So today is actually International Table Top Day. I am not sure, but if you are hunting around for a new game, there could be some specials on at your local shop (or online). Amazon currently has some 45% off specials on some of their games, though I didn't particularly see anything special. Anyway, a heads up for people interested.

i picked up 7 Wonders from the sale and one of my retailers was doing 15% off any games from the table top show...



this is sorta getting out of hand...

Joining the party! Watched a few episodes of tabletop and got interested in a bunch of these modern games.

So far my collection consists of Forbidden Island and Dixit with both Jungle Speed and The Resistance on the way.

Trying to start out with fairly light inexpensive games that should hopefully work with the family, So far both Dixit and Forbidden Island have been winners, Ticket to Ride might be our next purchase. I would love to hear some more skullbrain recommendations.

My group plays 1-2x per week, and our mainstays are (in order of most frequently played to least frequently played):
- Pathfinder
- Eldrich Horror
- Mansions of Madness
- Descent: Journeys In The Dark (Second Edition)
- Malifaux
- Call of Cthulu

I must say that when I first began gaming, MOM and the occasional one-off Descent game were my faves because we would play a different character from scratch, each time. After familiarizing myself with all the games, I quickly came to prefer the campaign-type games where you keep your character and add to their skills / weapons. Pathfinder and Descent are now my favorite campaigns, and I now prefer Eldrich Horror to Mansions of Madness (unless we've got a group larger than 4) for non-campaign nights.

In my opinion, if anyone is considering the Fantasy Flight Games' H.P. Lovecraft titles, go for Mansions and Eldrich Horror. EH is the successor (and in our group, the replacement) to Arkham Horror. AH is too slow and repetitive, so much so that after anyone had played it once or twice, we felt done with it, it was no longer fun, and was challenging for the wrong reasons. Elder Sign is a great game for 1-2 people, but I really feel that MOM and EH shine so much more than ES in a group of 3+. YMMV, and as long as you have fun, that's all that matters.

Eldrich Horror may not be that old of a game, but it's probably the one we've played the most now. The Yig expansion was welcomed and breathed new life (and deaths) into the game. If I had to rank it's average difficulty on a scale from 1-10, pre-Yig it's about a 6, but post-Yig it's 8 or sometimes 9. Anyone considering EH really needs to jam through the main game before jumping into Yig missions, as the newfound conditions in the expansion are a lot harder to overcome. MOM has been around so long and has multiple expansions, so long as you have an experienced host for your GM, it'll always be challenging and you'll never really feel confident of winning. Same goes for Descent, so much so that we're nearly completely through with the original campaign and 50% through some early expansion one-off games. In Descent, we typically trample the first map without a lot of trouble, and then get our asses quickly handed to us and lose on the second map. It's both fun and frustrating, but a lot of the challenge is that in the first map you have NO CLUE what your goal is in the second map. Making mistakes you simply aren't aware of in the first map will really burn your ass, again, so long as the DM is well versed and knows how to punish you properly.

Finally, I wanted to say that Pathfinder is really fun. You can play with nearly any number of people present, even solo. One person missing a single mission won't really be left behind and can easily pick up the next time they're able to attend, and character/skill progression feels well paced and very fair. Games can be as quick as 45-60 minutes, or as long as 90 depending on your group size. We've already finished the original campaign for the game, and just wrapped up the first expansion campaign as well.

All of these will go on the back burner in the near future though, as our host pre-ordered Cthulhu Wars: The Necronomicon Bundle, and that will become our main focus once it's arrived and we've come to a stopping point at the end of either the Descent or Pathfinder campaign. Really looking forward to learning a new game this big, and having the option to either play co-op or versus, teams or no teams.

If you game in the Austin area, feel free to reach out via PM

My tip: Citadels
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478/citadels

Thanks for the recommendations! I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to H.P Lovecraft stuff, mostly due to the fact I'm a wuss when it comes to horror, however Eldrich Horror does look really cool and Descent is a game I really want to try, tricky part is finding someone to play with.

All my purchases have been light simply due to the fact that I don't want to scare anyone away with something too hardcore. I'll ease them in then I think we might eventually get to something like Descent.

A few others on my list that have really got me interested are

Space Alert
7 Wonders
MachiKoro
Betrayal at House on the Hill

I'll look those up, none of them ring a bell. I just bought King of Tokyo and it's Power Up! Expansion Pack, gonna give it a try on Tuesday. Most of our games are cooperative, so it'll be interesting how much my girlfriend (who's somehow been wrangled into playing all these games with us) can be made to hate me for being her opponent

The next game I was hoping to get / try is Fortune & Glory, but it's been unavailable for months. I just read that they'll finally be shipping more units later this month, so hopefully I'll be playing that in July. After watching the Tabletop episode for that game and realizing how similar it's core mechanics are to Eldritch Horror (but against Nazis rather than Lovecraft mythos), I must play it.

I also wanted to mention The Esoteric Order of Gamers for offering a VERY user friendly way of learning and understanding the rules and gameplay of games. Not all of these are easy to digest, and not all Youtube videos are tolerable to try and figure your new game out (like this for Eldritch Horror).

cards against humanity ftw

Finally got to play this last weekend decided to print & play which was totally worth the guillotine time!

If anyone is interested in checking it out here's the link to print your own copy.

http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/pdf/CAH_MainGame.pdf

Nice looking site! It's also worth checking out the video reviews and general content over at http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/
My list of gaming wants is a little crazy now because of these guys.

3 months with no replies?! You guys need to roll more dice . . .
King of New York any day now! (or maybe it's already begun shipping and I just didn't know it yet)

Waiting on King of New York too .... Also Cthulhu Wars! Come on ... ship already

Yeah, we got the full on Necromicon version, fully loaded. Knew we'd be waiting quite a while for shipping, but sorta hoped it'd be here in Aug/Sept!

Did not even know about this thread I will have to take a pic of the mountain of games I have, if you want an awesome zombie game grab some Zombicide!

I've been reluctant to start spending money on boardgames, but as videogames are still in a mid-generation lull I've decided to branch out. Not moving too far away from the digital, I've recently been playing the Metal Gear Solid edition of Risk. Some nice variations on the classic gameplay, as well as a few different play styles that I've yet to try. Definitely a refreshing change and altogether more enjoyable than the game of Risk: Legacy I played a while back. Eyeing up Carcassonne next.

"Eyeing up Carcassonne next." You will not be disappointed! Got introduced to this at a gaming meet up a few weeks ago. The one nice thing about the board game market right now is there are a lot of games that can be played solo or coop. Also a lot of games are melding video game influence onto the board (Super Dungeon Explore) and melding tabletop wargaming with board gaming for a nice self contained but shoot/slash the hell out of shit experience.

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/42017/s/zmg78505/

Waiting for this to hit!

We got a shipping update on Cthulhu Wars, and I think we'll have it this month. I sure hope so, because with us having some time off for Thanksgiving it is an excellent opportunity to get familiar with the game!

Also anxiously awaiting King of New York, which we need to pick up soon too.

the new season of Table Top has begun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pipFRzGYgdk

Tokaido looks stunning but I think It wouldn't get much play beyond the first couple of games.

Has nobody else obtained King of New York? It's so much fun, and while similar to King of Tokyo, it brings a lot more variety and seems to balance the game quite a bit more than before. While balance shouldn't have been an issue in KoT, some people prefer to play it really safe by staying out of Tokyo / never attacking others / hoarding points and healing when necessary. In KoNY, everyone's thrown into the fray and the only way to hoard points is to move through Manhattan or destroy buildings/infantry, both risking your health more than before.

For the holidays I also got the DC Deckbuilding Game (which we've been playing at a friends house for months, and I crave the expansions for) and Elder Sign. Elder Sign with revised rules is much harder than I recall it seeming, and makes you feel much sweeter victory / more accomplishment when you don't just fail and die

This might be childs play compared to some of the games you guys play but I've been feeling nostalgic for this piece of my 90s childhood lately. Played a lot of this from ages 10-13 before graduating to Magic and then falling of the RPG wagon. Wonder how it holds up as an adult?



Nice Frazetta style fantasy illustration on the box. That barbarian is quite a beefcake!

Looks like the original board system can get pricey on ebay/amazon not to mention the expansion packs.
I may have to keep my eye out for a good price on an almost complete set.

King of New York is a nice variation on King of Tokyo ... like them both , with KOT easier to play.

Cthulhu Wars in the mail but not here yet Guess it's taking the non-euclidean route

Got King of Tokyo for Christmas to hopefully play with my kids. We haven't cracked it open yet though,

In other news, we finally opened up and played around with Super Dungeon Explore, which was pretty great. We were a group of 4 vs the console, which lead to a VERY lengthy game (a con, not a pro). Seems like a GREAT title for playing in a group of 2 v 1, but on the end of 4-5 v 1 it's a bit much to take on. I also got the DC Deck Builder expansion "Rivals - Batman vs Joker" and it's much more cut-throat than normal DC co-op or versus play. Gonna try it a few more times, but at worst it's a nice batch of cards to add to our main DC deck for standard play. Marvel Legendary: Villains beat our ass again, we can't seem to play well at that one. The other Legendary games are fine, and we rarely get beat up or lose, but in Villains we can't seem to catch any slack. Not too fond of that one still, but the next card game I'm looking at is the ALIEN deck builder.


One of my friends got their Cthulhu Wars (base/core set) last week and played it already. We're still waiting on ours... but we got the Necronomicon Bundle, which is core game plus all expansions. I get the feeling we'll be receiving it much later than everyone with the basic sets too many delays on this.


It's been too many weeks since xmas for you to have not played it yet!