Board Game General - Discuss stupid cardboard games

[ZMOT]

I played it once at a board game con and I would love to try it a second time. It‘s a game that I found so cool conceptually that I didn’t care about winning or losing, but a second play now that I have a better understanding of the rules would be good.

Steam Workshop::Archipelago + all expansion [Improved Setup and Script]

steamcommunity.com

Not narrative, exactly. Heroes of Normandie, if it had a campaign, is almost what I want. Or maybe Gloomhaven?

Steam Workshop::Heroes of Normandie (scripted)

steamcommunity.com

apparently it has a few campaigns actually.
gloomhaven imo is less of a dungeoncrawler and more of a puzzle dressed up as a dungeon crawler. some might like it, but didn't really work for me so I'd definitely take a look at the actual gameplay first.

Basically a game where you have one small but very skilled side going into a dungeon to take down all the monsters, and the other side has monsters that move somewhat tactically but are, by themselves weak. Which is what Imperial Assault looks like, but then the smarter play is usually to just ignore the enemies and run by them to get to the objectives.

swords & sorcery apparently has a very good monster AI (the first few quests are up on tabletopia), but like gloomhaven I'd take a look at it first, lot of people seem to dislike how the rest of the game works (symbols on cards you have to learn, lot of text, lots of bits etc.).
if you want something more ameritrashy just rolling monsters off the table zombicide might be a better option, haven't played it in years but from what I remember it was pretty much just that.

alternatively if you have some wargaming stuff there have been a few solos/coops come out lately or get updated constantly. rangers of shadow deep, 5 parsecs from home (scifi, 5 leagues from the borderlands is getting the same version bump in the next few months, personally can't wait for that one), frost/stargrave (mainly skirmish but has some coop stuff). for full blown games there's call to arms and lasting tales (that one was a kickstarter, can't remember if you could get the book on your own, but mainly grabbed it for the minis anyway).

 

[UtadaWasabi2]

Time to necro this. I Just bought Ark nova. pretty fun game.

 

[No0neKnows]

This is my favorite game and I'd look forward to play it more than anything else in my childhood. I'd buy one if it wasn't like almost 200 on walmart or something, besides you need a lot of people to make it fun but I don't have friends.

 

[SITHRAK!]

Got ’Plague Inc’ and the ‘Armageddon’ expansion a few weeks ago and got to play it last night.

It’s really really good. Fortunes can change in a second, there are constant emerging strategies, and you can’t be sure who’s won right up until you add up the points at the end.
One of the nicer mechanics is the points you spend to make your disease more infectious or lethal (mutation) come off your score track as you play, but all the mutations you have at the end of the game are refunded.
So you might be buying cheap mutations at the start but you won’t get your points back. Whereas if you save the points you will get a slower start but waste less points.
Almost every decision you make in the game involves short-term versus long-term gain, and how you place your ‘infection’ tokens on the game board can help you, or hinder others, but rarely both at once.
It’s easy to learn but has some deep strategies and resource management. Each disease also plays very differently. Bacteria are slow but steady, viruses are cheap to mutate, funguses get a slow start but go nuts mid game, and bio weapons are amazingly lethal (which is great for the late game).

Highly recommended.