The Board Game Appreciation Thread

Boiing already mentioned this one, and I have finally startd playing it myself, so I thought I would also mention it here.



Ticket to Ride is a very fun game for almost anyone. The rules are very easy to learn and catch onto. The play is competitive without being TOO competitive. In this game you are buying train routes using different colour train cards. You use these routes to try to connect different cities for points. There's nothing too complex here, but enough going on to keep things very interesting.

Pandemic





This is a neat game where all of the players work together instead of against each other. They either win or lose against the game itself. They must try to cure diseases as they spread across the world before one of three events occur; there are 8 outbreaks, you run out of cards, or all of one kind of virus is on the board.

This can be a very intense game and a lot of fun. Quite challenging too.

Has anyone played Scotland Yard? Its been around since the 80s and its pretty awesome.

Basically its a game where everyone teams up against one player who is the thief. The others are trying to catch him. There's a really cool map of London everyone is moving around on. The player who is the thief makes his moves in secret, but has to reveal how he moves (train, bus, taxi). So the others have to try to figure out where he is and corner him.

Its a lot of fun and can be really tense when you are the thief.

I know that there are a lot of Game of Thrones fans out there, so I wanted to make you guys aware of this awesome game. I just played it again tonight, and its really got me pumped up, its so good.





Its similar to risk, but without dice, and much more strategy-based. It plays with 3-6 players, who can be either House Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Tyrell, Greyjoy or Martel. It takes about 90 minutes to play.



Players give orders to their armies and try to conquer other castles. once someone conquers 7 castles, they win. But the way its set up it allows for a lot of alliances and treaties between players Great stuff.

The battles are dependent on both your army strength as well as which hero card you play with your army. Each house has their own heroes (Ned Stark, Jaime Lannister, you know, all your favourites) who can help your army out in different ways.



What really makes this game cool is that there is also a bidding element, where people can use the power they've accumulated to take a run at the Iron Throne, curry favor with the King's Court, or gain support with the local fiefs. This happens through three ordered tracks where people bid and whose positions are then decided. This allows people higher up on the tracks to break ties with those lower, determines turn order, and so on. And who ever is on the thrones determines all bidding ties, so its a good idea to be friends with that person.

What about the Wildlings and the Wall? Oh don't worry, they're here too. Every once in a while things will happen which cause the wildlings to attack. The group must then bid again, this time to rally forces to the wall to defeat them. The group must bid enough to defeat the wildlings. If not, a penalty occurs to the person who bid the least. If they bid enough, a reward goes to the person who bid the most. its a nice little addition to the game which really adds to this already great theme.



Seriously you guys, if your a fan of the book series or TV show, this is worth it. Its a lot of fun, and if you've ever played Risk, it shouldn't be too challenging for you to figure out the rules for this one.