Tabletop & Board games: any good ones?

Well a little update to my weekend. Finally got to play Mountains of Madness - only 1 game and we were skeptical on some of the rulings. The rule book is a piece of shit and does not cover some major points (like injury cards and proper use of the leadership tokens). During the game we had to stop to watch a youtube video to cover some grey areas.

Of the 1 game, we lost. It was a full party (5 player) which made the first experience a little hard but still very fun. The game is great but lemme touch on a little more about it...

1) Generally, how I would assume most people are when they play games and especially in video games, are very conservative with their resources. Like when I play a video game and collect potions to heal myself for example, I tend to not use them as much as possible and always end up with so much that I reflect back in some areas of the games where I would say "I should've just used it then". Obviously it's because you never know what's going to come ahead so you're a bit more reserved. Because of this, we didn't ONCE use the leadership token to extend the 30second counter during the encounter phase. (could just be because we sucked and accepted the consequences.)

2) The rulebook is trash, and as a result we played and learnt as we went along but then got stuck at certain points. Injury cards and how they are discarded/put into your hands did not make sense by the rulebook easily and so we had to refer to BGG and Youtube.

3) The 30 second timer during the Encounter Phase is god damn short. It's definitely a challenging game and the 30 seconds is obviously thematic with your characters going mad, and obviously why there's the leadership token piece to extend the time, so maybe that's why we found the timer too short (which is our own fault for not using it - but when leadership tokens are so scarce and can also cost you the game there's so many reasons not to use them).

As expected, the very first Encounter Phase was full of laughs and confusion. 5 people trying to say what they have with 30 seconds on the counter, and with disadvantages to communicate (madness cards), made it extremely difficult. It was hilarious however. We chose to only view 1 single madness level 1 card before the game started to understand what they did, but boy oh boy were we surprised with what kind of roles the madness cards play.

Aside from us not fully familiarizing ourselves with the rules properly, it's definitely a game you're going to have issues on the first gameplay but it is extremely fun, full of laughs and semi-serious. It can be a quick game but we took 2 hours initially to stop and re-read rules and youtube stuff when we got stuck (1 hour is the standard play time).

Overall, great fun game. Semi-serious but I recommend reading and watching youtube videos for the rules prior and get a clear understanding. If you have doubts, keep researching til its solidified. BGG does not have any fan-made / updated rule book unfortunately. Probably best to start with 3 people.

 

I've got a couple of large-ish games sitting in my cupboard (MELB) not getting played, if I were to post a for sale thread would there be any interest...
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139898/brew-crafters
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191977/castles-burgundy-card-game
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31481/galaxy-trucker (+ multiple expansions)
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/194964/mothership-tabletop-combat

 

My 1000th post! Yay!

Finally ordered a copy of Treasure Island. Been on the hunt for this game but didn't really want to spend more than $100 on it (I think I will enjoy this game but it wasn't worth breaking above $100). Last night was in Mindgames and held it in my hands their last copy - but $105 threw me off and I'm glad I sat on it to think.

Gameology is the cheapest in Melbourne (at $85) but unfortunately they're all the way in the Eastern suburbs about an hour and a half drive from me. LUCKILY, this morning I was browsing BGG and went on the VIC subforum, and walah - a thread from 3 days ago was made about a new Melbourne based board game shop.

Checked them out and they miraculously they had it in stock for $85!! Called them for pick up options immediately and from this morning I ordered it, and will do a local pick up in Gowanbrae which is 10 minutes from my work! Today is a great day, I feel like a winner and have a game I've been wanting for a while ready for Australia day!

By the way, the shops called https://www.purplemeeplegames.com.au - it's a husband and wife new business out of their home with very competitive prices. I'll be shopping from these guys a lot seeing they're close to me and one of the only few board game stores that are cheap (for now I guess) and local. 15mins drive versus Gameology's 1.5hr drive

Also picked up Santorini the other day and have had a blast with it. Great fun and cheap game you can learn in what they say 30 seconds and play quite a decent amount before you get bored (which I haven't yet).

 

That's good to hear. My better half is keen on getting it.

Nice work on finding someone local to support too. That can be hard to achieve in our small market when you're into niche things.

 

We kicked off the first game of Betrayal Legacy at work yesterday. First game (Chapter called Prologue) was really fun - the game mechanics are super easy to grasp thus far.

 

Yep, there would. Ping me when and if you do.

 

Went to the gameology warehouse event sale today and picked up Azul ($45), Photosynthesis ($42) and The Palace of Mad King Ludwig ($40) today.

 

I would not touch Gameology. Incorrect product delivered three times and they refused to fix it up. Eventually resulted in a credit card charge back.

 

Never ordered online. Only been to the store locally so can't really have that issue. Aslong as I get good prices I'll always go to the cheapest location which is ganeology and purplemeeplegames as per my post above! For the prices I got the above games it was a decent haul but a 45min wait in line to get inside the warehouse :/

 

Anyone use Kickstarter and back any games?

I just recently backed Rival Restaurants and cannot wait for it to come out around October. It's the first time I've backed a game but I'm super excited for it.

 

I've backed 4 games, 1 still running (mechanica), all very meh games tbh.

 

I have backed so far only Valors and Villainy. From the look of things it should be fun. We don't have any 1vsAll games so it should be a fine addition.

 

Mothership just started their expansion kickstarter if anyone’s interested:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1800215991/mothership-tabletop-space-combat-game-2nd-edition

 

Backed the original kickstarter, played it a few times and pretty unimpressed... would really love to offload to someone who would actually play it... hint hint...

 

Picked up Queendomino on the weekend. Has a good amount of complexity over Kingdomino and is a lot of fun!

 

I love 1vsMany games! Treasure Island has been a blast and I've just recently picked up Letters from Whitechapel!

 

Finally had the chance to play a couple games I've had for a while but never opened (they were still shrink wrapped lol).

Got to play 2 games of Photosynthesis, 1 game of Palace of Mad King Ludwig and many games of Sushi Go Party.

Photosynthesis is such a beautiful game! The board and the components are so nice to look at and the little detail in every tree is nice. Challenging game but I managed to win both in a 2 and 3 person game. My 3 person game I snagged up 137 points!

Palace of Mad King Ludwig was fun but I didn't really play with the right person and possibly would've liked a 3-4 person game instead. Still an enjoyable game and although people preferred Castles instead of Palace, I personally preferred Palace as I hate bidding wars like in Castles.

Sushi Go Party always a hoot with the family. Had a game of 6 players and it was super fun! Managed to win 1 tie 1 (for first place) out of the 6 games played. I generally suck at hand management card swapping games like 7 Wonders and Sushi Go.

Hoping to pick up a few more games soon. Need a bit more 'party/family' games so picking up You've Got Crabs (which I've played before but never owned), Dead Man's Doubloons as it looks very interesting and the art looks fantastic, and finally getting myself a copy of Pandemic so I can stop borrowing other peoples.

 

Friend has backed about 20 or so on Kickstarter - they all fall short of their descriptions and expectations, and generally have glaring balance issues, but I feel like that's to be expected.

The only half-way decent one was Scythe, which is actually quite good.

 

I am a big fan of Scythe but I don't own a copy myself. My friend who owns it doesn't really organize anything anymore and he's kinda gone MIA from the group so might be time to pick one up myself.

Got another chance to play Treasure Island and my god I love this game but it's so damn hard to win as Long John Silver (and I'm always given his role being the most experienced player - hopefully someone takes the mantle next session). Bought some liquid chalk markers to replace the terrible markers the game comes with and the difference between them is night and day! I can see all the markings perfectly now.

Next weeks plan is to play some classic Pandemic with an expansion or 2.

Also have been designing my own game whenever I get some time.... may do a little write up on its premise and talks about mechanics but won't go too into detail as I feel like I want to keep this idea to myself for a little while.

 

Picked up Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Love Letter Premium (already had the original but now expanding for a larger group), You've Got Crabs and 7 Wonders.

Many more games I want but I'm fairly limited in getting the right group to play these days.

I'm either playing 2 player games (usually co-ops like Pandemic) with my partner, OR we're playing 6+ player party games with the family. Can't ever get a group of 4 to play most games I want to these days

Hence why the above games I got are all 5+ player games. Atleast with 7 Wonders gives me a more Euro feel to it, even though its basically a strategic card game with hand management.

Next few games I've got my eyes on are Splendor, Disney's Villainous and Hail Hydra.