I played Spirit Island with my daughter and her husband using Tabletop simulator and it is a bit complicated but fun and challenging for a coop game. We didn't finish the game after playing a few hours so saved it and will try to win it when we get time again. Only a few turns left though.

I believe Spirit Island is slated for my game group this weekend, i am looking forward to it.

In other news, Rising Sun has been showing up on doorsteps in the eastern part of the states. It appears to be very geographical, and best i can tell people are not getting notified of shipment or tacking numbers. The game just shows up on day or you sign up for services with the shipping companies which allow you to manage shipments to your house. I am excited but hate this sort of blind delivery.

would love to play Gloomhaven and other big epic games like it, but im pretty sure noone within 2000 miles of me has ever heard of it and getting it here would probably require someone checking it as a bag and flying here with it.

I've been playing lots of abstracts lately. Hive is a favorite of mine, I frequently kill time with it on my phone against a decent AI. Also getting into the GIPF project, a series of abstracts made by a Belgian dude. So far TZAAR is my favorite, feels like checkers and plays quickly, but much beefier in strategy. I've heard great things about Santorini and Onitama and hope to try them soon.

Has anyone played/ bought the dark souls board game? I've been interested in it but the price tag is scaring me off a bit.

UncleJew15 said:

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Has anyone played/ bought the dark souls board game? I've been interested in it but the price tag is scaring me off a bit.

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I'm not buying anything from those people. They hadn't even designed the gameplay when they launched the KS - but they had the minis ready, because those are flashy and generate buyer excitement.

Everything you hear is that the game is, at best, a standard, mediocre dungeon crawler. As much as I love Dark Souls, I want to vote no on this jackassery.

UncleJew15 said:

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Has anyone played/ bought the dark souls board game? I've been interested in it but the price tag is scaring me off a bit.

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One of the guys I usually play with got it as a Christmas gift, I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet though. Haven't heard anything about it from him so I don't know if he's gotten a chance either

A friend had a game night last weekend. We played Betrayal at House on the Hill (one of my favorites) and Werewords (a recent mash-up of Twenty Questions and Werewolf, inspired by Insider, but generally regarded as an improvement).

Betrayal was wonderful, my first game with the Widow's Walk expansion, which added some nice variety. Our Haunt scenario ended up being one of the originals, number 42. The combination of cards we had and rooms in play ended up being slanted heavily against the traitor, which was a pity for him, but hopefully our one first-timer enjoyed the thrill of victory, as she was one of the heroes.

I am beyond stoked that Betrayal Legacy is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Before he started the Legacy craze with Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy, Rob Daviau was one of the lead designers on Betrayal at House on the Hill, so this is just perfect. I think the game could really lend itself to the legacy structure.

Werewords continues to entertain. It's a strange game in that I enjoy playing it, but whether I technically won or didn't win doesn't affect me as much as most games, where I'm usually pretty competitive. I care more about guessing the right word during the Twenty Questions portion (or preventing that, if I'm the werewolf) than I do about the werewolf or seer identification that follows. In any case, this game has been enjoyed by a pretty broad selection of people when I've brought it out at PAX South and this past weekend.

Most everyone has probably played this by now, but if you haven't...

Terraforming Mars is an excellent game for 1-5 players. The theme is engaging as you try to make Mars livable for the human race. I have been playing this game for awhile now, but recently purchased the new board expansion plus the Venus Next expansion.

Where did you find this? How long per game?

https://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228631

90-120 minutes according to the publisher, though in general they are notorious for under estimating the time requirements. My 2 player games have been around 2 hours probably, I would expect 3 hours for a 3-4 player game until everyone is very familiar with the rules and style of play.

Edit to add: I will echo the praise for the game. It is very good. It's one of the biggest hits of the board gaming industry over the last couple years.

mporterco07 said:

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Where did you find this? How long per game?

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https://www.amazon.com/Stronghold-Games-6005SG-Terraforming-Board/dp/B01GSYA4K2?SubscriptionId=0N3YSEQ4N1056XPWS4G2&tag=itemtext-boardgamegeek-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01GSYA4K2

The length of game can vary drastically based on the number of players and which rules you are using. Basic games are shorter because they use vanilla corporations and start all players with 1 production of all materials which hastens the end game. Shortest game I played took about 1 hr 45 min

I play the advanced game with extra variant rules and the expansions and it takes every bit of 3-4 hours.

tamuangry said:

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mporterco07 said:

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Where did you find this? How long per game?

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https://www.amazon.com/Stronghold-Games-6005SG-Terraforming-Board/dp/B01GSYA4K2?SubscriptionId=0N3YSEQ4N1056XPWS4G2&tag=itemtext-boardgamegeek-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01GSYA4K2

The length of game can vary drastically based on the number of players and which rules you are using. Basic games are shorter because they use vanilla corporations and start all players with 1 production of all materials which hastens the end game. Shortest game I played took about 1 hr 45 min

I play the advanced game with extra variant rules and the expansions and it takes every bit of 3-4 hours.

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This seems like a good time to once again point out that Amazon is frequently not the best place to buy boardgames. They don't sell many of them directly, and the third parties often jack up the prices to above MSRP. In addition, there have been a lot of reports of the third parties selling counterfeit copies through Amazon.

Always use boardgameprices.com to see who has the best price (and they include Amazon), and consider that authorized boardgame resellers like CoolStuffInc and MiniatureMarket are almost certainly selling legitimate copies.

Or instead of buying online, find a local game store and buy there. As a plus you can meet others who may be looking for a new game group. Full disclosure, my "second career" is to open a store in 10 years assuming the market is still good.

Now for all that said, I still bought TI 4th edition online. Only way to get it to where I'm at.

SPullig said:

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Or instead of buying online, find a local game store and buy there. As a plus you can meet others who may be looking for a new game group. Full disclosure, my "second career" is to open a store in 10 years assuming the market is still good.

Now for all that said, I still bought TI 4th edition online. Only way to get it to where I'm at.

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I appreciate your mental support for FLGSes even though you yourself shop online.

Make sure you do your homework if you do open one. They don't seem to be terribly profitable, or likely to stay in business. I hear this new boardgame caf model is doing well, but I don't think Houston has gotten one yet.

Actually, I just googled, and Hunter Pence's new place opens today:

http://abc13.com/sports/former-astro-pence-set-to-open-gaming-cafe-in-houston/3015362/

The video makes it look more like a cross between a Magic store and a bar. I have been assuming that some of these boardgame cafes were more like a Starbucks with boardgames, which I think might be more appealing. I've spent enough time in dank, smelly game stores.

Agree about doing the homework for the store. My wife and I try and visit game stores in every town we go to (I'm military so I've seen alot). I feel that many of the stores have the same issue that restaurants have when people open them, they open it for the wrong reason. We talked and while I love playing games, the whole reason to have a store is to make money. Many people, IMO, fall into other "traps" with the big 2 being:

1) Open store so they have a place to play a game
2) Open store without an idea of what they want the store to be

I've seen both and its very frustrating especially with #2. There's no research done prior to and so they don't know what to market or to whom they wish to market.

You're right on the boardgame cafe. They are popping up in many places and most seem to do well. The question comes in how to make your money. Do you sustain via drinks/coffee and have no cover charge or do you do a per person or per table. Hunter Pence's place should do well by the sheer fact he's a known face in Houston.

Bryan, sounds like you're in the Houston area. If so, would love to talk via pm if you have to get a feel of your area of town. Somewhere in that are is my most likely resting spot after the military.

Sure, PM me anytime.

Board game ranch. This place is cool.

https://gamersranch.com

Rusty_Shakleford said:

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Board game ranch. This place is cool.

https://gamersranch.com

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You've been? Looks cool.

Yes. Took the family, it was a really fun weekend. We would hang out mostly outside during day and in the evening the adults would start a game. The owner actually lives in dallas.

Is that $1k a night all in for a large party or for just a small family? Could see it happening at that price with 2-3 families.

Just received notice that Rising Sun should be arriving at my house on Friday. Just wanted to give heads up to other who have ordered it and are also waiting. I am in the Houston area.

I have also acquired a few new games in the last couple weeks. I bought Champions of Midgard, a worker placement game with the randomness of dice rolling. The game is strong on theme, you acquire dice which represent viking warriors, and then go to battle with said dice. This is also where the game falls apart for a lot of worker placement fans. While true worker placement is very deterministic, this game brings in the luck aspect with dice rolling. I also bought the Valhalla expansion, which rewards you for lost warriors (dice), but have yet to play it. I have heard this expansion is a must have, since it offers a way to mitigate some of the luck.

My son bought Flipships with some of his birthday money. Fun dexterity game, which is kind of a mix of space invaders and flicking paper footballs. Maybe due to bad shuffling, and bad flicking, we got destroyed on a training mission. Nice theme, mixes in some variable player powers. Really enjoyed it.

We also purchased Stuffed Fables this weekend. My family had a blast playing Mice and Mystics with my oldest when he was 5, and we are trying to get our younger son more interested in playing games. We played a bit of the game on Sunday afternoon and the kids are loving it. The theme is great for them, stuffed animals protecting their child. Through limited play, this game seems to be based around luck stacked on more luck. Your draw dice out of a bag to do actions, different colored dice represent different actions, and then role the dice to see how well you do. However, the theme is great, it is story based, and the kids are loving it.

I've had Champions of Midgard for a while and enjoy it. I got the expansions this past summer but haven't actually used them. I've heard same as you though, they are pretty much "never play without".

I'm interested in Flipships. Sounds like I need to check it out further.

One of my friends in Houston just received Rising Sun yesterday, but I'm still waiting on mine.

How is Stuffed Fables compared to Mice & Mystics? We have M&M, which I think was a hit with my daughter, but my son (5 at the time) couldn't really sit still long enough for it. That's probably nothing to do with the game, though.

I have only played half of one session, will probably finish that session tomorrow night. As I mentioned above, we played Mice and Mystics with our oldest when he was 5, but he has a great attention span and could read extremely well. So, that game went over super well, and we really enjoyed it. We are trying to get our youngest interested in playing and this theme was right up his alley. He doesn't read as well as his brother, but that hasn't been a big issue. We will explain his choices and let him pick.

I think this game is shorter than MM, but offers more replayability. There are i believe 7 chapters, but each game has a win, a lose and a kid wakes up ending. There are story decks which you explore as you play, but also lots of narrative text, and maps to play on. Again i need to play it more, but I am a little put off by the dice bag mechanic. There are different colored dice (5 of each) which represent actions, red - melee attack, green - range attack, white - heal, black - minions, purple - wild, blue - defense, and yellow - search. Any dice that isnt black or white can be used to move. As dice are drawn and used they are discarded until there are enough black dice for the minions to act, then all the discarded dice get put back in the bag. There have been i think 3 times where a player could not do anything other that move in the session we played. That sucks IMO. I have heard the game isnt hard, which means this isnt a big issue that will cause you to lose, it is just off putting when your turn to do something is taken away by a random draw of dice. Again the kids love it, and I am anxious to play more, but these are my first impressions.

Bryan98 if you like legacy games you have to check out Charterstone. It's a village building worker placement game for 6 people where the map changes each time. At the end of the final play through the game becomes a stand alone worker placement game.

Bryan98 said:

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UncleJew15 said:

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Has anyone played/ bought the dark souls board game? I've been interested in it but the price tag is scaring me off a bit.

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I'm not buying anything from those people. They hadn't even designed the gameplay when they launched the KS - but they had the minis ready, because those are flashy and generate buyer excitement.

Everything you hear is that the game is, at best, a standard, mediocre dungeon crawler. As much as I love Dark Souls, I want to vote no on this jackassery.

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I bought just for the minis! While overall the game is mediocre the boss fights are amazing. So house rule it to skip the grind and it becomes a good game.

Here are the minis I painted so far: https://boardgamegeek.com/images/user/1562650

RThorp said:

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Bryan98 if you like legacy games you have to check out Charterstone. It's a village building worker placement game for 6 people where the map changes each time. At the end of the final play through the game becomes a stand alone worker placement game.

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I like Lords of Waterdeep alright, and I'd be willing to try another worker placement. However, my unplayed stack is pretty high already, and a legacy game wants a lot of attention. Charterstone does sound good, but I'm trying not to buy too much right now.

And nice minis! I considered backing Dark Souls just for them myself. I made the right decision, I think, but not the decision that you never second-guess.

Bryan98 said:

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RThorp said:

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Bryan98 if you like legacy games you have to check out Charterstone. It's a village building worker placement game for 6 people where the map changes each time. At the end of the final play through the game becomes a stand alone worker placement game.

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I like Lords of Waterdeep alright, and I'd be willing to try another worker placement. However, my unplayed stack is pretty high already, and a legacy game wants a lot of attention. Charterstone does sound good, but I'm trying not to buy too much right now.

And nice minis! I considered backing Dark Souls just for them myself. I made the right decision, I think, but not the decision that you never second-guess.

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Thanks! I don't get to paint as often as I would like. I'm definitely frustrated by the timeline Steamforged has followed (or not). Especially after they re-opened the backer kit for more purchases (which I made) only to announce the massive delay a few days AFTER closing the kit for additional purchases. So slimey.

Lords of Waterdeep is one of my favorite worker placements. Have you tried the expansion?

Heads up - Gloomhaven back in stock at CSI. I finally got to order a copy!

There is a "what is the best board game" discussion on the GB: https://texags.com/forums/12/topics/2931844/1

Hilariously bad answers.

Got my copy of Rising Sun in the mail today!

I played two games of Spirit Island last night. Really enjoyed it. Excellent cooperative game, that has more meat to it. I really enjoyed how the different each of the spirits played, saw 7 of the spirits in the two games. We won both games and it was really interesting how the game gets easier win conditions the longer you play, plus you get more powerful. We did not ramp the difficulty way up, but i am interested to play under other conditions to see and solve the different puzzles. Highly recommend it if you are looking for coop that goes a little deeper.

Thanks for the review. I bought it at PAX South but haven't had a chance to play. Also the rule book is massive.

RThorp said:

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Thanks for the review. I bought it at PAX South but haven't had a chance to play. Also the rule book is massive.

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I was at PAX South. We gotta have a TexAgs meetup next year.