I only very recently got into boardgames. Previously, I sort of thought they were obsolete, to be honest. But shortly before Christmas, my brother and I were figuring out what to get our mom for Christmas, and saw Catan on her list. I thought it sounded similarish to EL and Civ and such, so we decided to go for it. And all 3 of us loved it.

Since then, we've also bought Risk: Legacy, Ticket to Ride: Europe, several Catan expansions, and most recently, 7 Wonders.

My thoughts on them are as follows.



Catan - This game is very fun. Pretty easy to learn. But after about 5 games or so, it already started to get a bit old for me. But I could tell it had a lot of potential, so I got some expansions.

Catan: Seafarers - This doesn't really shake up the gameplay very much, but it does make the board more interesting.

Catan: Traders & Barbarians - This one is pretty cool. It's more of a collection of miniexpansions that a single monolithic expansion, really. Some are great, some I'm not too big on. My favorite is Barbarian Attack. Good stuff.

Catan: Frenemies - Terrible name, but a great addition to the game. If you play Catan, I recommend trying this. It's cheap, and fun.

I also got Catan: Cities & Knights and Catan: Explorers & Pirates, but I have yet to actually play them.



Risk: Legacy - None of us had ever played Risk before, but we heard about this version and decided to go for it. If you're unfamiliar with the Legacy concept, basically every playthrough permanently affects all future playthroughs, through the use of stickers mainly. I love the Legacy aspects of the game, but Risk itself is a little boring, I think. Only one type of unit, and not much to the game besides combat.



Ticket to Ride: Europe - This kind of feels like a watered down Catan with a less interesting theme, imo. It's not bad, but I don't really care much for it.



7 Wonders - I only got this one about a week ago, and have played it twice so far. It's very cool. Quick to play, easy to learn, and fun.



This was all a big splurge, though, and it might be a bit before I can get ES2 when it goes up for prepurchase #oops

icarus86 wrote:


- What games do you have in your collection ?

- What are your favorite games ?

- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

- How often do you play ?

- How big is your gaming group ?

- Do you play board games online ?

- I sold all my games moving from Canada to Ireland 4.5 years ago, except for Cyclades. I built it back up in Ireland. I now own Cyclades, Game of Thrones v2, Battlestar Galactica, Dead of Winter, Myrmes, Flashpoint, 7 Wonders Duel, Werewolves, the Resistance and a bunch of others.

- Eclipse, Game of Thrones, Letters from Whitechapel

- Settlers of Catan (ease of mechanics), Game of Thrones (very strong theme), Flashpoint (co-op makes everything easier)

- I used to play every week with my club in Ireland, now I play with my colleagues, we don't have much of a schedule since production and life can get in the way, but at least a game night or two a month

- There are 17 members in our #boardgames channel on Slack. About a dozen of these have effectively turned up so far.

- I briefly tried, disliked it. I don't mind the digital support (I play Suburbia on the iPad with my brother-in-law who's also a big gamer), but I find the lack of companionship to be detrimental to the atmosphere.



That's it for me!



Next game I'd like to own: not sure, I had the opportunity of playing Mice & Mystics and it wasn't that great.



Biggest game disappointment: Arkham Horror. Too much alpha gaming going on, you end up guiding the turns of everyone. :/

- Cards against humanity, Lords of Waterdeep (+expansions), Betrayal at House on the Hill, Legendary Showdown (Dr. McNinja and girlgenius+gunnerkrigg court editions), Chaos in the Old World

- Lords of Waterdeep, Ticket to Ride

- Betrayal at House on the Hill (relatively simple mechanics, lots of diversity because of 50 random game goals, but lots of randomness as well)

- I played twice a month back in germany, but now I'm missing a gaming group alltogether since moving

- At the moment 0, sadly. Before that it varied between 5-10

- I've played Ticket to Ride online a few times. It works if one has a TS server at the same time, otherwise it's bland, because one cannot listen to the exclamations of annoyance, when you just foiled the grand scheme of things for another player.

- Next game I consider buying: http://shop.blindferret.com/collections/looking-for-group-other/products/lfg-orphans-ashes Somehow I can hardly resist...

- I always watch videos of people playing a game before buying it, so I've not done a mispurchase, yet.

I don't think watching videos would have prevented me from buying Arkham Horror, considering where its flaws lie. This is something I regularly do anyway now.

-Personally i own only Civilization the Board Game but i am part of a group here in my hometown and a friend from the group is big collector of games

-Favorites are Battlestar Galactica (cause was the first one we started playing), Twilight Imperium, Eldridge Horror, Shogun, and lately start playing Warhammer 40k Conquest and its really good

-For newcomers maybe Catan or Smallworld

-We used to gather 2-3 times per month but lately he havent played for while due to the fact a member of the group is pregnant

-Around 10 people. Usually we gathered 4-6

-No i prefer the real thing

-Rex, Final days of an Empire has caught my eye for sometime now

-Unfortuanately Civilization. Maybe because of the PC game i was expecting more

- What games do you have in your collection ?



Couple of Munchkin card sets, as well as the Munchking the boardgame (the movie..)

Catan + expansion packs (And some custom molded cities and roads from a kickstarter a while back)

Ticket to Ride: Europe (Suck it USA! Heh...)



That's it really - Oh and a Civilization cardgame from a collector's edition I found randomly.





- What are your favorite games ?



Catan and Ticket to Ride for sure. I rarely take out Munchkin anymore because it triggers all of that MTG style hatred towards your friends after a few games, heh.



- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?



Ticket to Ride and Catan are great gateway drugs.



- How often do you play ?



Once a month - My friends are PC centric as I, so we rarely get off of our butts and meet up.



- How big is your gaming group ?



Handful of people.



- Do you play board games online ?



I play Ticket to Ride - mostly because I wanted to test out the other variants of it, without paying for a box.



- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?



More Ticket to Ride.



- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?



Munchkin the boardgame (It doesn't play very well - nor is it particularly "fair". Very heavy on RNG and stacking luck)

Arkham Horror - A friend bought it, and we spent almost two hours trying to read the rules... and then gave up in frustration.

Great idea. I guess board games and 4x strategy games have a lot in common, so it's not too surprising there's so many board game fans in here.



I'm actually pretty new to "deep" board gaming. I mean I've always played the occasional game of risk or settlers, but it wasn't until last fall that I played any of the deeper, more complex games.

I actually ended up connecting several of my board gaming friends with each other, so now we're doing regular game nights.



Anyways, as for the actual questions:

- What games do you have in your collection ?

Since my friends all live in another town, I haven't had much reason to collect games on my own yet. The only one I own is Carcasonne.



- What are your favorite games ?

All my friends have big collections, so we've pretty much played a new game every night.

Although, I've been a huge fan of Carcasonne for several years now.



- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

Carcasonne! Maybe smallworld.



- How often do you play ?

About once a month.



- How big is your gaming group ?

4-6 people



- Do you play board games online ?

No, if I'm at my computer, I might as well play something 100x more complex...like Endless Legend.



- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?

I'm not sure yet



- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?

I haven't really started buying my own games yet, so I'm free from disappointment so far.





---

Also, you devs should totally host a game night during the next fan meetup.

I doubt I'll be able to make it down to France, but I'd love to get to game with you guys!

Mystic_A wrote:
Great idea. I guess board games and 4x strategy games have a lot in common, so it's not too surprising there's so many board game fans in here.

---

Also, you devs should totally host a game night during the next fan meetup.

I doubt I'll be able to make it down to France, but I'd love to get to game with you guys!

This is why I started this topic I'm also hoping that perhaps we can host an EL + board-game "championship" sometimes in the future.

Some board games are also played competitively, with international championships going on every year (e.g. Catan).



I haven't answered the last 2 questions myself :

- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?

I'm currently waiting for Tokaido:CE, Zombicide:BP and B-Sieged to be delivered.

I have the next Kingdom Builder expansion (Marshlands), Oddball Aeronauts 2 and Swords and Bagpipes on my to-buy list.

- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?

Axis&Allies is too much for my group & myself - it's way too complex (though rewarding I assume, once you get to master it).

Has amplitude every thought about licensing out in the endless legend board game? It would be pretty easy to make. You could do a tile system like settlers of cartan and have four factions fight it out. You already have the art done.

My own collection is rather small:

Smash Up, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Blood Bowl: Team Manager, Codenames, Warhammer Quest, Winter Tales



But a friend has a huge collection so we play various things regularly. He's particular to Through the Ages. But that can be too tiring after a day of work.

Since the concept of "board games" came up on the "Let's Get To Know Each Other Better!" thread, and I didn't want to hijack that thread, aaaand I'm a HUGE fan of board games : here's a dedicated thread for the board game fans and players among us.



- What games do you have in your collection ?

- What are your favorite games ?

- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

- How often do you play ?

- How big is your gaming group ?

- Do you play board games online ?

- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?

- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?



I'll start by answering the questions above. Feel free to add more questions to the list !



- What games do you have in your collection ?

https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/icarus86?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1



- What are your favorite games ?

2P : The Builders (Middle Ages or Antiquity), Tobago

3-4P : Russian Railroads, Ticket To Ride, St. Petersburg

4P+ : Carcassonne, Saboteur, Sheriff of Nottingham



- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

Jamaica, Tsuro, Artificium



- How often do you play ?

A few times per month, as often as our group can gather up.



- How big is your gaming group ?

We're about 10 players in total, but we usually meet in groups of 3 to 5.



- Do you play board games online ?

No, and I personally think it ruins much of the magic.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/icarus86/7477481590/in/album-72157658233721310/ ^^

A lot of children-friendly board games from my youth And a few more serious ones.





First place: Battlestar Galactica Board Game

Second Place: Diplomacy

Third place: hmm, not sure as the gap between second and third place is quite big. Maybe Starcraft: the Board Game?





Risk. It's a fairly easy-to-learn classic that never gets old.

Or chess if someone has never played a board game in their life lol





Impossible to say as I play very irregularly. It can be several times a month or not once in two months.





Including me - 3 people who are almost always available. Add to that 5 more that are less likely to be able to play but sometimes do.





Yes for two reasons:

1) If you live in a village (like I do) it's kinda hard to get together with your friends IRL. Without the internet I would barely ever be able to play nowadays.

2) Some board games are better in an online version imo. The prime example is Diplomacy - when you play this game IRL you have to physically get close to somebody to conduct your secret discussions. Online you are given no information on who talked with who, which in my eyes was an improvement from what I was used to, making the game more challenging.





Probably Space Alert. I've been eyeing it for some time already ^_^ I'm a bit worried about the replayability though.





I don't think I had one yet.







PS: I do not qualify card games as board games so I did not include any of these

The Mighty MIG Spammer himself ... what an honor !

Can't skip the occasion to say "hi" ^^

Tdoggs wrote:
Has amplitude every thought about licensing out in the endless legend board game? It would be pretty easy to make. You could do a tile system like settlers of cartan and have four factions fight it out. You already have the art done.

We've certainly thought of it, but it's a lot of work branching out out game in another medium and making sure the game keeps true to Endless Legend's spirit. It's not something we are currently looking into as far as I am aware.

Mystic_A wrote:


Also, you devs should totally host a game night during the next fan meetup.

I doubt I'll be able to make it down to France, but I'd love to get to game with you guys!

Imagine sitting down for a 2 or 3 hours game with dozens of people to manage... that'd be an organizational nightmare for me!

- What games do you have in your collection ?

7 Wonders, Eldritch Horror, Smash Up, Jamaica, Power Grid, Tsuro, Fluxx, Coup, Libertalia and Cosmic Encounter..



- What are your favorite games ?

7 Wonders, Cosmic Encounter and traitor co-op games such as Battlestar Galactica. I think Libertalia will get there as well, but haven't played it enough yet ^^



- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

It really depends on the goal. If it is to take a monopoly playing person and move from there, going with things like Tsuro and Jamaica is great.

If its about showing the diversity and strength of board games, I think 7 Wonders (base game), Carcasonne and Settlers of Catan are great.



- How often do you play ?

I played about once every 1-2 weeks back in Denmark.. In France I've played significantly less unfortunately



- How big is your gaming group ?

We play at the Amplitude of course! Quite a few boardgamers here.

My Copenhagen group is 3 semi-merged groups amounting to about 20 people altogether.



- Do you play board games online ?

A little.. Not too much though.



- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?

Been eyeing Castles of Mad King Ludwig.. But don't know ^^



- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?

I think it was getting into board games playing games like Settlers of Catan and Munchkin, only to quickly realize that those games mostly end in kingmaking or rotating cards until pure random chance decides the result ^^ Needless to say I don't really play those games anymore, though I would not mind playing Settlers to introduce someone to boardgames.

Just saying, if you.re looking for a game where luck is not involved at all, try the one from the 18xx series. They.re quite complex though ...

I understood that Poseidon is a good gateway game towards the 18xx series.

- What games do you have in your collection ?

Oh my... Say 120-150 ? Boardgames, dice'n paper RPG, excluding games I create...

Not much wargames but I absolutly love strategic games though. Too much rules in wargames in my opinion.



- What are your favorite games ?

Almost any dice'n paper rpg, but Agone: Twilight Realms is my favorite (if the english translation is that). This is a french dice'n paper RPG made in the 2000's, baroque fantasy, high dark fantasy.

Also Android Netrunner.

And a french boardgame named le Gang des Tractions Avant for child reasons (there will be a remake in 2017 by a company, and I'm watching really closely to this, since I allready proposed rules for 3E to the autor but came a little too late). It's based on the prisoner's paradox, with guns and traitors, and a little empire management (not enough in 1E/2E). 1E/2E is awfully misequilibriated (game made in the early 90's...), I really hope they made some of the changes I told them to rework, but I think those guys disregarded what I've done on the subject.



- Which ones would you recommend to a newcomer ?

Seriously a lot. But Ticket to Ride and lately Mysterium are gems for beginers. Serenissima. And say... Time's Up ? Werewolves of millers hollow are a classic in France too.

If you don't like any game in this list, then you should not play boardgames ?



Next step should be Troyes, Eldritch Horror (which is a different game than Arkham Horror, but full of alpha player aswell. Excellent solo game though), Mare Nostrum will be good to. That sort of things.



And next... Well, Fief, Agricola (some say Caverna is better but I don't know it yet)...



- How often do you play ?

Once a week, and sometimes, but it's rare, the sunday.

I almost stoped playing rpg for the moment but for an occasional Call of Cthulhu game (until I finish to write my awesome new rulesystem for Agone, it's almost finish but... There's this... Oh, and that... Oh and this again... Oh, I need to simplify now... And add this... And remove that... Etc... Endless designing questions).



- How big is your gaming group ?

3-6 for my main group. I can play with my familly too, so 3-5 for the very occasional second. I could not imagine playing with my mother until lately



- Do you play board games online ?

Android Netrunner only, on Jinteki.net. That does not count in "how often do I play" I hope, or else I would say 4 times a week, and imagining new decks everyday ?



- What's the next game you plan to purchase ?

A good one I kickstarted and tested Mare Nostrum in "Paris Est Ludique", a french boardgame convention last summer, so I'm really waiting for it.

I tried le Gang des Traction Avant 3E too, and I'm also waiting for it a lot ! They made some changes I did not saw but I persist that some of the thing I made are more modern (the autor agreed, but I don't know).

Both games are from Serge Laget. He also made Shogun, Ad Astra, Murder at the Abbey, Mare Nostrum and other games, but I did not played these yet.



- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?

Diplomacy shouldn't be THAT long, or this strange to solve. It should really really need a 2010's revamp : mecanics can't be those today. It needs agility and more speed I think.

I watch videotests on TricTrac.net (the french BGG) or on the DiceTower, and I know what games I like, so I'm very rarelly disapointed.

Got Conquest of Planet Earth, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Though the cooperative mode is too easy

Kweel_Nakashyn wrote:


- What's your biggest board game disappointment ?

Diplomacy shouldn't be THAT long, or this strange to solve. It should really really need a 2010's revamp : mecanics can't be those today. It needs agility and more speed I think.

Try Game of Thrones (2nd edition). Base mechanics are very similar, but it's about 3.5 hours instead of the 5-10 a Diplomacy game will take.