Another effort to entice subsimmer forummers to board gaming

[Castout]

I'm now more interested in board games than in traditional PC games. I've found most PC games now to be a bit boring and most fail to entice tension anymore(with restart, poor AI, poor realism, lack of tactical depth, etc) thus ripping out the enjoyment. The poor AI is what really ruin most PC games among other things for single player experience while minimum player to player interaction is what brings down the multiplayer aspect of PC games.

In board gaming you'll have neither of these. The opponents are as good as you can find them. There's no restart(what's that anyway?!) so every decision matters. And no you can't cheat either or set the difficulty level to easy. There's only one difficulty in these, the person neuron pathways sitting next or across you. And you can chat, you WILL laugh and you will feel the tension growing before you snatch that victory and claim the victor. And it feels good when you actually win(Come on do you feel good when defeating the AI for the 1000th time because it's at disadvantage compared to your zillions neurons?)

The drawback is finding the time as most the game I recommend would easily take 3-4 hours and it's quite difficult to gather 4-5 people in person that long periodically. But many great board games only need two.

Some of board game titles that I recommend

Battlestar Galactica(roleplaying, cooperative, 2 team one team is hidden-cylon). Solo-6 players(Solo-2 with updated official rules)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111

Twilight struggle deluxe edition(Cold war has never been hotter because there's only FUN and no casualties in this one!). 2 players
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333

Shogun(Neuron charging if played against good players, NO DICE for any purpose whatsoever). 3-5 players
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20551

War of the Ring(The definitive Lord of the ring on the table). 2 players
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9609

A most dangerous time. Japan in chaos 1570-1584(For feudal Japan historian buffs or enthusiasts). 2 players
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27969

And if that is not enough you could play online with these board games
http://www.vassalengine.org/communit...yAll&Itemid=30

Just download the Vassal software and download the module of your favorite games.

These are not ladders and chutes or monopoly or even risk or even chess(How I hate chess that abstract game which is just that PURE GAME) kind of game. and Poker...what's that let's play Shogun with bets lol

And while no one gets smarter playing console and PC games, they do playing boardgames at least the right ones(though most are mainly for fun and would not be so engaging for the neurons). So charge those neurons and make pathways to a more efficient tactical and strategic thinking and have FUN .

Who says weekends are expensive?
Who says you can't have fun if you stay at home?
These are perfect to be played with family members! Your son, daughter, wife and husband. Get Dad and Mom too, uncle and auntie, niece, and nephew. Or get your best friends.




PS: I'm looking for online player for Twilight struggle and A most dangerous time though currently not familiar with either rules(though both rule pdfs are already downloaded just not read through). If you like either and willing to teach me feel free to PM me so we can set our game and time.

[Oberon]

The other half surprised me the other day by saying that she would play a strategy game with me if she was able to understand the rules. So I may investigate some of these...never really tried board wargaming or the like before, aside from my stint as Nazi Germany in the Subsim World at War campaign. So thanks for the recommendations

[Arclight]

Sold! But it's impossible to get people together for something like this. We tried to keep playing D&D, but real life kept getting in the way. People are just to busy nowadays.

Guess that's why they're all flocking to those "instant gratification" games.

(and for the record: I focus on games that are challenging. On a strategic or tactical level, or just a nice puzzler. Ever tried Portal?)

[Raptor1]

I'll play, especially since it has GMT's Musket & Pike series and some other games which I always wanted to try playing.

Though I don't agree that boardgames and computer games have any different effect on your brain functions...

[Arclight]

Depends on what you play.

Though the same can be said about board games.

[Sailor Steve]

I've been playing a Grand Prix race game designed by a friend but never published for several decades now. We also play tabletop miniatures ranging from ancient times to the American Civil War, and we play a 3D airwar game using 1/72 scale models.

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Oberon

The other half surprised me the other day by saying that she would play a strategy game with me if she was able to understand the rules. So I may investigate some of these...never really tried board wargaming or the like before, aside from my stint as Nazi Germany in the Subsim World at War campaign. So thanks for the recommendations

Well my recommended games may be or may not be suitable for your wife. You could ask her what theme she likes. Those I recommend usually have war in its theme . But if you check the definitive board gaming site(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/) all of them except for a most dangerous time(it's very new and limited in print) have a very respected rank(below 20 out of ten of thousands games).

Agricola(it's the No.1 game at board game geek), Pandemic or Settlers of Catan(all have non war theme) may also interest your wife. I heard they are good but never compelled to try them though. Race for the Galaxy is probably a title she may like. Lots of woman like this game.

Wife and children are board gamers best playing partners.

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Sold! But it's impossible to get people together for something like this. We tried to keep playing D&D, but real life kept getting in the way. People are just to busy nowadays.

Guess that's why they're all flocking to those "instant gratification" games.

(and for the record: I focus on games that are challenging. On a strategic or tactical level, or just a nice puzzler. Ever tried Portal?)

Well you could try Saturday or Sunday when most people are free.

Originally Posted by Raptor1

...
Though I don't agree that boardgames and computer games have any different effect on your brain functions...

Well for neuron charging board games you need to try Eurogame type of board games. Shogun above is one. I've played that game for more than 13 times (it's my first board gaming experience) and during the early 60% of those play I always felt brain drained at the end of the 3-4 hour game, really !!! and I won most of the time and I'm not alone who felt this way there was even one time that a friend in my gaming group had to lie down to get some rest before the game ended because he had been thinking hard for hours lol(and people who like to think hard or to win or competitive are the ones you should be playing with with this game).
Of course the neuron pathways formed and the latter 30% of my latest game are no longer that brain crunching anymore. I may need a more challenging opponents though my usual gaming group are getting better after 8-9 games so my latter winning margins are not as large as my early winning.

There was even one time in our game with Shogun that I was recognized right from the start to be the one who was most likely to win anyway(the cost you pay for winning in almost every game of this with the same gaming group) and was ganged up. So 3 out of the other 4 player ganged up on me and I was forced to play to minimize my losses rather than maximizing my winning. I lost the game but it felt good nonetheless since one of the player who ganged up on me ended up having lower score than me(by mere 2 points but considering the circumstances I played my best lol). I'm just trying to say it's fun! Much more than playing any console or PC game. I can hardly recollect my specific PC gaming experience for one. And that tells a lot.

Another examples of Eurogames that's well received are Agricola and Pandemic.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I've been playing a Grand Prix race game designed by a friend but never published for several decades now. We also play tabletop miniatures ranging from ancient times to the American Civil War, and we play a 3D airwar game using 1/72 scale models.

Tabletop miniature games or games that involve miniatures are usually more expensive to collect. But never tried them personally.

[KeptinCranky]

I wondered when this would come up

I have a regular weekly boardgame night with a few close friends, this started out playing D&D and warhammer but we could never take roleplaying seriously so we sort of moved on into boardgames.

One of our current favorites is Battlestar Galactica, Just played the expansion for the 1st time yesterday, I definitely like it
we do play quite a few others as well.

Shogun as mentioned I can also recommend not too difficult but with a lot of interesting game-mechanics

I've played all the games you've mentioned except A most dangerous time and War of the Ring,

I can also recommend Acquire, Wings of War (the WWI version) ,Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid and well...the list is endless

just visit www.boardgamegeek.com and see what's out there

[Castout]

Originally Posted by KeptinCranky

One of our current favorites is Battlestar Galactica, Just played the expansion for the 1st time yesterday, I definitely like it
we do play quite a few others as well.

Shogun as mentioned I can also recommend not too difficult but with a lot of interesting game-mechanics

I've played all the games you've mentioned except A most dangerous time and War of the Ring,

I'm getting Battlestar Galactica to be played during this end of the year holiday season.

War of the Ring is the game you MUST have IF you're a fan of the Lord of the Ring or even if you just like the core of good fighting against the odd against evil. It's really Lord of the Ring on the table. The rules are not quite elegant because it has quite a few exceptions but hey it's trying to be Lord of the Ring on your table and at your command! And it does that in a terrific way in the end !

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Castout

Well you could try Saturday or Sunday when most people are free.

As if I didn't try.

Saturday:
Sunday:

Maybe I just need to give them a few more years to shake their wild feathers.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Arclight

As if I didn't try.

Saturday:
Sunday:

Maybe I just need to give them a few more years to shake their wild feathers.

Or tie them to a chair and force them to play...

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Arclight

As if I didn't try.

Saturday:
Sunday:

Maybe I just need to give them a few more years to shake their wild feathers.

I had a good laugh reading your post. Try another flock

[Arclight]

Glad to hear; I aim to please.

But these flocks are rare. Most prefer a quick romp blasting eachother in a FPS.

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Or tie them to a chair and force them to play...

Now that might work.

Maybe I can leave a trail of beer bottles leading from a bar to my place and tie them them up after they pas out.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Well, I love boardgames, and wouldn't mind playing them online vs. others.