Any Board Games Fans?

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Nord SledRunner 8 Jan 8:01am, 8 Jan 2024 3,960 posts	0 Nord SledRunner Scrabble: the thing that sharpened me up the most was struggling to find a way to beat the ZX Spectrum program back in the day. It didn't have a massive vocabulary but its perfect search made it absolutely fatal to let it anywhere near word-multiplying spaces. Secondly, it was Giles Brandreth's book. These things made it much less enjoyable for the family, though, as they led to me to a much tighter, restrictive style - appropriate for knock-out play. This is the opposite of the open style needed for round-robin one-to-one play, where the score against all other players is summed, the highest sum winning.
Angus Clydesdale 10 Jan 1:39am, 10 Jan 2024 27,060 posts	0 Angus Clydesdale The most miserable board game experience we have ever endured was playing scrabble with friends* who turned out to be scrabble aficionados. Jesus Christ. Kill me now. Way to ruin a game. We will never play it again. Because of them. * and it eventually turned out that we probably weren’t ever really compatible…. Quell surprise…. Go figure.
NordRunner 12 Jan 12:57pm, 12 Jan 2024 3,985 posts	0 NordRunner We played our first game of SHCD Baker Street Irregulars yesterday. From learning to finish, it took about seven hours. To judge from a youtube play-through I found after, that's not abnormally long. I predict 6 hours for the second scenario. I think we loved it, being a scenario-based 2p coop for a change. No dice, no counters, no meeples: just a paper hypertext storybook, map, newspaper and character directory - very simple to learn. On the French website there is a condensed, demo scenario to print and play through. It would have helped to do that that first. I believe this standalone expansion is the best one, of several, to start with.
larkim 12 Jan 1:31pm, 12 Jan 2024 22,970 posts	0 larkim Late to the party, but got Wingspan for the family over Christmas and really enjoyed it. 10 minutes in I was worried it was going to end up like Munchkin* for us, where we think we are playing it right but every single round we're having to dive in to the rules only to find something opaque or described in language that perhaps only seasoned gamers would understand. 15 minutes in, having followed the primers, it all became clear and we were hooked! So refreshing to have a set of rules which were clearly explained, lacked ambiguity and so far seemed utterly comprehensive. And the primer rounds were such a great idea for providing us with that little lift to see how things worked; more games should have that sort of thing (maybe they do!). *If anyone can point to a really simple translation of the rules from nerd-style to casual gamer style I'd really appreciate it! Or maybe we should just sell it on.
NordRunner 12 Jan 2:48pm, 12 Jan 2024 3,989 posts	0 NordRunner I've been wanting the Euro version of Wingspan in English for a while now. (Learning the Norwegian info for a stack of American birds seems doubly pointless.) Your comments cement it near the top of my wishlist. Thanks, larkim.
Stander 12 Jan 3:15pm, 12 Jan 2024 199 posts	0 Stander Hold on..... It's reasonably well known that there is one sure fire way of winning a game of Wingspan. I've played the game (thought it to be very Meh) and I don't know what the strategy is. But once you know it, it will seriously impair willingness to replay the game.
Stander 12 Jan 3:19pm, 12 Jan 2024 200 posts	0 Stander Might be worth seeing if the upcoming Wyrmspan version will fix this flaw.
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ 12 Jan 5:04pm, 12 Jan 2024 51,661 posts	0 ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Hold on..... It's reasonably well known that there is one sure fire way of winning a game of Wingspan. I've played the game (thought it to be very Meh) and I don't know what the strategy is. But once you know it, it will seriously impair willingness to replay the game. There is one widely accepted winning strategy in the final round. We discovered it after three or four games and BGG forums confirmed our view as being widespread. The Europe expansion apparently includes tweaks to re-balance the relevant aspect of the game, but no-one has bought it for me yet!
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ 12 Jan 5:06pm, 12 Jan 2024 51,662 posts	0 ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Might be worth seeing if the upcoming Wyrmspan version will fix this flaw. Wyrmspan’s not an expansion, it’s a standalone game “inspired by” Wingspan. I suspect you’re right, though, and the “flaw” will be balanced out or eliminated. (The theme of Wyrmspan means it’s a game I’ll never play!)
Stander 15 Jan 10:24am, 15 Jan 2024 201 posts	0 Stander Me, I prefer dragons over birds any day. So I'm more likely to buy it, but I'll see how the community reacts to it /reviews firs.