What board game are you playing - chat thread

I agree the train in Colt express is well made, didn't fall over and was easy to move the figures.

We played Descent (road to Legend app storyline) a few days ago. Did the first mission and a side one, loved the role playing nature of it (very reminiscent of D&D) and the fact the app tracks money etc. We failed our side mission but hoping we'll do better next time we play which might be tomorrow.

I was surprised at how sturdy the train is too! Yes I really loved how the game works - really good for the kids learning to plan etc. Although DD refuses to play it as you have to 'shoot each other'.

We played 7 of the games we took, as we ended up staying most of today as well. Also played sleeping queens (which we do have as well) and volcano island countdown

Played Colt express - really liked the mechanics of playing all cards out of beginning of turn although younger ones found it frustrating when things didn't go to their plan!! I thought train would annoy me but it was quite sturdy. Quite looking forward to trying it with advanced rules.

Cagliostro - looks like a good selection, not played randomise or dragon wood but would happily play any of the others!

Game night for NYE tonight at a friend's house. I'm taking 11 games:

Labyrinth
Dobble
Randomise
Aquarius
Colt Express
Ticket to Ride Europe
Mapominoes Europe
Forbidden Desert
Sushi Go
Dragonwood
Qwirkle Cubes

Is that enough? 😂

We played Colt Express this evening! I had far too much fun building the train. 😁

Only played a short version - 3 rounds instead of 5 as we were near the Caglets' bedtime - but really liked it. I love the all play at once kind of mechanism as it's not like anything else we have

Thevelveteenrabbot I've played Colt Express ans quite enjoyed it, particularly as you all play your goes at the same time so you can block someone's attack by moving or lose out onmpicking up money as someone else has. The little train is cool too.

Cagliostro that is definitely a hard choice, not sure I could narrow it down although we are taking Timeline to my MIL on Saturday as she enjoys card games and quizzes so definitely up her alley.

Might play a game of Descent with DH today, we bought it back in November along withthe expansion for Lords of Waterdeep (Scoundrals of Skulport). Have played Scoundrals a few times but haven't got our teeth into Descent yet but looking forward to it.

Well, we played our first game of Pandemic. It went slowly but we now have the feel of it so we're going to try again tomorrow. We lost by the way...ran out of player cards and with just one more go we could have done it!

We haven't played colt Express yet either 😱

Re learning on the job that is what we do most of the time. Like with 7 Wonders, we played our first game sort of "open hand" and discussed each others' moves etc. I realised towards the end that we'd got one bit wrong but carried on as we were and made a mental note for next time.

We've been invited to a friend's for NYE, for board games! So need to decide what to take as they are expecting me to supply the bulk of them 😂😂😂 how the heck do I narrow down the collection though? Some will be with kids, some with only 4 adults (5 once DH arrives after work)

Pandemic is great - game play is not that difficult' set up takes a bit of time.
We got Colt express for Christmas but have not had chance to play yet and dh got a stack from his secret Santa on board game geek - super generous as he was only expecting one or two!!

Thanks Cagliostro and Crankyagnes, don't know anyone who has Pandemic and the dc are desperate to give it a go. We have watched the official YouTube video by the makers on how to play and it has helped a bit. Think it's going to be one where we just have to keep referring to the rule book as we play and learn 'on the job'!

Hurrah, so glad that Dragonwood has gone down well! :)

I have got my 'research required' list from 215 to 66. Most of the difference were games I deleted as on further investigation they didn't look like my kind of thing.

Dragonwood a great success, dd8 loves it and so do the rest of us! Dh and I really like the Port Royal expansion, we must have played the base game at least one hundred times, so very nice to add some new characters and mechanics. Dh and ds11 have spent hours trying to understand and set up Memoir 44, but haven't actually played it yet, dh very enthusiastic though!

We got Ant and Dec's Saturday night take away. Our lotloved the forefits and mini competitive things in between.

We did get Santa vs Jesus. Never managed to play it but a friend said it was hilarious.

I've never played Pandemic, so this might not be helpful advice, but if we don't know anyone who knows how to play we go onto youtube when we have a new game to learn.

Either we watch something like Wil Wheaton's Table Top or Rahdo Runs Through, where you can watch them play the game so you can get a feel for it and some idea of the rules.

Or, we search for a 'how to play' - there are some awful ones on there but there are also some gems and it is SO much easier to learn a game by watching someone show you than by trying to read the rules in the box IMO.

I know Pandemic comes very highly recommended by lots of people on this thread and when I can persuade ds1 to play a game where we co-operate rather than try to destroy each other we'll get a copy.

In a word - yes! 😁

I have only played once and granted it was much easier thanks to playing with people who'd already played it (my friends who owned the game) - this also worked for us when we got ticket to ride a couple of years ago, we didn't play it until we had a friend over who had it at home and she taught us) is that an option for you?

We got Pandemic for Christmas and planned on playing it yesterday but the mammoth instruction book put us off. It sounds soooooooo complicated...is it worth the effort?

OK so I've edited my wishlists and the proper wishlist has the following:
Ticket to Ride expansions x3
Machi Koro expansion
Keltis
Loot
Bohnanza
Tatsu
Cacao
Roll for the Galaxy
Patchwork
Bananagrams Zip It
Quiddler
Quadropolis
Night of the Grand Octopus
Parfum
Barragoon
Kabaleo
Orongo
Arboretum
Fungi
Boss Monster
Celestia
Pandemic
Roll for the Galaxy

And my 'research required' list has...

215 games!

It is flipping adorable isn't it? And the little stacking bamboo pieces 😍

DH went back to work yesterday so we haven't played anything since. I have been editing my games wishlists. I had lots of different categories because I just add anything that's mentioned but I've now changed to a proper wishlist, where I know that I really want to buy them at some point (so those I've read lots about or played before) and another that is called "research required" 🤓😂

Turns out Lords of Waterdeep has similar mechanics to Stone Age - worker placement, choice of resources - so that's actually been a lot easier to learn than I thought, thankfully We've played it a couple of times and both ds1 and I like it.

Takenoko has been a bit harder to get our heads round so we've been watching tutorials on youtube for that one and I think we've got the hang of it now. The little panda token is SO cute Who knew growing bamboo for a panda to eat could be so fun?!

Next up, Port Royal!

Ah! Thank you that makes sense. :)

Cagliostro, it's not actually an expansion but a different (2-player) animal stacking game from Haba, that I have seen recommended as an expansion for Animal upon animal:

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39210/tier-auf-tier-das-duell

You need to buy two, though, in order to get new animal pieces for four players. (I think it is out of print, but I bought it on German eBay.)

@vikjul (no idea if this 'mention' thing works!) what expansion did you get for animal upon animal please?

I am going to look into Splendor as I see it mentioned so often. Pleased to see Takenoko and Indigo getting gifted too, I adore them!

We played Monster Cafe today which was a nice quick filler type game. I think we could end up developing more strategy over time. It's a bit like coloretto in that you want to collect more of some things but if you end up with too many different things you lose points!

DS (8) was given one night ultimate werewolf for Christmas, really enjoyed playing that!

Merry Christmas! Glad to hear that you enjoy Splendor crankyagnes! Hope Port Royal and For Sale are successes too!

We have some new games too, have only tried Rhino Hero so far, silly fun for all ages :-). Ds11 got Memoir 44 and Takenoko, dd8 got Dragonwood and we got Indigo and an expansion for Animal upon Animal for the family. Oh, and we got an expansion for Port Royal that I am looking forward to! And ds11 will be getting Survive Escape from Atlantis from his grandmother. So lots to try!

Happy Christmas everyone

Big thanks to vikjul for recommending Splendour aaaages ago – because it’s been a week between school breaking up and Christmas we opened Splendour early and we LOVE it. Only played it with ds1 so far, but looking forward to taking DH on as well soon. And ds1 got Port Royal in his stocking and For Sale under the tree, which you also recommended, so looking forward to playing those soon.

And I wasn’t left out either, I got Lords of Waterdeep which I’ve wanted ever since Chillywhippet mentioned it with photo – that was back at the end of last year . I also got Takenoko, which I’ve seen mentioned on other threads and looks to be something a bit different to our other games so looking forward to opening that soon too.

Hopefully they will give us a good few hours of fun - once we've got our heads around the rules and had a play through to get the hang of them ...