This thread is for discussing board games or card games, any nerd games in fact.

I'll start with Dominion. It's basically a board game played with cards. You have to obtain territories and rule a kingdom, the winner at the end of the game (2 to 4 or 5 players) is the one with the most victory points (the territories). Simple concept, but done well. You have to buy some cash and action cards to help you progress in the game (the game length is like 30 minutes). The regulars of the chat are quite familiar with this game because there's an internet version and we used to play it a lot before changing our habits and to start playing the next game...

This 2nd board game would be Arkham Horror. One of the most complicated board game ever, it took at least half an hour to place the cards and tokens on the table. The concept is that you have to fight an Ancient one (the game is based after H.P. Lovecraft's writings) in cooperation with the other ''investigators'', so it's not a competitive game so it's friendship friendly!!

So we'll free to discuss any aspects of board games. Are you doing some board game nights with friends once in a while? What's your favorite game? Etc...

G'day

I enjoy board games, been getting right into Trivial Pursuit with some mates, I end up getting too drunk to actually win though, but it is fun.

You guys should check out BoardGameGeek, excellent resource for board game info and I've used it recently when researching new games. It would help to link to the website when discussing particular games.

I'm going to be getting a copy of Alien Frontiers pretty soon and I'm excited to try it out. It's a competitive game of colonizing other planets and managing resources in order to establish dominance over other players. From what I've read apparently the gameplay hinges heavily on your dice rolls so you can't really plan our your moves while other players are completing their moves--could be a good or bad thing but I suspect it'd be fun to mentally plan out other people's moves and strategize for them.

I'm also super keen on checking out Eminent Domain, seems like another fun outer space colonizing game. There doesn't appear to be a Vassal mod available for ED or AF but I'll let you guys know if I find one.

edit: One more thing! I recently subscribed to a mailing list of board gamers in the Pittsburgh area! I probably won't be able to make it to any game nights soon but I'm looking forward to going eventually. Apparently Dominion is one of their favorite games so I reckon I'll fit right in.

I've played some Dominion-esque games that were pretty awesome, the names escape me at the moment though.

My friends and I tend to play Bang, Ticket to Ride, Last Night on Earth, and Thunderstone.

Thunderstone is freaking awesome, probably my favorite.

Ugh, what are you? Nerds?

Anyway, I'm an expert at Arkham Horror, but it's too easy for me so I kind of stop paying attention half way through and let my team mates take charge of the situation when I've already won the game for them. I completely understood all the rules and the gameplay itself, but such superfluous things don't really suit an intellectual mind like my own.

Dominion is cool though

I have a few friends that I play board games with, some we like are Monopoly (if you play Monopoly and it doesn't end with people yelling at each other you're doing wrong), Risk (same goes for this game too), and Settlers of Catan (I'm not as into that one but it can be fun). Apparently there's a game called Diplomacy where the player essentially has to form alliances with other players, and betray them in order to win the game.

I remember massively enjoying Candyland back in the day.
But Scrabble will always be my game. I am an expert, especially since my family took it very seriously, we would even have our own little tournaments (along with Chess, if that counts).

Arkham Horror is KINNNNGGG. I've played through it dozens of times and love it, especially when you have an imaginative group of friends. Also, Twilight Imperium is a staple (playing it on Monday actually ) a six hour board game of conquest and space exploration, diplomacy and righteous fury! Love it and play it extremely often. Often while getting drunk.

Diplomacy is very cool. played the online version with my university friends (related to history, so we're so into this game), it's funnier than Axis and Allies (only played it once, with Hellblazer, despite my interest, it was long and boring, he liked it though).

Twilight Imperium seems cool, i should try it (well, ask my friends to buy it so i can play it)

Also, Frog, #metal is always looking for some other AH (we play it in Vassal) players, they're playing a game soon, you maybe want to join sometimes!

Arkham Horror is definitely excellent. So far I've just played the vanilla game, but we'll be trying out an expansion this week and I'm looking forward to it. If you were to use all 8 expansions at once, the game would probably actually drive you insane haha.

I used to play Hero Clicks when I was like 9 or 10. I miss that game, might have to find some guys to do it with...

Monopoly man, endless nights of fucking each other over. Fueled by a mix of redbull, beer, and fastfood.

To contribute heavily to the 'nerd-factor' of this thread; Me and my roommates have been playing a lot of Pathfinder RPG lately. I also bought the 'new' D&D 4th edition Red Box recently.

I still miss the original Illuminati card game by Steve Jackson Games. Not the collectible INWO bullcrap. I have the de luxe edition, but I can never find anyone to play it. It's the ultimate friendship killer. It can only be won by back-stabbing.

Also, a trip with the daughters to a gaming store the other day reminded me of the ancient Awful Green Things from Outer Space. What a fun game for an evening with beer!

In other news, I just dug out a few books from storage boxes, and found my original Gamma World V1 box. Great times with that one in the middle ages, too, even though it's a RPG.

Should I contribute with Magic: The Gathering, mainstream game I know
but the game is pretty cool, decks can be simple and fun to more complex and competitive, they can be very simple plays to really complex that can take like 10 minutes to think and give you a headache, lots of expansions, but the developers restrict themselves too much to keep the game balanced so some come as flat compared to previous ones.

Also should I say, AD&D, the be-all-end-all of rpg's, third edition is lame and I'll guess that 4th is even lamer.

Mouse Trap is fun as fuck. End of discussion.

I haven't had much experience with the more hardcore end of board games, but recently some friends and I have been playing Star Trek:Fleet Captains, and it RULES. The ships could be a bit nicer and sturdier, and it would be nice if the map tiles were thicker like in Settlers of Catan, but the gameplay is so much fun. Really open-ended, totally captures the theme and feel of Star Trek. And the random elements in the game make for a huge replayability- I've played about 10 games and they all have been quite different.

I was looking at Twilight Imperium the other day, and it looks pretty badass. I might buy myself one for xmas.

3.0 was pretty much broken as all hell and 3.5 was it's fix, the Pathfinder RPG I mentioned actually is an even more improved version of D&D3.5, a fix of a fix if you will D&D 4th edition is way, wáy more streamlined than previous editions and far more accessible. Despite it being a bit more simplified 4th is really enjoyable so far imo I bought the red box mainly for fun and to introduce my friends and it's a very nifty starting tool I must say!

Twilight Imperium is the fucking BOMB btw

I remember that Illuminati card game, I played it back in like 2001 or something I think I could play it again sometime the guy who owned it is still around. It was fun.

As for Dominion, my friend gets every expansion when they come out and I usually play for an evening every two months or so. I suck at strategy but occasionally I'm able to build decent decks and win some games.

My main shit is tabletop Warhammer stuff, I meant to post some pictures of miniatures in the last thread but I'm dumb so hopefully that subject comes up again sometime.

Anyone play Zombies?

Arkham Horror is just too much fun. The vanilla is a bit too easy, but with the proper add-ons (Innsmouth and/or Dunwich) it gets a lot more difficult and interesting. We've also tried Mansions of Madness from the same company. It's Lovecraft in more of a HeroQuest-style, but so far it's been rather underwhelming after Arkham. The game mechanics gives all the fun stuff to the storyteller and leaves the investigators out in the cold, at the mercy of happenstance. Also, from Fantasy Flight is the Fury of Dracula where one player is Dracula and 1-4 players are hunting him throughout Europe. Again, Dracula is more interesting to play - he moves in secret and sets up traps for the hunters - but the players have their own options at their disposal so the Dracula player isn't always aware of everything that's going on. Another one is Descent, a straight up fantasy dungeon crawl, pretty similar to HeroQuest.

Dominion we've played a bit, but I'm not too keen on it, especially since some of my friends are really hardcore into it so there's practically no chance of even coming in second.

That sounds incredibly awesome. Unfortunately not only could I probably not get my hands on the game, but I wouldn't find Lovecraft fans to play with either.

Yeah I've played a good bit of Descent, but really if you've role-played in a real group before there's just something unsatisfying about playing pre-packaged stuff like that, maybe I'm just picky. The adventures that are pre-written by companies are pretty easy to run and they tend to go smoother than some shit the GM just came up with the previous weekend but you just don't get attached to a pre-constructed character as one you made yourself. If you get the expansions I suppose Descent is worth playing, it's a good game, but if you can find the real thing with a good roleplaying group there's no comparison if you ask me. Oh also as a miniatures gamer I think the Descent models are actually pretty quality, especially some of the larger monsters. They're tempting to paint.

Oh and re: the D&D talk 4th Ed. is fuckin quality, most of the bitching is about how they changed all the skills and spells to work a certain number of times a day to streamline the shit out of the game and really it just took a bunch of accounting work out of the game. But this is coming from someone who's played nothing before 3rd Ed. so if you're one of those people who is a 2nd ed. person , well, all I can say is that it's a good system and the new rulebook makes it much more forgiving for a novice GM.

Have been playing Warhammer Quest on and off with friends for the past few years, have finally settled on a party and actually making good progress! (lost count how many times we've started but now all Lv 6 and keeping the momentum going). Other than that, occasionally have board game nights and got a few planned for the holidays....mostly games like Mega Monopoly, Risk, Bang, and some LOTR game

Pathfinder is what 4th edition D&D should have been.

Is Pathfinder really worthwhile? Reading the Wikipedia article makes it sound like an easier/simpler version of 3.5...

We generally play a fair bit of Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble and Backgammon. We used to play Monopoly but I turned the wife into an evil money grubbing real estate bitch and the knives come out big time with physical injury (to me) a likely result.

How about Axis and Allies: Europe. Although it took about an aeon to set up and just as long to play, that game is the shit. I always play Germany and always lose, which is fitting, I guess.

No Thunderstone fans?

I haven't heard much of anything bad about Pathfinder, all the people I've talked to love it. I play a bit of 3.5, some AD&D, and some Magic: The Gathering. I've also played Hero Quest, although it's a bit simple for my tastes. I find I often enjoy DMing more than playing when it comes to D&D.

About 4e: it's good for what it is, which is basically D&D for dummies. So yeah, it sucks balls. I have played it before though, and the simplification does speed prep time up a hell of a lot. I can see the appeal, although I'll always prefer 3.5.

I'm definitely enjoying Pathfinder more than D&D 4th, that's not to say I dislike the latter though.

I finally played Alien Frontiers this past weekend and so far I'm really pleased with the game. Pleasantly surprised by the mechanics of it--the planning involved in strategically placing your dice-ships in various docks, playing alien tech cards at certain times, and generally maneuvering your colonies to take over the planet. I got beat in all three games I played (some people have all the luck... ) but it was loads of fun figuring out the game and getting a feel for how everything works. It definitely seems like something that could cause tempers to flare considering that the game proactively pits players against each other, especially when the end is in sight and everyone's working to demolish each others' scores, so be sure to play with a friendly group.

I've always wanted to get into fantasy type board games, and I know a guy who has D&D. Might try and get a game going, learn the basics and all. I've always heard about the games but never tried them out. Seems interesting.
Monopoly is great, buy always ends in insanity. Played the electronic one(the card thing is neat, but I liked my cash) and it ended in some real anger between everybody. I was bankrupt within the first half, though. Got out of there quick.

Dude, that game's the shit. I want the mall expansion pack

I want to play Arkham Horror. I wish I knew people geeky enough for it.

edit: I'm totally buying it from amazon. I'll find people. I have two in mind.

haven't played that much in the last years, however I enjoyed (mainly due to the "weird war" setting) the Tannhäuser board game.
A board game I now am looking for again (as I had it in my childhood) is "Fireball Island" but it's hard to find the german edition for a reasonable price if it even pops up on ebay.
besides that I played a helluva rpgs (mainly AD&D 2nd Ed. in the 90s) but since our party memberes now are living all over germany we had to quit it after decades of playing together. Maybe one time we will reunite for a big adventure, we'll see...

Arkham Horror is ok, but only like once every two months... games just take forever. Also, Elder Sign is boring as fuck. I'm never sitting through a game of that again.

Some friends and I play Risk once in awhile. We talked about getting a Axis and Allies game, but we can't agree which one to get. I vote for the cheapest one since I'm not that much into board games.

HAHAHA, i think i know who you're referring to! Looks like a cool game, i'll convince Hellblazer to buy it.

I'm a huge fan of Settlers Of Catan, and the expanded version/s (Cities & Knights, Seafarers etc), and can play it endlessly without getting bored of it. My only complaint with it is being beaten by my ten year old son. Am also a fan of Attika, but have only just started to get into it, it has similarities to Settlers, but is just as good and even more frustrating to opponents.

Settlers of Catan is awesome. I just played it for the first time a few days ago and immediately went out to get a copy myself.
This isn't necessarily a board game, per se, but since Steve Jackson and D&D have been mentioned, does anyone here play GURPS? I've been playing for a few years now and absolutely love it.