Tabletop games!!

[fastbilly1]

I was eyeballing it last night on ebay. I can part the bulk of one together for about $100. Still too much, but man it is tempting. My copy got stolen in college.

I've seen some completed sales go for $300!
I believe it was you a couple years back that refreshed my memory on the name of this game, right?
I know I had a vauge description and you nailed it for me.

I vaguely remember that discussion.

Yeah complete ones go for $300, but board and box will go for as low as $50, repro explorers, gems, bridges, and cards go for about $50-80 depending on if you need the totem. 3d printing has made for an interesting change in the balance of game piece value.

[ejamer]

I love tabletop games, and play quite a few of them. Lots of fun recommendations in this thread already - hope I'm not too late to add one more.

(Note: All images shameless stolen from http://www.BoardGameGeek.com website.)

My latest favorite game is called Catacombs.


Box Art (Latest Edition)

It uses a dungeon crawler theme, with you sending a band of heroes through a series of challenges to find and defeat a evil Catacomb Lord. Kind of Guantlet like, I guess, except one player is the "bad guy" while the others control the heroes.

Along the way you'll battle many enemies, and earn gold to buy power-ups for your characters. What really attracted me to this game is how easy it is to play - every character is a wooden disc, you just place them on one of the included boards and then flick your pieces to move or attack.


Preparing to Flick

The basic rules are simple, but what keeps the game excited for me is the thematic chrome. Every hero has special powers (an elf can shoot arrows instead of rushing head-long into battle, a wizard has a selection of one-time use spells that he needs to manage, etc). But don't fret if you are playing the bad guys: enemies have a bunch of tricks to employ also, including poison attacks, summoning spells, the ability to deflect projectiles, and more. And if the heroes manage to find and confront the Catacomb lord in the final level of the catacombs, they will need to be prepared for a very powerful foe.

To be successful in this game, heroes really need to work together and plan out a good strategy for every room. They can take turns in any order, and choose to attack or position themselves or even give friendly characters a bump to change their position on the board. The more experience you get, the more skilled you become - making your team more and more lethal.


Our Intrepid Heroes

Anyway, It's a game I'm really passionate about, and have enjoyed playing with friends of all ages and groups of different sizes.

If that sounds interesting then check out the link at the top of this post. You'll find some resources about the game there - including reviews (video, podcast, and written) and other discussion around the game.

For convenience I'll link one video review here so you can more about the ins-and-outs of the game:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAuOiVe61k

[Jake Armitage]

An old thread but I though someone would be interested in this:

Restoration Games did a kickstarted on a revamped version of Fireball Island (complete with vacuformed board).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqdIZv4qx5Y

I signed up for it when it started and my copy is supposed to arrive today.

They are also planning to do a kickstarter at some point in time for a revamp of Dark Tower.

Does life get any better than this?

[bmoc]

An old thread but I though someone would be interested in this:

Restoration Games did a kickstarted on a revamped version of Fireball Island (complete with vacuformed board).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqdIZv4qx5Y

I signed up for it when it started and my copy is supposed to arrive today.

They are also planning to do a kickstarter at some point in time for a revamp of Dark Tower.

Does life get any better than this?

I've got lots of good memories playing the original Fireball Island back in the day. My sister still has it - enormous box and all. Seriously, that box is mammoth. She plays it with my kids when they go visit her and they love it too.

I very nearly backed this new Fireball Island myself. I couldn't quite swing it during the Kickstarter so I am going to wait until it comes down in price at retail. It looks awesome. Did you get any of the expansions?

Also, there is another board game thread here that is a little more active in this one.

[Jake Armitage]

Yeah - I got all of the expansions. The box is very small compared to the old maybe 40% of the original - a bit higher (maybe 1.5 times) - they made the board in three pieces so it takes up a lot less space. It also has a conventional bottom and top - one of the problems with the original (after the huge size) was it had those goofy flaps which if you didn't tape down was an invitation for all of those pieces to escape. When the original was still showing up in thrift stores (which has been a very long time ago) there were usually very few pieces left in it.

(When I did the search for Fireball Island this is what popped up first.)