewer than three times, and everyone else agreed that a paradox possibly wiping out two turns of points as too brutal. Real bummer because I could start to see some strategy by the third round. Hopefully I can find someone else willing to give it a shake.

Tigris and Euphrates was not a dud despite my kids climbing over my lap during the teach and play. Won with an incredibly balanced 7/6/6/6 line when no one else cracked two, but they were struggling with strategy for the first and started two external conflicts that brought in a pile of points for me. The difference between external and internal conflicts finally wholly clicked for me. I didn’t have to double check the rules on them at all.

The big winner of the weekend was Finca. Just lit a total fire under them and fit in two games. The first was a bloodbath as the winner (67) took every single bonus tile except for the one second place (35) tied him on. Took the second game by a single point which was desperately needed because second place was really feeling his fourth beer by then and ready to declare himself king of Mallorca if he managed the win in that state. They brought it back with them, so they’ll have practice next time.

Great weekend, as always. Excited for the next one, as always.

Also been going through the solo campaign of Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate. Got some attention at release as an adaptation of Android: Netrunner but with magic, Marco Polo, Mongols and Persians. The solo system is pretty clean, but the campaign starts with Polo whose very defensive playstyle doesn’t seem to showcase the game at its best. Might be able to get my wife into it, but Blue Moon and Air, Land, and Sea are both higher up on the list.

Once a year, I host a day of horror-themed board games in October. Usually I have a good turnout, and even had 10 players one year. In recent years, we always played Camp Grizzly and the Gothic Game. In earlier years, we always started with a big game of Arkham Horror with all the expansions. Today was odd, because we only had five players, and everybody showed up late. Not a trifling five minutes late, more like 2+ hours late.

The first player showed up after 2 pm, so I let him choose the first game. He picked Arkham Horror 2nd, so we frantically set up the game before anyone else showed up, though we just added the Dunwich board to the mix. Two more players showed up just as we finished setup, and one more player showed up during the first game turn.

It was a strange game of Arkham Horror. We had Nyarlathotep, but it ultimately didn't matter as we never encountered any cultists or Mask monsters. We never had more than four gates in play at once, and usually less, as we kept getting gate surges. Two of the players were inexperienced and indecisve, so the game ran really long. We ended the game after 3.5 hours with the Doom Factor at just 1 and the Terror Level at 2. We only had two sealed gates, but with the doom factoor so low, it seemed inevitable that we would win. Two people had to leave early, so we just arbitrarily declared victory.

With just three players left, we played a couple of games of This Game is KILLER. One player got eliminated early and the game and was sad about it, so I played a card to bring her back to life. She ultimately won the game, though another player managed to escape in a shuttle and come in second place. She gpt eliminated early in the second game. We survivors ran around for several turns before the alien pounced on the other guy. Then I held out a for a really long time, and ended up destroying 5 out of the 8 rooms in a futile attempt to kill the alien. It finally jumped me, so we all lost.

Still haven't gotten to play This Game is KILLER with a larger group? Curious if it would hit a little harder for you with more.

charlest wrote: Still haven't gotten to play This Game is KILLER with a larger group? Curious if it would hit a little harder for you with more.

I expect that it will be great fun if I can play it with a larger group, but turnout was lower than expected yesterday and the overly long game of Arkham Horror sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I was expecting minimum of 4 solid players plus there were 7 Maybes, but ultimately only one Maybe showed up. Fortunately, it's a filler game, so if I just keep bringing to everywhere, I should eventually luck into a larger game of it.

The two youngest got out Necromolds and Trick Shot. The third wanted to smash some dough monsters in the former, and the fourth cleared the ice every two minutes to run a LEGO zamboni in the latter. It wasn't by the rules, but they had fun, and it was more play than those boxes have had since I bought them.

Prerelease for the prequels set of Star Wars Unlimited. Four guys coming out to learn the game was pretty exciting.

Had a lot of fun with an Obi-Wan deck against Anakin. Was able to jam in Ki Adi Mundi and Ayla Secura, two pulls I was very happy to see. His Aethersprite did work. Just glad to be playing a fun game.

I learned Viticulture, which is like the epitome of worker placement. I liked that the process of setting up your vinyard until the moment when you sell your first wine took so frigging long. That actually felt very thematic. I think you could win the game by being lucky with the cards, which is a plus for me. Would play again if I want a quiet, relaxing evening.

Holy shit, I played board games! First time in a long time. Just two of us.....

First was Battle for Biternia, the 16 bit styled MOBA. It's a great game and really has a lot of strategy once you figure things out. Learning characters would help of course, but I have tons of them and have not played nearly enough to know who can do what. My opponent had never played before. That did not stop him from being in the lead for the majority of the game, and it could have gone either way. But I was the only one to actually destroy a tower, and started going after his Bit (the base). I managed to kill it and won the game.

Next was Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. Second time playing this for both of us. This game.... I really want to like it, since it's fun playing as the characters from the first film. But when it comes down to it, it's just bland. Too many edges were sanded down for mass market. We won... pretty handily. Big deal.