What's on your table right now?

[Arctic Blast]

Voyages of Marco Polo

How is this one?  I've been eyeing it now for a few months.

It's pretty solid. Similar to something like Kingsburg, where you place dice in order to take actions. It's one of those games where you want everything, but can only do so much. Want to explore around and put trading posts in more cities? You need money and camels, and movement costs 2 dice. Camels cost one. Resources cost from 1-3. As you place trading posts, you unlock more actions you can take with city cards (you get more than 30 in the box and only use 9 per game, so there's a lot of variety). However, those cards can only be used once per round, and anyone with a trade post in that city can take that action. A good chunk of the game boils down to figuring out what other people might try to do, and whether you can wait or need to beat them to the punch now.

[Bison]

^ Cool. 

The family gave me Caverna for a Christmas gift, so I need to read the rules and punch out a bunch of tiles.  It looks like it could be some good relaxing fun.

[Arctic Blast]

^ Cool. 

The family gave me Caverna for a Christmas gift, so I need to read the rules and punch out a bunch of tiles.  It looks like it could be some good relaxing fun.

I'm curious about that game, but holy crap is there a ton of stuff in that box.  :o

[Bison]

The box must weigh a good 6 or 7 lbs.  Enough pieces for 7 players.

[panzerde]

The wife gifted me with OSG's The Coming Storm, which is out of print and tough to still find, and the children collectively bought me Von Moltke's Triumph: Fall of the Second Empire 1870, the new operational scale Franco-Prussian War game from White Dog Games. No telling when I'll get to the OSG game, given my backlog of their stuff, but I may try the Franco-Prussian War game tomorrow. It looks, like other White Dog Games and games by this particular designer like a quick but interesting play.

[Pinetree]

This arrived while I was away so hope to give it a crack in the next few weeks.

[Bison]

Holiday gaming wrap up:
Uno - it's uno.  Fun first two or three games and then it goes downhill.
Sequence - fun card game, but only for a game or two
Apples to apples - kids enjoy the game I'm not a big fan of party games but it's ok
Qwirkle - I thought it was decent but kids didn't like it
Star Wars lcg -  I really like it but my opponent doesn't like card games so it wasn't much fun.

[avrotim]

On the table right now is New York 1776 by Worthington Games.  Looks clean and simple.  The rules remind me of early Columbia block games like 1812 and Napoleon.  Soon to be on the table is Risk: Legacy, a Christmas gift I hope to play with my 3 kids.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Star Wars lcg -  I really like it but my opponent doesn't like card games so it wasn't much fun.

I was never really into card games but I won a copy of Star Wars LCG and I think it's fantastic.  I ended up buying all the expansions for it.  I don't bother building my own decks but prefer to play a "theme" pack.  Very challenging game and the various factions offer up a lot of variation in how they play. 

[bayonetbrant]

On the table right now is New York 1776 by Worthington Games. 

My cousin's husband and I hope to get that on the table this week one day.

[Bison]

Star Wars lcg -  I really like it but my opponent doesn't like card games so it wasn't much fun.

I was never really into card games but I won a copy of Star Wars LCG and I think it's fantastic.  I ended up buying all the expansions for it.  I don't bother building my own decks but prefer to play a "theme" pack.  Very challenging game and the various factions offer up a lot of variation in how they play.

I own the Hoth expansions and Edge of Darkness for sure and 2 core sets.  Actually although he won't admit it, my brother enjoyed the game while he thought he was winning.  I pulled out a miracle victory the turn before he would have spun the death star to 12.  Anyway the basis of his dislike is that card games are just luck.  Luck and no strategy.  I was like WTF are you talking about and then listed about 10 things that if he had done during the game would have resulted in a victory for him.  No matter.  Luck.  Card games are just luck and you know if you can win because of the cards in your hand.  Personally I found his argument lacking merit.  Is there luck?  Yes.  You either draw the cards you need or can help put you in a position to win, but there are a ton of strategy decisions to make in a game that can really turn the tide of the battle.  Anyway that's another topic all together.  Luck vs. Non-Luck in games.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yeah, I can't agree with it being down to luck at all.  Sure, there is an element of luck involved in your card draws, but the game offers up so much variety of choice that you can nearly always find something to do with your cards and luck plays only a very minor roll in the game.  I'd say the key elements are risk management and timing.  Do you want to risk pushing all your units forward in an attack, knowing that if you do, you'll have nothing left to defend with should your opponent counter-attack on his turn?  Do you risk using up the bulk of your hand trying to win an edge-battle, or do you hold back so you have something in reserve should your opponent pull out a big card on his turn?  Commit a unit to the force and risk having them out for two turns or risk losing the balance of the force and watching that dial crank up?  So many options.  For me, the biggest hurdle was just learning the pacing of the game.  I over-committed my units in the first few play-throughs and got spanked hard when I had nobody left to activate on defense.  In later games, I suffered from too much caution and kept holding units back and just trying to win the force battles in hopes of launching a huge attack.  It actually worked out once and I took down 3 Imperial bases in one turn, but that was the exception to the rule and it usually ended with the Death Star dial hitting 12 before I could pop that 3rd base.

[Bison]

I wish Star Wars had a solo play option like Lord of the Rings.  I really enjoy the way LotR plays as a solo game.  Unfortunately Fantasy Flight hasn't made any of the other LCGs solo play friendly.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I ordered Lord of the Rings LCG on Boxing Day based on my enjoyment of Star Wars.

Do you have Tabletop Simulator?  There's a very nicely done version of Star Wars LCG on there.  I'm up for a game if you've got it.

[Bison]

I'll get a copy when I get home if it's on sale still in a couple of days.