Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Recommend a game

  • 16-06-2010 1:59pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭


    So, the idea here is to post your favorite game or games, with a little explanation or description on how the game works.

    So, I have not been playing too many games since xmas because I had to leave my gaming group behind in Kerry while I moved up to Cork =(. One of the things I miss about home is our midweek gaming nights.

    1. Twilight Imperium
    twilight2.jpg

    TI3 is probably my all time favorite game, the only reason it does not get played two often is because of the massive time commitment required. If you have ever played computer games like Galactic Civilization 2, then you already have a fair idea how this game works.
    Each player takes on the role of a commander of a space faring race positioned somewhere in a randomly generated galaxy (Made up of hex tiles). The goal of the game is to accumulate a specified number of victory points and this is done through completing objectives that are randomly pulled from the objective deck (eg: Conquer two enemy planets this turn or I now control 5 planets).
    The game is pure glorious ameritrash. It contains more plastic than a japanese sports car along with hundreds of counters tiles and cards. Diplomacy is a must because getting involved in a long term dispute with another player will more than likely result in neither of you gaining any victory points while it is going on, and while your massive war fleet is swooping in and out of their territory grabbing planets, you can ensure that one of your neighbors is doing the same to you.
    The turn system works kinda like the peurto rico one, there are a number of cards with different benefits and the card that you selected that turn indicates your turn order.
    There is also an expansion called Shattered Empire and it really does improve the game. So much so that I would not even play if it was not being used.

    TI3 can be played with 3 - 6 players (3-8 if you are using the expansion) and as a rough guide, it takes an hour or so per player to play, with an additional hour added for each newbie. So a 6 player game with two new players will likely take about 8 hours to play. See what I mean about the time commitment? The game really works best with 6 players.


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,144 ✭✭✭MarkHall


    Twilight really is a great game.
    So many ways to screw over your neighbors in it.


    On a similar Note.
    RISK 2210
    All the fun of RISK. Now with Nuclear weapons and the ability to take over the moon.
    Risk_2210_game_board_01.jpg
    With only five turns it quite vicious and brutal once it get's flowing.
    Really easy to pick up despite the scary rulebook.
    Can be played with 2 to 5 players. The more players the more interesting the game.

    upgrades on the Basic risk.
    You have access to 5 different commanders.
    Land,Sea,Space, Diplomatic and NUCLEAR.
    These commanders allow you to purchase cards of similar names that assist you or hinder your opponents. Sometimes both.

    Stuff in the Box.
    Earth Game Board (20" x 30")
    * Moon Game Board
    * 5 Sets of Army Playing Pieces
    * 5 Sets of Commanders (Diplomat, Land, Naval, Nuclear, Space)
    * 20 Plastic Space Stations
    * 71 Risk Cards (Land, Water, and Lunar)
    * 109 Command Cards
    * 4 Devastation Markers
    * 1 Year Marker
    * 80 Cardboard Energy Markers (65x'1', 15x'5')
    * Score Chart
    * 5 Turn Order Markers
    * 10 Dice
    * Instructions

    A worthy addition to any game collection.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭oeb


    I love most forms of risk, what do you make of the new revised edition? I love the arrows, it makes a game look like a big strategy map =)


    Dominion
    game_dominion_1.jpg

    Dominion is great, anyone who liked building decks, and playing really stupid combos in Magic: The Gathering will instantly love this.

    There are three types of card, money, victory point and action. At the start of the game, 10 of the 26 odd different types of action card are randomly selected and placed in the play area. Each player is given 7 copper cards (worth 1 money each) and 3 estate (worth 1 VP each). They are shuffled and each player deals themselves 5 cards.

    The turn works as follows. First you may put money cards from your hand into your discard pile to buy cards from the play area. (Anything you buy goes into your discard pile). Then you may play an action from your hand. Then you discard your hand and draw 5 new cards. If you can't draw new cards because you don't have enough in your draw pile, shuffle your discard pile back into the draw pile.

    The action cards are where the fun is, the game normally plays out like an insane vintage game of magic. Most of them are along the lines of "+2 ACTION, +1 BUY, +1 DRAW" Which would allow you to use another two action cards this turn, buy a second card and draw another card (Immediately). There are also cards that allow you to 'trash' cards from your hand/deck (A thrashed card is put into a central pile and is for all intents and purposes removed from your deck for good). Cards that give you bonus gold towords your next purchase and attack cards (That do things like force other players to discard cards (Thus starting their turn with fewer than the 5 cards) or force them to exchange cards with you.

    dominion_spy_card.jpg

    In addition to the action cards players may purchase two more types of victory cards (Estates worth 3 VP and Provinces worth 6 VP) and two more types of gold cards (Silver, worth 2 and gold, worth 3).

    The game ends when either the province pile is expended or four different types of action card are expended. When the game ends, each player adds up all the VP cards he has in his deck and whoever has the most wins.

    I love this game, the fact that the action cards are selected randomly means that no game plays out the same way. You might play a game that involves massive combos where players can nearly get the full way through their deck every turn, or you may play a much slower game where players spend every turn screwing each other over. It all depends on how the initial draw goes.

    dominion_village_card.jpg

    It's really important to make your deck as streamlined as possible, it's pointless lets say, buying VP cards until towards the end, because every VP card in your hand is not an action or treasure card. VPs only count at the end of the game.

    The game takes from 15 to 40 minutes to play, depending on what comes up at the beginning and it requires 2-4 players (Best with 4).

    There are two expansions to the game, Dominion: Intrigue (Which can be played stand alone) and Dominion: Seaside (Which requires either the base game, or intrigue). The cards can all be mixed and matched giving even more variety to your games. This really is the kind of game that your group will probably want to play more than once in an evening.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,965 ✭✭✭✭Zulu


    Settlers is a great game.
    And if you like making deals, then seriously back stabbing, Diplomacy is the game for you. ...oh the fights it's caused! :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭oeb


    Zulu wrote: »
    And if you like making deals, then seriously back stabbing, Diplomacy is the game for you. ...oh the fights it's caused! :)

    If you like Diplomacy try TI3 from the first post. You get the same amount of wheeling and dealing and back stabbing, but it's less abstract.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,503 ✭✭✭✭Also Starring LeVar Burton


    Zulu wrote: »
    Settlers is a great game.

    I love Settlers... Although when I realise I'm losing, I have a tendency to just try and have a handful of sheep at all times...


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭zippygirl


    Has anyone heard of magic cards!??!
    Very cool, creative and fully of fantasy!
    Great game for 2 people, also cool for collectors!
    Highly recommend it!
    Officially its called, Magic The Gathering!
    :cool:


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭oeb


    zippygirl wrote: »
    Has anyone heard of magic cards!??!
    Very cool, creative and fully of fantasy!
    Great game for 2 people, also cool for collectors!
    Highly recommend it!
    Officially its called, Magic The Gathering!
    :cool:

    Hey there,
    There is actually a separate forum for CCGs Tradable Card Games


  • Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭zippygirl


    oeb wrote: »
    Hey there,
    There is actually a separate forum for CCGs Tradable Card Games

    Hey, awesome! Thanks ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,560 ✭✭✭Prenderb


    Hi guys, gals and gamers. I've been playing Carcassonne a lot over the last couple of months and can't rate it highly enough. It's a tile-placing game, where you make up cities, roads, cloisters and farms - the catch is that you have a limited number of followers to claim said features with.

    It's nice and quick, works very well with 2 players, and also works well with up to 6. Generally takes about an hour, but we play with an expansion set which adds a little to it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2 louthman77


    Yes Twilight Imperium is really really good - but does require some commitment to play - we had a game that ran for nearly two days - shades of Azad to be honest. I would not try a 6 player game with newbies again!

    The BattleStar Galactica board game is fairly good and doesn't take too long even for new players.

    http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/bsg/


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 3,239 ✭✭✭UberPrinny_Baal


    Puzzle Strike

    puzzle_strike_photo2_web_grande.jpg?1287488309

    David Sirlin is a chap who did some rebalancing work on a couple of Street Fighter computer games, and recently turned his hand to indy board game development. All his games as a result have kind of a "fighting game" feel to them.

    He has three board/card games released all of which I own, but Puzzle Strike is by far my favourite.

    Link to game

    It's one of the very few games I feel is really fun two player, but can still be dialed up to four player without a massive increase in game time.

    (Magic the Gathering mentioned earlier in the thread for example is great 2 player, but even a 3 player match could take 3 or 4 times longer. I've had a four player game of Magic take about half a day :( )

    I've never played Dominion, but apparently the two games are quite similar (similar enough to warrant an article about it)

    Link to article.

    If you can sort of ignore the jerky tone of the article (Sirlin is pretty biased in favour of his own product), it should explain the differences between the two pretty well.

    The game is a lot of fun, and there seems to be a lot of depth to it between the different selectable characters, and the fact that there are 25 different puzzle chips to choose from, but you only ever use 10 in a particular game. Depending on which characters and which 10 puzzle chips are in use, the game can be a wildly different experience requiring different strategies and tactics.

    I played about a dozen 4 player games of this over Christmas (pretty much in a row, over two days) with my girlfriend, my nephew (10) and my niece (12), and all the games were fun and quick.

    By comparison we had one game of Monopoly which dragged on for about 4 hours before we declared my niece the winner and quit.

    I don't know if the boardgame crew have a lot of meet ups, but I'd be happy to come along to one sometime and teach people how to play.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11 Bob Engineer


    who here have experience play a board game like monopoly..

    i this, monopoly is truely a good game.. it can develop math n mental computational skill

    as well


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭oeb


    Small World

    pic906788_md.jpg

    Small world is a fun game with a pretty quick setup and play time (less than 45 min for a 4 game in my experience).

    It's a game of territory control, with a few neat little twists.

    Firstly, the races play a little differently each time because they are created using a pretty interesting mechanic. Along with the selection of races (Typical fantasy fare, Elves, Dwarves, Ratmen etc) you have a selection or powers or abilities that take the form of adjectives. When they are randomly created you may end up with Seafaring Hobbits or Forrest Ogres.

    Combat is nice and simple, if you want to attack a territory with 3 units stacked up in it, you simply use a stack of 4 to conquer it. (Some abilities may allow you to use one or two less, for example a race with the 'Commando' power requires one less token to conquer an area.

    Finally, the last interesting mechanic. At any time, when you feel your race is over extended, you can declare them 'In Decline'. All but one token belonging to that race is removed from each area they occupy, and their racial card is flipped to show their status. At this stage you start another race from scratch (But you will still keep on gaining victory points from the in decline race).

    The game is limited to a specific number of turns (depending on the number of players), and 4 separate boards are provided in the box, one each for 2, 3, 4 & 5 players. This ensures that the map is as balanced as possible regardless of how many are playing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 208 ✭✭ThunderApple


    Yeah, Dominion is a great one. We have different editions at home and it's never getting boring. What I love about this game is that it's good just for 2 players. We play it spontaneously in the evening without organizing a big table top game party.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    Puerto Rico
    I play this game alot with my kids.Its a perfect family game.Each of you have your own Island on with you build up your city and plant your various crops.You can sell or export your crops.What I love is the variety of different ways to win.You get a sense of achievement by building up and creating your own little world.

    http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico

    War of the Ring
    One of my favourite 2 player games(imo its a two player game).Great fun,it reflects Tolkiens world perfectly.Trying to get the Ring to mount doom for destruction while battling accross the land to hold back your enemies.The tension rachets up as your enemies move in.Great stuff!. When the whole game is set out , its a thing of beauty.The gameplay along with different races/and the beautiful map add to the overall athmosphere.

    I will add a photo when I get a chance.


    http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/60153/war-of-the-ring-collectors-edition


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,824 ✭✭✭ShooterSF


    Why would you link to a one off print limited edition costing €600 second hand?! Now I want something I will never own. Thanks :p

    (I know there's a standard one too but it will always pale in comparison)


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    ShooterSF wrote: »
    Why would you link to a one off print limited edition costing €600 second hand?! Now I want something I will never own. Thanks :p

    (I know there's a standard one too but it will always pale in comparison)

    Sorry...........I have both editions:D..............but mainly play with standard edition.
    Limited edition won't fit on my table:mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    Great game ,very easy to learn and to play.Its addictive.I played it 3 times tonight.
    Game lasts roughly 30-45 mins.There are so many ways to win this game,you have lots of options.Your last card choice can overthrow the current leader and win you the game.
    Up to seven players,I normally play with 4.

    There are 3 ages...one deck per age.You pass the deck around drawing cards to build up your empire.Points are awarded for different catogories, ie wonders,military might,civilian buildings ,scientific mix etc and bonus guild cards.Great stuff!.
    pic893619_md.jpg



    http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 28,633 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shiminay


    Apples to Apples. It's the easiest game in the world to play. You have 2 decks of cards - one of "things" and one of "descriptions" and players take turns to pick a "description" whilst the others then decide what "thing" best fits it from their hand. The answers are then judged by the person who picked. It can be serious or funny or just plain weird, the rules are open like that. To give you an example:

    pic169215_md.jpg

    Once had a game where mud was considered luxurious and pond-scum was sexy... Go figure... :D Great party game, 6 players works best.


  • Registered Users Posts: 285 ✭✭checknraise


    Best boardgame I have played in Balderdash. Its great craic get some random name/place/date like George Potter and everybody makes up who they think he is. The dealer would then read out the right answer with everybody's answer and everybody votes for who they think was the correct answer. Its even better when everybody has had a few beers!

    http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163/balderdash


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 2,406 ✭✭✭brianon


    So many favorites but a fantastic 2-player game is Twilight Struggle.
    http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333/twilight-struggle

    Superb theme. Beautiful board.
    tw.jpg

    Great tense 2-play hand management. Skill and luck required to win. Best combo.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2 yetikeeper


    What I would give to play a Twilight Imperium (third edition) with both expansions is something I dare not type. ;)

    Here's a link to a recent video review posted by Tom Vasel on boardgamegeek. The man's love for the game is self evident. :eek:


  • Registered Users Posts: 152 ✭✭Rougebladez


    Space Hulk.

    http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54625/space-hulk-third-edition

    Space marines Versus Aliens.

    Objectives achieved for marines by killing Aliens.

    Aliens Objective is to kill all marines.

    Tough old Objectives aren't they........

    Cracker of a 2 player game.

    I've only ever player the second edition of the game but brilliant.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 33,733 ✭✭✭✭Myrddin


    Bump before being unsticky'd


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    pic909801_md.jpg
    The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone's network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.However, as plants are purchased, newer, more efficient plants become available, so by merely purchasing, you're potentially allowing others access to superior equipment.
    Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials (coal, oil, garbage, and uranium) needed to power said plants (except for the 'renewable' windfarm/ solar plants, which require no fuel), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest route.

    Played this about 3 times this week.A good game IMO but you need to read the rules a few times.
    You have to balance what you bid for powerstations,against future expenses needed to expand.
    In the last game I paid too much for a powerstation as my plan to bid up another player backfired.Cost me the game:mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 10 BoardGamer


    pic300647_lg.jpg
    Players must plan their strategy to mesh their specialists' strengths before the diseases overwhelm the world. For example, the Operations Expert can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while developing cures. If disease spreads uncontrolled, the players all lose. If they can cure all four diseases, they win.

    The board shows earth with some big population centres. On each turn a player can use four actions to travel, cure, discover and build. Cards are used for this but the deck also contains Epidemics...

    I've been playing this game a lot recently, and everybody I've played it with loves it. It can be difficult to beat the game, but great fun trying and highly addictive.

    You can dial up the difficulty by adding in Epidemic cards. I haven't attempted a game with all the Epidemic cards in play yet.


  • Registered Users Posts: 152 ✭✭Rougebladez


    My curiosity has been stirred by eclipse. Its supposed to be on a par with ti3 but waaay faster to play. Anyone played it and what are their opinions.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 17,129 Mod ✭✭✭✭cherryghost


    My curiosity has been stirred by eclipse. Its supposed to be on a par with ti3 but waaay faster to play. Anyone played it and what are their opinions.

    Amazing game, but it's only 2 player which kills our board games nights :o


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,438 ✭✭✭TwoShedsJackson


    Amazing game, but it's only 2 player which kills our board games nights :o

    ?? Eclipse is 2-6 players and best with 4 or 6 according to BoardGameGeek


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 2,406 ✭✭✭brianon


    BoardGamer wrote: »
    pic300647_lg.jpg



    I've been playing this game a lot recently, and everybody I've played it with loves it. It can be difficult to beat the game, but great fun trying and highly addictive.

    You can dial up the difficulty by adding in Epidemic cards. I haven't attempted a game with all the Epidemic cards in play yet.

    Had this for a year or more. Played it quite a bit. When you had the right 'crowd' it was great.


Advertisement