Jason Carlough

The multiplayer version is interesting, but just too long for a game with a healthy amount of luck (it is a card game afterall).

One of the worst games on the planet.

This is one of the best co-op games and it is wickedly hard. Too me it feels like Arkham Horror boiled down to it’s essentials. If I want to play Arkham Horror and I’m not in the mood for such an epic experience (both setup and gameplay wise) Ghost Stories fills the bill.

This is such a weird card game, it is cool but very counter intuitive. I have kept it but I have barely played it. I would like to get plays in someday but I already own so many other card games this one will probably disappear eventually.

When I am forced into playing Cosmic Encounter, I am glad to be able to play black thanks to this expansion.

This expansion is awesome for two reasons. First the ability to play with more players (via the Cylon Leader) is completely worth it on it’s own. The second is the plastic basestarts, cardboard basestars are lame. Don’t get me wrong the rest of the expansion is cool too, the pegasus board is interesting but I can take it or leave it, same with the treachery cards. New player characters are always good as well. I’m not totally sure how I feel about the Sympathetic Cylon, but it does make the sympathizer a little more interesting when you have to use a sympathizer.

Being the cylon leader isn’t really the most fun in the game but it is nice to be able to include more people and it’s fun enough especially for an experienced player with a bit of a mean streak. It is much better than having to sit out entirely due to having too many players.

New Caprica is just bad, it is just a boring mini game tacked on at the end of the game. We did try it once but we will never use it again.

Adding more than 4 players to Settlers makes the game be too long and have too much downtime. If you have more than 4 players, consider yourself lucky and play one of the many games that are not as good with 4 but great with 5 and 6.

Very cool game that lots of different types of gamers seem to be able to appreciate. Can be a little intense and brain burning if you play it with hardcore gamers but if you take it easy it can be a fun, constructive experience. I haven’t introduced this to anyone who ended up disliking it.

This is my favorite game of all time. There is very little luck involved and every game is an intense battle of wits. On top of that the game has tons of replayability without even buying any extra maps; add the extra maps (of which there are tons) and this has to be one of the most replayable games around. The game can be a little taxing sometimes due to the intensity and it’s hard to find other people who appreciate it as much as I do. In any case, as far as I am concerned there is no better strategy game out there. If you are a fan of heavy strategy games, especially ones with straightforward and elegant rules you have to try this one.

Classic game. Can be played with just about anyone but is still fun for the strategy lovers. It does suffer a bit though from the ability to kind of screw yourself, so a lot of times one person can end up a bit behind, this is why I don’t give the game a higher rating. That being said with a little experience and a bit of careful teaching you can avoid this problem mostly and it is a great game.

Pick up one of the original old 3m edition on ebay, they tend to go for the same price or cheaper than the current ****** cardboard, hasbro edition and are much nicer.