Board Game Night at Castle House

For those that don't already know, we have board game night every Wednesday at Castle House Games. It starts at 6pm and goes until the store closes, which is officially at 9pm, but they're usually willing to stay open later if we're in the middle of a game.

I try to have a featured game, and we try to get in at least two plays of that game before we switch to another one. For shorter games that means we might only play it one night and then have a different game the next week, but for longer games we usually play it two weeks in a row. Most of the time the featured game will be one that is in print, and hopefully one that's on the shelf.

If you aren't interested in the featured game, you can still come. So far there's always been at least one other game being played, and you can either bring your own, select one from the store's collection of open games, or play one that someone else brought. The only thing I ask is that if you bring a game you be willing to teach it to anyone who wants to play.

So far we've featured Race for the Galaxy, Dominion and Battlestar Galactica.

This week the game is going to be Age of Conan.

I've been going through it and it looks interesting. It seems to be a lot more eurogameish than I first thought, with multiple ways to score points. Conquest appears to be a necessary component of any winning plan, but the presence of other goals looks like a winning strategy will probably require conquest with a purpose rather than just a Risk style 'conquer the world' strategy.

This one is only four players, so I'll be bringing a selection of games that we've played in the past in case more than that show up.

Also, I've never actually played this one, so we may start with a test round to get the feel of it, then reset and do a full game. It says 90+ minutes on the box, and BGG simply says 90 minutes, so we should be able to get in a full game without any problems.

If you want to check the rules, you can download them as a PDF on the Fantasy Flight Games website: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=70&esem=4

Board game time again! We didn't get to play Conan last week since we had a low turnout and one of the players had to leave early. Instead we played a couple games of Race for the Galaxy.

Conan is back up tonight, but if you don't want to play that show up anyway. I'm sure we can find something for you to play!

Tonight is the second night for Age of Conan, but we'll have other games available too.

Well, we ended up not playing Age of Conan, but we had a good turnout. Chris and Kevin got an early start with Carrier Battles, an old hex and counter wargame. Two of the players of Age of Conan from last week didn't make it, so we decided not to play another game of that, and instead broke out Small World. I got in two games and a third started up as I had to go.

Meanwhile, Chris and Kevin finished their game and got three other people to play a game of Munchkin Quest which was still going on when I left.

I would be up for Age of Conan again in the future, but because of the time involved in teaching it I'd only be interested in playing with those who have at least read the rules beforehand. The game itself is only a couple of hours long once you know the rules, but it takes as long to teach as it does to actually play. Our first game lasted to midnight, and I can't usually stay that late.

I'm looking at Agricola for next week's game. It's the highest ranked game on BGG right now, having unseated long time champion Puerto Rico. I've yet to play it, but should be able to set it up and mess around with it some between now and next week.

I want to emphasize that if you're not interested in the "featured game" that you should still show up. There's always an opportunity to get something else going.

How are Friday nights for board gaming? Every once in a while we like to board game.

Is there a full roleplaying house on Fridays? Its seems like there was last time I was in there.

Majority of the space is taken by Friday Night Magic, but you could find some space on one of the warhammer tables. I'm sure Chris would accomodate you.

Either that or there is a 4' x 8' table in the back RPG room that could be used for board games. That table has seen its share of bloody games....

I probably won't be able to make it, but like has already been mentioned, you should be able to find a place to play despite Magic. The only problem with the miniatures tables is the current lack of anything comfortable to sit on, but if the RPG table is free that shouldn't be an issue.

gamewizard wrote:

Either that or there is a 4' x 8' table in the back RPG room that could be used for board games. That table has seen its share of bloody games....

That is where we are playing Star Wars Minis, perhaps you forgot.

We did play Agricola, and everyone who played seemed to enjoy it. We'll most likely be playing it again this week. Next week will probably be Verminlord's Marvel Heroes, assuming he'll be able to make it, otherwise I'll pick another game.

How did you like Agricola? I picked it up a few months back and the wife and I have played it a few times and we have enjoyed it. I haven't broke it out with the guys yet, always have had something else that we have been playing instead.

Verminlord wrote:

gamewizard wrote:

Either that or there is a 4' x 8' table in the back RPG room that could be used for board games. That table has seen its share of bloody games....

That is where we are playing Star Wars Minis, perhaps you forgot.

I'll give you my standard quote that I use with Scottsman as an apology:

"Leave me alone, I'm an old man!"

I'll be getting a store copy of Ad Astra probably this Thursday so we can add that game to the available mix starting next week's BGN.

Verminlord wrote:

Majority of the space is taken by Friday Night Magic, but you could find some space on one of the warhammer tables. I'm sure Chris would accomodate you.

I never said anything but the giant black painted table at the front was great for our purposes. Not only did we play a game of Will's Space Hulk, but I also ended up picking up the copy of Chaos in the Old World and we got a game in. We had a blast at the store - man, was it packed! I bet there were 30 people in there! and Big D also got in an impromptu game of Cosmic. We had actually planned to go watch a 10 o clock move but stayed at the store we were having so much fun!

big_d wrote:

How did you like Agricola? I picked it up a few months back and the wife and I have played it a few times and we have enjoyed it. I haven't broke it out with the guys yet, always have had something else that we have been playing instead.

I think it deserves its rating on BGG. My only concern going in was that with five players there might be some downtime between turns, but that didn't seem to be an issue as you're constantly thinking about what your next move is going to be. The only time things slowed down at all was when someone took an action the next player was planning on taking, and even then it usually didn't take too long for the next player to re-evaluate their position and pick a new action.

My only complaint would be that at five players there simply aren't enough tokens in the game to keep track of everything without a lot of juggling of the multiplier markers. Fortunately, I now have a complete set of animeeples/vegimeeples so that I can double the amount by mixing back in the original tokens.

We're planning on playing it again this Wednesday, this time with the E deck cards (we played the introductory 'Family Game' last time).

I know that one of the players from last week won't be able to make it this week, plus the store has a copy in its game library if we get more than five people, so anyone who can make it is welcome. Especially if you can get past the theme *cough* Verminlord *cough* in order to play a really great game!

Sorry I didn't make it last night, wasn't feeling up to it. I may be able to get a friend from work to show up with me next week. However, he is not interested in farming either. Agricola may be a good game, just not one I am interested in.
If you guys are going to play that again probably just bring my copy of Space Hulk. If there are any extra peeps could also give Chaos in the Old World a try since the store has a copy.

I'm up for Chaos in the Old World. I had to watch the last game, Ken beat me to the punch. I'll definitely be there if the ruination of the old world is at stake.

Wildeyedjester wrote:

I never said anything but the giant black painted table at the front was great for our purposes. We had actually planned to go watch a 10 o clock move but stayed at the store we were having so much fun!

Glad you enjoyed the tables and the space, Wild! I hope you guys will come down more often, as time permits. I won't be able to stay late this Friday but I plan on being at the shop this Sunday for either some 40K action or even LOTR if Fulminata will spot me the minis again. I have a few but they still aren't painted or even based for the most part.

See everybody soon!

Wildeyedjester wrote:

We had a blast at the store - man, was it packed! I bet there were 30 people in there!

We had 32 just for Magic the Gathering. I didn't get a count for Star Wars but there could have been another 6 or 8. Plus any other folks there just to see the screaming and gnashing of teeth as various games were played, won, and lost. On a good Friday Night at CHG we have had 44 for Magic besides any other games, which could place us close to 60 people in the store at a time.

Pretty good considering the population of the area!

Verminlord wrote:

Sorry I didn't make it last night, wasn't feeling up to it. I may be able to get a friend from work to show up with me next week. However, he is not interested in farming either. Agricola may be a good game, just not one I am interested in.
If you guys are going to play that again probably just bring my copy of Space Hulk. If there are any extra peeps could also give Chaos in the Old World a try since the store has a copy.

The planned game coming up next Wednesday is Marvel Heroes, assuming you're still wanting to run it

If you'd rather do Chaos in the Old World, then that would work too. I didn't know there was a copy in the store library.

We will be returning to Agricola at some point, because it is just that good, but we've played it two weeks in a row, so it's time for something else to be the featured game.

I'll bring Marvel Heroes and see what happens. Either Marvel or Chaos in the Old World would be fine. Both are 4 player games, but might get a game going faster for Marvel since some of us have already played it. Less of a learning curve and may be able to play 2 games.

Took a look at Chaos in the Old World tonight, and it was a bit involved. We ended up playing Ad Astra instead, because it had a lot fewer rules. They will both probably be future featured games. Ad Astra is sort of an ultra-light Twilight Imperium without a combat element.

There's been some interest in Marvel Heroes, enough that I'll probably bring along my copy just in case there's more than four people interested in playing it. There will still be other games as well, in case more than four people show up and not everyone is interested in Marvel.

Just a reminder that tonight is board game night. Marvel Heroes is the featured game, but there will be others on hand as well.

Board game night again tonight. Not sure what we're playing tonight, but we may have two games going. I need to start no later than 6:30 tonight, so we'll probably start a second game for anyone who arrives later than that. I'd wait, but I need to wrap up around 10 tonight, and definitely can't stay to midnight like last week.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!