First board game love?

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:57 pm

So I'm curious, are there any fans of board games here as well? If you listened to the episode where I talked about my gaming at KantCon, you heard that I played a ton of board games as well as the RPGs I played in and ran.

So what was your first board game love? Here's what I mean, what board game first got you super excited to play that game over and over again?

Mine was Star Fleet Battles! I could not get enough of that game when I was a kid. I was designing scenarios for me and my friends, and I bought as many of the expansions that I could. I still love playing it!

So what about you?

Wordcraftian · Post by **Wordcraftian** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:27 pm

There are so many I want to try but they all look unbelievably complex to set up and learn. Settlers of Catan, of course all the Arkham Horror games are right up my alley just to name a couple. But I've got zero experience with board games outside Battleship, Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, and friggin' Mouse Trap. Any suggestions?

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:56 pm

Dude. Mousetrap rocks.

Seriously though, the games I really loved as a kid were Stratego and Risk. At first, they were just about the only good strategy games that I could get my hands on. I even programmed a TRS-80 to play Stratego with me. Sadly, the AI was just to move completely at random so it was pretty easy to beat.

I also had a game called "Dungeon" that was like a dungeon crawl. It was a nightmare to set up, but I loved just staring at all the treasure and monster chits.

Another game I played obsessively was called "King of the Tabletop," and it was the cardboard "centerfold" of a Dragon Magazine I bought. I have heard it was sort of the first draft of the infamous "Magic" card games.

Wordcraftian, I highly recommend that you check out Pandemic. It's a cooperative game and the mechanics are pretty simple to learn so it's good for non-gamers, too. I also enjoy the series of D&D board games that have come out -- Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt, etc.. They're not for everyone, but I think the overall design is pretty good. For a Lovecraftian feel, I'm enjoying a card game called "Gloom" -- a pretty simple game where you try to make your own characters suffer more misfortune and tragedy than anyone else. It's hilarious.

TAK · Post by **TAK** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:57 pm

Twilight Struggle. Period. End of story.
No other game comes even close.
I have a buddy who is a board game geek (along with RPG and CCG geekism), so I play a lot of board games every time I visit him. I played a bunch of new ones this summer.

Wordcraftian · Post by **Wordcraftian** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:55 am

Oh yeah! Risk! I used to love a nice long game of Risk! with my friends and a side or two of rum laden soda. Then I moved and lost my group.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:59 am

TAK wrote:Twilight Struggle. Period. End of story.
No other game comes even close.

Oh, I've been wanting to play that since I first saw it about a year ago. What do you like about it? Cold War is an era of high interest to me. So you like the mechanics of it, huh? The pieces seemed a little dull in the design to me, but that's a purely aesthetic thing.

I have to ask -- does this game also tap into something in your Finnish blood somehow? You must feel like you grew up on the front lines of the Cold War there, no?

TAK · Post by **TAK** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:35 am

Dr. Gerard wrote: Oh, I've been wanting to play that since I first saw it about a year ago. What do you like about it? Cold War is an era of high interest to me. So you like the mechanics of it, huh? The pieces seemed a little dull in the design to me, but that's a purely aesthetic thing.

I have to ask -- does this game also tap into something in your Finnish blood somehow? You must feel like you grew up on the front lines of the Cold War there, no?

It is very hard to say why I actually like the game so much, it's very tactical and you have to look at the big picture a lot more than in most games. The game conveys the feeling of "being there" far better than a lot of other games I've played and maybe that has something to with actually "being there" for the later years and remembering a lot of the events of the end game... Of course I love the history of the Cold War era and I was playing with a fellow history nut. We also add a lot of our roleplay stuff to the game, so you definitely wanna be in the right company when playing.
Very tactical, very true to the subject and a lot of history, I think those are the main things.

I found one review online that pretty much sums the game up perfectly: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/596087/ ... eview-of-t

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:09 am

TAK wrote:Twilight Struggle. Period. End of story.
No other game comes even close.
I have a buddy who is a board game geek (along with RPG and CCG geekism), so I play a lot of board games every time I visit him. I played a bunch of new ones this summer.

I'm meeting the designer of Twilight Struggle at my local game store in a few weeks.

Kapow. Jealousy bomb on you.

TAK · Post by **TAK** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 8:58 am

Dr. Gerard wrote: I'm meeting the designer of Twilight Struggle at my local game store in a few weeks.

Kapow. Jealousy bomb on you.

Wel, I've met, um, Mikael Stanne, so there

trevlix · Post by **trevlix** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:21 pm

I think my true first board game love was Castle Risk. As a matter of fact, I never actually played the original Risk until years later.

I highly agree with Gloom - that is a fun game, but you need the right people to play it. I would also recommend Ticket to Ride if you've never played it.