Board Games!
Had an epic night of board game playing last Saturday - it was supposed to be getting together for a game or two, but I hadn't played any board games in around 6 months, so it ended up being this incredibly long evening. We gamed until two in the morning.
We played:
Zombiegeddon - I won this in a raffle at a gaming thing last year, and was really excited about it, because I love zombie board games. Actually playing the game, though ... it has almost nothing to actually do with zombies. Instead, it's a game where you run around the board collecting tokens with ugly artwork on them through two different phases, and then counting up the tokens you have to get points. The entire zombie theme seems like it was slapped on at the last minute to sell more copies, which made me enjoy the game a lot less than I could have. The fact that same essential game design also exists in everything from cavemen trying to survive the winter and penguins trying to collect fish says something about the role that the theme plays in the game, I think.
Pandemic - Pandemic's an interesting game to play amidst other games, as the people I game with usually end up rather antagonistic (in a fun way), and Pandemic relies entirely on people working together to play. So it's fun to try to work together after working so hard to steal from and mess with each other.
Power Grid - I don't think I've ever won a game of Power Grid. I tend to either over-buy on plants, and not have enough money to develop my resources, or not buy enough plants and then not be able to power the resources that I have. I think part of my problem as well is that I want to rely on green energy too much (due to my own political attitudes), and as a result try to avoid coal or nuclear plants and that ends up hampering me.
Shadows Over Camelot - I'd played this game once before, and didn't really care for it. My thought at the time was that this was a shame, because I've always loved Arthurian myth, but I found it kind of obtuse. After another couple of plays, though, I'm totally hooked on it. It's epic, and varied, and there's deceit, and intrigue, and you really get dragged into the experience of being in the game that most board games don't accomplish (but which I think might be what D&D is like from what I've heard). Part of this might be because I ended up being the traitor in one of the two games that we played, and that was a lot of fun, in spite of the tactical mistake I made in an early move that made people suspicious of my traitorness, and I had to spend half the game trying to cover my tracks. My one complaint would be that the game still plays in a really slow, drawn out way, but as long as you're with the right group that's not really that big a problem.
Star Trek Scene It - This game's a trickier game than it sounds, because there are not many people familiar with all the Star Trek series to be able to answer trivia questions on them. Also, you end up hearing people say things like "Voyager was a much better show than Deep Space Nine" and it makes you feel like a cranky old man.
Submarine - A really simple game about collecting treasure under the sea. Nice dynamic choices and an ever-fun element of screwing your neighbour. We had only two people playing this, but I think it could get a lot of fun with more.
Seafarers of Catan - I'm a little torn on Seafarers. On one hand, I like the addition of boats and islands to the Catan game, but the scenarios provided with the game end up making it a longer and more drawn-out game. Still, it's Catan, so it's a fun experience, but it's been a long time since I've just played vanilla Catan and I kind of miss it.
We played:
Zombiegeddon - I won this in a raffle at a gaming thing last year, and was really excited about it, because I love zombie board games. Actually playing the game, though ... it has almost nothing to actually do with zombies. Instead, it's a game where you run around the board collecting tokens with ugly artwork on them through two different phases, and then counting up the tokens you have to get points. The entire zombie theme seems like it was slapped on at the last minute to sell more copies, which made me enjoy the game a lot less than I could have. The fact that same essential game design also exists in everything from cavemen trying to survive the winter and penguins trying to collect fish says something about the role that the theme plays in the game, I think.
Pandemic - Pandemic's an interesting game to play amidst other games, as the people I game with usually end up rather antagonistic (in a fun way), and Pandemic relies entirely on people working together to play. So it's fun to try to work together after working so hard to steal from and mess with each other.
Power Grid - I don't think I've ever won a game of Power Grid. I tend to either over-buy on plants, and not have enough money to develop my resources, or not buy enough plants and then not be able to power the resources that I have. I think part of my problem as well is that I want to rely on green energy too much (due to my own political attitudes), and as a result try to avoid coal or nuclear plants and that ends up hampering me.
Shadows Over Camelot - I'd played this game once before, and didn't really care for it. My thought at the time was that this was a shame, because I've always loved Arthurian myth, but I found it kind of obtuse. After another couple of plays, though, I'm totally hooked on it. It's epic, and varied, and there's deceit, and intrigue, and you really get dragged into the experience of being in the game that most board games don't accomplish (but which I think might be what D&D is like from what I've heard). Part of this might be because I ended up being the traitor in one of the two games that we played, and that was a lot of fun, in spite of the tactical mistake I made in an early move that made people suspicious of my traitorness, and I had to spend half the game trying to cover my tracks. My one complaint would be that the game still plays in a really slow, drawn out way, but as long as you're with the right group that's not really that big a problem.
Star Trek Scene It - This game's a trickier game than it sounds, because there are not many people familiar with all the Star Trek series to be able to answer trivia questions on them. Also, you end up hearing people say things like "Voyager was a much better show than Deep Space Nine" and it makes you feel like a cranky old man.
Submarine - A really simple game about collecting treasure under the sea. Nice dynamic choices and an ever-fun element of screwing your neighbour. We had only two people playing this, but I think it could get a lot of fun with more.
Seafarers of Catan - I'm a little torn on Seafarers. On one hand, I like the addition of boats and islands to the Catan game, but the scenarios provided with the game end up making it a longer and more drawn-out game. Still, it's Catan, so it's a fun experience, but it's been a long time since I've just played vanilla Catan and I kind of miss it.