Board Games (Reviews, Rules, Regulations, Random)

[fretgod99]

Yeah, Boss Monster is also fun.

[theJ]

11 hours ago, iPwn said:

Asked before, but what would be some good games to play for two people?

Since it's usually just my wife and I, we play a lot of 2 player stuff.

• Small World
• Splendor
• Dominion

Those are our favorites at the moment.  They all scale really well from 2-5 players.  Dead of Winter is pretty good, but i think it's better with 4 players.

[theJ]

10 hours ago, fretgod99 said:

One Deck Dungeon, HP Hogwarts Battle, Pandemic.

Never played pandemic with 2, but my brother and sister-in-law said it was too easy.

[fretgod99]

9 minutes ago, theJ said:

Never played pandemic with 2, but my brother and sister-in-law said it was too easy.

The base game can be. But it's more difficult when you add epidemic cards and/or use expansion games. Also, it depends which roles you use.

[The Gnat]

15 hours ago, domepatrol91 said:

That's really cool. Maybe I should just jump in and play test more often rather than trying to make it perfect all at once.

That's what I keep on reminding myself that I need to do. Too much drive to have it be perfect.

4 hours ago, theJ said:

Dead of Winter is pretty good, but i think it's better with 4 players

I like it either way, with 2 players, we always just remove the traitor mechanic as the game is still fairly tough.

4 hours ago, theJ said:

Never played pandemic with 2, but my brother and sister-in-law said it was too easy.

I'd play it on hard mode then. When my wife and I play two players, we go for eradicating the diseases not just curing them.

 

As for other Two Player Games:

Pandemic Legacy works well with two players.

Smallworld is a great one for two.

Arkham Horror Card Game is only two players.

Five Tribes works pretty well with two players.

[Dome]

1 minute ago, The Gnat said:

Arkham Horror Card Game is only two players.

Is that co-op? We really like the Cthulhu mythos of Arkham Horror.

[The Gnat]

1 minute ago, domepatrol91 said:

Is that co-op? We really like the Cthulhu mythos of Arkham Horror.

Yeah, it's a cooperative game. Supposedly, we haven't played much, has a good story through it.

[fretgod99]

Two player on Pandemic Legacy, does each person control 2, then?

[The Gnat]

1 minute ago, fretgod99 said:

Two player on Pandemic Legacy, does each person control 2, then?

No, you control one character. The game balances by number of starting cards for each player.

[fretgod99]

28 minutes ago, The Gnat said:

No, you control one character. The game balances by number of starting cards for each player.

Huh. Never paid attention to that. Seems like things would get tricky at a few points if you're just using two players. Did you play with just two? Avoiding spoilers, how often did you switch up roles?

Think our group (4) lucked out in January.

Some colors are easier than others, I'd imagine.

[The Gnat]

1 minute ago, fretgod99 said:

Did you play with just two? Avoiding spoilers, how often did you switch up roles?

We are going to be starting where we are playing with two. We played with four the first time through. I suspect we'll switch up roles way more often. And depending on where we end up in January, that will probably determine how often we switch.

[The Gnat]

Has anyone played SeaFall Legacy?

I'm about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through it with a group of people, and I want to know other peoples thoughts on it.

Overall I've enjoyed it thus far, and I think that's the case with two of the other four players. However, the game has some of the worst laid out rules I've seen. The actual rules are fine, in the rule book they just don't lay them out well for learning how to play in a logical order. Also, as compared to Pandemic Legacy that has regular points where it is going to add in story, SeaFall has story that comes in when you complete milestones, so depending on the order you complete them and how quickly you complete them, it's really inconsistent. We just played our favorite game of it recently because we had two or three really big story moments come up and they game up in two turns. We've had two games in a row where we haven't hit anything important.

[The Gnat]

And another question, what are some tips/tricks you have for teaching people a new board game?
 

I go with stuff like:

• Don't just read from the rule book
• Give lots of examples, it's show and tell not just telling
• Let players help, put parts of the rules in their hands, like after you explain what a deck of cards are for and where they go, have someone else shuffle them and put them there
• Start with story/theme and then keep tying that in, if it's a space game, keep everything in space as you explain mechanics.
• Give some freedom in the first game, the first time someone really makes a big mistake about rules as long as it won't take a long time, let them redo it but that's the only time it happens

[skywindO2]

^^ As someone in my group that's usually not there for the initial learning of a game, I really like just having the rules briefly explained and having examples of how some of the more unique or complicated mechanics work. I hate feeling like I'm delaying playing for the rest of the group. I just prefer to be thrown in and allowed to make my own mistakes while learning and accept that there's a good chance I'll lose. I do love it when games have an rule card or sheet per player for quick reference. 

My preference may not apply to everyone though, non-gamers might want a more thorough explanation before jumping in. 

[fretgod99]

14 minutes ago, The Gnat said:

• Give lots of examples, it's show and tell not just telling
• Let players help, put parts of the rules in their hands, like after you explain what a deck of cards are for and where they go, have someone else shuffle them and put them there
• Give some freedom in the first game, the first time someone really makes a big mistake about rules as long as it won't take a long time, let them redo it but that's the only time it happens

This stuff in particular can help. Depending on the type of game it is, I usually push for an "open" game or at least an "open" hand or two, meaning after you talk about some of the basic rules, you go through a game or a few rounds where everything is out in the open. You talk about the moves you make, you help them talk through the moves they could make. That helps steer them away from big mistakes like in your last point. But then when one crops up when you start over and aren't playing open, you just clear up the rules confusion.