Tabletop Gaming?
Aug 31, 2016 at 10:31 AM Post #17 of 36
I love board games! Back in the day.......before computers this is was the coolest nerds all did. Almost everyone played RISK, Dungeons & Dragons or Diplomacy but REAL gamers were neck deep into playing games like
Squad Leader
Axis & Allies
Panzer Blitz & Panzer Leader
Ragnarok
Gladiator
Star Fleet Battles
Illuminati
The Call of Cthulhu
And the Grand Daddy of them all Avaon Hill's Rise and Decline of the Third Reich
Collectively I must have spent over a year actually playing these games in my life. Some of them have migrated to the computer or their concept recreated into a game system game, like Call of Duty for example, but there is something special about sitting together with good friends and playing out one of these games.
Star Fleet Battles is the game I really miss the most. There was such creative ideas and the tactics and strategy of the game was only limited by your imagination.
Big fun.
 
Aug 31, 2016 at 10:31 AM Post #18 of 36
  Picked up Eldritch Horror last week but haven't had chance to play it yet as I've been away at a film festival for the last 5 days (see movie thread!). I'll post a pic when I finally get chance to set it up. Never heard of Talisman before you mentioned it, but looks nice!

 
Let me know what you think of it when you get the chance to play it. Still wavering on which of the many co-op Lovecraftian games to pick up, lol. 
 
Talisman is a bit of a classic, been in print in some form or another since 1983. Used to play it a lot as a kid. It's not really a great game mechanically, and it has a tendency to go on for far too long and to be very cruel while doing so, but with the right group of people (aka people who don't get upset easily) it can be a blast. Fantasy Flight has published a ton of expansions for it that give it some more structure and reduce how luck-based the game is. 
 
Aug 31, 2016 at 10:43 AM Post #19 of 36
I've got Talisman on the iPad, but admittedly, I haven't spent a lot of time playing it.I picked it up to play with a friend, but it doesn't allow easy turn-based gaming over the web/Apple's Game Center.
 
@HAWKEYE7 - I loved Star Fleet Battles growing up, but never had it until semi-recently. (A friend had all the stuff for it.) Now, it's trying to find people who are interested in playing with that type of detail investment. A friend gave me Axis & Allies a few years back, but I haven't had time to play it.
 
Aug 31, 2016 at 11:05 AM Post #20 of 36
  I love board games! Back in the day.......before computers this is was the coolest nerds all did. Almost everyone played RISK, Dungeons & Dragons or Diplomacy but REAL gamers were neck deep into playing games like
Squad Leader
Axis & Allies
Panzer Blitz & Panzer Leader
Ragnarok
Gladiator
Star Fleet Battles
Illuminati
The Call of Cthulhu
And the Grand Daddy of them all Avaon Hill's Rise and Decline of the Third Reich
Collectively I must have spent over a year actually playing these games in my life. Some of them have migrated to the computer or their concept recreated into a game system game, like Call of Duty for example, but there is something special about sitting together with good friends and playing out one of these games.
Star Fleet Battles is the game I really miss the most. There was such creative ideas and the tactics and strategy of the game was only limited by your imagination.
Big fun.


Squad Leader! Great game. Got into it fairly recently (well, Advanced Squad Leader 2nd Edition), and it's a behemoth. I will probably never come close to mastering it, but at least I'm enjoying it. 
 
  I've got Talisman on the iPad, but admittedly, I haven't spent a lot of time playing it.I picked it up to play with a friend, but it doesn't allow easy turn-based gaming over the web/Apple's Game Center.

 
I didn't realize it was on the iPad! I will have to look into that. Would be a great game to play in bed, assuming there are AI opponents. Do you know if it's based on the Steam version, or vice versa?
 
Aug 31, 2016 at 11:17 AM Post #21 of 36
Quote:
 
Squad Leader! Great game. Got into it fairly recently (well, Advanced Squad Leader 2nd Edition), and it's a behemoth. I will probably never come close to mastering it, but at least I'm enjoying it. 
 
 
 
 
Squad Leader! Great game. Got into it fairly recently (well, Advanced Squad Leader 2nd Edition), and it's a behemoth. I will probably never come close to mastering it, but at least I'm enjoying it. 
 
 
I didn't realize it was on the iPad! I will have to look into that. Would be a great game to play in bed, assuming there are AI opponents. Do you know if it's based on the Steam version, or vice versa?


Yeah, Squad Leader is such a great game. You learn a lot about the tactics of combat with that game. The importance of positioning, supply lines, line of sight. so many little things that make or break the battle and if you think about it, these are just some of the little details that real soldiers have to know to stay alive. It's really fascinating.
If you like Squad Leader you should try The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich. If you think Squad Lead is complex you have no idea. Third Reich is the entire second World War done just like Squad Lead but on a division level. I have played a single game for over a week every night for 3-4 hours to complete it.
It's draining but real interesting and fun.
 
Aug 31, 2016 at 12:07 PM Post #23 of 36
 
Yeah, Squad Leader is such a great game. You learn a lot about the tactics of combat with that game. The importance of positioning, supply lines, line of sight. so many little things that make or break the battle and if you think about it, these are just some of the little details that real soldiers have to know to stay alive. It's really fascinating.
If you like Squad Leader you should try The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich. If you think Squad Lead is complex you have no idea. Third Reich is the entire second World War done just like Squad Lead but on a division level. I have played a single game for over a week every night for 3-4 hours to complete it.
It's draining but real interesting and fun.

 
The make-it-or-break-it for me is do I have to leave it set up between sessions or is it scenario-based? Neither myself nor anyone in my gaming group has a dedicated gaming room, and we all have cats whose favorite game to play with our games is Godzilla. I have heard of it though--I even think GMT printed a new version of it a few years back, albeit under a different name. The Avalon Hill of years past may be gone, but lots of other great publishers have stepped up to fill the void.
 
I've never played Star Fleet Battles, but up until just a couple years ago I think Mongoose Publishing was still coming out with new expansions for it. Love it when games have that much longevity. 
 
Sep 20, 2016 at 10:07 AM Post #24 of 36

 
Setup Eldritch Horror. I'm working my way through the rule book at present and it seems a fair bit more complicated than Elder Sign. Hopefully it'll become clearer, having played it through a couple of times...
 
Sep 20, 2016 at 12:13 PM Post #25 of 36
 
Setup Eldritch Horror. I'm working my way through the rule book at present and it seems a fair bit more complicated than Elder Sign. Hopefully it'll become clearer, having played it through a couple of times...

Looking good. It's certainly on the upper end of medium-weight games--if I remember correctly, there are a few annoying exceptions to keep track of, and there are a lot of processes in a turn that take some getting used to. But that's pretty typical for Fantasy Flight games--once you get a handle on it it should be pretty smooth. And speaking of Fantasy Flight, I posted a picture of the Talisman base game a few weeks ago--here's Talisman with (almost) all of its expansions, most of the way set up.  Definitely more of a floor game than it is a table game.
 

 
Also speaking of Fantasy Flight, they announced that their partnership with Games Workshop was ending not long ago, which means that a lot of the games that resulted from this partnership will be going out of print very soon, and many are already selling second-hand for three figures. Prompted me to pick up Fury of Dracula, which I'll post a photo of later. 
 
Sep 20, 2016 at 3:36 PM Post #26 of 36
Yeah, it's spilling over the edge there 
biggrin.gif

 
I've been leafing through FF's winter 2015 catalogue and Fury of Dracula was definitely one that caught my eye - you'll have to let us know how it plays. I'm also quite intrigued by XCOM - obviously has an X-Files vibe to it, which was always one of my favourite shows (up to and including season 5 anyway!)
 
Sep 21, 2016 at 1:03 AM Post #27 of 36
  Yeah, it's spilling over the edge there 
biggrin.gif

 
I've been leafing through FF's winter 2015 catalogue and Fury of Dracula was definitely one that caught my eye - you'll have to let us know how it plays. I'm also quite intrigued by XCOM - obviously has an X-Files vibe to it, which was always one of my favourite shows (up to and including season 5 anyway!)

Will do--expecting good things, though with it only supporting five players getting it to the table might be tough--our group almost never dips below 7. Might need to convince them that we should split up occasionally to give some of the other games on our shelves some time in the spotlight. XCOM has caught my eye before in the past, as well, though it is an app-driven game, the concept of which I'm still very much on the fence about. Looks like it's got some very interesting co-op mechanics, though, and I love the theme.
 
Sep 21, 2016 at 3:20 AM Post #28 of 36
  Will do--expecting good things, though with it only supporting five players getting it to the table might be tough--our group almost never dips below 7. Might need to convince them that we should split up occasionally to give some of the other games on our shelves some time in the spotlight. XCOM has caught my eye before in the past, as well, though it is an app-driven game, the concept of which I'm still very much on the fence about. Looks like it's got some very interesting co-op mechanics, though, and I love the theme.

 
Ah, didn't notice the app-driven aspect. I'm very much a purist when it comes to tabletop games so I'll probably give it a miss. You're lucky to have a group of 7! I can get 2 or 3 round on a good day - just not that many of my friends into board gaming. 
frown.gif
 
 
Sep 21, 2016 at 11:08 AM Post #29 of 36
   
Ah, didn't notice the app-driven aspect. I'm very much a purist when it comes to tabletop games so I'll probably give it a miss. You're lucky to have a group of 7! I can get 2 or 3 round on a good day - just not that many of my friends into board gaming. 
frown.gif
 

Well, it's worth noting that the 7 includes me, and that of that 7, only 1 other is really into table top, and before we started, 4 had never played anything more complex than Monopoly, so it was a learning process for them. They seem pretty into it now, but there's still some games I can't get them to go near--every game we play together as a group is on the light or very medium light end of the spectrum. Still, I certainly consider myself lucky--having tried for a decade to get a regular group together, I know very well how real the struggle to achieve and maintain regular board game nights can be. 
 
Sep 26, 2016 at 2:24 PM Post #30 of 36
Played D&D (well, actually Lamentations of the Flame Princess with bits and pieces hacked onto it from Basic Dungeons & DragonsCall of Cthulhu, and Burning Wheel) with three people over the weekend who had never played a tabletop roleplaying game before and they had a blast. They're still texting one another plans for what they want to do as a party the next time we get together and are trying to get out of their normal weekend plans so that we can play it more often than three hours once every couple of weeks. So a resounding success, all told. Haven't DM'd/GM'd/MC'd/Referee'd/Whatever'd in a long time, so I was a bit rusty, but only got temporarily stumped by a line of questioning once, which I'm rather proud of. Hours of preparation helps, even if you're running pre-made settings/adventures. 
 

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