[quote name='dtcarson']I don't have a trade list. I'm new enough to "gaming" that i only have a few games, and I like most of the ones I've bought. The only ones I think I have for trade are Beowulf the Legend (the auction game, not the Movie game/Kingdoms reimplementation) and Pit Fighter (both Tanga purchases) and I can't see either of them really being great trade fodder. Although if you're interested, let me know.
My comments on games recently mentioned:
Small World - I think the accessibility and tone of the game really help it. I don't think it's the Best Game EVAR, but I do think it's a very fun, accessible game that is very easy to teach and learn but adds a slightly different experience each time. I talk this one up to any non-gamers. "You've played RIsk? This is Risk without dice, and with unique armies with special skills" is my five second pitch. (I definitely like SW tons better than Risk).
Dominion Intrigue - Definitely adds to the game. I've seen people say "try base game first time to get the flow, then immediately add in Intrigue". The Intrigue cards do counter one of my main 'complaints' (not as strong as that, however) of Dominion, the lack of player interaction.
I just got back yesterday from an awesome gaming gathering/mini-con held at a hotel about 20 min away from me. Some folks I had met and played with before, but most were new. All (except one) were friendly, flexible, and very open to newcomers and patient with newbies to games (such as me).
Started ~1100 Thursday, came home @0100; again @1100-1800 Friday. Then 1100 Saturday, stayed all night (at 0200 I said, "Well, I could drive home"...then heard "Who's in for Long Shot?') Couple various games later, it was 0830 Sunday -- too late to drive home and come back, but I needed some sleep. Crashed for two hours on the bed in the bonus suite the con had for renting enough rooms, then back at it 1100-1800 Sunday. Exhausting weekend, and I can't wait till the next one.
Here's what I played (that I remember, I only started writing them down on Saturday)
Dominion Always fun
Fast Flowing Forest Fellers - Interesting cause-and-effect Friese game. Not sure I'd buy it since I already have Fearsome Floors, and I like that theme more, but i'd play again.
Long Shot - Not real deep but very fun, especially with a full table. Go 10! Horse racing/betting game.
Memoir '44 - My only complaint to this one is I wish it could work for 3 or 4 players. This would be a pretty good game to get someone into strategy wargames, or for young people, since unlike Risk or Axis and Allies, you always have some direction with the cards. And the fact that a squad is at full attack strength, regardless of size, makes it a little more fun to play even if you're losing.
Middle-Earth Quest - I and the two other Heroes lost to Sauron (the only experienced player). I definitely felt an Arkham horror vibe to this one: go pick up Favor (clues), go to destination to eliminate Plot (seal Gate). The actual goal only really clicked with us about three turns in, and we were too far behind by them. Not sure I'd play this again, I like the Arkham theme and trappings more, but I didn't dislike it.
Race for the Galaxy - Same thing, my first time playing and I had no familiarity with the cards, so I didn't know what would be likely for me to get. I had wanted to try this one, so I'm glad I did, but I need to give it a couple more plays before I decide. It's fast though so that's ok.
The Red Dragon Inn - This could be a blast with enough of the right people and the right mood. Lighthearted fantasy card game with the stereotypical fantasy characters, you try to get everyone else drunk while staying sober enough. Lots of player interaction and screwage. The tone of the game and the flavor of the cards is half the fun, so it's better with people who appreciate those things.
Revolution! - Steve Jackson game, I think. Again, lots of potential screwage. I liked the blind bidding aspect, since you've got Force, Blackmail, and Gold tokens; Force beats Blackmail beats Gold, but some people are protected against Force and/or Blackmail. You try to influence the citizens in a town, either directly or by taking over places like Marketplace and Harbor. I think I like it but want to play again.
Small World - always gets a play. Again, not the BGE, but a good, fun, lighthearted game that moves pretty quickly.
Snow Tails - I did like this one. The turn mechanic makes it more strategic than it looks. Dog racing on a curved track, where your movement is by playing card (the left sled dog moves 2, the right moves three, my Brake is at 2, so I go forward 3 (2+3 - 2), and shift one space to the right as I move. )
Time's Up! Title Recall! - Didn't really like this one. I don't mind trivia/phrase guessing games, but the word-repeat phase structure doesn't do much for me (you use the same words to guess in each round, but what you can say decreases each round.)
Word on the Street - I like this one much better. Adds some strategy to the typical party word game. When you have a word that fits the category, move the letters in the word a space toward you on the board (shaped and looking like a street, get it?). Use the letter enough times to move it off to your side of the street, you claim the tile, 8 tiles wins the game. Only the other team can do the same, so it can be a tug of war for letters.
This is a good party/team game that's a little deeper than the normal party word games.
Go Mental - Oh my god this was painful. Concept is good but the cards were awful. Trivia game. On the card are four words or phrases. Which one doesn't belong? (worth points) Why not? (worth points). OK, fine. One of hours was Name1, Name2, Name3, Name4. The category? Three of the names were designers of wedding dresses for the British royal family. Um, yeah.
The one question I got was where the category (uniting factor between three of the names) was that they were assassins.
Roll Through the Ages - I guess this is by the same folks who did Through the Ages, although it's much much much lighter. Roll dice to build your civ, on the scorepad. Not sure this is a 'gateway' game, but it's one that you could play with nongamers. Pretty fast moving too. I'm going to get my wife to try it, see if she likes it. I did, although I see that there's a free PnP expansion that makes it a little longer and adds some stuff.
Ubongo - I did better at this than I thought I would. Tangram type game using the piece set that was selected by die roll. The folks who taught me said the scorekeeping mechanism was stupid so we just took 2 gems for first, 1 for second, 0 for third.
Battlestar Galactica - Humans (me and another guy) kicked ass. There were times when we literally had nothing to do. Of course, there was no Cylon till phase 2, and only three players. We won this one handily. Nice to do occasionally. The closest we were to being in danger was to have 4 fuel at our last jump. (I, as Admiral, made a couple lucky rolls to gain fuel when choosing the destination.)
Ghost Stories - I had set this one up by myself and a buddy and I were trying to muddle through the manual when someone said "You want to learn to play? I'll teach you, the instructions are crap." We got a fourth and proceeded to get reamed by ghosts. I thought "We'll never make it through that ghost deck," then ten minutes later, "Wow, that deck went fast'. 9 square modular board making up a Chinese town, ghost card is drawn each turn and placed on one of the 12 spaces (3 each of 4 colors), your exorcist has to move on the board to be adjacent to a ghost and try to exorcise him by either rolling the right colors on the dice and/or playing appropriate colored tokens. The first four ghosts we got out included one who took away a die, and another who prevented us from using color tokens. I like this one, but it seems much more manageable as a game with exactly 4 players. It's tough, but the characters do have some very powerful special skills, you really have to use them. It's also a very cooperative game.
Password
Looping Louie - For these last two, it was between 0400 and and 0600 in the morning. They suited us just fine, and lots of laughs were had with the various clues in Password.
Finca - Again, medium weight, fast game of resource collection. I think I enjoyed it. Actually, I also won a copy at the con by guessing how many (plastic) rats were in a jar. I was off by one (714).
Skybridge - Tower building. Tower pieces can't touch the same color, you score for the tower that one of your two roofs is on, and if the towers with your two roofs are connected by one bridge, you score double. I won the second game, once we figured out how to score, but I didn't really like it. (the game, that is, i like winning.)
Samurai - area control/capture game by placing tiles of various 'suits' (buddha, rice, helmet). I lost this one by one. Deceptively strategic but still fast moving.
Wyatt Earp - I really enjoyed this one. Basically a rummy-like game, only the suits are Western desperadoes, with various bounties on their heads. Everyone who's played cards in that suit gets a cut of the bounty, unless the player with the most capture points on the card is ahead by 5 or more. You can also play sheriff cards that kick up bounties, give you more capture points, or negate other player's capture points.
Louis XIV - Not sure how to describe this one. I liked it more than I thought I would. You're "bidding" to have influence on people around Louis's court who can offer you favors if you have the most influence; you can use those favors to fulfill missions on cards that will give you bonuses and score you points at endgame.
Marracash - Great game. Apparently this wasn't sold in the US, the instructions were fully in German. Board has spaces signifying markets of four colors, blank spaces, and Fountain spaces, and will be populated by many little people icons of each of those four colors, and signs identifying player ownership. Round one: each person picks a store and auctions it. If he wins it, he owns it, if he doesn't, he gets a cut of the auction price. Rounds 2 and up: Player may move a group of shoppers to the next fountain space. If any of the shoppers pass a player-owned store of the shopper token's color, he goes into it. If it's the players store, player gets money. If it's another player's store, store owner player gets money, shopper moving player gets cut. The more shoppers in a store, the more money they're worth. Almost all of our stores were in the same area, and I had a monopoly in two colors.
I think I saw Endeavor, Dominion, Long Shot, and Small World being played the most throughout the weekend. I didn't make it to an Endeavor game.
Of the above list, I would like to get:
Long Shot
Looping Louie (my boy would love it)
Louis XIV
Wyatt Earp
Marracash
Roll through the Ages
Ghost Stories (if I could count of having 4 people to play)
Word on the Street
Red Dragon Inn (previous two, and Long Shot, for parties/gatherings)
Snow Tails
*maybe* Ubongo
(previous two, mainly to get my boy more into gaming, I think he'd like both of them)
(I already have Dominion base game and Small World, and won Finca)
And of course there were tons of games I didn't play. Over a hundred people in the hotel ballroom, and each person brought 5-100 games to add to the game library. At least one person filled up an entire hotel luggage cart (the wheely things) just their games. I felt like a pauper with my lowly 6 game contribution (only one of which got played [Thebes], but it got played multiple times.) There were stacks of games on tables along the walls, almost all the way around the room.
I may have missed a couple games, and some games were played more than once. All in all, a great, fun weekend. Lots of games and lots of gamers.
And for a humourous end: Someone at the con, posted a message with some games for sale. I bought Fluxx for a buck, and Zombies 1/2 for 10. I know, I've heard all the horror stories about Fluxx, but I thought at the least it would be a good silly game to play late nights or something, and what the hell, it was a buck. Made my wife play it last night (I never had played it either) and once she understood it (That's all I do? Draw a card and play a card?) she loved it and we played four or five times straight. Sometimes a game like that, even though it's not much of a game, is just the thing. (she only won once though, so she wasn't liking that.)
As you can tell, I generally like the medium length, medium complexity games. I'm not one for a four hour game of civ building or resource management. Apart from that, I'll try most anything, and can tolerate or like most anything.
Sorry for the length, hope between everyone, the entire thing got read :0[/QUOTE]
Wow you had quite the gaming experience
