• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

The Board Game Thread!

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Welp, sounds like the Broken Token guy super sucks (CW the usual stuff when someone is called out for sexual assault/abuse). Isaac Childres is looking into shifting to a different insert supplier for Frosthaven.
 

Cyrael

...we're shy.
(he/him)
Wellllllll fuck. I've spent good money with those folks and it sucks that I was supporting that kind of person. What are alternatives people have used?
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
I don't know about larger alternatives, but I ordered my set of organizers for GH from an Etsy seller in Ukraine. (I don't get box organizers often, usually just buy Plano boxes and the like, but there was just too much stuff in the GH box.)
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Huh, I think I got one of those for my Marvel Legendary box years ago. And my sister had to pay a pretty penny to get them into Canada. Boo.

Next time I'll contact Mogri's bro.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
We started a long-delayed birthday game of Twilight Imperium yesterday. It's me, as the time-traveling Nomad, against the galactic scourge factions (the ones that want to enslave, destroy, devour, assimilate, or otherwise show other sentient life a real bad time)—Vuil'Raith, Nekro Virus, L1Z1X, Arborec, and Mahact. We got through a couple rounds and will resume in a week or two.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
While we were in the more strict quarantine portion of the pandemic, I missed board game nights with my friends. I was really looking forward to playing more games once I got vaccinated. Well, I've been vaccinated since April, and I've barely played any games! I got in about half of a game of Concordia, a few attempts at Jump Drive and the first mission of The Crew (with a very drunk crew), and one game of Sorry with my friend's son. I just picked up Spirit Island, and I played it solo a couple of times.

I still have videogames and I play D&D via Zoom, and Katie and I play a game every now and then. So it's really not the end of the world. But, I just built up the idea of game nights returning in my mind, and every time I've tried to push for more games with my friends it's fallen apart. It's kind of a bummer, and I really miss playing board games.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
It is a bummer! We've played way less since May than I'd hoped (part of that is most of us made summer plans for the brief window between mass vaccination and delta coming to the fore, so there weren't that many free weekends). We've had three or four in all, I think. Hoping to resume more frequently soon, but it's tough while we're being extra careful again because the kids aren't vaccinated and delta can spread more readily even through vaccinated people.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Same. Saaaaaaaame.

I have all those games on my shelf and no one to play them with!!
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Still no board game night, but yesterday I convinced Katie to play Spirit Island with me.

The first half of the game was pretty rough. I spent most of the time answering questions & helping with her half of the board, and I lost track of my side, which was soon overrun by cascading blight. We took a break to walk Gus & have a snack, then gave it another shot.

The second half went way better. Katie had a better grasp of things & we were able to work together to clean things up. It’s a lot longer & more complex than the games we usually play, but I think she would be up for playing it every now & then.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
We finally picked up the physical version of Splendor after being introduced to it at @shivam's last Talcon and having little luck with the electronic versions. Right after that day we tried to find the app version, but it appears to have been delisted from the stores. Then the Steam version was in a Humble Bundle so we picked it up... but it doesn't work on Mac. So my spouse used the desktop and I used the laptop, but then a few months ago his laptop started failing. Then I saw it at Kohl's on clearance last month (it's still at $23 but their shipping fees suck FYI), so boom. Happy to finally be able to play whenever we want.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Oh yeah, Splendor is great and one of those games where the physical version is a better experience IMO, because of that heft.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Anyone have a game group with an opening in the Monterey area? Isaac Childres (Gloomhaven, etc.) just moved there and mentioned in his newsletter that he's looking for a local group into heavy euros.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
I finally got Azul from the library after having it on hold since sometime in 2020, yeesh! Also the library just expanded their board game inventory and now has Takenoko, Everdell and Root which I've been curious about, so hoping the hold list for those isn't as bad. Seems like I might be okay especially since I jumped on this the day they announced availability.

Oh and we got A Little Wordy in our continued quest for 2 player games, and I like it! Not terribly complicated but quick, it's been a good thing to do when we're waiting for dinner to finish in the oven or something like that.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Do you have Elder Sign? That plays really well for anywhere from 2-8.

Also if you want a real two-player rabbit hole to jump down, there's always X-Wing.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Also the library just expanded their board game inventory and now has Takenoko, Everdell and Root which I've been curious about, so hoping the hold list for those isn't as bad. Seems like I might be okay especially since I jumped on this the day they announced availability.
Root is great! Make sure you’re playing with a group who is ok with attacking other factions. Also, the game is best with 3-4 players. 2p is fine, but without other players to balance things out it can sometimes be very one-sided.

Oh, and Root is coming to Switch in the next week or so.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Do you have Elder Sign? That plays really well for anywhere from 2-8.

Also if you want a real two-player rabbit hole to jump down, there's always X-Wing.

I do not have Elder Sign, I've heard of it but I'm honestly not sure it's something we'd like, I'm hoping a friend gets it and we get to try it sometime. I love Betrayal at House on the Hill but my spouse doesn't, and the amount of items and things to keep track of in Elder Sign may be above my level. Definitely curious though.

X-Wing/miniatures games haven't clicked for me and I am relieved because that is a very expensive rabbit hole!
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
If you want to give Elder Sign a try the Android phone version is only $2 or so. It is slightly different from the physical game, but only in a few nitty-gritty ways; it'll give you an accurate idea of how it plays. It's fully cooperative, and usually you won't have more than two or three items at once, because you'll want to be using them often.

Root I'd advise more for 3-4 players I think? There's an app for that too; I often go for those first if I'm not sure, since they're cheaper. Other good 2P stuff: Terraforming Mars (also has an app), Splendor (app), Lords of Waterdeep (app), Through the Ages (app), Roll Through the Ages, Hive. And Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a great intro to that game for 2-4 players, my wife and I played through it last year.
 
Last edited:

Balrog

(He/Him)
I played Ravine with some coworkers and it was really fun. I also played it at home with the family and really liked it.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
We tried Azul as 2-player first and while I did enjoy it could tell the dynamic would be very different with more. Really unique play style though.

So Sunday night we had two friends over who also have board games with the plan to just go through a bunch of games we've all been unable to play during the pandemic. It was our first time having people over other than the brief period in summer where things seemed better, it was nice!

We played Azul again and I definitely liked it more as a 4 player game, then one friend had Camel Up which is odd and luck driven but I could see it being fun for elementary school kids. Next we tried Decrypto which I liked very much, it needs exactly four players though which can be tough. And then a round of Splendor which is always fun.

I just checked and I'm next in line for Root at the library so hopefully I'll get that within the next few weeks. One of my friends also mentioned Targi which I hadn't heard of before.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Since I’ve been playing a bit of solo Spirit Island, I’ve realized that setting it up & putting it away is a pain. I’ve been using the 4 bucket tray that came with the game for the explorers, towns, cities, and Dahan, which makes setting them up easy. But, I had blight, fear, and energy tokens in their own plastic bags. There are a lot of little steps (setting up the fear & invader decks, etc.), so I spent some time thinking about how to streamline the setup.

First of all, I realized that virtually all games use 4 fear per player. So, instead of having a bag for fear & counting the right amount out each game, I just put 4 fear tokens in each player bag (with presence & defense tokens). There are 4 left over, but they’re only used for the very hardest level of England. So I have them in a separate box.

I thought about adding Blight to the player bags as well, but the amount of blight varies based on whether you use a blight card or not, plus you need to add more if the card flips. And, the errata says to add one extra at setup. I think it’s easier to just keep blight in its own bag.

The most annoying thing is dealing with energy. I pour it all on the table during setup, then have to put it all back in a bag at the end. It’s just a pain if I want to play a quick game. I tried leaving it in the bag, but it’s sometimes hard to pick out a 1 or 3 piece that way. I thought about the pieces, and I realized that I mostly handle the three invader pieces and energy. Dahan are only sometimes killed, and very rarely added. So, I put Dahan in a bag and moved energy to the spot on the tray.

So, when setting up I just need the tray, 1 player bag, and bags for blight & Dahan (that don’t get used often). So it’s fewer bags overall and there’s less counting or pouring out components. I’m also going to shuffle the fear and invader decks at the end of the game so they’re quicker to set up.

This is more text than I really needed for some minor organizational changes, but I wanted to write it out because this kind of stuff makes me happy. I enjoy playing games, but I also get a lot of enjoyment from organizing them and thinking about future games. I like finding the right expansion to make the game feel complete, and thinking about how to teach a game or set it up more quickly. With videogames, the experience feels a lot more uniform. I really like that boardgames have space for this engagement outside of the game itself.
 
Last edited:
Top