c/board-game-geeks

kaih36•10h ago

Picked Catan over Ticket to Ride for game night last week

Everyone was pushing for Ticket to Ride since it's faster, but I stuck with Catan and we played for 3 hours. Was I the only one who thinks the extra time makes it more satisfying?

3 comments

tylerj22•1d ago

That $40 dice tray I bought on a whim turned out to be a lifesaver

I was at a local con in Cincinnati last fall and saw this handmade wooden dice tray with a velvet lining. It was $40 which felt like a lot for something I could just use a box lid for. But I kept knocking dice off the table during games of Eldritch Horror and it was driving me nuts. So I grabbed it and honestly it changed everything. No more dice rolling off onto the floor or under the couch. Plus it keeps the game area tidy and everyone at the table can see the rolls clearly. Has anyone else found a random accessory that made a bigger difference than you expected?

3 comments

martinez.kim•3d ago

Rant: My favorite board game group just fell apart

Our weekly game night at the library in town had 8 regulars for over a year, but last month 4 people moved away or changed jobs. I tried to recruit new players from a local meetup app, but only 1 person showed up and they left after 30 minutes. Has anyone else had a steady group just dissolve on them like that?

3 comments

black.jake•5d ago

Lost a tournament after a dumb house rule argument

At a local convention in Austin last month, I was playing a 4-player game of Brass Birmingham and the guy next to me insisted I couldn't build on a coal mine because he'd "called dibs" three turns earlier... The whole table got into it for 20 minutes and we never even finished the game. How do you handle people who make up their own rules mid-game without ruining the mood for everyone?

3 comments

lily70•5d ago

Best $80 I ever wasted - that fancy Kickstarter board game organizer

Bought this deluxe insert for my game collection thinking it would save setup time. Turns out it only fits one specific game and now all my other boxes are too tall for the shelf. Anyone else fall for the 'universal' organizer lie?

3 comments

jana_hart18•6d ago

Had a chat with a eurogame snob that made me question heavy themes

My buddy Matt said that games like Terraforming Mars are just spreadsheets with art, and he only plays stuff with deep political stories like Twilight Struggle. I get where he's coming from, but isn't the fun of a game about mechanics and victory points, not the theme? Who else thinks the story in a game matters more than the numbers?

3 comments

jamesf41•7d ago

Went to a local game cafe and changed my mind about party games

I always hated party games. Thought they were all just random luck with no strategy. But last Friday my buddy dragged me to The Dice Den over on 5th Street. They had a group playing Wavelength and I watched them guess each other's clues for 20 minutes. The way people read each other's thinking was way deeper than I expected. I actually joined a round and had a blast. Has anyone else been surprised by a game they swore they'd hate?

3 comments

joel_martinez•8d ago

The guy who explained the whole rulebook before setup at last month's game night

Spent 20 minutes listening to him describe every edge case and then nobody wanted to actually play, has anyone else dealt with the pre-game lecture type?

3 comments

ellis.leo•9d ago

Found out Dune Imperium has a 1.4% win rate for one faction on Board Game Arena

I was digging through the stats on Board Game Arena last night because I couldn't shake the feeling I kept losing with the Fremen in Dune Imperium. Turns out, across 12,000 logged games, the Fremen only win about 1.4% of the time on the base game map. That's insane to me because they feel strong when you play them with all those spice blows and troops. I double checked and found posts from other players confirming the data. Has anyone else noticed this imbalance, or am I just bad at reading the stats right?

3 comments

the_amy•10d ago

That one night of Catan when I realized I was hoarding resources wrong for 6 years

So I've been playing Settlers of Catan since college, like 6 years now. I always thought the optimal move was to hoard as many resources as possible and never trade unless I was getting a crazy deal. Last month at a game night in my buddy's basement in Denver, this quiet guy who never wins just casually said "you know you're supposed to spend down to zero every turn, right?" I laughed it off but then he showed me the math - by sitting on 7 cards I was just begging for the robber to hit me, plus I was missing out on massive development card potential. It hit me that my whole strategy was based on this fear of losing stuff instead of actually advancing the game. Now I trade almost every turn even if it's a so-so deal and my win rate went from like 20% to almost half. Has anyone else had that one rule or strategy they totally misinterpreted for way too long?

3 comments

nora110•11d ago

Am I the only one who thinks modern board games lost their charm?

I used to be all about those new hot games coming out every month. But after about three years of chasing Kickstarter hype, I started noticing a big difference. The games I played in 2019 felt tighter and more focused, like they were made by people who actually played them a ton. Now it feels like everyone is trying to cram in too many miniatures or gimmicks to justify the price tag. I went back to playing my old copy of Tigris and Euphrates from 2005 last weekend, and it just clicked way better than any new release I've tried. The rules were simple but the strategy went deep, no extra fluff. What changed with modern design to make everything so bloated? Has anyone else gone back to older games and felt the same way?

3 comments

jana_hart18•13d ago

Showerthought: Spent $150 on a custom insert for my Arkham Horror box and it actually cut setup time from 20 minutes to 5

The organizer was expensive but now I actually get to play the game instead of just sorting tokens forever, has anyone else found a storage upgrade that was worth the money?

3 comments

anthony_campbell88•16d ago

The week my gaming group lost three members over a rulebook argument

Last Thursday we spent two hours fighting over whether Monopoly has a free parking jackpot rule. It doesn't, but two people walked out and one guy blocked me on Facebook. Has anyone else lost a friend over a board game rule that was clearly in the manual?

3 comments

ray136•1mo ago

Finally got my group to actually read the rules by using a 5 minute timer trick

My usual group takes forever to set up games. Last month I pulled out Scythe and before anyone could zone out I set a stopwatch for 5 minutes and said whoever reads the most key rules first gets to pick the next game. Worked way better than I expected. Everyone actually focused and we got through setup in like 20 minutes instead of an hour. Has anyone else found a weird trick that gets people to pay attention to rulebooks?

3 comments

lopez.quinn•1mo ago

The glow-up in my solo board game collection after 1 year of thrift store hunting

Honestly, I went from having 3 dusty copies of Monopoly to a shelf of 14 weird Euro games I found for under $5 each at Goodwill. Has anyone else stumbled on a hidden gem like that at a thrift store?

3 comments

eva_thompson•1mo ago

Game store in Austin had zero tables for actual gaming

I went to Dice House Games on South Lamar last weekend and there were like 20 shelves of miniatures but only one small table in the back. Nobody was even using it, it was covered in boxes. How is a board game store supposed to work if you can't sit down and play a game there? Has anyone else run into stores that just sell stuff and don't support the hobby?

3 comments

taylorellis•1mo ago

DAE realize they've been shuffling cards wrong for years?

I got called out last week at a D&D night when a friend pointed out I was doing the overhand shuffle instead of a proper riffle. I've been doing it this way since high school and never thought about it. Turns out my decks were always clumped and I just blamed bad luck. Anyone else have a basic game skill they found out they were messing up?

3 comments

nora110•1mo ago

Overheard a guy at the library board game night say I was playing my hand completely wrong

I was at the public library last Tuesday for their weekly board game meetup. We were playing a 4-player game of Ticket to Ride and this quiet guy next to me says "you know you can hold more than 3 train cards at a time, right?" I had been playing for 6 months with a self-made limit of 3 cards because I misread the rulebook once. He showed me the actual rule on page 8 and I felt like an idiot. Has anyone else missed a simple rule for that long and then felt the game change completely?

3 comments

miles_young59•1mo ago

Changed my mind about learning Brass Birmingham after a bad game night

I was at Dave's place last Saturday for our monthly group, and we tried to play Brass Birmingham for the first time. I totally bombed my first two turns because I didn't understand the network building, and I ended up with like 12 points while everyone else had 40. That frustration made me watch a 20 minute tutorial from a guy in Manchester, and now I get why the strategy matters so much. Has anyone else had a game click after a rough first play?

4 comments

miles_roberts•1mo ago

Hit 100 plays on Crokinole last night and it felt weird

I finally crossed 100 logged plays of Crokinole on my BGG account. That game has been sitting on my shelf for like 4 years and I never thought I'd actually track that many games of anything. For context, my next closest is maybe 40 plays of something like The Crew. What got me was how each game felt different even though the rules never change. The discs get nicked up and the board gets smoother over time, which actually changes how you shoot. Has anyone else hit a surprising play count on a dexterity game and noticed it plays different now?

3 comments

uma_taylor47•1mo ago

Used to trash negotiation games until a three-hour session of Chinatown changed my mind last Friday

I always thought games where you haggle were just stress wrapped in cardboard. But my buddy brought Chinatown to game night and I figured I'd give it one shot. After getting absolutely fleeced on a restaurant deal in the first round, I actually started enjoying the chaos and wheeling and dealing. By the third hour, I was making side deals for leftover stalls and laughing my head off. Has anyone else had a game totally flip their opinion after one good session?

3 comments

alicehernandez•1mo ago

Every serious gamer I know picks Twilight Struggle over War of the Ring, but after 4 playthroughs War of the Ring just has way more epic moments that actually tell a story.

The hidden movement and dice combat in War of the Ring create those tense table-flipping moments that Twilight Struggle can't match, so has anyone else found a thematic wargame that beats both of them?

3 comments

torres.grant•1mo ago

Just realized I was teaching Catan wrong for 2 years

So I've been playing Settlers of Catan with my group at the local shop since 2022, and I always thought you could only build one road per turn, no exceptions. Then last week this guy named Jake from the Tuesday night group watched me play and said 'Hey, you know you can build multiple roads if you have the resources, right?' I looked it up in the rulebook and he was totally right. All those games where I hoarded brick and lumber for nothing, man. Has anyone else had a moment where a basic rule just clicked later than it should have?

3 comments

drew55•1mo ago

Switched from board game meetups to a weekly gaming group at a brewery

I used to hit up the library meetups every Saturday but got tired of the awkward silence. Six months ago I found a crew that meets at Urban Farmhouse Brewing on Tuesdays and it's way more chill with better banter. Has anyone else found a non-traditional spot that just clicks better?

3 comments

the_christopher•1mo ago

Picked Gloomhaven over Terraforming Mars for our Thursday group

Our 4-person board game group had to decide between starting a Gloomhaven campaign or playing Terraforming Mars every week. I pushed for Gloomhaven because I wanted something with a story that kept going. We went with it, and after 8 sessions we're still going, but setup takes forever every time. Has anyone else dealt with the box organization struggle for this game?

3 comments