MTG Salvation

I can't stop listening to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ha-ZsGxCb8

America is such an awesome band!

Quote from Pringlesman

What I've been playing as of late.

All of those games are amazing. I never did beat the first one. That one was so freaking hard compared to the other two.

Quote from therestless

Anyone around here going to be at SCG Atlanta this weekend?

I will.

-AA

My g/f left me alone for the weekend to make a road trip to Chicago with a friend. There's a very good possibility that my posting habits go back to what they once were... at least for the next few days or so.

I haven't spent money on MTG in quite a while now. I have developed a board gaming addiction. Been playing mostly:

Cosmic Encounter
Galaxy Trucker
Core Worlds
King of Tokyo (Richard Garfield's greatest game)

I realised that a good board game will give me so much more entertainment value than buying that foil Geist of St Traft, or that Voice of Resurgence.

I love board games. Being playing Smallworld and Love Letter quite a bit. Had an epic game of Twilight Imperium last weekend! (Though I guess calling a game of TI epic is sorta like pointing out that snow is white...)

I agree that a board game is a lot more enjoyable for me that a foil, but my cube still brings more joy overall than any individual game.

Quote from flutterguy

I love board games. Being playing Smallworld and Love Letter quite a bit. Had an epic game of Twilight Imperium last weekend! (Though I guess calling a game of TI epic is sorta like pointing out that snow is white...)

I agree that a board game is a lot more enjoyable for me that a foil, but my cube still brings more joy overall than any individual game.

Yes, my cube is still a massive source of joy and entertainment, and I continue to manage it, but I've pretty much halted spending any money on it, or buying foils. I'll be trying to trade for everything I need from Theros.

I've never played TI personally, but it does seem too large a game for me. My playgroup typically doesn't like long games (especially the women in our group. We all play with our girlfriends/wives), so games that are 1.5+ hrs are generally not our kind of thing. Power Grid is pretty much the longest game we play (and we only play it sparingly). Other games that we play a fair bit:

Pandemic
Ticket to Ride (all the various maps)
Ascension
Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game
Mascarade
Lords of Waterdeep

Cosmic Encounter is our group favourite though.

Quote from therestless

Must have missed ya. Had a lot of fun playing in the opens for T2 (BW Zombies) and Legacy (Smallpox).

I was only there on Saturday, and I traded until about round 5 then Cubed for the rest of the time. Didn't know how to contact you to get you in on it!

How'd you do?

-AA

So I recently started playing Dominion with my friends. We've picked up the base set as well as a few expansions (Prosperity, Alchemy and Dark Ages, I think).

We're looking to pick up a couple more. Any recommendations as to which expansions are really fun? We didn't enjoy Dark Ages too much. Is that something that makes more sense or becomes more enjoyable as you get better at the game? Or is it just a bad set?

Quote from Juju

I realised that a good board game will give me so much more entertainment value than buying that foil Geist of St Traft, or that Voice of Resurgence.

This is kind of why I've gotten into retro gaming as of late. For $60 I could get this sweet foil. Or I could get these three 40+ hour Super Nintendo RPG games.

Quote from Ausschliessi

I don't know Dark Ages since I haven't played Dominion in over a year now I think but if you consider yourself a Johnny get your hands on Seaside - a lot of group favorites are from that expansion (mine is the Tactician, in the right deck he can catalyze insane turns, but as I said, the set can be rather johnnyific, where its not about winning anymore really, but more about who bought the most points in a single round ). I myself found Alchemy to be rather lacking though.

Yeah, I've had Seaside and Hinterland recommended to me so far. From the way you describe it, Seaside seems like my group would really dig it. Thanks!

Prosperity is by far the best expansion for Dominion imo.

I recommend getting some other deck building (or board) games instead of going all out with Dominion.

Some suggestions for good deck building games:

Core Worlds (along with its expansion Galactic Orders, it's my favourite deckbuilder)
Ascension (Storm of Souls + Immortal Heroes block is really good imo. Try it on iOS. It's a fantastic implementation)

Marvel Legendary
Thunderstone

I don't own the last two, but I heard they are excellent.

Some of the games mentioned here I enjoy quite a bit:

Dominion - Great game, but it kind of feels like playing storm when every draw you can run through your deck. I wish going through your entire deck in hand was a little more difficult to achieve tbh.
Ascension - It's like Dominon meets MTG, short, sweet. I really liked the base game and how it played but I could see it being better with a few expansions as the cards are rather boring.
Settlers of Catan - It's all about the drafting portion of the game where you lay out the two starting houses you get. Either way we come back to it quite often because it's simple enough that new players are in the swing of it on their first game but has some complexity to make it replayable -- plus the board changes a lot which is cool. It does have a lot of dice rolling which I dislike.
Citadels - Awesome game. During each round there is a draft portion where one pack of "roles" are passed around, once everyone picks then each role is called out in order (each role card is associated with a numerical value). During your turn you may use your "role" action plus your regular turn. The game feels original but not clunky.

Some of my recent favorites:

Dominion We don't play this a lot anymore. But I really liked it while it lasted. We primarily played with the first two expansions.

7 Wonders Not a very interesting game, but good if your many players and some aren't so experienced in board games.

Blood Bowl Team Manager Very funny combination of a deck building game and something like Small World with interaction. It's my favourite at the moment.

Small World We're still having fun with Small World once in a while.

Race for the Galaxy This game I've played so many times so I think it's a clear second to magic in no games played. We don't play it so often anymore, but sometimes we dust it off for a single game.

Lords of Waterdeep The best worker placement game so far.

BTW Here's my BGG-profile: http://boardgamegeek.com/user/bondafong

I actually think 7 Wonders is a great game that is very interesting. The thing is, you need to stay aware of what others are doing in order to utilize your draft strategy to 'hate draft' or stay out of your neighbors' 'colors'. It's also pretty easy to set up and break down as well as pretty easy to learn how to play on a basic level. If I were to buy a board game, this one would be it.

-AA

I have never been a huge Dominion fan, though I cannot tell you why. Just did not click with me much.

If you like deck building, I also suggest checking out Quarriors. Its not quite as deep but it is a lot of fun and you get that joy from rolling all those dice.

For the truly light filler, Love Letter has become a group favorite. The games are almost always very close, and have a bit of strategy but only last maybe 15 minutes.

I really need to try Lords of Waterdeep! So far my favorite worker placement game is Belfort. I am terrible at it, yet I thoroughly enjoy losing each game.

Also enjoying Cutthroat Caverns and HeroScape a lot lately.

Of course, you you can find ~6 people willing to pour 10+ hours into a game, I think Twilight Imperium has no equal. It is not nearly as elegant as Eclipse, but it just feels so much more sweeping.

When I played Dominion for the first time, it completely blew me away. Such an amazing concept! I got the Base Set, Intrigue and Seaside and played around 50 games in a few months. And then, within a few weeks, I lost all interest in the game. Once the amazement about the deckbuilding mechanic subsided, the main flaw of the game became apparent: Almost no direct player interaction. The game is mostly a race for victory points.

Since I still loved the deckbuilding genre, I started looking for similar games with more interaction. After a while, I stumbled upon Puzzle Strike. It isn't that well known, but it is the greatest deckbuilding game that I have ever seen. The victory condition is to defeat the opponent so that direct interaction is build into the core of the game. Since you not only have to manage your deck, but also constantly prevent your demise, there is a lot of decision making involved. Each player also starts with a unique character, so that there are a lot of different match-ups and subsequently a lot more replay value than in a game with symmetric starting conditions. You can try this out online for free, with a pretty nice UI.

As for a quick and fun light game that can be played with a wide range of players, I would recommend King of Tokyo. There is a surprising depth in decision making and a fast pace with little downtime for the different players. The only negative is that the player elimination means that if you are playing with 5 or 6 players, one or two might be sitting around for 20 minutes before the game is finally over.

As far as Eurogame classics are concerned, I've been playing Puerto Rico on a regular basis. I mostly played with 4 or 5 players. Sometimes with 3. And I while each player number feels a bit differently, it still scales rather nicely. Your decisions have a huge and often immediate impact on the other players. You have to constantly evaluate not only which actions are the best for you, but also which other players could benefit from them and even if someone would benefit even more from your action than you do.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. If you're looking for any other fun games that are quick and easy to learn, I'd definitely recommend Eleminis.

It's something like a mix of Rock/Paper/Scissors and Uno. It's easily one of our favorite games to pull out when new people come over.

If anyone lives in Canada, you probably know about the horrific accident in Ottawa where a double decker bus collided with a moving train and killed six people. Normally I wouldn't post this kind of news here, but two of the victims were Magic players. They were both 21 years old and played regularly in stores. As a judge, I frequently saw them and talked to them as part of the events I ran. I may even have cubed with them a few times over the years of sharing my cube with new players. But certainly, this accident has deeply affected the Magic community in the city on top of the families whose lives have been shattered.

We are talking about board games here? Why didn't I know that? I love them. I have everything Dominion. I don't think it's a perfect game by any means. It has a lot of faults. But playing with three players who play really quickly; it just becomes absolutely phenomenal.

And I'm sorry to hear about that Pyre. =(

My thoughts and prayers go out to you and their families Pyre. =(

I had the chance to visit the Large Hadron Collider at CERN today. Very impressive!

Quote from Konfusius

I had the chance to visit the Large Hadron Collider at CERN today. Very impressive!

drool