My house/ COVID bubble was into Dune, then Vast, now Root. How about you?
They're all asymmetric competitive games. Dune is a good game, more mature aesthetic, takes a while - our games on average are about 4.5 hours. It matches the book lore really well, but only works best for 3, 6, or 5 players. There's a bit more "human content" and psychology to this one, so to speak, instead of just, math braining it out.
Vast is a bit more silly, dungeon-themed, a bit more immediately fun, and a bit worse with the balancing. I find it a tad more logical and directly strategic (it's based on a grid rather than a map), rather than Dune which has more bluffing and random input. It's certainly a faster game.
Root is maybe about the same speed as Vast, also deeply asymmetric, but a bit more map/territory based. The various factions have a bit more of a political sheen to them so it's fun to pretend the Marquis are liberal democrats, the Eerie are fascist, the Woodland Alliance are Maoists or anarchists, the reptile cult are Evangelicals, the riverfolk are hardcore capitalists, etc. We've had a lot of fun with this recently but the speed accelerates towards the end and the balance is pretty bad - I think the Alliance has an easy shot at it and I wish they did in real life too.
Yeah! Mushroom foraging board game - surprisingly fun and relaxing to play!
Had a group that was able to get together, we played Dune a couple times, but a few weeks ago we played Rising Sun which was fun but I was kind of trying to figure it out as we went. It's a 5 player game based on feudal Japan and Japanese mythology. You're essentially fighting for control of Japan, there's mechanics for honor, patron gods, summoning monsters and demons and stuff. It was very interesting.
One of us is an avid boardgame player the rest of us are learning. Dune winners have varied (I led a Fremen Revolution once), but we got bodied by our group veteran in Rising Sun. Not in a bad way really, he supplied the game, the amazing minis for it, and was very helpful. Two in the group stopped paying attention and me and another were in a "don't lose" alliance since we were clearly being outpaced.
Also I've taken up chess. I'm mad at myself for never getting into it when I was younger, it's pretty fun.
I managed to play 2 sessions (each 4-6 hours) of Arkham Horror (with some extensions and house rules) early last month, great time
The pandemic killed my board gamung hobby, since I usually played at my local gaming store (and none of them are taking it seriously)
https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/economicdecline?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1
Here’s my collection. Anything with a “Y” in the comments is a yes we’ve played it because I never record the days/times played. A lot to get through.
Edit: started collecting early to mid last year due.
Cthulhu: Death May Die has been our game of the pandemic for sure. Its one of those players v board kind of games, pretty difficult to win. It throws a lot at you.
I'm trying to get my friends to commit to playing Charterstone over Steam but no luck so far. Played it 3 years ago and I was the most fun I've had with a board game.
recently played Unfathomable with some friends in Tabletop Simulator. Neat hidden role type game. I don't see my board game friends in person enough.
Played a few things over quarantine, mostly the new Spirit Island expansion.
Managed to get in a game of Twilight Imperium 4th Ed two weeks ago. We were a bit rusty after a 2 year quarantine gap so it took around 9 hours, but it kicked ass the whole time. Also incredibly close, and both the only game where anybody has built War Suns (I built 3), and the only game where a player's home planet has been conquered.
The night after that, I played a game of 4P Dune and, after talking about the last time we'd played, where I had won as the Fremen on Turn 3, proceeded to do the exact same thing again.
Lucky timing now that my social circle is locking down again because of omicron.
I forget which factions were in that first game, because it was like a year ago at this point, but in the more recent one they didn't want to go with the recommended factions so it was Fremen, Atreides, Guild, and Bene Gesserit. Put some of my troops right beside the Guild's starting city as pressure, and a bunch more in the northern Sietch.
Turn 1 took the southern Sietch.
Turn 2 they had realized what I was doing, and Atreides attacked me in the south, lasgun'd my shield, which killed my guys but also fucked his economy because he'd spent all his spice on shipments and cards and couldn't get any more this turn. Meanwhile I moved troops into either Carthag or Arakeen, whichever is more west.
Turn 3 I moved into the Guild city, the Guild beamed down reinforcements to attack me in the north, and the Bene Gesserit attacked me in Carthag/Arakeen. I beat the guild in both fights due to quality Fremen leaders (and some luck in starting with a poison card, so the Atreides didn't know). Beat the Bene Gesserit too because they had no defenses and I had one of each weapon type. Hilariously, they played the leader I had the Traitor card for, so I should have won immediately, but I didn't realize because the token and the card have different names.
Damn, sounds like some luck but pretty well played regardless. We haven't had a game end before turn 5 or 6.
How is Spirit Island, expansion or in general? I've been interested for a while but I'll need to front it myself or sell the roomies on it before I pick it up.
I personally quite enjoy it, though I have to agree with a common complaint that the ending can be anti-climactic. Because powers are always fixed values, you usually puzzle out how to win at the start of the winning turn, then just skip the actual implementation because nothing can go wrong. The fact that the difficulty is variable is neat, because you'll probably have to play it 2-3 times just to learn it, then you'll get good enough to never lose at base difficulty and can slowly ramp it up. Or you can just leave it low and enjoy a lower-pressure game. It scales from 2-4 players really well, and the explicitly anti-colonial theme isn't something you see often. Only 1 of the base spirits is unfun to play, because it's just a worse version of another one.
The first expansion sort of fixes the deterministic nature of the game, by adding random events every turn, but my impression is that they're weighted in your favour so it makes the game easier overall. It also adds 2 new spirits and some new tokens that only the new spirits really use, but they're a neat addition.
The second expansion doubles the number of spirits in the game, including some really wacky ones, and really makes use of the first expansion's features, plus lets you go up to 6 players, though I've never tried that.
There are also 2 "promo spirits" which I don't think are available anymore. They're advanced, and require completely different playstyles.
To see if you like it, maybe try to demo it in Tabletop Simulator? Tabletop Sim usually gets pretty cheap in holiday sales, and there are some solid free mods for Spirit Island in the workshop.
Oooh thanks, that actually sounds pretty cool. I already have Tabletop Simulator, but half my playing group doesn't and I'm not sure the format will resonate regardless. In any case I'll put in a good word for it when we get sick of Root.
I love card and deck building games so I’ve finally gotten the chance to play Clank! for the first time, and it’s tons of fun.
I am going to play twilight imperium for the first time soon. I am both excited and intimidated. Only 4 of us are playing though, because the rest of the group isn't interested.
We've been playing: *The Hunger - We love Clank, but a 4 player game just doesn't work for us most of the time. The hunger is by the same people, and has a similar feel, so that's fun.
*Furnace - I like engine builders, but often don't enjoy the mechanic for gaining cards, like that gem collecting game my friend has that I can never remember the name of. I like the bidding mechanic in Furnace, it makes the whole thing more satisfying. I think the characters might be broken though. But this one is hard to fit in because it's only 4 players.
*Letter Jam - this is a fun little party game that I didn't think I'd enjoy, but ended up really liking. The whole group liked it enough that we played it several times in a row.
*The captain is dead: dangerous planet - I tried this one out on another group of friends who like cooperative games, but aren't always good at paying attention and I usually only bring simple games when I play with them. At one point I was completely convinced I'd made a horrible error by bringing the game and everyone hated it, but they eventually got the hang of it, loved it, and we played a second game right after the first.
*Quacks of Quedlinburg - My family loves this one. I introduced it to them, and now 2 brothers and a cousin have their own copies. It's just a very good time.
*Diamant- a fun little push your luck game that's simple enough that kids can play, but fast paced and fun enough to keep adults entertained. I tend to pull this one out when it's getting late and nobody wants to go home yet, but something complex and/or long is a bad idea. We house ruled the artifacts since the official rules slowed the game down too much.
There have been more, but I'm terrible at remembering things.
No, but we used to play Eldritch Horror a lot when there were more people around, Star Wars: Rebellion when there was just 2 or 3 of us hanging out, with the Nemesis and Gloomhaven being the last games we played. All really top notch and fun board games...
How is Gloomhaven? I wanted something cooperative for my house but they didn't seem to be feeling it.
Yeah, I completely understand. For a some of us, who used to be very into AD&D as kids, it was very fun, but not so much for the occasional board-gamers. No "ameritrash" dice throwing seemed to be a turnoff for others. Eldritch Horror was super fun coop for everyone and Nemesis, although some sort of hybrid-coop that can devolve into "everyone for himself", was more fun for us then Gloomhaven too.
Thanks for the ideas. Gloomhaven probably isn't the best direction since I'm likely moving out in less than a year, but Nemesis sounds interesting.
I just got home from a nice date and we played Menara, Santorini and the Parks Board game.
Santorini was a fun game 2-4 player strategy game that is easy to learn, has 5-10 min playtime, but with core mechanics/strategies that seem chess-like in their difficulty to master. There are also different power-ups you can play with to make each game a unique experience. This was my first time playing, and the game makes me want to research strategies, end games, gambits etc. The complexity does feel a bit overwhelming and I think it would be easy for disparity in skill/the ability to think 2-3 steps ahead to make the game very not fun.
Menara is a co-op tower building game that takes strategy, planning, and steady hands. It's one of my favorite games because my board game group is easily disheartened when games don't go their way and a co-op game avoids a lot of those feelings. I own this game and have played it 15+ times
Parks Board game was cute, featuring stylized art related to all of the US National Parks, and had nice gameplay elements that went along with the theme of visiting and enjoying national parks However, the core mechanic of gathering resources to spend on victory points is just like it sounds: kinda simplistic and boring. This was my first time playing the game and I wouldn't mind playing again, but the game manages to feel complex from a rules stand point while also having incredibly casual gameplay and I think it would get old quickly.
First two sound pretty good, although the first maybe a commitment sink. I feel ya on the "when games don't go their way", but it's really just me and my shitty inability to deal with competition. I really wanna try more co-op games because they are certainly the embodiment of communist production and will bring about world revolution.
