What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Heroquest still rules.

We had never used the companion app that turns it into a coop before and wanted to test it out despite not broadly being coop types. It's pretty nice! We were just playing one hero apiece so we went in knowing we were going to loot the place and leave partway through. AutoZargon means we can break it out as a half hour coffee break game because there's a bit less admin, and I can't think of another crawl that can pull that off.

I feel like my two oldest crossed some sort of threshold this week. I pulled out Ghost Stories, and they were into it. Then their mom came down from putting number three to sleep, and she was all sorts of excited to get in on it because we haven’t played in years.

It helps that I can manage all the rules and play a support role, and the boys just need to decide which ghosts to bop on the head. Kids aren’t luckier than adults. They’re just willing to take more and greater risks and thus have more opportunities to roll three black to knock out some fat body. Classic Ghost Stories in that we only won on the last roll of the easiest mode.

Now number two is planning out our week of gaming. Hand of the King tonight because he won our last play and more Ghost Stories Thursday. My years of planning are finally paying off.

FIRE & AXE. It's great., It's one of those games I never quite look forward to playing, maybe because there's no overarching story. But it never fails to deliver and yesterday was no exception. We were four players and all of us had bad luck with the dice roll, so basically we were pretty inept vikings. I ended up dead last, but had a great time. It's a very tactical game - all about opportunity - but having a plan usually helps. I didn't have a plan and it showed.

A big part of the game is rune cards which help with dice rolls, grant extra actions, and so on. Some of them are very take that-ish and you can opt to play without those cards, but we never have. They can be annoying, but they also give the game a lot of passive aggressive charm. I feel like I should remember to play this again soon.

mads b. wrote: FIRE & AXE. It's great...

I've always been interested in this one. I remember reading or hearing about this one years and years ago, and started looking for a second hand copy. Never found one for a reasonable price. Then when it was reprinted, I had a copy in my hand at the store but ended up putting it back. Not sure why I didn't pull the trigger.

I'm still very interested in giving this one a go. It seems to have a lot going for it.

If I ever come across another copy in the wild, I'll have to remember to grab it.

Cappster_ wrote: If I ever come across another copy in the wild, I'll have to remember to grab it.

wholesalegaming.biz/boardgame/bg-fireandaxe/

Virabhadra wrote:

Cappster_ wrote: If I ever come across another copy in the wild, I'll have to remember to grab it.

wholesalegaming.biz/boardgame/bg-fireandaxe/

$24 is pretty salty.

Turned out to be a real solid week of gaming.

Finally won a game of King of Tokyo against my boys. Grabbed seven points in the last round between holding Tokyo and power cards for the sneak victory. The eldest was upset because he had just assembled a combo that would guarantee two smashes on all other monsters while he was in Tokyo. He kept it together way better than he would have a few months ago, though, so I’m proud of him for that.

Wife continues to wipe me in Riftforce by playing wide and grabbing points on location control.

Taught SEAL Team Flix to a friend and his eldest. We were murder machines. Fewer than half of our rounds ended with live patrols. Still a fun, singular game, but I was frustrated by the pace at the end. We had the stuff, but the sprint to the finish was so stodgy with patrol spawns.

Tried the two-player variant for The Crew: The Search for Planet Nine. I’d rather just play Fox in the Forest. The third player is a semi-open hand controlled by the commander. It’s too much information and control.

Last Sunday, had a mini Game Day (a lot of my friends could not attend). So, it was me, my friend Nathan, and my wife Jo.

First game we played was Imperius aka Dune the Card Game. Jo wasn't really jazzed about the drafting mechanic initially, but that didn't stop her from winning the game. Overall, they liked it. I got the KS version recently, and had an extra non KS version. Since Nathan liked it, I gifted it to him, knowing it would be played.

Next game we played was Jaws. Wife was the siarc and Nathan played Brody, I played Hooper, and we co controlled Quint. In Phase 1, we successfully sussed out Jo's whereabouts, thanks to me, and she was only able to eat 4 swimmers. In Phase 2, I was next to useless, slapping water with my hammer while Nathan was doing the heavy lifting with Quint and Brody.

For such a shitty start, my wife absolutely DESTROYED the Orca. At the end, there were only three pieces left, and they were all damaged. Brody and Quint ended up in the water and dealt the killing blow. Very tense, with me breaking the tension by saying, "I'M HELPING!" and Nathan saying both Brody and Quint yell back, "NO, YOU'RE NOT!" I had yet another copy of the game (thanks Dirt Cheap) and I gave that to Nathan as well, because he loved the game.

The last game was Planet of the Apes. Now, our group have nicknames for certain games. My wife came up with the nickname "The Mean Game" to refer to LOTR. When they started playing Planet, and realizing how punishing the game is, she again came up with a nickname-"The Asshole Game". Nathan referred it to "Elder Sign on steroids".

We haphazardly went through the scenes, and then we got to The Hunt and everything went to shit. Statue of Liberty was doing Mach 2 down the track and we barely ended the scene, with SoL on the 1 space. We get to Escape from Ape City and the next POTA card says to advance the Statue one space. At that point, I said, "Game says 'FUCK YOU, GUYS!' we lose." Much bitching amongst ourselves commenced.

Later in the week, I was in Ollie's and saw that they had a copy of Planet there. I took a photo and sent it to Nathan.

He texted back: *HISSSSSSSS*

Been a while since I talked about it, but my buddy and I finished Aeon Trespass: Odyssey Cycle one. It took us many hours to get there, but it was an awesome time. We are blasting through the short (4-8 hour) transition mini game between Cycles One and Two and will then take a bit of a hiatus as we play Arkham Horror the LCG for a bit.

I for sure know this game is not for most people, either by price or time commitment, but man what an experience. We took it right down to the wire with the way it ended. We had to traverse the length of the map to get to the location of the final fight and could only get there in time with the use of a found special ability. Along the way there we put an end to the Primordial that was hounding us and then put the giant boss down as well in what was a bit of an anticlimax. We whooped him up. I had been expecting us to fare much worse than we did. We hit some key evasion rolls to stay alive and then just smashed The giant monster.

It sounds like things are going to get harder, possibly much harder, in Cycle Two. So that's both neat and terrifying.

Finally played Wingspan. It's fine. Wouldn't ask to play but wouldn't run screaming if it were suggested either.

What hasn't been said about it? Curious what the other players were building up but quickly gave up to go heads down on my board. It's not like I could do anything to mess with their plans.

Amazed this was a crossover hit. Sure the production is great and you'll never have to defend the art, but it's a step above a Carcassonne or Catan or Pandemic in terms of rule grit in that embarrassing board game way. "Sorry, you can't actually play that wood duck because you need to pay an extra egg. Because there's egg at the top of the column." "I can reroll the bird feeder because they're all the same symbol?" I'm sure it goes away after a game or two, but there's just enough "No, you can't do that," that I'm surprised people with four games would tolerate it that long.

I think what you've mentioned is why it's popular. It's production is nice, nobody's wrecking your shit, and the rules are pretty simple. You can even play it friendlier by using the blue end-of-round goals. And who doesn't like birds?

My girlfriend loves Wingspan and suggests it constantly. We own the official Infinity Nesting box; I'm not that into bespoke storage, but I love having one box to rule them all... especially because the expansion boxes are different shapes.

The sight of the Anachrony Infinity Box fills me with dread. But I love the conceptual tidiness of everything in one box...

The One Box to Rule Them All thing is one of the most popular topics on BGG and r/boardgames these days. There must be more than a dozen different threads on Root's BGG page of people thinking they've been the first to have an idea about a Big Box™ for all of Root's expansions. Or thinking that if they post one more thread, it'll be just enough to break the camel's back. Meanwhile, Patrick Leder has come out repeatedly to said threads, telling people that it just wouldn't make economic sense for the company (production, shipping, warehousing of what is a niche product) to do so, which is inevitably met with the calls of "But I would buy it-!" which is, of course, completely missing the point.

Then there's the regular discussion of 3D printed inserts to make an original box fit everything that's been produced for a game; typically Kickstarter games with a half-dozen expansions and minis aplenty. That's where I've frequently chimed in to try to explain to people that spending $180 on an insert is usually $180 completely wasted, as most games don't need the fanciful contortions that you're getting for the money that often costs more than the original game. My usual example is Rising Sun, wherein I have everything ever produced for the game in the original, standard (i.e. not special KS stretch goal) box. I can guarantee you that it takes me the same amount or even less time to unpack/repack that box than it does anyone with all of their fancy frames. That's when people are usually outraged that I toss each clan into a plastic bag. "The models-!" "... are PVC", I reply. They're not fine crystal. They won't break. If you pack them properly, they won't even bend. As someone who can pack an 8000-point, fully-painted Skaven army with all its little spikes and banners and tails(!) into a single plastic container that fits neatly in the front seat of my car, I can tell you it's possible to do so without threatening anything. I make the same argument with Star Trek: Ascendancy. Seven new factions since the game was released. All of them in the original box, including extra ships for all of them (and dice!)

The only times I've been foiled have been with Ankh, which simply has too many miniatures to physically fit in the original box, so it's down to two (No insert has been able to solve that problem, BTW) and Cosmic Encounter, since they released the most recent campaign expansion, Cosmic Odyssey. After six years of being packed to the absolute limit (including having to tape the edges of the original box (one horizontal, one vertical) after they split from the weight they were carrying), the addition of all of the new aliens/cards/tokens exceeded the capacity of the Warp, so it is now a two-box game, as well.

In complete contrast, someone started a thread a few weeks ago on r/boardgames about wasted space in boxes. My opinion was that nothing would ever beat the original Runewars coffin box, as was later proved when they reprinted it and reduced it to a standard-size square box that still contained everything the game had originally had. The amount of space in the coffin was absurd. I remember when FFG first produced those and the consequent irritation among distributors, who had to produce a new shipping box to accommodate them, and retailers, who had to find shelf space for these monstrosities. Their remake of Horus Heresy was the same way.

Jackwraith wrote: I make the same argument with Star Trek: Ascendancy. Seven new factions since the game was released. All of them in the original box, including extra ships for all of them (and dice!)

Yeah, bags work just as well or better than plastic boxes. I even bought specific bags that were just the right size to hold each of ST:A’s factions miscellanea: faction board, ships, control nodes, sliders, advancement deck, etc.
The only exception for me was Twilight Imperium 4 + expansion where I use plastic card boxes for each faction so they could sit on the table and be easily accessible. I also made a foamcore card organizer. Everything still fits in the base box. But bags would work just as well, and not cause the game box to weight 25 pounds.