c/board-game-geeks

16

mason847•15h ago

Dropped $80 on a used copy of Twilight Imperium... missing half the pieces

Found a screaming deal on Facebook Marketplace for Twilight Imperium 4th edition, only paid $80 and drove 45 minutes to pick it up... got it home and realized the previous owner 'forgot' to include the fleet tokens and the entire deck of action cards. Anyone else get burned buying a 'complete' game from a stranger and end up paying more in replacements than the game is worth?

21

ericb66•1d ago

Had to choose between deluxe and retail editions of Dwellings of Eldervale

I was stuck for like 3 weeks trying to decide which version to get... the deluxe had all the upgraded components but cost $160 versus $80 for the retail. I went with the retail copy and honestly I don't regret it one bit. The cardboard tokens are actually fine and the game plays exactly the same. Plus I used the $80 I saved to grab two smaller games that hit the table way more often. Anyone else skip the blinged out versions and feel good about it?

15

theawest•2d ago

Rant: Spent $120 on a deluxe version of Scythe and now it just sits on my shelf

Honestly, I thought the metal coins and realistic resources would make it so much better, but the box is too big for my shelf and the extra bits just take up time setting up. I only played it twice before going back to the normal version, and now I'm out $120 on stuff I don't use. Has anyone else regretted buying a deluxe or collector's edition of a board game and what did you do with it?

30

clairer79•3d ago

Finally won a 4-player game of Terraforming Mars at my local game cafe last night

I was at The Dice Den in Austin and managed to pull off a win with a plant-based strategy after losing 12 games in a row, has anyone else had a big breakthrough after a long losing streak?

6

taylorlewis•3d ago

My $60 card shuffler broke after 3 game nights and I went back to hand shuffling

I bought this electric shuffler online thinking it would save time during our weekly game nights. Worked great for one session, then on the fourth night it just jammed up and started eating cards. Tried fixing it for an hour but gave up. Now I'm back to riffle shuffling and honestly it's faster and more reliable. Anyone else have a gadget that flaked out on them?

3

luna_kim40•6d ago

I finally understood why people sleeve their cards after ruining a $40 deck

I was always the guy who said sleeves are a waste of money and plastic. Then my buddy spilled a soda on my Cosmic Encounter deck at a local game night in Austin last month. I lost like 6 cards and had to buy a whole new set. Felt pretty dumb. Now I sleeve everything I play more than once. Anyone else have a moment like that where you realized you were being too stubborn?

22

noah_chen17•7d ago

TIL my group's house rules were so bad we accidentally made Catan unplayable

Last month I found out we'd been trading resources during the robber phase for like 3 years, and when I finally played at a meetup in Austin, the other players just stared at me. Has anyone else had a friend group that invented their own terrible version of a classic game?

6

karen_hart•8d ago

I always hated cooperative board games until a 4-hour game of Pandemic broke me

I was at my local game shop in Portland last month, got stuck in a game of Pandemic Legacy, and we actually won with one cube left on the last card draw. The high fives were embarrassing but real. Has anyone else had a game completely change their mind on a whole genre?

26

christopher713•8d ago

My buddy's take on Kickstarter exclusives made me pause

He said FOMO is why I own 4 unplayed games, and honestly he wasn't wrong after I counted them last Saturday. How do you guys decide if a Kickstarter edition is actually worth the extra cash?

14

amyh21•9d ago

My game night spreadsheet went kaput on Saturday

I had this whole system for tracking scores across 8 players in a 4-hour Catan session, (you know, color coded and everything) and the file just corrupted right at the final tally. Lost all the data because I hadn't saved a backup since setup. Has anyone else had a digital record keeping fail during a big game night?

22

leow90•11d ago

Brought a prototype to game night and it took a hard left turn

I spent like 3 weeks building a board game about managing a small farm, you know, planting crops and selling them. Got my buddies together last Saturday at my place and set it up on the dining table. About 20 minutes in, one guy figured out you could just hoard all the water tokens and starve everyone else out, and the whole game turned into a cutthroat negotiation mess. We ended up laughing about it, but I had to scrap the whole ruleset and start over. Has anyone else had a game idea completely blow up in their face mid-play?

16

karen_nelson40•13d ago

Shoutout to using a dice tray for card games too

I started using a dice tray for my card hands during game nights about 2 months ago. Turns out it keeps cards from sliding off the table when people reach for snacks or drinks. At a 6 player game of 7 Wonders, that saved me from at least 3 accidental reveals. Has anyone else repurposed accessories like this for stuff they weren't meant for?

15

river_hall44•16d ago

The guy at my FLGS said heavy games are just bad game design and I cant stop thinking about it

I was standing in the aisle at Game Haven last Saturday looking at a copy of Brass Birmingham and this random guy walks up and says "heavy games are just bad game design, they hide broken mechanics behind 50 page rulebooks." He was all about how if your game needs a 30 minute teach, you failed as a designer. On one hand I kinda see it - simple games like Cascadia are elegant. But also I think some of us enjoy the puzzle of cracking a dense system. Has anyone else heard this argument and does it hold any water?

22

wyatt_shah85•18d ago

Found out our game group's 8-year winning streak was a fluke

I was digging through old score sheets from my Tuesday night board game crew and noticed we've been playing Catan wrong for almost a decade - we thought the robber only moved on a 7 roll, but the rules say it also moves when someone plays a knight card. That explains why Dave won 42 out of 50 games in that stretch. Has anyone else discovered a rule mistake that totally shifted your group's stats?

8

coleman.seth•18d ago

The week my gaming group played 7 different games and all of them flopped

Last Tuesday we tried to play Scythe and someone spilled coffee on the board, then Terraforming Mars turned into a 4-hour rules argument, and by Friday I realized that maybe the problem wasn't the games but the fact that none of us had actually read the rulebooks all the way through, has anyone else had a streak of bad game nights where everything just goes wrong?

6

lilycraig•19d ago

Shoutout to the guy who taught me to count spaces in 7 Wonders

I was at PAX Unplugged in Philly last year and this older guy saw me struggling with a science strategy in 7 Wonders. He just said "count how many green cards everyone has, not just your own" and it totally clicked why I always lost. Has anyone else had a random stranger fix their whole game approach in like 10 seconds?

6

joseph932•22d ago

The great debate over house rules for Settlers of Catan's robber

I've been playing Catan for about 5 years now with the same group, and we keep going back and forth on a house rule for the robber. Half of us think the robber should only block a hex and not steal a card, because it reduces the random luck factor that can kill a player's whole game. The other half says stealing is part of the game's tension and balance, and without it the game gets too slow and boring. Last month I tried a version where the robber just sits on the desert and never moves unless someone rolls a 7, and honestly it made the game feel flat with no conflict. But I've also been on the losing end of three straight robber steals that wrecked my resource flow in two separate games. So what do you all think? Do you play with the standard robber rules, or have you tweaked things to make it less punishing?

8

eva_thompson10•23d ago

Switched from foam core to magnetic inserts for game organization last week

Used to spend hours cutting foam core for each box, but since I picked up a sheet of self-adhesive magnetic strips and some dollar store tackle boxes for $12 total, I can reconfigure any game's storage in under 5 minutes - has anyone found a way to keep the magnets from sliding around when you tilt the box?

5

jennifer_mitchell53•25d ago

Can we talk about that Kickstarter game that fell apart on launch day

I backed a game called "Skyward Siege" last June and the game arrived with MISSING pieces and a rulebook full of errors. Has anyone else dealt with a crowdfunded game that completely failed to deliver on what was promised?

21

the_olivia•25d ago

I finally stopped using foam core inserts for board games

A buddy at the local game store told me my custom foam core inserts were actually taking up more space than they saved. He showed me how he just bags everything by player count and fits 3 extra games in the same Kallax cube. Has anyone else switched to baggies after swearing by foam core for years?

2

adam_hernandez•29d ago

Hot take: Are modern board games actually too complex for their own good?

I was at a game cafe in Austin last weekend watching a group try to set up some new Kickstarter game with a 20 page rulebook. They spent like 45 minutes just reading instructions before anyone moved a piece. On the flip side, I saw another table playing Catan and having a blast in minutes, laughing and trading. So do we need these massive rulebooks and 3 hour playtimes for a game to be "good", or are we just making things harder than they need to be? What's your take simpler games vs the heavy stuff?

1

luna_clark38•29d ago

My group's campaign fell apart when the DM's binder got soaked in a coffee shop in Chicago last Saturday

I was refilling my mug at the counter when I heard him yell, and by the time we got napkins on everything, half the map notes and three encounter sheets were unreadable ink blobs.

4

hernandez.morgan•29d ago

Rant: I spent $120 on that popular dungeon crawler and regret every penny

Everyone raved about Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion so I bought it, but after 4 sessions I felt like I was doing paperwork instead of having fun. The setup took 20 minutes and the story was just a boring slog. Did anyone else find this game way overhyped?

16

evan295•1mo ago

Guys, stop flipping your game boards over to save time on setup

I was at a local game night last Friday and watched someone flip their board over mid-game to use the other side for a different game. It bent the corners and messed up the alignment. Has anyone else seen folks ruin their boards this way?

16

seanjohnson•1mo ago

Just crossed 50 different games played this year

Hit 51 new-to-me games logged on BGG for 2024. My goal was 40 but I got carried away at a local con last month. What's your personal record for games played in a single year?