Board Games

[Leones]

My winter rotation is looking like:

Case Yellow
Nightfighter
Labyrinth
Twilight Struggle

I'll probably mix in some Combat Commander and Battle for Stalingrad time permitting. Problem is Skyrim ( a topic for another post)

[Mike Dunn]

Arriving from Santa will be:

7 Wonders - deck builder, requested by daughter
Castle Panic - tower defense board game
Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game - one game to rule them all

All I want is time to play them.

[John]

Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game - one game to rule them all

Tell us how that is if you get time to play it. I'm a sucker for anything related to Middle-earth, and I've enjoyed card games like Magic: The Gathering and Dominion in the past, so I'm definitely interested.

[Bill]

Cranium - This game was a huge draw when I first played it and then it just fizzled. The replay value died off prett quick for me, but I do like the idea of having several different categories to go through and several different types of questions to answer. My favorite was always the sculpting.

I was looking back through this thread looking for last minute gift ideas when I ran across this and remembered my favorite Cranium story...

My wife (then my fiancee) and I were playing another couple in Cranium. We get a sculpting task, I grab the card, then the clay and go to town. I take part of the clay and start rolling it into a long tube like a snake. First thing my wife blurts out is 'The North Pole' - sure enough, the answer was the North Pole. How soulmate was that! Of course, we since discovered that we generally don't do well together with games. Especially any card game.

Thanks for humoring me with my personal trip down memory lane.

[klewis]

First thing my wife blurts out is 'The North Pole' - sure enough, the answer was the North Pole. How soulmate was that!

Nice story, Bill! My brother and I are sort of banned from being on the same Taboo team. Since we grew up together, we have a lot of references that only one another would know. We use a lot of wrestling references too (since we grew up on it):

Word: Kilt
Hint: Roddy Piper

Word: Sceptor
Hint: Macho Man used to carry a ---- to the ring.

This has given us an advantage when playing on the same Taboo team.

[Leones]

Here's a related article from Foreign Policy Magazine:

7 Holiday Games for Wonks

edit: fixed the url

[Bill]

Here's a related article from Foreign Policy Magazine:

7 Holiday Games for Wonks

edit: fixed the url

My favorite is War on Terror: "War on Terror is a satirical British board game, sort of like Monty Python meets the game of Risk."

It sounds almost so ludicrous that it might be hilarious.

[Leones]

My favorite is War on Terror: "War on Terror is a satirical British board game, sort of like Monty Python meets the game of Risk."

It sounds almost so ludicrous that it might be hilarious.

Once can only hope it features the Holy Underwear of Antioch and any game die have the '3's replaced with '5's

[Denny]

Haven't played it myself, but I've heard good things about Twilight Struggle.

[Mike Dunn]

Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game - one game to rule them all

Tell us how that is if you get time to play it. I'm a sucker for anything related to Middle-earth, and I've enjoyed card games like Magic: The Gathering and Dominion in the past, so I'm definitely interested.

This did arrive from the North Pole, along with 7 Wonders and Castle Panic. Of the three, the only one we've tried is Castle Panic, a tower defense co-op game. My wife, daughter and I played it twice today and it was great fun. Complex -- but not too complex. Plenty of strategy. They'd never played co-op games before, so just that concept alone was novel for them, plus the tower defense setting. It was their idea to play a second game of it, not mine, which is the best litmus test that its a hit. I think this one has staying power .

Hope to delve into LoTRO:LCG next .

[Coqui]

This did arrive from the North Pole, along with 7 Wonders and Castle Panic. Of the three, the only one we've tried is Castle Panic, a tower defense co-op game. My wife, daughter and I played it twice today and it was great fun. Complex -- but not too complex. Plenty of strategy. They'd never played co-op games before, so just that concept alone was novel for them, plus the tower defense setting. It was their idea to play a second game of it, not mine, which is the best litmus test that its a hit. I think this one has staying power .

We got Castle Panic, too. Fun game. My son and I have played it a couple of times already, although we won both times, and weren't even particularly close to losing, so I suspect that it may be a bit easy with two players.

[Mike Dunn]

...although we won both times, and weren't even particularly close to losing, so I suspect that it may be a bit easy with two players.

You may be right. The three of us have played 5 times and are 4-1. But each of our four wins was extremely close. Our game last night had just one tower left when we wiped out the last orc, so it was quite exciting.

[Mike Branda]

I'll probably mix in some Combat Commander and Battle for Stalingrad time permitting. Problem is Skyrim ( a topic for another post)

I have to agree Skyrim is one of the best game I have ever played, the devs stopped counting at well over 500 hours of game play. that was about a year into making the game. The game is set up with unlimited quests, when you become the leader of a guild you still do quests that are generated randomly by the game itself.

[klewis]

I was debating whether to pick up Forbidden Island as a physical board game ($12-14) or the iPad version ($4.99). I ended up getting the iPad version and it plays wonderfully. It's not a brain-burning game that requires immense strategy (but there is some decent thinking involved).

I would totally recommend it. One game probably takes 20 minutes. It's a good game to pass some time. It's a co-op game that you can play solo or with some friends or significant other. It plays similar to Pandemic. You can say this is its little brother in a way.

[Mike Dunn]

Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game - one game to rule them all

Tell us how that is if you get time to play it. I'm a sucker for anything related to Middle-earth, and I've enjoyed card games like Magic: The Gathering and Dominion in the past, so I'm definitely interested.

I'm very much enjoying this game. Though a warning: the rule book is 25 pages long and I only figured it out when I watched a great youtube "Watch it Played" series with like 11 15-min. episodes.

That said, once I did figure it out, the game plays well solo. I have yet to beat the first scenario (which is the easiest) but I fully intend to keep trying. Highly recommended, but it is a timesink.