Nerdy Goings On: Board Games

Zeke and I have been super into board and card games since we attended Tabletop Day a few weeks ago.

There, one of the games we played was Sheriff of Nottingham. Has anyone played it? It’s a super fun social deduction game with really neat pieces and artwork. I’d love to own a copy and think it would be more fun with a group of friends than it was with the random people at Epic Loot, but it was a Kickstarter game and is now hard to find for sale.

We’ve been attending the weekly board game night at our Friendly Local Game Store and really enjoying it. A few weeks ago we played Euphoria – a great newish game which was also Kickstarted. I started out the game being super air-headed – I kept forgetting rules and making silly mistakes – so I was very happy when I won the game at the end. It’s a really neat game that I like a lot. The artwork and theme are very cool, and Zeke’s special Kickstarted components are really special.

This week we learned how to play Shadowrift, which is a co-op deck builder. Very, very cool game with some neat, unique mechanics. It allows you to trade some of the resources, which made it much more interactive with your teammates. It also had an option where you could persist your cards through hands, which was fun. We’ll be buying that one!

Zeke commanding his troops in Card Wars.

Zeke has been into the Adventure Time card game, Card Wars, lately, to the extent of reading strategies online. I love the artwork and card design, but don’t find the game as fun as the MLP card game (or, of course, MtG).

Zeke commanding his friends in MLP CCG.

I’ve been obsessing about the MLP card game. I think it’s a great game with some interesting new mechanics. For example, instead of fighting each other, opponents compete to solve problems – problems like a runaway cart, a missing bunny, or a sudden surprise party. Unlike Card Wars, where a player earns two actions each turn, MLP’s actions both increase as the game goes on and can be stockpiled between turns. I think this fact gives it a much more interesting pace, since the game really escalates as players gain points.

The newest expansion of MLP cards were released recently and Zeke and I attended a pre-release party. Though we had each only played five or so times, and only with each other, we were wildly successful! We each went 3 wins 1 loss, and Zeke earned enough points for a second place out of twenty! It was quite a nice self-esteem boost, to be honest.

Anyone else playing or reading anything cool or interesting?