Alrighty, lots of pictures and play reports forthcoming:
Played quite a few games that are new to our group recently. We did not go forward with our previously planned 8 player
Arkham Horror play through because its owners did come to the conclusion that it would take literally 8 hours and that I was not exaggerating, so they're going to do some house rule investigation and practicing to see if they can get it a bit shorter. Instead, we played
Captain Sonar, which is everything that child me ever wanted
Battleship to be--if you've got 7 friends who are willing to pretend that they are submarine crewmen with you for 30-45 minutes it is a blast, particularly if everyone is a bit drunk and is willing to roleplay their roles (which results in a wonderful Star Trekish bridge crew experience). We also played
Dead Last, a card game version of the prisoner's dilemma, which half the group loved and half the group loathed--about what I was expecting. The trickier and sneakier and better at lying your group is the better this game is going to go over. Also got three people to play
Ticket to Ride: Europe with me and each really enjoyed it--it's difficult for me to imagine a better intro game to 'serious' board gaming, other than perhaps
Pandemic.
Lastly, played a game of
Scythe with more than 2 players for the first time, and it was amazing. Seems like the game consistently lasts about a half hour per player, (plus about a half hour rules explanation for new players), which for a game of its scope and scale is pretty much unbeatable, in all player count ranges. Looking forward to the new expansion releasing in November that will take the max player count up to 7, which by my estimates should result in a 3.5-4 hour game, which is fantastic insofar as I'm concerned. The nearest deep strategy game I've got that can support a healthy amount of players (6) is
A Game of Thrones, and that one can exceed 1 hour per player in length and often results in some hurt feelings, boredom, and disengagement, to boot. Scythe, by contrast, is a lot more friendly (only had three combat encounters in the entire game), and is a lot simpler to explain and play--everyone in the group enjoyed it, even those who dislike complex games, and all said they'd be willing to play again. Even drew a bit of crowd of curious on-lookers who without a rules explanation were catching on to the mechanics pretty quick. Scythe is quickly shaping up to become a top-10 game in my collection, and is now firmly my go-to strategy game.
Anyways, here's some pictures of games all set up:
This one is Captain Sonar--it's a team vs. team game of hidden information, where each team is controlling a submarine and trying to hunt the other team's submarine down. Each team is divided into 4 roles: the captain, the first mate, the engineer, and the radio operator, each with unique functions to perform. The game is played in real-time.
This is
Sekigahara, one of the more handsome games in my collection. 2-player only, so it'll probably be a while before I get to play it.
Close up of some of the components in
Mechs vs. Minions. (Sorry I know nothing about photography or how to actually take good pictures.) Campaign-game with minor legacy-game elements--also one of the best 'unboxing' experiences I've ever had with a board game. Layers upon layers of gorgeous components with some of the best inserts in my collection. I've got too many campaign games in my collection to give them all the due they deserve, and with the supposedly 100-hour-plus
Gloomhaven just around the corner they're likely to get even less due, but I'm still hoping that a friend and I will be able to start a campaign of Mechs vs. Minions soon, hopefully this weekend. (Alternatively, we might start up
Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, which I'm equally excited about. No pictures of that one though, because unfortunately the components, miniatures excluded, are really quite bad. Easily the worst card quality of any game in my collection, and some questionable graphic design choices, to say the least. At least the rules seem pretty great if you're a fan of dice-chucking dungeon-crawling, so you're not just paying for the miniatures. Still, makes me a bit nervous about the forthcoming relaunch of
Blood Bowl--hope a lot more care goes into that one.)
Ticket to Ride: Europe. Lovely design, quick and easy gameplay. And lots of cool little plastic trains.
Last up is
Fury of Dracula. Weirdly huge board for how few components there are--it is a Fantasy Flight production and lord knows Fantasy Flight likes their huge boards, but this game would have honestly been fine with a board half the size. Haven't played it since it's entered my collection, but hoping to get the right combination of 5 players to really make it shine soonishly.
