Board Game Discussion

  On 8/22/2012 at 10:00 PM, luke viia said:

yeah, chess is my #1.

 

My parents wanted to play board games last time I was home, and they busted out this game called Blokus.

 

 

You try to take over as much of the board as possible, and block off other colors from being able to do the same. I wailed at this game, unstoppable, so naturally I am a fan. Come at me bro.

I don't think I've ever lost a game of blokus. Maybe lost at set like three times.

You chess fans ever tried Go?

Scrabble is the best game.

I wouldn't say it's a great game, but I really enjoy Stratego. Anyone else played that?

I've been turning into a boardgame geek in the past year because of the iPhone and iPad. I even have a boardgamegeek.com account now and been buying a board game once a month or so.

I love Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, but I've been getting into deck building games like Ascension, Dominion, Nightfall, Tanto Cuore, etc. They're quick games, easy to learn (especially Ascension), and each game is different. And they're not like Magic the Gathering where you go full geek designing your own deck and spending hundreds of dollars for cards. I refuse to play MTG because of that commitment.

Catan fans should really enjoy Ticket to Ride and Neuroshima Hex. Neuroshima is a fantastic tactical game where each player has a different army with unique units that make you play differently against other player's armies. Great for 2 to 4 player games. My co-workers have been playing it regularly for over a year and we're not tired of it.

All these games I've mentioned are on iOS (except Dominion which you can play for free here: http://www.goko.com/games/)

I can't go back and play Risk or Monopoly anymore. Chess, always.

  On 8/22/2012 at 11:31 PM, gaarg said:

You chess fans ever tried Go?

 

I just saw this thread pop up and was going to basically ask the same thing. I'm into this game (as much as my meagre free time allows), and I run a small, official AGA go club chapter in my town.

I highly recommend checking out this game, if any of you get the chance.

I've played Go a few times. It's probably the ultimate game really, but I haven't played enough to get into it yet.

To make Go more enticing, I'll explain it a bit more. It's an ancient game originating in China about 4,000 years ago. Like chess, there's no chance element like dice or anything along those lines. Rather, two players take turns placing stones on the intersections of lines on a 19x19 grid (usually, black vs. white). The object of the game is to surround as much territory (the number of "points", or intersections of lines) as possible. The player who does this wins.

Even thought the mechanics of the game are ultimately very logical, there is a lot of psychology involved in playing. Due to its complexity, it's one of the "final frontiers" for artificial intelligence research. Unlike chess, the best go playing programs cannot defeat the best professional human players. That might change in a few years, but it's something that go players love to point out about the game. Me, I just like playing, and I don't really give a shit if a computer can beat me.

I was introduced to the game by my logic professor in grad school. Before that I was really into Pente, which is an Americanized variant of Go-Moku (a child's variant of Go). I still like Pente, but Go really takes the cake for involving, surprising and challenging games, for me.

I've played a bit of Risk and Settlers of catan in past year and quite enjoy those. Don't think I could get into online/iPad playing as for me it's largely about hanging with peeps and listening to tunes, as much as the board game.

I like Risk because it turns people quite manipulative and evil *u*

Used to play shitloads of Illuminati with my mates..

Coincidentally, just reading this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_%28novel%29

I also had Crossbows and Catapults as a wee guy. Thanks for surfacing those memories.

I only really play scrabble with my mates but I always lose as I can't spell and am generally illiterate. And the irony is, I have a degree in English literature

  On 11/26/2013 at 9:36 PM, MadameChaos said:

I only really play scrabble with my mates but I always lose as I can't spell and am generally illiterate. And the irony is, I have a degree in English literature

  Reveal hidden contents

and philosophy

 

I saw a doc on pro Scrabble players called 'Word Wars' and they demonstrated that the majority of the top players aren't word nerds but more mathematical in their mind set. They don't care about the definitions of words at all. They just memorize all possible legal combinations of letters and play the game tactically.

^yep.

My ex was a horrible speller but had a mathematical brain and was shit-hot Scrabble player.

^ fuck that shit. I love math & logic - partly how I came to be an engineer - but I've always played scrabble with the tacit bylaw that only "real" (as in "real fan") words can be played. It's always a grey area, but if you can't define it, use it in a sentence, etc. no dice. Fortunately pretty much everyone I've played with has been like-minded in this regard.

^yes, that's how I play too.

Would be very frustrating when she would just play two letter words to get points in and such. Or do that compound parallel thing.

I remember watching her play online, she'd just be putting combinations of letters in, in the hope of coming up with a real word.

Fortunately, the way you say you play is also how my friends and I prefer to play.

Ah fuck yeah they do the compound bullshit. Always fucks me right up that. And they learn words that begin with x, y, z etc and all the top scorers. Oh yeah and the double/triple letter/word score squares. Dang it! I'm quite good at mah jong though. does that count?

  On 11/26/2013 at 10:28 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

^ fuck that shit. I love math & logic - partly how I came to be an engineer - but I've always played scrabble with the tacit bylaw that only "real" (as in "real fan") words can be played. It's always a grey area, but if you can't define it, use it in a sentence, etc. no dice. Fortunately pretty much everyone I've played with has been like-minded in this regard.

honourable scrabble most IDM 2014

big up Crossbows and Catapults - what a game...still have it tucked away, but missing a few bits and in need of some TAUGHT' bands - might even re-buy it if she aint too expensive

Scotland Yard is a great game! You always think it'll be impossible to catch Mr.X - but i've yet to play a game where he wasn't caught

Me and a buddy created our own board game - it's a mix of a load of games - 1 person plays as 'the monster' the rest as the humans, humans move less spaces than monster, you have lives, can pick up weapons, some weapons stronger than others, some heavier so you move slower, there's doors, theres objects you can push infront of doors to block them, theres chests you can open with keys etc. etc. it's fun but still rather crude - half thinking of proper developing it into a proto-demo model

seem's to be upside down...not bothered fixing it (apologies for its size

monopoly of course

also played lots out of Careers with family, sister when young:

Ludo used to be a family thing

  On 11/26/2013 at 11:27 PM, hello spiral said:

^yes, that's how I play too.

  On 11/26/2013 at 10:15 PM, hello spiral said:

My ex was a horrible speller but had a mathematical brain and was shit-hot Scrabble player.

  On 11/26/2013 at 11:27 PM, hello spiral said:

I remember watching her play online, she'd just be putting combinations of letters in, in the hope of coming up with a real word.

These sound like symptoms of a condition

  On 11/27/2013 at 12:15 AM, usagi said:

honourable scrabble most IDM 2014

My Liege.

Seriously though, there's an artful strategy to the game, weaving shit tiles into gold, hitting the double & triple multipliers to maximum effect, and yeah even that compound parallel thing Spiral's ex would do to his dismay lol.

While on vacation two summers ago I saw two people playing this in a coffee shop, dunno if it'd be more fun or more tedious but I'd love to give it a try sometime

Backgammon.

me and my brothers get extremely busy with backgammon. it's a perfect mix of chance and skill. pseudo-spooky dice effects if you play enough.

and

Chess

Ludo

Chinese Checkers

I'm pretty rubbish at most board games due to my defeatist attitude.

I actually really like Snakes and Ladders but mainly for the drawings on the version I had as a kid. Came across a small toy version that had the same board design, it's on my kitchen wall.

I never considered myself a stroppy or competitive person until I played Scrabble with Spiral. I think there were tears.

Lol! I once got annoyed In a game of chess and flicked away all the pieces. It's my own fault though as I tend to be quite impulsive and take a lot of risks.