A while back guyincorporated asked:
Played any good boardgames lately?
And the answer to that is always “of course,” but it’s rare that I come across any that are really mindblowingly good in a way that’s new or exciting. Boardgaming is one of those hobbies where there are constantly new opportunities to acquire new games, but improvement in any given area/genre/type of mechanic tends to be fairly slow and incremental rather than dramatic, which is why old standbys like Carcassonne, Acquire and Diplomacy are still some of the best games around.
However, lately I’ve had a few glorious successes hit the table.
Khronos was a game I’d been eyeing for a while on the shelves, mostly because it promised to involve time travel and I am a colossal fan of anything involving time travel. I eventually bought the game new, which is something I generally avoid – I prefer to buy used, thrift, or trade games rather than buy new because it makes boardgaming a much cheaper hobby – but in this case I was just all “TIME TRAVEL MOTHERFUCKER WOOOOOOOO” and laid out the bones.1
I honestly couldn’t be more impressed with the game. It’s an influence/area-control game of sorts, reminiscent of Tigris and Euphrates; I’ve never had strong feelings for T&E one way or the other, but to my mind Khronos blows it out of the water. It has all the strategic depth of T&E, but it’s got tons more personality.
To wit: it’s an influence/area-control game, but it has three boards: the “Age of Might,” the “Age of Faith,” and the “Age of Reason.” These three boards are geographically identical, as it’s the same area at three different times. When you build buildings in the past, they ripple forward through time. When you build buildings in the past that would overlay buildings in the future, you create a time paradox which is resolved by destroying the “previous future” buildings and replacing them with your new building. However, there are incentives to build in the middle Age as well, because each Age scores differently from the other two: the Age of Might determines point-scoring by military buildings, the Age of Faith by religious buildings, and the Age of Reason by civil buildings.
That time-travel mechanic – combined with some very clever building-construction rules that make simply competing for control of building groups in a single era challenging enough all on its own – make for a game that’s incredibly deep on a strategic level but also requires a keen tactical appreciation of the overall board; you need to take into account both the immediate actions you’re making as well as their long-term ramifications on multiple boards all at once. It’s a brainbender, which is why a game of seven rounds that should only take sixty minutes tops is billed as a game that takes ninety minutes instead: this is a game that rewards heavy thinking without being too mentally draining. In a righteous world, this would straddle the Boardgamegeek ratings like a behemoth rather than suck-ass Puerto Rico2 or boring Agricola.3
I just this weekend also played Mr. President and was terrifically impressed. I’m a big fan of political games generally, which should surprise longtime readers of this blog not at all, so I keep track of new political games as they make their way down the pike: I recently played and enjoyed Campaign Manager 2008, which is fun but, as a friend puts it, “not a full meal.” I tend to think CM2K8 is more of an abstract strategy game glued onto a political theme (albeit fairly successfully). It simulates the Obama/McCain campaign well enough, but it doesn’t feel that, you know, political.
Mr. President isn’t new – the edition I own dates back to 1967 – but it feels political. It can be played two- or four-player, but ideally this should be played four (in two teams of two): this is a game where the tense discussion between you and your partner is vitally important, since neither of you is allowed to tell each other what exactly you’re holding in terms of potential political support. It’s a game where states can swing back and forth between parties but where ideological preference by region is not ignored. It’s a game that’s friendly to newbies, but where the intricacies of play can fascinate veterans (do I allot these 500,000 votes to Ohio or California or New York or Georgia?). It’s a game with an incredibly tense and dramatic finish as you and your partner determine where each remaining ballot should be allotted.
(It’s also a game where you’re encouraged to keep track of where votecards have been cast by writing on a reusable tally board with a grease-pencil, and that’s kind of awesome.)
It’s not without flaws: the debate rules are clumsy and arcane and over-reward the debate winner, and I think I might work on some homebrew rules to fix them. Similarly, the “only advertise once per state” rule seems unnecessary. (The “only fundraise once per state” rule, on the other hand, is entirely necessary, or else people would just keep going to the East to raise cash in New York all the time. Yes, I know that happens in real life, but you want the game to have some challenge level.) And sometimes a press endorsement can just be too damned powerful. But even with these caveats, Mr. President is probably the best political game I’ve ever played – better even than Die Macher – and certainly the tensest and most flavourful. (And you can get it on eBay for less than ten bucks! But be sure you get the 1967 edition, as the 1965 edition is a totally different game and bad.)
Oh, and I finally got around to playing Bohnanza and it was fun so that was nice.
- Well, more accurately, I traded in a bunch of Magic: The Gathering cards I didn’t want any more for store credit and bought it that way, but trading with a store is not much better than just spending money, so it counts. [↩]
- A game that rewards experience over strategic play. [↩]
- Total non-interactive farming horseshit. [↩]
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I would recommend the game Pandemic. It’s entirely co-operative, playing against a random deck of infections. I’ll try and be as succint as possible about the unique mechanics, so hopefully my explanation will make some kind of sense.
There are 4 plagues across the world and you and your team are trying to reseach a cure and then vaccinate the population. At the end of each player turn you turn up new cards to infect, citywise. Each time this happens it gets a block. When a city has 4 blocks there is an “Outbreak” which will place another infection block on all surrounding cities. This can make those cities go into outbreak too. Every turn the player will draw cards for their hand, and sometimes pull up a Pandemic card, which will place blocks on cities drawn from the bottom of the infection deck and then reshuffle the infection discard ONTO the top of the deck.
Everytime an outbreak or epidemic occurs it makes your job more difficult and after 8 outbreaks you lose the game.
Each player has different abilities, there are 5 different types with the game designed for 4 players, making each game different strategically.
Hopefullly that made sense, it’s quite late here.
TL;DR: Pandemic is a good and fun co-operative board game
I’ve only gotten to play Pandemic once, but it was fun even if we didn’t manage to stop the world from dying from the Super-Flu. The last game I enjoyed enough to go and pick up for myself was Smarty Party, though thats probably heavily influenced by how much I fucking hate Wits & Wagers…
Has anyone ever actually won a game of Pandemic?
Also, MGK, I want to hear more about why you don’t like Puerto Rico as all my friends are in love with the game. Lastly, thoughts on Arkham Horror? Now there’s a fun co-op board game.
You say a lot of nerdy things, but this is maybe the nerdiest yet.
if you like time travel you might want to check out achron. its an rts based around time travel, you can find it here http://achrongame.com/site/
I never lost a game of Pandemic until I played with a friend of mine who is apparently a huge jinx. Now I can’t win a game ever. The expansion is quite good too, and the set sometimes shows up on Tanga. If you see it, it’s well worth picking up.
I have a game for all of you
Pi: The Chess Game of the 21st Century
http://i40.tinypic.com/2znocib.jpg
http://www.chessvariants.com/multiplayer.dir/pi.html
Very hard to track down but extremely fun when you do
I had a friend buy me Space Hulk for Christmas. I was very impressed, but as time goes by I’m growing more suspicious that it was an act of subtle sabotage. After taking forever to get all of the damned figurines clipped out as nicely as possible (forget painting for not), we then could finally set up the board (which also took forever), then we got to stumble through the rules for a while. It was a sort of fun experience, but the attendant effort totally overmatched it. I kinda wish he’d gotten Arkham Horror instead. We just want something we can play two player.
(Also, could the Space Marines be any more hilariously testosterone-poisoned? I’m not sure whether I want to paint them gay or just make their logo into a pair of hairy balls.)
Hooray – boardgaming topic!
Khronos sounds fun, but in doing some BGG research, I see it’s only got a 6.5 rating. I wonder what it is about the game that clearly doesn’t work for some people. Too swingy, perhaps? I can only speculate at this point.
I do have to take exception with you for your hating on Agricola, however. I adore that game and find it excellently tuned. It’s incredibly difficult to balance feeding your family (and/or starving your opponents) while amassing victory points over the course of the game.
I’ve won a few games of pandemic, I’ve lost a few.
I think what makes it a billion times better than Arkham Horror is that you don’t need to dedicate an entire day to setting it up and playing it. Sure Arkham Horror & BSG are fun, but the 45 minutes of setup and 5 hours of playing aren’t worth it.
Dominion. Dominion. Dominion.
It’s a deck building game, with 76 to the 10 falling different possible “tables” (available card-sets for your deck). It’s a lot of fun, and the ability to think up a novel strategy on the fly is rewarded.
I like Monopoly and Risk.
(I am out of my element here, huh?)
I’d also recommend a game called Reef Encounter. It’s got some incredible area control aspects to it, as well as managing an eco system and throw in some commodities speculation, and it gets interesting. The hardest part is that the rules aren’t written very well, but get past that, and it’s some good brainbending fun.
Also, Dominion. It’s a card game that’s like a CCG, except doesn’t siphon away all your money, and basically makes you build your deck and test it /as/ you play. It’s actually pretty incredible. Only issue is the constant reshuffling.
Bear in mind that community rating on BGG means that games peak at about 8 overall. Puerto Rico, currently at #1, has an average rating of 8.3. 6.5 is basically a solid B-plus.
As for why Khronos isn’t higher, I think it’s at least partly because BGG is somewhat trendish.
It can be as tuned as it can get and it’s still going to be a functionally non-interactive game of multi-player solitaire. I play board games to interact with people, not to compete in the abstract equivalent of a footrace.
I’m not a fan of Pandemic because after game two I figured out how to beat it. Even at the hardest setting it’s not really that much of a challenge once you figure it out. I traded it away pretty fast. People say that the On The Brink expansion makes it playable again, so maybe I’ll try it.
Because Puerto Rico isn’t a purely strategic game. It’s a game with a predetermined set of paths to victory: there is always a definitive best option in every situation, and ultimately games of Puerto Rico boil down to who can recognize that best option earliest.
There is literally an Excel spreadsheet out there that charts out how to play the game in every possible situation for maximal efficiency. Why the fuck do I want to play that game? Give me something open-ended instead.
(Also: Endeavor, by Z-Man Games, is like what Puerto Rico would be if Puerto Rico was good. Give it a try.)
I enjoy it a lot, and I think the complaints about game length are overblown; I’ve played eight-person games of AH that took just over three hours.
Great game, assuming you don’t play with the Chapel, which is broken. It’s more straightforward than people think, though.
I actually just traded for a copy of it, so I’m looking forward to giving it a go.
Setup time? Try Talisman. The hard part is finding enough room in your house.
That Pi chess thing looks awesome. But the minor point about mixing chess board terrain just makes me want to combine it with Dungeons and Dragons territories.I wonder if anyone has come up with d20 stats for chess pieces.
Dominion! Yesssssssss
“old standbys like Carcassonne”?!?
Dude, that game came out in 2001! It feels like yesterday to me…
…I feel old now…
If you enjoy Carcassonne (and everyone should!) I’d also recommend: Alhambra, Wasabi!, Samurai (Reiner Knizia’s version) or Vegas Showdown.
My gaming group finds Puerto Rico and Agricola plenty interactive, mainly because (1) there may be a single optimal move for you, but you also have to guard against setting up the next player for an even more beneficial move; and (2) the sheer number of times someone exclaims “dammit, you just took what I wanted!”
Which is not to say that they are as super-saturated with interaction as, say, Traders of Genoa or even good ol’Catan.
PS Die Macher!!!
Woah woah woah…
Agricola: “It can be as tuned as it can get and it’s still going to be a functionally non-interactive game of multi-player solitaire. I play board games to interact with people, not to compete in the abstract equivalent of a footrace.”
vs
Dominion: “Great game, assuming you don’t play with the Chapel, which is broken. It’s more straightforward than people think, though.”
Both games are competative solitaire. I can understand disliking competative solitaire games, but then I don’t understand why you like dominion. Most of the attack cards are still basically solitaire cards that force your opponents into an unfavorable position while you continue your turn. Each action in agrcola should be a balancing act between whatever would help you the most at any given time while also removing helpful options from your opponents.
At the end of the day, I’d say both games have similar levels of player interaction.
…also, we’re playing our first-ever game of Die Macher tonight. Anything I should be aware of beforehand?
May I ask whereabouts you traded in these Magic cards for store credit? I’ve got a bunch that I wouldn’t mind getting rid of, and aren’t impossibly far from Toronto.
SomeGuy: It might be 401 Games, found on 401 Yonge St (north of Dundas). Not being a Magic player myself I’m not 100% certain, but I buy many board games there and they appear to do a brisk business in Magic cards. Probably worth phoning them, at least.
Guyincorporated: Had I read your post earlier, i would have said to be prepared for it to take a loooong time. And for it to be awesome.
# Message #
A friend of mine recently got me into board games and he was into a lot of the ones mentioned here. Agricola, Puerto Rico, Pandemic, and battlestar galactica
The ones I have found exceptional are Battlestar Galactica, smallworld, touch of evil, bang!, dominion, and munchkins
I found battlestar a lot like pandemic, people are cooperating though out the game only you don’t know much about what is coming up and you don’t know who is not on your team. It does take a while, 2-4 hours.
Smallworld seems to be the easiest game for any new comers to board games to pick up. It is a lot of peoples favorite. I am not really into a lot of war games but I really liked smallworld because you semi get to pick your strategy and you just have to execute it. I bought the expansions for this and I think they have added a lot of depth to game.
Touch of Evil is kind of like Arkkam horror, only simpler and you can play competitive. So you can brake up into a team of 6, 2 teams of 3, 3 teams of 2, or free for all. It is a bit easy but I still like a lot of the challenges, and this is the only role playing game that I found simple enough to get my girlfriend to play.
Bang! is really a game that requires more people, it is a tough one for some to like because you can be out of the game really quickly and not get back in a game for while. It has a some of the same deduction elements that battlestar has.
Dominion, I like it. I really like the seaside expansion. I think enough has already been said about it here.
I have really liked munchkins mostly because it was a great game to just mess with your friends. I think one or two of the expansions with just more cards is good to add in, and the dungeon expansion adds some nice twists to the game. If your or you friends don’t liked being messed with then it isn’t for you.
IF=f you think that Agricola had some good elements then I think you should take a look at Dungeon Lords. Some of the same elements, use resources for monsters, traps, and tunnels, and limited actions to gain these resources. To me it provides more thought because you have to know what the others are going to do, and you have to know when if order to get the right spot in your resource. And adds a bit of combat for those that don’t just want an economic game.