# Tabletop Gaming



## tripguitar (Nov 6, 2013)

Recently my friends and i have started getting together to play tabletop games for hours on end. its a blast!! makes me feel like a kid again.

So far some of our favorites are:

*Settlers of Catan* (with the seafarers, and the cities and knights expansions)






*The Resistance *(not much of a board here, but this game might be my favorite, no game comes close in terms of hilarious interaction between players)





*Ascension: Storm of Souls *(pic is from the ipad version, but we play the tabletop one. i like this game alot. pretty metal theme as well!!)





*Smash Up*. (artwork looks like its aimed towards kids, but this game is pretty fun regardless)






anyone else here play some awesome german/euro style tabletop games? lets share!


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## atimoc (Nov 6, 2013)

I haven't played tabletops that much but we tried Battlestar Galactica with a couple of friends a while back, and damn it was fun. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of the series. The element that some of the players are Cylons and they try to keep that hidden from others can be pretty hilarious.


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## tripguitar (Nov 6, 2013)

i loved the series, i'll have to check out that game for sure. kinda sounds like the resistance, where some players are spies and have to secretly ruin the missions for everyone else.


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## Bennykins (Nov 6, 2013)

I bought Settlers of Catan last Xmas and was hoping to play it with family, but they weren't so keen (the most I managed to get out of them was a game of World of Warcraft Monopoly). That Ascension game looks good, might try and get it - maybe this time someone will play it with me


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## AxeHappy (Nov 6, 2013)

Catan is awesome. I also really like Dominion and Citadels.

And minis games like Warmachine and Malifaux. Which is what I think of when I hear table top gaming. Not board games.


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## Dillski (Nov 6, 2013)

Catan is fantastic!


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## Choop (Nov 6, 2013)

I've played Pandemic a couple times with my roommate and some friends. It's really fun, but actually pretty easy to screw up and lose!

Used to play Heroclix too if that counts. Was wicked fun but the game kind of got stale with later expansion releases, and many of the new game pieces were too strong so you had to keep getting new ones to even be able to stay competitive. Bluh. :<


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## Taylor (Nov 7, 2013)

They aren't euro-style tabletops, but I have the Dungeons and Dragons Legend of Drizzt board game,




and the Gears of War board game. 




The D&D is alright for people who've never played real D&D but it lacks the real depth of actual D&D. The Gears of War board game is fun, though I haven't gotten to play it very much.


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## tripguitar (Nov 8, 2013)

i had no idea there was a gears of war board game, thats interesting for sure!

also - speaking of D&D, Lords of Waterdeep is next on my list of games to get, ive heard from a couple people that its a really fun worker placement kinda game.


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## Taylor (Nov 8, 2013)

tripguitar said:


> also - speaking of D&D, Lords of Waterdeep is next on my list of games to get



Same here!


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## tripguitar (Nov 19, 2013)

picked up Carcassonne the other day (even thought i said lords of waterdeep was next... oops!). i like it! fairly simple set of rules, though the scoring system takes a game or two to get used to.

you basically create the map one square at a time. each turn you draw from a pile of face-down tiles and add it to the map. then you can add your followers (or meeple?) to the tiles to try and score on a city, road, monestary, or field.

it's not the most thrilling game, there's no monsters or battling... but its fun and engaging for sure. and i think it makes a great family game except the scoring system may be a little tricky for the younger kids to learn.


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## tripguitar (Jan 2, 2014)

got a couple more id like to share with you all if thats alright 

*A Game of Thrones the Board Game: Second Edition*






The Game of Thrones board game is pretty cool, lots of strategy, competition, and interaction between players. Every turn there are cards that affect everyone and how they can play that round (you cant defend, you cant attack, you cant support, the wildlings attack etc...) and after that you hand out orders to your troops on the map. the goal is capture and hold castles and strongholds. you can take them from your competitor or you can go for neutral force castles if you prefer to stay on your buddies' good sides haha.... There are 5 things you can do with your troops. Attack, Defend, Support, Consolidate Power, and Raid. Attack and defend are pretty self explanatory. support means that if an adjacent zone is experiencing battle, you can lend your support to either side (even if you are not involved in the initial conflict). consolidate power accrues power tokens which work like currency, and raid will spoil the orders of an adjacent area of your choice. as you can imagine the battling can get quite interesting. I would say there are 2 things that make this game less attractive than the other two i'm going to mention in this post. 1 - THE RULES... it takes a while to get familiar with the rules and get a good flow going. and if you have newbies in your group, be prepared to answer lots of questions and correct their actions a lot. 2 - set up limitations. if you are playing with less than six people, you can only play certain houses, and each house has a designated starting zone on the map. they are pretty well balanced each having their own strength and weaknesses, but if two players insist they both want to play as the same house, whoever doesnt get it might feel that they are at a disadvantage. overal though... pretty cool, not my favorite and not a game i would suggest for those just getting into board gaming.
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*Dominion*






Dominion is a deck building card game somewhat similar to Ascension at first glance. This game is pretty easy to pick up for newbies, and will be fun right off the bat. And although it's quick to learn, the depth of strategy is surprising. The best part about this game, is that everytime you play you are playing with a different set of 10 kingdom cards. The ultimate goal of the game is to purchase victory points (the green cards in the picture). you use treasure (gold-ish cards) to buy new cards of any type. your combination of kingdom cards (white and blue in this case) and gold can allow for MANY different strategies. and even better, the game is played with 10 types of kingdom cards available, but the game comes with 24 types of kingdom cards. you can play a preset game in the rule book, take turns having each player pick a kingdom card until you reach 10, or you can use the extra randomizer cards to select 10 random cards to use. the combos certain cards have with each other is what leads to the strategic fun. i would play with the beginners set up advised within the rule book if its your first time, otherwise experiment and have fun with it! awesome game overall, and many many expansions are available. the expansions mostly add new kingdom cards, but in some rare case can introduce other types of cards as well. this is one of my favorite games, and seems to be a hit with my game-crew.

Also, you can play this game for free online (against bots or people) at www.goko.com/games/*Dominion*
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*D&D Lords of Waterdeep*






Lords of Waterdeep is an AWESOME game. its a worker placement where you place agents on the map in order to gain resources to complete quests. and by resources i mean adventureres! there are clerics, fighters, wizards, and rogues (white, orange, purple, and black respectively). You play as a secret lord of the city, who sends out agents to recruit adventurers to complete quests and thus increase your control/power/influence in the city. kinda cool if you think about it; in traditional d&d you play as an adventurer recruited by someone to go on some epic journey, and here you play as the person dishing out these epic quests to eager adventurers. so anyway, i'm not going to explain how this one works because that would be a bit much for this post, but suffice to say this game probably has the most strategy out of all of my current games, and is easily my favorite. it also seems to be the most favored game within my circle of game friends. this game does have a longer than usual set up time, but its definitely worth it. during gameplay it might seem like one person is in the lead, but the final scoring really balances out the scores, we played with 4 people and had 10 or less points between each place. thats not much considering our scores were somewhere in the area of 140 points. anyway, my favaorite game right here. will be buying the expansion asap.

This game has an iOS app for it, which is pretty cool also, but i like playing face to face with friends.
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So, WHAT IS YOU PLAYIN??


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## Mwoit (Jan 4, 2014)

I play board games every Sunday night and so far we've had:

Settlers of Catan (+ Seafarers + Cities & Knights)
Resistance
The Last Night On Earth
Tsuro
Cards Against Humanity

I played Relic last night and that was quite a lot to take in. Good fun, except there wasn't much player interaction.


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## tripguitar (Jan 4, 2014)

I just looked up relic, and no surprise, its made by Fantasy Flight. They're games seem to always have a huge amount of pieces, rules, and mechanics... so much that it hinders the game.

its too bad because their games seem like they could be a lot more fun if they were simplified a little bit. I have 2 fantasy flight games and my friends never want to play them because of the huge learning curves.


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## Shimme (Jan 5, 2014)

atimoc said:


> I haven't played tabletops that much but we tried Battlestar Galactica with a couple of friends a while back, and damn it was fun. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of the series. The element that some of the players are Cylons and they try to keep that hidden from others can be pretty hilarious.



I've been getting into tabletop gaming myself, recently got this as well although I don't have any expansion packs and fawk it is good!


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## tripguitar (Jan 6, 2014)

i actually just got the battlestar galactica game as well, only played it once though. we were kinda learning as we go, so we missed some rules until late in the game, but it sure does seem like it could be lots of fun if all the players are familiar with the game.

again, just like other fantasy flight games, we had a hard time getting into it at first because of the dense rulebook.


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## kevdes93 (Jan 6, 2014)

WARHAMMER 40K ALL DAY. thats been my shit since i was 11. I have a couple 2000 point armies somewhere, a necron army and an.imperial guard army


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## JPhoenix19 (Jan 6, 2014)

In the realm of tabletop RPG's: for the past few months, and up until recently, I was GMing for a Pathfinder game with some other deployed military folks. It was loads of fun!


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## Captain Butterscotch (Jan 7, 2014)

JPhoenix19 said:


> In the realm of tabletop RPG's: for the past few months, and up until recently, I was GMing for a Pathfinder game with some other deployed military folks. It was loads of fun!



I love me some Pathfinder. A couple people and I had a great campaign going until the GM moved to Colorado and it fell apart. 

While Pathfinder is on the brain, I recently picked up the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and it slays! A very very fun game with a huge lifetime ahead of it. Bi-monthly expansions and stuff. Warning: if you get it, then discard the rulebook that came in the game and get the updated PDF rulebook of of the Paizo website. A lot of stuff is clarified in there.

And, like tripguitar, I LOVE Dominion! There is so much depth and the expansions really add a new element to the gameplay when you add them in.

A game I've played forever is Munchkins. It's a dungeon crawler that mocks typically RPG cliches and does so in a fantastically fun way. You get mounts, races, weapons, armor, stupid little accessories, etc. Phat l00t all around. It's unbeatable in a large group, honestly. 

I bought the Legend of Drizzt board game a while back and I can recommend it. While it doesn't make me actively seek to play it (like the Pathfinder Card Game), I can say that when we do bust it out and play it that we have a great time doing so. It's visually appealing and the mechanics are pretty solid. It's a fun game all around.


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## tripguitar (Jan 7, 2014)

> While Pathfinder is on the brain, I recently picked up the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and it slays! A very very fun game with a huge lifetime ahead of it. Bi-monthly expansions and stuff. Warning: if you get it, then discard the rulebook that came in the game and get the updated PDF rulebook of of the Paizo website. A lot of stuff is clarified in there.


 
just now realizing that pathfinder and pathfinder adventure card game are two different things!!

the pathfinder card game is actually in my amazon cart along with a few others waiting to be ordered haha.

i dont have the time or devotion needed to dedicate myself to a "pen and paper" RPG anymore, though i used to have loads of fun with D&D. whats the difference between the pathfinder RPG and D&D?


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## Captain Butterscotch (Jan 7, 2014)

Hmm, I've never played the original DnD long enough to form any real opinions, but I understand that the gameplay differences consists of PF being more "open". Here's a good example.



> To give a concrete example. My PF party escaped a snowstorm and walked right into a Yeti cave. In 4e (DnD), that moment means that everyone rolls initiative and we take out the yetis or die trying. In PF, we don't go straight to initiative. Instead, our undead tiefling warlock jumps at them and starts yelling like a madman, rolls a 19 on his Intimidate check and they cower away from us. To ensure they don't stab us in the back over night, the other magic users cast "Speak Language" and "Charm" and convince the yetis that we won't attack them and we're not worth eating.


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## tripguitar (Feb 10, 2014)

hey guys! got my tax return and although i couldve have bought way cooler things (guitars/amps) i decided to be a little more responsible with my money and purchase some less expensive stuff. Board games!!

Also just wanted to touch on A Game of Thrones Board Game again. That game is actually awesome. Once my group and I got more familiar with the game, it flowed much better and was more exciting. The first few times we played it we were trying to turtle too much and hoard stuff and build a huge army, but the game seems to be the most fun if you start attacking each other in round 2 or 3. If you wait too long to start attacking people the game will be over before you can make any real progress. Keep that in mind and youll have fun!

Now onto the new stuff:

*SmallWorld*







Smallworld is way cooler than the name implies. Its almost like a Risk meets Smash Up. It has a lighthearted version of the army movement and territory control of Risk, with the teams and abilities of Smash Up (minus the cards). Essentially there are numerous races that the game set up randomly combines with numerous special powers. The racial abilities and special powers allow for many unique types of play, and some really neat combos. Another cool mechanic is that after your team as I call it (the combo of your race and their special power as dictated by the game setup) has run its course and is spread too thin, you can call it quits and pick a new team to enter the board with, continuing to score points and destroy foes! Thats really all there is to the game, and thats not a bad thing! Its easy to learn, accommodates 2 to 5 players, and has a fairly short play time which means quick fun for everyone. There is an element of competitiveness since you are stealing each others territories but its not overly aggressive. Its also not overly complicated or strategic which means the game is relatively stress free!

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*Mage Knight*






Mage Knight. Boy oh boy did I stray from the path when purchasing this game. Its nothing like the other games Ive been buying recently. In fact theres too much to talk about here but I will say that it is a HEAVY game. Lots of rules (not as much as some other monsters out there but still pretty hefty) and lots of different mechanics. Though, once you understand the game it feels natural and all makes sense. Essentially it is a hex-based adventure RPG in a board game package with some resource management and deck-building. You have actions, advanced actions, units, advanced units, spells, artifacts, skills, fame, reputation, and they all work together so well. The way this game was designed is fantastic. All the different elements combine to form puzzles for you to figure out the best way to achieve your goals each turn, and eventually your objective for the game. Speaking of objectives, the game comes with many different playable scenarios, including competitive (including pvp), cooperative, a mix of the two, and even solo games. Each one changes the goal or objective of each game and can modify the cards available, or even the way the map is built. The theme also ties in wonderfully to all the mechanics and gameplay. If you decide to try this one out, play it with someone who already knows how to play if possible. Otherwise be prepared to spend 3 to 6 hours learning how to play while you constantly consult the rulebook. And speaking of learning to play, there are two rulebooks; a Walkthrough and a Rulebook. The walkthrough provides some basic information to get you started and then lets you play the game and it explains things as they happen. REALLY NEAT! I dont have to read the entire rulebook and study it before playing?? I can just read a portion and then start playing and the book guides me through the rest of the scenario teaching me about everything along the way?! AWESOME! Anyway, if you cant tell I was very surprised by this game and I cant say its my favorite because it is so different from the rest of the games I own that its not comparable. Will definitely gets LOTS of play time. And I will never turn down a game of Mage Knight unless Im short on time. I do not however recommend this for family gaming or those new to board gaming in general, this would be quite a lot to take in if youve never played an RPG, deck-building, or resource management game.

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anyone else get/play any fun board games recently? share your experience!


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## Bennykins (Feb 11, 2014)

I bought Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer after reading this thread


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## Eladamri (Feb 11, 2014)

Catan is fantastic, one of those games that just gets better every time.

I highly recommend Arkham Horror if you like your games long and difficult, or Pandemic if just difficult! Either of the Terry Prattchett games too, Ankh Morpork or The Witches are bloody brilliant.


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## tripguitar (Feb 11, 2014)

Bennykins said:


> I bought Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer after reading this thread


 
Let me know what you think! Ascension is a great deckbuilding game with some neat expansions. Enjoy it!



Eladamri said:


> Catan is fantastic, one of those games that just gets better every time.
> 
> I highly recommend Arkham Horror if you like your games long and difficult, or Pandemic if just difficult! Either of the Terry Prattchett games too, Ankh Morpork or The Witches are bloody brilliant.


 
Arkham Horror is actually next on my list as well as Level 7: Omega Protocol. One dude in my group and I are both big fans of lovecraftian stuff so Arkham Horror is right up our alley, glad to hear it's a fun game! i'll have to look into the others you mentioned. Catan has actually kind of lost its luster for me... i realized something that kind of ruined it for me. i'll still play it of course, but there's a certain situation that can make the whole game just un-fun. Spoilers for those of you who may not want to ruin catan for yourselves, it may not sound so bad now, but once you've read it and play, you'll notice its pretty true:



Spoiler



The initial placement of your city and settlement can determine the rest of the game for you. if you make a bad choice here, be prepared to do next to nothing for the entire game.


 

Also in reference to *Mage Knight* which i spoke about before, I played once solo to learn the rules and i loved it. I played last night with my group and it got a big MEH! so i guess this game really isnt for everyone. 

They all said the same two things: its a very long game, and sometimes its just too difficult to do what you want, and settling for a less exciting move is a bit dissapointing.

I came back with rebuttles but havent convinced them yet. i said it was long because we were all learning the rules as we played, so there was alot of explaining/learning downtime, and we were taking a really long time to complete our turns because we were new to all the mechanics of the game. they all still said "meh, i'll give it another shot but i didnt love it."

I also think that they were too preoccupied with battling enemies where as they probably should have tried to recruit some units, learn new actions, or buy spells beforehand, this would have made movement and combat easier for them. But who can blame them for just wanting to shed some blood!! I'll report back after the next time we play to see what their final impressions are.

again, if you're not into critical thinking, or heavy games, you might want to stay away from Mage Knight. I on the other hand think its fantastic.


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## troyguitar (Feb 11, 2014)

Is there anything kind of similar to Catan that can be played with only 2 players?


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## Eladamri (Feb 12, 2014)

troyguitar said:


> Is there anything kind of similar to Catan that can be played with only 2 players?



BoardGameGeek
But read the fourth comment carefully!


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## tripguitar (Feb 12, 2014)

troyguitar said:


> Is there anything kind of similar to Catan that can be played with only 2 players?


 
the only game that i have that is even remotely similar to Catan would be Lords of Waterdeep, but it's like a distant cousin's step brother's half sister... in law. Really the only thing it has in common is resource management. But Waterdeep does offer a a great worker placement mechanic which is fun especially if you're new to that sort of thing. Waterdeep is a great game, i immediately went out and bought the expansion after playing it once, and i still enjoy it. I also find that although it can be played with 5 people (6 with exp), it's actually loads more exciting with only 2 players. the more people that play in a game, the more restricted you are as to what you can do each round, so it takes more rounds to complete your quests. with 6 people i usually score at or around 100 points at the end of the game, the other night i played a 2 player game and scored 328!!

TLDR: Waterdeep is a great 2 player resource management/worker placement game, but it's not very similar to Catan. Given im new to the hobby and dont own that many games, this is the best suggestion i can make about games i have first hand experience with.


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## Taylor (Feb 13, 2014)

How long would you say a two-player game of Waterdeep usually lasts?


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## Xaios (Feb 13, 2014)

There's always Magic: The Gathering, if you can afford to spend the equivalent of the GDP for a small island nation.


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## tripguitar (Feb 14, 2014)

GraveyardThrone said:


> How long would you say a two-player game of Waterdeep usually lasts?


 
id say about an hour and a half. i played a 2 player game the other night in about 1 hour but we were moving really fast.



Xaios said:


> There's always Magic: The Gathering, if you can afford to spend the equivalent of the GDP for a small island nation.


 
Magic is cool, one of my buddies keeps trying to get me back into it. I played so much magic in high school that i dont have the motivation to get back into it. and i dont want to be collecting cards to build a deck. i'd rather buy a game like ascension and just play that. but to each his own, Magic is a classic and will be around for a LONG time.


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## troyguitar (Feb 15, 2014)

We tried 2 player Catan last night with each person just playing 2 colors and it went pretty well. I think I liked it better than the regular game. You get to do more even if one of your colors ends up being really unlucky and there is an extra strategy element to controlling 2 colors.


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## Captain Butterscotch (Feb 18, 2014)

So, for all the Pathfinder/Dungeons and Dragons players/whatever other RPG you play, a new and pretty cool KickStarter just got funded.

Hero Forge 

They'll have a web designer where you can customize your own mini and they'll 3D print it in super high quality and send it to you. This also wins the "Why the hell didn't I think of that first?" Award.


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