Boardgames, Card Games and RPG Adventures (Board Games)

[QualityChimp]

I'm a bit behind on this thread, so I'll try and work through what I've played.

I'll start with this week because I love to visit Chaos Cards when I'm in Folkestone.
I bought my son the new Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu set as it's a whole game, but we didn't actually play it!
He does get a buzz looking through the cards though.

My wife and I are Harry Potter fans and we've finally convinced him to watch the first film, which he adored, so he's currently obsessed, reading the first book and begging to see the second film.

I'd recently read how good Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is, so I took a punt and it's brilliant! We played it a couple of times over the holiday, but want to catch up with the films before continuing.



It's a 4-player co-op deck-building game based around the Potter films, with you playing Ron, Hermione, Harry or Neville, tackling the enemies of each film and defending key locations. The game gets tougher as it progresses as you keep adding the enemies and Dark Arts Events.

Basically, it plays like this:
You turn over a Dark Arts Event and resolve its effect (e.g. hurt current player, all players, add location takeover icon)
Resolve enemy's effect (e.g lose health, can't draw extra cards)
You then have 5 cards to play that either attack the enemy, heal you or others or allow you to buy better cards

Once you have better cards in your hand, you chances of beating the enemies are increased.



It's so much fun and fits the theme perfectly. There's a Toy Story version due out, but I don't think it fits the theme as well.

It also has some of the best rules and packaging I've seen. It's really clear and you learn as you play. Each year has its own box to avoid spoilers and once played, there are separators to keep the cards tidy.
The box looks like a suitcase and when you open it, the back of the gameboard looks like the case's contents (Every Flavour Beans etc.)

Highly recommended!

Toy Story reskin:

->Open Spoiler<-

[QualityChimp]

At work, we've been playing a lot of Cockroach Poker, which is a card bluffing game and it is great fun!

Basically, you get a hand of cards and your job is to make other people turn over 4-of-a-kind for one of the eight creatures.


You do this by saying to another player "this card is a scorpion (for example)"
The next player has to decide whether to call their bluff (first player turns it over if right, second player if wrong)
Have a look and pass it to another player, claiming the same or a new animal, repeating the bluff resolution above.
As more cards get revealed, it's harder to bluff and leads to some hilarious showdowns!

It's pretty cheap and has a small box. You can get the German version even cheaper and download the English rules.
We also played the "Royale" version, but felt the changes were unnecessary.

[QualityChimp]

One Night Ultimate Werewolf, is basically an expansion of the classic Mafia party game.

You play on the side of the villagers or werewolves. The former are trying to work out who the werewolves are and lynch them and the latter are trying to avert suspicion. Matters are made tougher with the inclusion of extra characters to mix things up.

The game is played with a brilliant app that lets everyone play (rather than a host) and talks you through every action.

All players close their eyes and they're told to open them as their card is called, do their action, then close them again.
The werewolves see who the other ones are, the minion sees who the wolves are, the Seer can look at other cards, the thief swaps his card and looks, the drunk does the same without looking and so on.

The players then wake up and the accusations begin until time runs out and everyone has to point at who they suspect.

Lots of fun and it's hilarious hearing people desperately explain their innocence, whether guilty or not.

[QualityChimp]

I went to the UK Games Expo (UKGE) at the Birmingham NEC earlier in the summer, which is the biggest board game event in the UK.
Played a fair bit of stuff (including Sub Terra 2 with the creator) and saw lots of cool things. Had my son with me, which hampered my activities a little, but I'd rather have him with me having a great day, blagging lots of free sweets!

The only game I bought is a Roll And Write game, called Welcome to Dino World.



Each player has their own blank map to build a Jurassic Park Dino World to enthral visitors.
It's played over eight rounds and each round has a new dice roll and the players have to use those rolls to build pens, powered fences, paths or visitor attractions.

The first few dinos need exact dice rolls (4,5 and 6, for example), but you can manipulate the rolls with a finite number of research points, and the bigger dinos need 7+ total to build.

Between each player are a set of goals worth 4, 6 and 10 points, so a player may get more points for building a T-Rex pen, but another player bags more total points by building three herbivore pens and getting that goal card.
Two people can claim a card at the end of a round, but once it's gone, it can't be claimed again.
There are things like, link the entrances with one path, only build along the park edges, build three carnivore pens with two different types and so on.

At the end of the game, you total up the scores for each dino, unused power generators, goal cards and visitor attractions.

It's better than some R&R games because those goal cards make it more interactive with other players, whereas other games feel like a table of people playing their own game.

It's playable solo but scales up to 72 players!
There are two game pads with a sedate park building map and a DANGER MODE where the fences start breaking down and tourist chomping commences.

I bought the deluxe pack with solo mode and aquatic expansion.

[QualityChimp]

Just flicked back through and don't think I've mentioned Ticket To Ride: New York, apologies if I have.



Played this at lunch as it's max 4-player and a few people are on holiday!

It plays like a much faster version of the original Ticket To Ride games, which take hours, whereas this takes about 15 minutes, so we can cram a couple of games in.

You choose a taxi colour, get two transportation cards and journey cards and have to complete the routes on the journey cards.
You get points for placing taxis, visiting tourist locations and completing routes, or points deducted for not completing them.

There's something quite satisfactory about placing down your little taxis and completing a route!

[QualityChimp]

In my search for a tiny version of Zombicide or Descent, I've stumbled across Deck Box Dungeons .



I missed the Kickstarter campaign, but caught the Pledge Manager before shipping.

The whole game fits in a slightly oversized box for a deck of cards, but is a complete dungeon crawler!

It's solo or 2-player, but you can add two boxes together for 4-player games.


You can do print and play missions, but even better is the app companion that comes with it.
You choose an adventure (new ones keep getting added), then set off to fulfil the quest goal, like escort someone, kill a troll or find treasure. The app tells you which card to place and what enemies have spawned, you then have to commence combat.



Each character has three cards: Weapon; Stat and Skills. Underneath those are treasure, health and energy, respectively.
Every time you hit an enemy, you slide the card down to add one energy, to activate special moves.
Kill one, add a treasure point, to buy new kit.
Take a hit, reduce the health points.



There are two levels of toughness and two different types - archer and warrior, plus two different bosses (8 total), all with their own unique methods of attack, so each mission feels different.

Look at the teeny-tiny meeples!



It's lots of fun, but really tough! You're slave the the RNG of the dice and the RNG hates me!

[Asura]

The whole game fits in a slightly oversized box for a deck of cards, but is a complete dungeon crawler!

This interests me. Years ago I bought Dungeoneer, which was meant to be like this, but the rules seemed much more complex than they needed to be, and when [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION] and I ended up playing, I won our first game totally by chance right at the end even though we didn't really know what we were doing.

Sounds like a daft question, but is this one "straightforward"? What I mean by that is that in D&D, when you move on a board, roll to attack etc. that all kinda makes sense; when you play Magic the Gathering, you're two wizards casting spells over a battlefield... Whereas in Dungeoneer I seem to remember that you build the dungeon from cards, but the flow of the game didn't really reflect what you imagined you were doing.

[QualityChimp]

This interests me. Years ago I bought Dungeoneer, which was meant to be like this, but the rules seemed much more complex than they needed to be, and when @Blobcat and I ended up playing, I won our first game totally by chance right at the end even though we didn't really know what we were doing.

Sounds like a daft question, but is this one "straightforward"? What I mean by that is that in D&D, when you move on a board, roll to attack etc. that all kinda makes sense; when you play Magic the Gathering, you're two wizards casting spells over a battlefield... Whereas in Dungeoneer I seem to remember that you build the dungeon from cards, but the flow of the game didn't really reflect what you imagined you were doing.

Heh, I bought Dungeoneer too!
I took it away to learn on holiday at Easter, but didn't find the time, sadly.

Deck Box Dungeons seems a much better fit.

All the dice and meeples come with it for a start!

The rules that come with it are awful. Thankfully, the app links to the updated rules on Boardgamegeek.
I would also watch a how-to-play video, tbh.

However, once you've got the gist, it's very straight-forward, just remember to check everything to make sure you don't miss energy or treasure points.

You can move X squares based on your character's stats.
When combat begins, the app tells you how many of each enemy spawn.
Roll their coloured dice to determine their health.

Attack: Roll your D6 to work out damage. 6 or more (roll + weapon buffs) per dice is a hit, a 6 is a critical hit that can't be blocked.
So you could roll 3 dice - 6, 5 and 1
1 critical hit (6), 1 hit (5+buff), one miss (1).
They can't dodge the critical - HIT!
The enemy have to roll 6 (D6 + defense score) to defend against that 5 you rolled.
Let's say they get 2, so fail to defend - HIT!

You get two energy points. If you kill them, you get one treasure point.

You can use the two energy points for something like "Teleport" (Move anywhere line-of-sight).
Minor actions can be used at any time.
The treasure points buy items - health potion, for example.

Then it's the enemies turn, with those steps reversed, but they can't get criticals.
they need to get at least 6 per dice to hit (D6 + buff).
For each hit, you have to roll at least 6 (D6 + shield score) to avoid losing health.

I hope I'm making sense!

[QualityChimp]

Let's say Naeva is attacking an adjacent enemy with daggers.
The stats next to melee weapons (sword icon) says you're rolling 2 dice, with 2 bonus added for the weapons and another 2 bonus for the character.
You roll a 6 and a 5.
6 is an unblockable critical - HIT! Add one energy point.
other dice - 5 +2 +2 = 9 HIT! Add one energy point.

The Zealot now defends.


It rolls 5 and adds the score by the shield (+1) = 6
It doesn't take damage!

Zealot's turn to attack:
Roll two dice (assigned by the double-sword icon top-left)
let's say 5 and 4.
5 +1 (score modifier by the melee double-sword icon) = 6 - HIT!
4 +1 = 5 - MISS!

You then defend and roll a 5.
5 -1 (down-side of small weapons) +1 (character boost) = 5 - the hit succeeds and you move your health down one.

[Asura]

rules

I looked it up and I worked out the problem - in Dungeoneer, the game is directly competitive (you try to **** each other over) because in-game, roles-wise, you are both a player and dungeon master. You're a player on your turn and you do DM-stuff against other players. I didn't like the way you kinda oscillate between those roles, and I wanted something more cooperative.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, this is co-operative.
The enemies follow the instructions on the cards like the archers move as far away as possible, some melee enemies focus on the hero with the least health.

[hudson]

Tremendous posts, QC *standing ovation

[QualityChimp]

For a more story-based adventure, you could look into Legends Untold.



I went Kickstarter crazy and went all-in getting both base set, the bonus cards and unique dice.

Obviously, this sits unplayed!

I intend to change that though, eventually!

[QualityChimp]

Tremendous posts, QC *standing ovation

Thanks, pal!

I get to play quite a few, so I thought I'd keep you updated.

Some want games to play with the kids, others want party games and others want something a bit more complex, so I'm trying to cover a few different bases.

I really did enjoy Hogwarts Battle!

[Atticus]

I'm looking for something new to take on hol ... fairly quick and easy to learn but plenty of play ... so these have definitely been helpful. Might pick up TTR: NY