[Politics_Observer]

A couple of years ago, I bought Twilight Imperium 4th Edition but I haven't been able to play it yet because of the demands of my study. Not a whole lot of time for video games or board games. However, my brother in law and myself hope to play the game. My nephew who will be 14 years old soon will probably play with us soon given we are a good mixture of nerds and jocks in my family. I will sometimes visit the Board Game Geek website ( https://boardgamegeek.com/ )to check out some reviews on board games that are out. Not sure how many nerds are here on the forum, but has anybody played Twilight Imperium 4th Edition? Here is a Board Game Geek video review of the game. I got the game mat as well for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition to make it easier to set up.

[Politics_Observer]

Here is an outstanding game in my opinion. Conquest of Nerath! I have this game and have played it and it is an excellent strategy game. It's basically the "Axis and Allies" of the D&D World. So, it's basically a strategy game of conquest set in the D&D World. I didn't agree with the guy on the left giving the game a white die rating. There is dice rolling but it's a solid strategy game with great depth as well. As you can tell with the board games I have posted thus far, I am a big fan of strategy games. You can also play a short length game, medium length game or the long game:

[Politics_Observer]

Stars Wars Rebellion. I have played this game and enjoyed it. I usually play the rebels. I played this game against one of my friends and lost the game playing the rebels. He bluffed me in that he managed to locate my secret rebel base in the game and I didn't know it. His Death Star was next to the planet that my rebel base was located and he turned his Death Star around and blew up the planet that my base was on. It didn't end like it did in Episode IV where the rebels managed to destroy the Death Star. In that particular game the Empire and the Death Star triumphed and blew up the planet my secret rebel base was on and the rebellion was summarily CRUSHED. I truly was in shock. My friend had outsmarted and outbluffed me. I thought, that despite the Death Star being close by, he didn't know where my rebel base was located. I was like NO WAY! It was a hilariously fun game.

[Politics_Observer]

The guys in my family came over and we played a long alliance game of Conquest of Nerath. Game lasted about 9 hours and 30 minutes. I could also easily see how this game, with experienced players could go much longer! Pretty long game when you choose to play the long game. Conquest of Nerath also offers a short game which is not even near as close as long and a medium game as well. So, the players can choose to play a short game, medium game or a long game like we played. They can also choose to play an alliance game where players play on teams or a free for all where players all play against each other. Our particular game was the alliance game with 2 players on each team.

But the long game certainly lived up to it's name of lasting about 9 hours and 30 minutes and could have easily lasted much longer if my team (if you go with playing an alliance game you play as a team) didn't make some of the strategy mistakes we made. My team was the losing team. Anyway, it was a great game! We learned the importance of sending your heroes for each army on dungeon quests to battle the dungeon guardians to get the treasures that would help enhance and give each army special abilities which would grants some advantages. Very well designed game with a lot of depth. Our alliance game was a 4 player game with 2 players on each team.

[Politics_Observer]

Probably need to take Photoshop to two of the blurry images above. The images were snapped by my smart phone. I don't have an advanced Android smart phone, but I could probably touch up the blurry images that likely came from motion of me moving my smartphone and touch them up with Photoshop.

[Godstud]

FOCUS! FOCUS!




I love board games.

Settlers of Catan, Shogun, Pandemic(more fun before the real thing), etc.

[Politics_Observer]

@Godstud

Conquest of Nerath is worth every penny my friend. My team lost though it had a slight chance at winning at one point. I got my capital taken and that enabled my ally to swoop in and ALMOST take the capital of my opponent who took my capital. His attack came very close to succeeding but both my ally's unit and my opponents units ended up all being destroyed at the battle for my opponent's capital but because there was no one left to occupy my opponent's capital, my opponents capital remained in his hands while he continued to occupy my own capital. It's a well balanced game.

One mistake my team made was not sending our heroes on dungeon quests to get magic item treasures to enhance our army while the opposing team did. My rationale behind that was that the opposing team would have to send their heroes on the dungeon quests to battle those guardians which would in turn weaken their attacks on us and their defenses against us. So, I dedicated our heroes to attacking them instead of sending a few of them on dungeon quests. So, it would appear, that sending your heroes on dungeon quests is important in this game.

However, it was a very close game midway through. But if we did manage to take my opponents capital while he occupied my capital, he stood a good chance of retaking his capital. Which may have (or might not have) left my capital open to be retaken by my forces if he had done so by bringing in units from another continent in the game world by ship to do a coastal landing. It was an awesome fun game dude. If you play the long game on this game, expect a very long game.

The doors you see on the game board in some of the photographs I snapped with my smart phone are the dungeon quests that each army can send their heroes on to battle the guardians of those dungeons and get the magic treasures of those dungeons which in turn are used to enhance your army. My army was the yellow pieces that you see on the board and the opponent that took my capital was the black pieces you see on the board. My ally was the Nerathian League. After my entire army eventually got completely wiped from the game my opponents focused their attention on my ally who basically made it very hard for them to take his capital and once they were able to reach his capital, they had to attack his capital a whole bunch of times before they were finally able to succeed in taking it.

[late]

I played those kinds of board games when I was younger. They were military back then, not fantasy.

What I play now is the best board game, Go.



It's best to find someone that can teach you, but here is a free program that is actually quite strong:
https://www.sjeng.org/leela.html

When you are learning to play, your brain melts and runs out your ears. But once you have learned, your understanding of the world is improved a little.

[Politics_Observer]

@late

Go is an excellent strategy game. But you will find Conquest of Nerath to be an outstanding and well balanced strategy game as well. I loved it! It was awesome! During the game play, I would joke with the opposing team about an island on the map and impersonate Stephen the Irishman from the movie Braveheart. "It's my island!" I liked Stephen the Irishman because he fought for his land. He was one of the most wanted men by the English, but you know he was fighting for his land, his island. I admire him for that.

[late]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33r8hKwRYQc

[Politics_Observer]

Made some minor adjustments to the first three images using Photoshop. Don't seem like there was much I could do with the three blurry images but I figured I would get some practice in with Photoshop. The first three below I made some adjustments to the images trying to get the blurriness out of them as best as I could. Seems like there was no salvaging that third image.







Last three images I left alone and left untouched.

[pugsville]

I am a gaming geek, more Napoleonic miniatures these days, but many boardgames are fun.

Credo . Make up the dogma of early christian church in exciting multi player game.

[pugsville]

hmm linking to reveiw vid on BGG did not work try this.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130 ... ing-dogmas

[Rancid]

Ticket to Ride

[Politics_Observer]

@Rancid

Ticket to Ride is an outstanding game. My wife is not into the nerd games that I am into, but she is into Ticket to Ride, so I will play her occasional. She kicks my ass too in this game. I am always losing it seems in these board games. She is good at the game because she has the mobile app of the game and plays it all the time. I had an uncle from Germany that got us into the game (though we were not blood related, he married my aunt). He married my aunt but he lived here in the U.S. before he passed away and married my aunt who is an American woman. They both met here in the U.S.

[froggo]

That Nerath game looks like a more strategic Risk game.

I was bored and was playing RISK online a while back, and there is a scenario called 'Fog of War' on there, where it functions similar to RISK except you can't see what armies are building up in territories that are not adjacent to territories you own. I thought it gave it a nice element, because you could send forth troops to surveil the terrain and find out where large armies were being gathered, and similarly you could build up your own hidden armies where your opponents can't see them. It is way better than actual RISK to play it that way, in my opinion.

[Heisenberg]

@froggo Given you like Risk, have you ever tried Diplomacy? I've been getting into that online lately. It's like Risk with no luck component, and negotiation (and betrayal) of alliances is an essential part of the game. It's incredibly evil, but a lot of fun. Probably best not to play it face to face with friends though.

[froggo]

Looks intriguing Heisenberg! I have never heard of it, but I will probably check it out more in-depth when I got the time to learn the rules

[Thunderhawk]

Pandemic Legacy.

The legacy mechanic of evolving plot and game rules was well done with Pandemic.

[Politics_Observer]

@Thunderhawk

Pandemic is awesome! Love it! My brother in law and I along with other family members have played this game. Simple, easy to learn, great strategy, great team play too and fun!