The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[grumbler]

I've never beaten Habs at Pursuit. Not once. Which makes me suspect it must have some very serious inate flaw.

Same.

Wow.  Just realized:  neither have I! 

[Habbaku]

[Berkut]

I've never beaten Habs at Pursuit. Not once. Which makes me suspect it must have some very serious inate flaw.

Same.

Wow.  Just realized:  neither have I! 

0-0 is much better than 0-X, where X !=0.

[bogh]

That clinches it. Definitely staying with Paths.

[Habbaku]

I don't lose much at that either. 

[Oexmelin]

I got Pavlov's House to play with my father over the Holidays.

[Tamas]

Good series. I-P is the only one I'm missing.

Which other ones you would recommend? I have I-P which I really like, quite compact but it feels there are a lot of different approaches to each campaigns. Also just trying out Poland. It's fun but I am having trouble suspending disbelief this kind of NATO vs Russia thing could happen without a near-guaranteed global thermonuclear war. (I know there is a chance you get that as game over, but still)

I am fairly certain I wouldn't bother with Taiwan, but is Korea worth it? Also tempted by Vietnam a bit.

[Habbaku]

I really want to buy one of the NW series and am tempted to see if I can do PBEM with it. Any recommendations there, Tamas? Would you want to play via Vassal or something PBEM?

[Tamas]

I really want to buy one of the NW series and am tempted to see if I can do PBEM with it. Any recommendations there, Tamas? Would you want to play via Vassal or something PBEM?

Yeah, sure, should be fun. There are no real interrupts like land interception attempts or anything of the sorts that make PBEM unwieldy.


Anyhow, based on my limited experience, India-Pakistan should be a good intro. If you don't like the system there the more complex games won't convince you I don't think.

With I-P you do not have a second (strategic) map and no naval stuff to mess around with, which makes it smoother. There's a lot of variety and interesting dynamics. There are 3 campaign scenarios, one for each country being the attacker, and another one where it is some kind of a race to grab the nukes of Pakistan during some regime collapse. The foreign intervention rules can also change a campaign's nature big time. By default you just roll dice to see how much China and US or Russia intervene, which of course can screw with the balance, but there's also a more "custom" setup where you can pay VPs for getting an ally at different levels.

It also has a good mix of terrain (what I also like in the old TOAW scenario as well on PC). Kashmir is a bloody quagmire and supply nightmare but there's also a fairly big fairly flat area to do a bit more maneuver warfare on.

[Habbaku]

I managed to secure an India-Pakistan copy for the price of shipping and a promise of playing it, so I'll be good to go in a week or so. 

[Tamas]

I managed to secure an India-Pakistan copy for the price of shipping and a promise of playing it, so I'll be good to go in a week or so. 

[bogh]

Had a few first time runs over the holidays - A Distant Plain, Labyrinth WoT and X-Wing 2nd edition (with my 8 year old). Good stuff, though the coin system is a hard on boarding with my group.

[11B4V]

High Frontier 4th Ed. just arrived. What a thing to behold.

[frunk]

High Frontier 4th Ed. just arrived. What a thing to behold.

Congrats!  If you plan to do solitaire definitely get the latest living rules.  The regular game plays pretty well out of the box but solo was a mess.

If you are new to HF start with Space Diamonds (to learn the map) or Race for Glory (to learn basic economy, rocket landings/liftoffs and how the cards work).

[Tamas]

Apparently there is now a Stellar Horizons Vassal module. Game info is here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/217990/stellar-horizons

It's a pretty awesome game because you are going through some very realistic-feeling 4X phases of populating the solar system, first exploration, then some challengingly assembled industrial operations gradually revving up to become a viable enterprise and empire.

On the other hand it takes ridiculous amount of table space and ludicrous amount of time, so it could possibly be a good fit for PBEM. Anyone interested in giving it a go?