[billw55]

We got this custom card game about a week ago. It is really excellent. Tight resource management, good balance, competition for limited objectives, and many decisions, all of which matter. Good theme too, if you like that kind of thing (space battles).

What custom games are your favorites?

[kenberg]

I had never heard of custom games.
HOWEVER
Christmas is coming.
I have a fifteen year old grandson. As is so often the case these days, if he needs something he has it. So he is difficult to buy for. We were at Machu Picchu some years ago and saw what we thought was a nice chess set so we bought it for him. What were we thinking? Of course he already had one. A better one. But maybe one of these custom games?

I will read this thread with a practical eye for our Christmas problems.

[helene_t]

I like Magic

[billw55]

kenberg, on 2014-December-10, 09:07, said:

I had never heard of custom games.
HOWEVER
Christmas is coming.
I have a fifteen year old grandson. As is so often the case these days, if he needs something he has it. So he is difficult to buy for. We were at Machu Picchu some years ago and saw what we thought was a nice chess set so we bought it for him. What were we thinking? Of course he already had one. A better one. But maybe one of these custom games?

I will read this thread with a practical eye for our Christmas problems.

helene_t, on 2014-December-10, 09:40, said:

I like Magic

Magic is a popular one that has been around a long time. Warning, if one gets deeply into it, it can get very expensive.

Acquire is my second strong recommendation (along with Core Worlds).
Ticket to Ride is fun as a family or social game, but might not satisfy a serious gamer due to lower complexity.
Dominion strikes a good balance IMO, but you may find that you want a couple expansions to increase the variety.
Settlers of Catan is a good game, becoming sort of an old stand-by.

Ken, of all of these, Magic and Settlers are the ones your grandson is most likely to already have and/or have played before. They are also good starting points, if he has not played them ... sort of gateway drugs for custom games.

[mycroft]

Of course you do. I have said repeatedly that we need to look at Magic players for Bridge converts. However, even with my $1000 (and counting) of ASL stuff, I still don't have enough disposable income to keep up with Magic :-) - and that can be a draw for the Spikes (and to a lesser extent, Johnnys) out there; when they realize this other game is equivalently stimulating for their style, and tournaments are similar cost, but you don't have to pay for cards, it might make a nice move.

When I play non-Bridge card games, I'm usually looking for a family-style game (if I want to play hard, I'll find a bridge game). So, Munchkin, Chez Geek, and very rarely Illuminati (that's less "family-style"). If it's "cards and", I've never gone wrong with Settlers of Catan.

[PassedOut]

Both Settlers of Catan and Dominion are favorites for our family gatherings. You can also play both games online: Dominion Online and Catan Anytime.

[blackshoe]

I've recently taken up Pathfinder: the Adventure Card Game with a friend of mine. Lots of fun. It's an offshoot of "Pathfinder: the Roleplaying Game", which is a descendant of Dungeons and Dragons. One to six players (one to four in the basic game). You play a character, one of the "iconic" characters from the RPG (cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard, and more - there are 11 choices total). There are two games out now: the first is "Rise of the Runelords," with a typical fantasy "find the BBEG* and kill him - if you can" flavor, the second is "Skull and Shackles" which is also high fantasy, but more "piracy on the high seas". Both are based on "adventure paths" for the RPG.

More information at Paizo's website.

*BBEG? "Big Bad Evil Guy".

[billw55]

PassedOut, on 2014-December-10, 14:30, said:

Both Settlers of Catan and Dominion are favorites for our family gatherings. You can also play both games online: Dominion Online and Catan Anytime.

My experience with the Dominion site was that the implementation was terrible. I would not judge the game by that. It plays much better face to face.

What's your favorite expansion? I like Seaside and Prosperity.

[PassedOut]

billw55, on 2014-December-10, 14:44, said:

My experience with the Dominion site was that the implementation was terrible. I would not judge the game by that. It plays much better face to face.

What's your favorite expansion? I like Seaside and Prosperity.

The only expansion that we have other than Seaside and Prosperity is Intrigue, which I think can also substitute for the main set. Don't know that I have an actual favorite as we set out the cards using an app that randomly picks them. The many combinations of cards definitely makes the game more interesting.

I've played the online version with my (far-flung) sons now and then and haven't encountered any problems, and I found the UI to be pretty intuitive. Earlier on there were some unofficial sites that weren't very good, but I understand that they've been removed now. But it's definitely more fun face to face (unless you have a slow player).

[kenberg]

This is all very helpful. I like to give gifts that I like, as well as hoping the recipients would like them. This gets harder every year.But I may be looking in the right place with these games.

[billw55]

Ken, you can also look at the board game family for ideas. They review lots of games, and have gained enough traffic that publishers send them copies.

[blackshoe]

The other day I was in our friendly local game store (FLGS) and they had a version of Clue where the "characters" (like Professor Plum in the original) are based on the TV series Firefly, which is sort of a cult classic. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who I know is into board games and she said "I want that for Christmas!" :-)

[billw55]

blackshoe, on 2014-December-11, 10:10, said:

The other day I was in our friendly local game store (FLGS) and they had a version of Clue where the "characters" (like Professor Plum in the original) are based on the TV series Firefly, which is sort of a cult classic. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who I know is into board games and she said "I want that for Christmas!" :-)

I saw that too at my FLGS. At a glance it looked logically equivalent to Clue, just with a different theme, but I can't be sure.

There is also a Firefly custom game, which I got for my brother who is a fan. We played it and I thought it was just so so.

Clue is probably my favorite board game from my parent's era (= my childhood, more or less). Whenver we play now in my own family, I make a big spreadsheet of intricate notes and deductions therefrom, often telling people "wait, wait, let me write that". Somewhere along the way it always goes awry, I guess the wrong thing, and they all laugh at me. It's kind of a tradition

[mycroft]

I'll point out Tabletop if you're looking for ideas. No better way to review whether the games would be good for your group's style than to watch people actually play it (if edited). Three seasons now, and you might recognize one or two of the players...

[Fluffy]

billw55, on 2014-December-10, 13:16, said:

Magic is a popular one that has been around a long time. Warning, if one gets deeply into it, it can get very expensive.

Acquire is my second strong recommendation (along with Core Worlds).
Ticket to Ride is fun as a family or social game, but might not satisfy a serious gamer due to lower complexity.
Dominion strikes a good balance IMO, but you may find that you want a couple expansions to increase the variety.
Settlers of Catan is a good game, becoming sort of an old stand-by.

Ken, of all of these, Magic and Settlers are the ones your grandson is most likely to already have and/or have played before. They are also good starting points, if he has not played them ... sort of gateway drugs for custom games.

I've gone to board game meetings once or twice a year for the past 5 years, and my opinions on the games you cited are very different.

Acquire for me was very random and unbalanced, or perhaps I only played with too many players. Unless someone gives you cash by merging a hotel you have, you are stuck out of funds in the middle game and have no chance.
Ticket to Ride has the reputation for being one of the most challenging games. But serious competition is achieved in 1vs1 battles. (I haven't played much though)
Dominion... there was a lot of dominion once on BBF, Roger Lee and cherdano were experts, I used to play with them online, but getting deep into the game it only really works on 1 vs 1 again. I though I Was good before I started to play online, then I realiced I knew nothing and had to start from scratch
Settlers von Catan I agree with you here, it is not only a good game, it is the one that started all. Before Catan we had risk or monopoly which are boring for players who are losing. Catan introduced the low interactivity rules with fixed game length and fighting against yourself meaning you could enjoy even when you were losing.


IMO best 1vs1 game remains Twilight Struggle, a 1vs1 game only about cold war. The board is the world map, but somehow just like Go, if your opponent makes a move in some area, you are forced to make counter moves on the same area, it is incredibly balanced even though it has dices.




My current best recomendation for 3-4 player games is Agricola. The game is fun for novices, and still challenging for experts, can be played in so many ways, even the 1 player game is fun.

[Fluffy]

billw55, on 2014-December-09, 12:58, said:

What custom games are your favorites?

Is a custom game the same as a board game?

Card games I am playing now a lot of hearthstone (online free game from blizzard), but it is not really challenging.

2 of my favourite board games are about "space": Twilight Imperium III (first game takes 8 hours to play, and experts take at least 3, so it is not for everyone), and Galaxy Trucker , wich is about building space ships with pieces (kinf of a Tetris) as fast as you can (requires quick mind), and then test your design against meteors/attacks on a race around the galaxy.

[billw55]

Fluffy, on 2014-December-13, 03:34, said:

I've gone to board game meetings once or twice a year for the past 5 years, and my opinions on the games you cited are very different.

Acquire for me was very random and unbalanced, or perhaps I only played with too many players. Unless someone gives you cash by merging a hotel you have, you are stuck out of funds in the middle game and have no chance.
Ticket to Ride has the reputation for being one of the most challenging games. But serious competition is achieved in 1vs1 battles. (I haven't played much though)
Dominion... there was a lot of dominion once on BBF, Roger Lee and cherdano were experts, I used to play with them online, but getting deep into the game it only really works on 1 vs 1 again. I though I Was good before I started to play online, then I realiced I knew nothing and had to start from scratch
Settlers von Catan I agree with you here, it is not only a good game, it is the one that started all. Before Catan we had risk or monopoly which are boring for players who are losing. Catan introduced the low interactivity rules with fixed game length and fighting against yourself meaning you could enjoy even when you were losing.

IMO best 1vs1 game remains Twilight Struggle, a 1vs1 game only about cold war. The board is the world map, but somehow just like Go, if your opponent makes a move in some area, you are forced to make counter moves on the same area, it is incredibly balanced even though it has dices.

My current best recomendation for 3-4 player games is Agricola. The game is fun for novices, and still challenging for experts, can be played in so many ways, even the 1 player game is fun.

Like many custom games, Acquire is best for 3-4 players. We tried 6 once and it didn't work very well. Yes, there is a luck factor, most games have this. By the way, Acquire was first published in the early 1960s, far before Settlers. Diplomacy and Axis and Allies came before also. Still, as you say, Settlers is the game that really launched the genre on a large scale.

Agree that Dominion plays best as 2 player, especially when played at advanced or expert level. Playing at novice or social level, 3 or even 4 is ok. It is sort of like Scrabble in this aspect.

I really enjoy Ticket to Ride, but I cannot see how it is one of the most challenging. It has a higher luck factor than most games mentioned here. You get the cards you need or not, get good draws of new destinations or not. The expansions do introduce some new mechanics though, which add new decisions.

A gamer friend of ours also says Agricola is good. Perhaps we will try it.

[Fluffy]

I am talking just about what I have heard, on ticket to ride 1 vs 1, you do only pick cards from the beginning, all your turns you pick 2 cards (never wildcard as it only allows 1 card), untill the end, the board is empty except for maybe the key cheap passages that cost 1 or 2 cards. And it is your task to read what is the opponent doing so you can block him on time while you can achieve your objectives.

This Core worlds, how long does it take for a game to be played?

[heyrocky]

While custom games are not quite his thing, a board game reference that people on this board might appreciate comes from the ESPN.com baseball writer Keith Law, who counts board games as one of his non-baseball passions (he also blogs on food topics, and has an interesting take on that as well). He plays games frequently, reviews them occasionally, and posts a top N list every year. For this year's list, N = 60, and can be found at:

Keith Law Top 60 Boardgames

[cherdano]

Ken, if your grandson has inherited some interest in math/logical thinking, he will love Hanabi - my new favourite card game.
(Note - it's not mathematical at all, so the above interests are a sufficient but not necessary condition for liking the game.)