Inspired by some controversy in last week’s draft about movies based on disasters, this week we’re going to be drafting board games. The rules are, I hope, very simple: if it’s a game that involves a board, you can draft it. If it’s a game that does not involve a board, you cannot draft it. If it’s a movie based on a cursed board game, (glares in Jumanji), you cannot draft it. If it is not a board game at all, you cannot draft it, and seriously, what are you even doing?
Now, is it a board game mentioned/played in a movie but the board game isn’t real? Doesn’t matter, you can draft it, as long as it’s a board game.
All right, I have had a long weekend and it’s time for those ice cold Sunday night beers. This isn’t the longest post ever, but it turns out the 250 word thing is a myth, (gets to 330 words anyway) and also you’re not here to listen to me ramble, you’re here to waste your employer’s time and draft board games, AND ONLY BOARD GAMES.
With the first pick I will take that good old stand-by of my youth, Risk.
Back in the days before Dungeons & Dragons, (not eligible as a board was not necessary, although I did give this a lot of thought because of the mapping and dice and I’m willing to listen to arguments to the contrary. For now it’s out), if you wanted to play a game that never, ever ended you played Risk. Especially if you followed the rules that limited you to no more than 12 armies per territory. You’d play for hours, have to go home from your friend’s house, and when you got back the next day your friend had two more territories than you remembered and a wide-eyed look of innocence on his face.
Weird.
The rest of you are on the clock. Remember, build up from Australia, work methodically through Asia, and
No love for our own Alex’s board games?
For SHAME
SHAME.
Civilization. It took five of us 6-7 hours. It’s ugly as a mud fence. Some parts of it are in the PC game, from the first one onward. I still have my copy, and should convince my brothers into getting it out sometime.
That would be interesting to play and compare to the PC version(s).
I’ve played I thru V for way too many hours. My poor old laptop can’t handle VI, so I’ll get an upgrade when VII is released.
I’ve played a lot of V and a lot of VI.
Engaging my brain, the PC game borrows the tech tree, cities as the source of your income, and the notion of dealing with pesky neighbors. In the board game, the only way to win would be a PC Civ Science win, but the tech tree is much smaller and a lot harder.
My next pick is : Hungry, Hungry Hippos oxy version
Earthquake!
Never heard of it. What are the rules and how do you play/win?
It involves moving to LA then just wait.
Quite possibly the strongest one I’ve felt since living in this house for 15 years.
Serious sustained shake here in El Segundo too.
This is the first one I’ve actually felt in the sky rise I work in. It was interesting to say the least.
Fif pick: Operation
is Fif between four and five? 🙂
Go
I’ll continue with the old school vibes and go with Othello:
Acquire. Play it with holdings open or closed. I have the fancy one in the picture. There’s a newer version for $40 on Amazon.
Ticket To Ride is kinda fun, plus it teaches geography!
TtR is good. If you play it 2-players, play mean. Cut off your opponent’s routes.
So, on Steam I can download any game fairly quickly, even huge ones like Satisfactory. However, trying to get Diablo II: Resurrected has taken 5 hours and is only 80% complete. Checked and there is nothing with the downstream rate or even the upload, so it has to be Blizzard. More reasons to hate them. Hates them we do. Hateful little Blizzards.
I might be able to express mail you the CD-ROM of the original Diablo 2 before it finishes
I have the CD-ROM but I wanted the redone graphics. I want my cake and to be able to eat it in peace! Only getting the games I already own downloaded. Blizzard will never see another penny spent on them from me.
D2 is the best of the bunch IMO. D3 I played through once and counted that as done, and I never finished D4. I might have to hunt up D2 with redone graphics.
Was looking for something a little classic and remembered I had never completed it due to a faulty hard drive.
The Game of Life is still on the board?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDd3jso06kE&pp=ygUacm9ib3QgY2hpY2tlbiBnYW1lIG9mIGxpZmU%3D
Not for everyone.
I’ve had this game for years, but never had enough people together to play it so no idea if it’s any good. I love the bit at the bottom though where it says “you will be surprised how enjoyable learning can be.”
I’ll be there in 10 minutes. Then we can play
Terraforming Mars. The card art ranges from mediocre to bad, and the supplied player mats are awful. But I like it, and my wife likes it. I’ve been playing a game a night on Boardgamearena lately.
How long does it take to play on BGA? I’ve been tempted to give it a go.
2-player, about 60-70 minutes. Add another 15 minutes or so if you want to draft at the start of each Generation. Add about 10 minutes or so per player.
Or you can do it turned-based and play a few turns a day.
Ping me on there if you want to start a game turn-based or if you see me online.
4th Pick: Candyland
The little ‘Jellos loved to play this. It got to the point that I’d stack the deck so one of them would win and end my torment.
There’s tons of good value left!
?w=400&h=300&c=crop
I’m gonna go with Trivial Pursuit for my first pick
“Dammit Dok! I was just pick that next!”
-Me, just now
LemonJello to English translation: I was just about to pick that next.
Drop and give me twenty!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0uYJjDHeDU
I was gone for a 3-hour deposition and no one picked this?
I don’t even know who you people are anymore!
I have Futurama Monopoly, but I’ve never gotten to play it. One day!
If you play it now, you’ll like it a lot better if you throw away all of the house rules. No Free Parking, no $400 on go, etc. It’s still cutthroat as all hell, but if you follow the rules in the box the game will be over in 90 minutes to two hours, not the four-hour slog you’re used to.
2. Survive! Fun game, plus it supports my longstanding argument that some humans are inherently worth more than others.
Whoops, forgot the image.
I played that with my daughter and her friends a while back, and as the kids say these days, they were big mad.
1. Scrabble. This game has gotten me laid multiple times.
It nearly got me divorced.
I’m sorry, but if you’re going to fuck up my triple word score with C-A-T we are going to have words.
Shut up. YOU spent hours and hours playing this as a kid. Alone.
Cribbage.
And the offer and challenge to play any one of you stands.
Pan Am. I think Target still has this. Everyone who’s played it likes it. Finishes fast, has planes!
Amazon for sure has it.
Cosmic Encounter. In addition to just being fun, the Spaceman Spiff card was a genuine philosophical turning point in my young life.
Specifically: if you lose badly enough, you can win. https://cosmicencounter.fandom.com/wiki/Spiff
CE is the shit! I had the old, old version.
Don’t know if you good folks ever got to try it but it was a super realistic football game brought to you by Sports Illustrated. Each year they brought out a new season that had updated stats for every team. Very intense to play with your so called NFL buddies.
Oh, it’s called “Pay Dirt” I wonder if it’s still manufactured?
I think Avalon Hill has been out of business for a while. Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast bought them out about 15 years ago?
But…
http://www.datadrivenfootball.com/
Maybe we should have a DFO con of watching football, getting drunk/stoned, and playing board games. I have no board game friends to play with, the boy moved away, my best friend died, another’s wife is taking him on multi month long trips out of the country, and the last guy has become so far right, I hesitate to visit him as I have no idea what might set him off politically.
Sign me up for that.
I’m in.
Yes!
I’m down
An online friend told us about him and his RL friends’ board gaming orgy. They would all pass the hat and rent a big vacation house for a week on the ocean during the offseason. Then they would bring beer, booze, and boardgames and spend a week gaming. I guess there was some logistics required, involving playing long games and who cooked meals on what day. Sounded like a lot of fun, though.
Mastermind
A minute to learn, a lifetime to master
Well Trogdor got taken, so first pick: Stratego.
Let’s see who knows what Stratego is! (Okay, basically it’s capture the flag.)
I remember playing Stratego once, I called it risk for nerds
That little guy following the 2 around is the Spy!
Loved that game. Fun to place random bombs around the board. Always keep a miner next to your general.
Why, is his name Gaetz? Oh, miner.
3rd pick: Deep Rock Galactic
I got this game at Christmas, started painting the dwarves and finally got to play it this past week.
Is it as fun as the video game?
I haven’t played the video game, so no idea.
There’s a definite learning curve to it. We ran the first 3 missions, all successfully.
There is a rogue like single person game that I have been playing on the Steam deck, and it is a blast. Will switch over to that once I have completed all the quests in Halls of Torment.
That’s some serious plastic!
3rd round, my Dad and Wifey always loved this classic, good Ole checkers.
Shogun, basically Axis & Allies, but based in medieval Japan. Your generals could gain experience and have bigger armies and move further each turn. At least till another player hires a ninja to take him out and is replaced with a newbie, this really messes up an army and they lose at least one turn.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20551/shogun
Shogun had the best rep of the three (Invasion: America, Axis and Allies, Shogun).
The version you have listed is different. Which isn’t bad – it’s a reimplementation of Wallenstein. It has the famous/infamous cube tower, which makes all the players yell, “Don’t touch the tower!”
This is the one that plays similar to Axis and Allies:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221/ikusa
Yep, I was thinking of the very original (we were playing it in 87 the year after it came out) which they have renamed Ikusa, even though the box art is the same. I loved the detailed fortresses you could place.
We played Invasion: America, plus the other two, and Conquest of the Empire all the time. Conquest was the only game where it almost came to blows due to catapults on Trimerenes.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97/conquest-of-the-empire
Shit, I forgot completely about Conquest of the Empire.
Wood for sheep, heh heh heh
[uses those commodities to build himself a wife/couch] – JD Vance
For my next pick, I’ll take Parcheesi:
That is a beautiful board.
Yahtzee, played on a green felt board so it counts as a board game
Wait, no one’s picked actually chess??
I’ll pick chess!
Any excuse to post this gif:
second round classic Backgammon
Pick the 2nd: Electric Football
Chinese checkers, a game at which my mother is like the ‘72 Dolohins and prime Mine Tyson combined. At least against me 😅
Everybody making a run on the classics, so I’ll go ahead and grab Brass: Birmingham and get rich in Industrial Age northern England.
#1 on BGG. I’ve been tempted to get it on Steam just to learn it, but games like that aren’t much fun against the PC.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10780/the-powerpuff-girls-mojo-jojo-attacks-townsville-g
Everytime I had my kids for summer we would play the hell out of this game, plus it helped I could do the Mojo JoJo voice and speech mannerisms.
Many hours in odd parts of the world playing this as we waited to play it out in real time.
Oh man. I think my box looked about as beat up as that one.
Mine (still have it) is 100 MPH taped together.
From the 2Pack garage gym…
Oh man. I think my box looked about as beat up as that one
Balls, your services are required…..
Yeah there are certain words that you just can’t use here without opening things up.
/ there he just did it again
“I don’t play Squad Leader anymore, it makes my box hurt.”
It might be my inhalants but I have laughed for several straight minutes.
The Omega Virus
Personal Pick, this round.
The Omega Virus | Image | BoardGameGeek
What about computer games that are based on board games or use a board as the playing surface? Talisman comes to mind.
I legit learned to play clue, risk, and monopoly because of those CDs that came with cereal boxes
Nope, it has to involve an actual board.
If you and your friends gather via Zoom and play on a board in some fashion, however, that would be legit.
BURNINATION
Goddammit.
Did anyone else try and watch the Paris Closing Ceremonies? I must have been too high or not high enough because it was really weirding me out.
all the woke librtards tha biden and haris brugt over from the borfder to kep the woke mob in frbance TRUMP MAGA keep the TRNAS WOKE MOB IN FRANCELAND
where did find that quote by my uncle? Do you really work for a 911 call center or is that a cover for your NSA work?
My deep state FBI handler is Hunter Biden’s coke dealer’s drag show book reading roommate.
It far took too long for me to parse that sentence.
I saw some guy in a suit making a speech to a bunch of bored athletes and then changed the channel.
I watched it from when the rings went up to the end of Phoenix (some French band) playing. At that point the missus had had enough.
Heroquest – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/699/heroquest
Battleship. Especially the sexist cover version
Sorry. Simple board game that can piss people off.
Investigative Reports With Bill Bill Kurtis
Point of order: Is every individual version of Monopoly draftable?
Good question, and let’s go with “yes”
D&D does use a board sometimes, especially if you are using miniatures.
Yeah, see that’s why I was debating it. I had forgotten about the miniatures thing. D&D is eligible, I guess.
My daughter has to have a board for combat when she plays D&D. Some folks make Theater of the Mind work, though.
I pick Clue
I told you I didn’t do it.
In the library. With the candlestick.
I’m actually amazed that there aren’t more amazing movies based on board games
I’ll see your risk and raise you one (1) Axis and Allies