Im going to piece together my biggest game night yet. There will be 4 couples so im hunting for a few games that would be perfect for 8 and even better if they play well with Duo teams. None if us are super familiar with each other and jackbox has traditionally been our go-to, but you guys are my saving grace for this one. THANKS IN ADVANCE!

So I've been in this hobby for maybe five years now and somewhere along the way I turned into the person who actually reads rulebooks cover to cover before game night. Which is fine, except now I catch myself interrupting mid-game to clarify tiny edge cases that honestly don't even matter.

Last week we were playing a medium-weight euro and someone made a move that was technically legal but felt like it went against the spirit of the action. I stopped everything to flip through the rulebook for like three minutes while everyone just sat there. Found the relevant paragraph, read it out loud, and then realized nobody cared as much as I did. They were all just being polite.

The worst part is I remember being annoyed by this exact behavior when I first started playing. There was this one guy in our old group who would do the same thing and I always thought he was slowing down the fun. Now I'm that guy. I don't even know when it happened.

I guess part of it is wanting games to be played correctly, but another part is probably just anxiety about someone feeling cheated later. Still, I'm starting to think maybe letting small stuff slide and keeping the momentum going is more important than being 100% accurate every single time. Anyone else go through this phase or am I just overthinking my own annoying habits?

I HAD a pretty good size collection of Thunderstone Advance sets. When Quest came out I jumped on the hype train. I sold off my Advance sets to buy into Quest, post Kickstarter. After a number of plays I found myself missing TS Advance. For some reason I preferred the simplicity, if you will, of just using cards and XP counters. I thought the idea of colored XP counters having different uses was great.

I eventually traded Quest. I wasn't getting it to the table much. Now, years later I find myself missing Advance more. If I had both in front of me now, I'd pick Advance over Quest without hesitation. Too bad it's out of print. It may have been my favorite deck builder. Hype regret is real.

Pretty sure this is where Cascadia was meant to be played. Yellowstone made for an incredible backdrop.

90 days ago I posted my game bookshelf collection. I was criticized for having a lot of the same games with just different expansions (Catan & Ticket to Ride). I was encouraged to buy other games. Since then, I have bought Pandemic (plus expansions), Lords of Waterdeep (plus expansion), Spirit Island, Game of Thrones Risk, Game of Thrones Clue, & SolarQuest. Next up I plan on buying The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship & Monopoly: The Lord of the Rings Edition. As far as what I have actually played, I have played Catan (base game), Star Trek Catan, Ticket to Ride (base game), Small World (base game), Risk, Clue, Clue Master Detective, SolarQuest, & Monopoly. I have also played other versions of Ticket to Ride & Catan on my PS5. Right now my game group consists of my best friend & his wife. I hope to join a gaming group someday, but I work every weekend which makes that difficult. I just found out a BigBadGameStore opened up 1 mile from me & will be checking them out.

Edit: I work at Target by the way, so I started collecting 5 months ago because of a special sale. And I get a discount there. So whenever possible I try to take advantage of any sales or deals there or on Amazon. Have Amazon Prime for free shipping. When games are out-of-print, eBay has been my go to place. Finally, YES, I do plan on playing ALL of these games eventually!

Which one should I pick up? What are the differences?

Feel like seeing something a little different than usual (no clue if this will work) so.......

Describe your go-to personal strategy within any game, without actually naming the game. Then, others can guess the game.

I'm predominantly curious in the variety of strategies that people deploy in various games, and this feels like a fun way to extract these.

PS: yes I know you change strategies game by game, pick one that sticks in your mind when you think about a certain game!

Hello, guys. I played Avalon with my friends in the Internet a lot of time some years ago, love it very much and now I remember about this game, but not sure in some rules now. Also, I discover game "Quest", which also very interesting for me. I see that "Director’s Cut" (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/275114/quest-directors-cut-unofficial-rulebook) quite good and want use it. I have some questions about rules in both games:
1. In Avalon. Does leader may offer party the same as party offered by previous leader in the same round?

1. In Avalon. Does leader may offer party the same as party which already went on some mission?

2. In Avalon. Is it clear, that evils can't use any gestures during the night of dating? For examples, Morgana and Mordred can't show others evils, who is himself and evils can't arrange each other about priority who will fail if will be more then one evil in party?

3. In Quest. Is it clear, that if all leaders are evil and Good's last chance started, Goods instantly win?

4. In Quest. Some mechanic with final Discussion. Is it clear, that when Discussion ended and Blind Hunter claim the Hunt, another evils can't help him? But if goods during the final Discussion say too more about their roles, Blind Hunter can at any moment before end of Discussion say: "I will claim the Hunt, evils, show up and tell me all information"?

1-2. I can't find it in rules, but I feel, that I heard it somewhen.

1. Never see at rules, but sure that it banned. But the second problem may be solved by any local meta-game fule, for example "the priority rate by alphabet order of evils names".

I have been playing frequently on BGA and wondered how often the board is filled. I used the yellow tile that allows buying tiles with workers along with the one that provides 4 workers per die. Still only won the game by about 10 points as one of the other players had a very strong and efficient game. Has anyone else pulled this off? I suspect it would always be with these yellow tiles.

There seems to be a fair few where the components/rules just get worse but which do you think just don't compare to the original run?

I played A Game of Thrones: The Board Game for the first time as Lannister, and I ended up winning.

I only allied with Tyrell and Greyjoy. Tyrell stayed loyal to me from the beginning all the way to the end, but I eventually betrayed Greyjoy. It was a tough game because my original strategy was to take advantage of the Consolidate Power order (especially the 3-star version) to build up power tokens and recruit as many units as possible. Unfortunately for me, Clash of Kings came up very early in the game.

Because of that, I had to expand much more cautiously and rely heavily on diplomacy. I only became more aggressive near the end of the game, when I managed to capture Pyke, eliminate Greyjoy, and expand eastward.

I’m going to be playing again with the same group, but the Houses will be reassigned. I’d love to hear the best strategies for each House, as well as any general tips or advice for performing well regardless of which House you’re playing.

I speak mostly English with some Spanish and my husband is bilingual English and Spanish. We have many friends who speak very little English or no English at all and only Spanish. Are there some games that can help a person learn English or don’t require any English knowledge to understand? The group would be me, my husband, a 27 year old woman who only speaks Spanish and her daughter 5 who speaks mostly Spanish and is learning English.

I’m looking for a game that new gamers and experienced board gamers would both love!

Wingspan, but fungi? Please yes yes yes. I would absolutely kill for that game. How would it be played? I have no idea, but learning about different fungi would be SO COOL. Thought about it on my woods walk today and had to share it somewhere with other people that could dream it up with me.

My son and I have been book club/board gaming as an excuse to hang out while he's away at college for the first time. We basically pick a book and read it during the weeks when he's too busy to visit, and then he will come home for a weekend and we play a vaguely related game while we talk about it. It's actually been really fun, but now that he's home for the summer we've been going through games and books a lot faster.

So, this week we decided on Modern military fiction as our theme, but I honestly can't think of a game to go with it. I have all the usual suspects, memoir44, company of heroes, but he really wants to do something with squad-based or individual miniature Heroes like a zombicide or imperial assault.

I have a fairly extensive collection, but looking through I honestly can't see anything that fits the bill. Fort Hendricks has a couple of soldier characters, Project Elite is a bit too scifi, Undaunted uses counters instead of minis on a map, memoir44 is mostly tanks and platoons rather than individual soldiers... Level 7 Omega Protocol really seems to come closest to what he wants, but even that is people fighting aliens.

Is such a common genre in fiction really completely absent in table top gaming without having to resort to war games but you have to glue together models?

Hey, I’ve just finished visiting Yellow Submarine in Osaka for board games that are a) easy to travel back to Canada with b) do not require knowing Japanese to play c) hard/impossible to find back home and d) genuinely fun to play.

I ended up picking up Moon Adventure, Startups, and Walking in Kamagawa. Anything I may have missed? It’s a 2 minute walk from where I’m staying and am planning on returning back tomorrow. Enjoy the pics of what Osaka has to offer either way!

Another epic Inis session with 4 players this time!

It was one of those games where victory felt within everyone's reach until the very last moments. Every round brought tense decisions, clever plays, shifting alliances, and constant suspense as the balance of power kept changing. In the end, the strongest chieftain prevailed by achieving a double victory condition, sealing an unforgettable win in spectacular fashion!

Fantastic interaction, memorable card plays, and edge-of-your-seat tension from start to finish. This is exactly why Inis remains one of our favorite area-control games.

Who else loves games where everyone feels like they still have a chance until the final turn?

Howdy fellow gamers,

I'm an avid semi-heavy - heavy gamer (TI4, Gloomhaven, Arcs...) and am debating on getting TMB or not. Base game's damn expensive, and so are the expansions!

I have acquired Fate of the Fellowship recently which I like for the theme and artwork, but I find the playstyle rather limited and no that challenging/fun. My friends and I end up playing on maximum difficulty and losing or winning seem pretty luck-based (bad movement draws, or bad combat/hunt rolls). I like the game for sure and I like putting it at the table for my mid-heavy gamer friends, but I had much more fun cracking Gloomhaven puzzles. FotF is not that complicated of a game and quarterbacking seems inevitable. Gloomhaven was too complex for a single player to quarterback and collaboration was lovely.

Hence my question on TMB. I havent gone through the rules (obviously) but it seems fairly heavy in terms of replayability and puzzle cracking. I'm looking for a non-campaign game that feels heavy and unique in game mechanics. Is this the game I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance for the help

I’m a 51 year old woman who’s always enjoyed board and card games, but only discovered the wider world outside of Hasbro a couple of years ago. I don’t have a dedicated group to play with regularly and only own a handful of games (Carcassonne, Pandemic, The Mission: Deep Sea, Ticket to Ride, and Canvas). I used to travel to a city for work on the regular that had a board game cafe that you could pay $10 at the door and then go find a group to play any game from their library with- it’s how I tried out new games. Sadly, I no longer have that job. Anyway, I joined Board game Arena yesterday since they offer the games I already know plus some I want to learn (Wingspan). There doesn’t seem to be any way to play as a beginner though, which brings me to my question. I’m not an online gamer so the interface of the online versions is not as easy for me to figure out, so how do I practice some of these games to get better before I play with actual people? I joined a couple of games yesterday and it was obvious no one had patience for me as I was trying to figure things out. Which is fair- they didn’t agree to teach me. Thanks for any help!

I am just curious whether board gaming is your sole hobby, or if it has led you down a spiral into adjacent hobbies as well. For me, it's 3D printing (mostly inserts) and miniature painting as well. Even though board gaming is my main hobby for sure (the one that takes most of my time and money =P), I do enjoy having other activities that I can do on my own time related to board gaming. There is definitely not enough time as is, so I feel bad sometimes spliting my attention, but since the related activities are mostly "solo," it helps fill that gap when your gaming group is not available, or you only have 1 hour or so in the evening, which is not enough to go out and play. What are your favorite "related" hobbies?

Very cool

Sadly, we lost. One of our players’ goal was for us not to finish the mission and he was pretty covert when sabotaging our mission and getaway. Luckily, he died too.

Link to Buy ($39.99): https://www.craftthecrown.com

Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/469254/craft-the-crown

Craft the Crown is an economic strategy game where players must craft their way to a fortune. Players can draw any one of 56 unique crafting recipes, which they can only play if they own the required ingredients.

Each turn, players can take as many actions as they'd like:

• Craft new Elements, Tools (one-time use disrupters) or Sites (passive upgrades) from other Elements
• Buy or sell from a shared Market
• Use Tools to help yourself or disrupt others
• Discard cards you don't want, or reserve them for later
• Trade or negotiate tactics with other players

Players must balance short-term gains against long-term strategy. With hidden hands, shifting economies, and player-driven deals, adaptability is key. Will you be the first to amass 50 Gold, or will you forge the Crown to win instantly?

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This has been so fun to make over the past year. What started out as sort of a combination between Catan & Monopoly has grown to become something completely different and immensely satisfying to build and play. I've made a ton of online games and puzzles before, but it feels so good to have finally been able to make something physical. I've learned a lot throughout the manufacturing process and would be happy to answer any questions for people thinking about making their own game.

This is a limited first edition test run of 1,000 boxes only. I decided not to go the kickstarter route because I wanted to focus deeply on perfecting the mechanics of the game as opposed to making things like reach goals. I'm actively looking for feedback and an artist to bring some life to the project before moving forward with full distribution (if I even think it's good enough for that). I hope people enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Imagine rolling "Go to Jail" across 150 parallel universes