Board Game Opinions

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:07 pm

Hey all -

Anyone have feedback on the following games?

Arkham Horror

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Dread Pirate

I'm interested in all of these but want to "vet" them first. All opinions welcome - good, bad, indifferent, etc.

Thanks!
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:19 pm

Descent is too expensive, and not all that fun, in my opinion. I'd rather buy Warhammer Quest, which is about the same price on eBay (give or take ~20 or so) and WHQ is a lot more fun. Fully expandable too, as a RPG.

Philotomy Jurament · Post by **Philotomy Jurament** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:38 pm

Arkham Horror is a blast. It takes a long time to play, but it's fun, and the expansions are good, too. (I have them all.)

I'm not keen on Descent. I have fun for a little bit, then wonder why I'm not playing D&D, instead. (Curiously, I don't have that response with Arkham Horror and Call of Cthulhu.)

Dread Pirate is a complete waste of time and money. It's pretty, and that's the ONLY thing going for it. The gameplay is terrible, terrible, terrible. The only mechanic is "roll better than the other guy." Nothing you do really matters. There's no strategy. Don't buy this one.

Some other good ones:

Fury of Dracula

Lord of the Rings (esp. with the Friends & Foes expansion)

Dune (out of print)

War of the Ring (a wargame)

Some good "serious" wargames:

Flying Colors (kind of like a more accessible Wooden Ships & Iron Men)

Bonaparte at Marengo

A Victory Lost
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bighara · Post by **bighara** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:37 pm

Not a big board game expert, but I'll put in a thumbs up for the new Talisman (due out next month). I got a GenCon copy and played a few games. It's pretty fun.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:43 pm

I don't like Decent all that much, Much like Treebore said, it's an expensive boardgame, with some pretty intricate rules that definitely don't make it a light boardgame. The pieces, artwork, and full-color everything look really nice, but that is all surface IMO. The rules don't seem that intuitive to me, which makes teaching it a bit harder. Overall, I'm not a fan.

Arkham Horror is awesome all around. A good, VERY deep boardgame that has about every aspect to a good HPL story or CoC RPG feel to it. That being said, the game is very complex at times and takes forever to play. I've played it 5 or 6 times now, and no game has lasted less then 3 to 3.5 hours. Honestly, I quit playing the games that lasted only 3.5 hours because it kept going and going. One game we played lasted the better part of 5+ hours to play. It's a long, long game for sure.

Never played Dread Pirate.

.........................................Omote

FPQ
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Geleg · Post by **Geleg** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:09 pm

I have Dread Pirate, and have to agree completely with Philotemy. Beer and pretzels, but not even that fun a beer and pretzels game. Pretty mindless.

Can't wait to get Arkham Horror (I had the very old GW [?] version).

REB

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:11 pm

Damn. Hate to hear the bum opinions on Descent. I was hoping this would be pretty cool. Ah well, glad I haven't bought it yet. Would have been pissed to drop that much cash on it to find out it wasn't all that great.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:41 pm

If you've played DOOM the boardgame, Descent is pretty much the same game but with some more rules. Just so you know.

.................................Omote

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porkuslime · Post by **porkuslime** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:51 pm

I wanted Descent, but really only for the eye candy. Then I found out that the minis are slightly off size from standard figures.

Drat.

I mean, really.. would it have killed em to make the minis usable with other games? Or even to fit nicely on a battlemat for some gods-forsaken TETSNBN reason? I don' like TETSNBN myself.. but I am sure they could sold more copies if it was sized for that reason.

-Porkuslime

huds0n · Post by **huds0n** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:28 pm

Descent can usually be found for under $50 online. Between Thoughthammer, Tanga and Ebay you can get a pretty good deal on it. ( http://tanga.com/products/958-Descent-J ... k-the-Game ) We're playing it for the first time this Saturday so we'll see how it goes.

Breakdaddy and I also got our copies of Talisman 4th edition at Gencon and enjoyed it as well.

Arkham Horror has gotten rave reviews on BGG but i have yet to check it out.

Haven't really seen much on Dread Pirate though.
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:47 pm

huds0n wrote:
Breakdaddy and I also got our copies of Talisman 4th edition at Gencon and enjoyed it as well.

I still contend that you bastard vendor's getting in line for talisman 4E before everybody else pisses me off to no end. That sucked to get nearly trampled on 4 days in a row and have nothing to show for it. I blame Black Library nearly as much.

......................................Omote

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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:10 pm

Omote wrote:
I still contend that you bastard vendor's getting in line for talisman 4E before everybody else pisses me off to no end. That sucked to get nearly trampled on 4 days in a row and have nothing to show for it. I blame Black Library nearly as much.

......................................Omote

FPQ

ROFL!

As far as Descent goes, I played a mini game with a friend and thought it was pretty cool actually. It's like playing 3.5 D&D without having to pretend it's an RPG. It's not as complex as 3.5 obviously, but seems like loads of fun. I will report back after this weekend when we play a full game of Descent. We really like Talisman, and I've already got some houserules I want to try out. For mindless fun, we will be playing Munchkin which, for some odd reason, never ceases being fun. Twilight Imperium will be played if time permits, it's a really cool looking set.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:14 pm

Philotomy Jurament wrote:
...I'm not keen on Descent. I have fun for a little bit, then wonder why I'm not playing D&D, instead. (Curiously, I don't have that response with Arkham Horror and Call of Cthulhu.)...

I think this reaction partially stems from a lack of persistent characters in the game. you build up your characters and then *poof*, they're completely gone and you have to start over again, unlike D&D, C&C, etc. The new addon that comes out soon is supposed to address this problem with a campaign mode. Im not sure if this will make the problem better or worse, we will have to see.

Post by **Fiffergrund** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:52 am

Good feedback, everyone. Thanks for chiming in!
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Zudrak · Post by **Zudrak** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:28 pm

Breakdaddy wrote:
ROFL!

As far as Descent goes, I played a mini game with a friend and thought it was pretty cool actually. It's like playing 3.5 D&D without having to pretend it's an RPG. It's not as complex as 3.5 obviously, but seems like loads of fun. I will report back after this weekend when we play a full game of Descent. We really like Talisman, and I've already got some houserules I want to try out. For mindless fun, we will be playing Munchkin which, for some odd reason, never ceases being fun. Twilight Imperium will be played if time permits, it's a really cool looking set.

Munchkin rawks! I have the original, Star, and Munchkin Fu. Great games. I also scored the board game, Dungeon! (the original) on eBay. Best board game evah!
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mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:32 pm

The greatest boardgame imo of all time is spacehulk. If you dont have it find it.

i feel like billy madison talking to the 4th graders. (little kid) mortal combat is the greatest vidoe game of all time. (billy) I disagree, I think donkey kong jr is the greatest of all time. (little kid) donkey kong jr sucks. (billy) oh yeah, you suck.

cant get that ou of my head.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:13 pm

Zudrak wrote:
Munchkin rawks! I have the original, Star, and Munchkin Fu. Great games. I also scored the board game, Dungeon! (the original) on eBay. Best board game evah!

Munchkin does indeed rawks0rz. One of the best aspects of the game is that even someone that isnt an RPG player can still enjoy a game of munchkin. I have all of the fantasy sets but only blender outside of that.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:50 pm

I just thought I'd chime in with a bit of an after action report from last night's boardgaming session. 5 of us played Descent and every one of the 5 thought it was a great game. Huds0n can chime in when he gets a chance but the opinion of the game was overwhelmingly positive. The overlord was the only player with any experience playing Descent and did a good job of explaining the rules and clarifying things for us while simultaneously kicking our teeth in. I think it's a fun game with a lot going for it and will be playing it again, hopefully sooner rather than later. I think part of the reason we had so much fun with it is because the overlord did such a good job keeping us on our toes and gave us good rules information up front. If we had been forced to read the rules and muddle through it the first time it might have been a different experience altogether. I would still contend that after a session or two even the novice group will begin to have loads of fun.

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:56 pm

Hmmmm.

Now I'm torn. Maybe I can find it at a discount. It does sound like a cool game.

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