Our Twelfth Night party was a resounding success (with many oohs and aahs over the new kitchen), and we followed it with a "For the love of God help us eat leftovers" Thirteenth Day game day.
Two new games (among a number of others received by various attendees over the holidays) got played:
Thunderbirds Cooperative Board Game — This already has a leg-up on fun for being Thunderbirds, but our first (and only, thus far) game was pretty successful. There's a lot of the vibe of the show, not just through extensively being seeped in Thunderbird lore, but by capturing the sense of urgency the show always carried — one or more countdowns against DISASTER!, all the while trying to foil the Hood's evil schemes, and resources being scrambled every which way against multiple ticking clocks.
We won, but it was unclear whether it was because we were on the easiest setting, if we were lucky — but it was fun, and we want to play again.
Between Two Cities — This game is a fascinating combination of cooperative and competitive gaming. You partner up with the people on either side of you to build up a city center based on single and double tiles of business zones, seeing high scores for each cities to personally win.
It has a SimCity sort of feel to it, and the game mechanic of cooperative competition worked remarkably well. We ran through two games, and I look forward to more at future game days.
Other games played: Guillotine, Monty Python Fluxx, Sushi Go!, and Betrayal at House on the Hill.
A good day (and a good dent in the leftovers). On to scheduling for February!
Why am I only just learning of a Thunderbirds board game! Sounds like a fun event, I'm slowly trying to convince some more of my new friends to get into board games so we can have proper game events rather than just 2 of us in an afternoon (although that is still good fun)
Between Two Cities is fantastic. Love the scale of the game and tough decisions it creates.
Check out Viticulture by the same publisher some time. Also an excellent game but very different at the same time.
I'm so glad I Kickstarted Thunderbirds! My fellow players are too young to know the show, but they enjoy it (naturally; it's a Matt Leacock game). I absolutely love it. We play mostly co-op games, and this one really makes you cooperate! We constantly coordinate who is going where with what equipment and which Dangers to work on if we have time before tackling the Hood's next Scheme… I suppose it could be susceptible to Alpha Gamer Syndrome; fortunately we don't have one of those in our group. 🙂
Guillotine is a great filler game. I also recommend Just Desserts as a quick and simple game.
We've taken a break from Shadows of Brimstone to start playing Fortune and Glory again now that I've been painting the minis. We played a competitive game to reacquaint ourselves with the mechanics, then played co-op against the Nazis (of course) and the new Cult of the crimson Hand (much tougher than expected). Next time: the Mob! This game really makes me feel like Indiana Jones. Sadly, the price point will keep casual gamers away.
We also tried Cash and Guns tonight. Although we had only three players, it was still quite entertaining. I let them take it home to play with other friends.
Try the XCOM board game – it is run via an App (free download, so you can have a look for free)
Serious panic as the computer loads more and more attacks on you while you try to figure a response against the clock. Only the deployment is against the clock – the resolution is in the second part of each turn, where you have all the time you need to weep at your team’s choices.
Hmmm … adding some of those to my wish list …