Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Saturday Board Game Day

I went over to a group of buddies house last weekend to take part in their semi-monthly board game days. The house has three of my high school friends living in it and usually they get about 10-15 people over playing games. Attendance was lighter this time but it allowed me to get to talk and play with my friends instead of friends of friends so that was good.

We played two different games both of which I had not played before. One was Kingsburg which is a very abstract game in the Settlers genre of empire building. You gather resources which you spend to build things and defend you area from yearly attacks. The game lasts 5 years with each year having 3 seasons of resource gathering and building and 1 season of attacks by goblins. It is very different from Settlers since the only direct competition between the players really comes during the resource gathering phase where you have to place your dice on the King's Advisors to get the resources and you have many options to try to block other people from placing dice by selecting the same adviser. The game was not bad and I would play it again just a little more abstract than I like.


We also played the retro game, Thunderroad. This is essentially a car racing and combat game from the time that Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome came out(1986). Not a direct tie in just trying to grab some of the interest that the movie generates. This game is pretty simple with the object being to have the last car standing by either out running the other players or destroying them. The board is made up of 2 road lengths and when you get off the front, the one in the back becomes the front with all the cars left there removed. Each player had 3 cars that can get destroyed and repaired plus a chopper which just shoots people. I would be willing to play it again since it is fast but it is not a deep game. I have a copy of GW's Dark Future and the White Line Fever expansion book which is a much deeper combat and racing game from about the same period.

2 comments:

  1. I got the PDF of Dark Futures from the GW website a bit ago but at over 200 page it a larg priting bill is going to be to much for me, I dont know anone that plays it, but could probalm fine pepole that wouldnt mind giving it a go if, my qution are these.

    Do i need all 200+ pages?

    What eles do I need?

    Is it any good?

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  2. I think Dark Future was a fun game but does it probably need a rulebook longer than 40K no. To problem you will run into is that it also had road pieces and tons of cardboard markers which are important for marking obstructions and speed limits.

    I will do a full piece on Dark Future soon but here is a breakdown of the rules download:

    Pages 1-102: Standard Game rules for Boxed Set. A lot of fluff filler in there.

    Pages 103-156: White Line Fever: Advance rules for game plus new gear and full car design rules.

    Pages 157-169: Dead Mans Curve from White Dwarf is Campaign rules.

    Pages 170-188: St. Loius Blues from White Dwarf this is a piece about 1 group of drivers and their cars.

    Pages 189-194: Tournament Rules: Here it is. This is the basic game rules to get you started that came in the box. Introduces most of the game concepts without tons of different weapons and complications. Why they would place them at Page 189 makes no sense.

    Pages 195-205: Day at the Races: White Dwarf article about Nascar with guns.

    Pages 206-210: Red Harvest: Fluff Article from White Dwarf.

    Pages 211-214: Street Fighter: Pedistrians Trying to kill the cars.

    Pages 215-220: Tournament Rules: Another new set of fast play rules. I have not seen these before so I do not know how they compare to those from the original game starting on pg 189.

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