Mysterium is great. Code names was not bad, but it seemed like the replay ability is low. If anyone wants to get into board games but doesn't know where to start, google Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. Lots of good YouTube videos of him playing and explaining a lot of games. Me and the wife have found a lot on there we like.

If you like Lords of Waterdeep but want more theme, try Champions of Midgard. Just came out last month, its mechanically very similar to Lords of Waterdeep but with a Viking theme. You collect "warriors" which are dice and roll them against monsters to complete quests. I've only been able to play it once so far but I liked it a lot, and Lords of Waterdeep is one of my favorite games. I've heard Viticulture is great as well for another similar game that feels very thematic, but I haven't played it. They just released the "Essential Edition" that comes with some of the modules from the first expansion.

I'm interested in the Legacy games as a phenomena, but I don't have any personal interest in playing them. I've never been in to Risk or Pandemic, though.

I'm a huge fan of board games. I have a group with 2 friends that meets up a couple times a month to play. Between the 3 of us we have about 70 different games. Some of my current favorites are Seasons, Splendor, and Race for the Galaxy.

I wasn't a big fan of 7 Wonders, which several people mentioned, but I did just get the new 2-player-only 7 Wonders Duel which I like a lot. And I'm a big fan of drafting games in general. Two of my favorites are Among the Stars, where you draft cards to place on the table to build a space station, and Steampunk Rally, where you play a famous inventor and draft machine parts to build a huge racing contraption that uses dice as power to race through the Alps against other inventors.

I'm also not wild about 7 Wonders, but I do hear good things about Duel.

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I had Codenames on my Amazon wish list but the price has been inflated by its current scarcity, so I took it off. Same thing with Mysterium.

I would love to play Eldritch Horror some time. I own an unplayed copy of Arkham Horror, actually. Seems very complicated and apparently, it's quite long. I'm not sure I've got folks who want to play a game as long as that. Heck, I'm not sure I'M a folk who wants to play a game as long as that.

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Mysterium is awesome. My friend ordered it directly from the creator before it was generally available. Such beautiful cards.

We rented a cabin with a large group of friends and that game will make an appearance tonight.

7 Wonders is fun, but I can never keep track of running point totals. I never realize how badly I'm losing until the game is over

And I just got Mysterium for in-law Christmas today. Gonna get to play tonight. As Red Five said, Steampunk Rally is cool as well. I got into the kickstarter for it last year and got my full copy a few months ago. Fun game.

I've still never played Love Letter, but I took a $10 flier on the Christmas variant, Letters to Santa. I love Christmas-themed stuff at this time of year, and the theme might get some of my non-gaming relatives to play when we get together.

If you like Christmas-themed games, 12 Days is a fun little trick-taking game with a set collection aspect. Good light fun for a family gathering.

Carcassonne!

Galaxy Trucker is a trip. I've only played the app version, but its a ton of fun.

World in Flames.

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I got Twilight Imperium 3 and have yet to play it. Very intimidating and have yet been able to find enough people willing to sit down and learn with me. It is quite the commitment though...

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I'm in the same boat. If there's anyone in Austin/RR that's up for it let me know...or any general gaming for that matter.

I'll throw in a few that are great after progressing from the gateway games:

Five Tribes
Agricola
Imperial Settlers
Terra Mystica
Android Netrunner (2 player)
Star Wars: Imperial Assault (miniatures...and Star Wars!)


Games on my list to get:

Robinson Crusoe (co-op)
Mage Knight (also a good solo game)
Keyflower
Suburbia

Watch listed!

Anyone here played the resistance? That is a lot of fun - simple dynamics, but playing of f each other makes it a blast.

I love Imperial Settlers, the way it builds up every turn is so cool. You start off on round 1 getting like 2 actions and you wonder how you can ever get anything done by round 5, but then by the time you get to the endgame and you have your resource engine built up you are getting like 7-8 turns every round. Five Tribes is also really good, and I don't have Agricola but I have the "sequel" Caverna which is very good (and a little more forgiving). I haven't played Terra Mystica, but it's on my wish list.

Suburbia is really good also. Really good engine-builder, its so important to get your economic engine built up in the early turns even if it feels like you are falling behind.

Other games on my wish list are Eclipse (TI:3-like, but shorter), Kemet, and Orleans.

Anyone here ever play Shogun?

Loved that way-too-involved-time-trap of a game in my younger days.

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Anyone here played the resistance? That is a lot of fun - simple dynamics, but playing of f each other makes it a blast.

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this one is a big hit in our group. I recommend it for anybody who hasn't tried it. Each game is only 10-20 minutes long, so we usually start out with that before getting into something a bit longer.

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Anyone here played the resistance? That is a lot of fun - simple dynamics, but playing of f each other makes it a blast.

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I've only played it once, but it's one of my favorite all-time tabletop stories. Basically, at the end of the game, my brother had "solved" the current situation and knew that the guy in charge was a traitor setting us up for a failed mission. He had solved it logically, not intuitively - he could prove it. However, I was a traitor, too, and I basically argued with him and kind of laughed a bit and folks ended up voting with me. And then they lost. We still talk about it two years later!

If you like that kind of game, there's a kickstarter from the designer of Cards Against Humanity for a new game in that genre called Secret Hitler. There's only about six days left in the campaign. There are some good Let's Plays up on YouTube of people playing the game. I've watched one with one of the designers teaching a group to play, and another of Patrick Rothfuss (the fantasy writer) playing it at work. The former game, with seven players, took about half an hour. The latter took a full hour, but it has a lot of interesting deduction and a fantastic ending.

When you watch these Let's Plays, you can see from the beginning who the traitors are, but I chose not to watch those parts so I could try and puzzle it out myself. I thought that really added to the experience.

i would love to get into deeper games like Agricola/Caverna, Mage Knight and playing a round of Twilight Imperium 3 is on my bucket list, but i struggle to get my wife into it and we also have a 2 month old which makes it hard to play anything too mentally taxing, especially if we have to learn it first.

Im pretty sure I'm getting Agricola: All Creatures big and small for xmas, which i believe is a lighter less stressful 2 player version of the original. excited about it since the designer of it (and Agricola) also designed Patchwork, which im loving right now.

You may indeed love that version of Agricola, but from what I understand about Patchwork, the games are as far apart as two two-player games could be, same designer or not.

Here's a tip I saw on Reddit earlier: Codenames is still in stock on Target.com for MSRP with free holiday shipping!

I love playing Dominion. It isn't exactly a board game, but it fits into the discussion. It is a deck building game that is always different because you need to find the optimum strategy for the 10 cards you can choose from in each game. So each game is different and has a different strategy.

Also, Powergrid is a little bit complicated, but it is a wonderful strategy game. The first time we played it was a little tough to start but after that it was perfect. It is all about managing supply and demand for a power company while expanding to multiple cities.

Posted this on different thread but great board game for WWII European theater is https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1035/squad-leader. There is also an Advanced Squad Leader which supposedly simplifies and expands on it. Really good game.

Also not sure if it was mentioned but if you are in Houston area Nan's has tons of boardgames you can look through. Store has been there forever. Comics as well. http://www.yelp.com/biz/nans-games-and-comics-too-houston

I was just at Nan's last weekend. Picked up Letters To Santa, which my wife and I tried out last night. She whipped my ass.

Waiting to see if any CDG fans are hanging around...

Just recieved my Kickstarter Zombicide: Black Plague. Also getting Pandemic and Betrayal at the House on the Hill for christmas. Hoping to get some games in over the break.

No mention of Smash Up yet? That's currently our most popular with family and friends. We've got all the expansions and the big geeky box for it. Is a lot of fun and always different. It's a great entry game for card deck building.

For those looking to buy games but not wanting to pay full price, I'd recommend miniaturemarket.com as they have just about any game you can think of and at great prices.

I currently have a shipment on it's way from them with Pandemic Legacy, Escape: The Curse of the Temple (which looks like an absolute blast - only 10 minutes to play, relies on dice - watch the video for it on shutupandsitdown.com), Small World, and Sheriff of Nottingham.

Games we currently have and really enjoy:

Pandemic with On The Brink expansion
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Forbidden Island
Forbidden Desert
Sushi Go
Carcassone
Catan
Smash Up with all expansions (minus munchkins - can't stand that game)
Ticket to Ride
Dominion
Ultimate Werewolf (awesome game, best with a lot of people)
Resistance
Flash Point (similar to Forbidden Island but you're firemen rescuing people from a burning building)
Tenzi (great fun dice game - pick up the card set to go with it)

Sites that I get reviews/info from:

Wil Wheaton's TableTop videos
shutupandsitdown.com - just found these guys and they're awesome


Recently played X-Wing miniatures with some friends. Considering picking that up or Armada. Any recommendations?

I love Shut Up And Sit Down! I tolerate Tabletop. Don't really care for Wil Wheaton this days.

We should have some TexAgs boardgame meet ups! Anyone in this thread from Houston?

Cypress here.

I too don't care much for Tabletop. I'll watch it if I'm interested in a guest. I did learn i was playing Libertalia wrong from an episode, which is fairly ironic.

I like SUSD, their podcast is pretty good as well. I listen mostly to the Dice Tower and various shows on the DT network.

Regarding X-wing vs Armada, I have heard more often people preferring Armada as the better game, although X-wing has a larger model pool to choose from and a more vibrant competitive scene currently.

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Recently played X-Wing miniatures with some friends. Considering picking that up or Armada. Any recommendations?

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Depends on what you like. X-wing is smaller, single seat ships (air warfare) where Armada is focused on the large capital starships (think WW2 battleships and such). X-wing plays faster and is more forgiving strategy wise as you only plan 1 turn out. Armada you have ships that you have to plan 2-3 moves where you plan to be and what you want to do. Personally, I like Armada better.

As said though, Armada is only 8 months old, so there are only 5 ships and then squadrons per side. That could be a plus or minus.

Well, added to my own collection today. Running a buy 2 get 1 free sale made it hard for me not to add a couple of games to my collection while buying one for a buddy's Christmas present. Anyone played Baseball Highlights 2054 before? Heard good things about it and also finally added Agricola to my collection as well.

I haven't played it, but I have heard a lot of praise for Baseball Highlights. Sounds like a good pick up to me.

What are some good 2 player games? We tried the Resistance, but that didn't really work out for some reason.

Great question. I know a lot of people are liking 7 Wonders Duel, a new game for two. Some people play all the way through Pandemic Legacy as a duo. Love Letter can be played with two, although it's not great that way imho. Lords of Waterdeep can be played with two, but I haven't tried it yet.

here's my favorite 2 player games;

Dominion - very fun, the standard for deck building
Star Realms - fun, faster playing deck builder, more interactive, but also more luck based
Hive ( get the carbon or pocket editions, stay away form the regular set) - kinda like chess, only different and more awesome. plus theres bugs.
Patchwork - on the surface a quilting themed game sounds dumb, but i flipping love it
Arboretum
Sushi Go (look up the 2 player variant on boardgamegeek.com)
Pandemic (you can either do just 2 players or you control 2 players each)
Ticket to Ride - Switzerland map
Set
Quiddler


hoping to play Agricola- All Creatures Big and Small this week, i hear great things about it as well.