Post Punk Kitchen Forum

so, my friend has recently gotten me into nerd board games.

we recently played pandemic and thurn and taxis.

i really liked both of them and i'll probably pick up pandemic for myself at some point.

i really want to play the downfall of pompeii next.

what other games would i like?

i love pandemic, it's a really great game.

You might like Carcasonne and Ticket to Ride as well.

What did you like about Pandemic? The thinking and planning? The cooperation? The fact that it has a nice theme?

What makes a board game nerdy?

Backstory.

pretty much. if i have to read a "history of..." sheet before i can play, it's nerdy. also, if there's more pieces than mouse trap, it's nerdy.

i liked pandemic because it's nearly impossible to win. there were 5 of us playing and 3 of us only had one turn and 2 people had 2 turns before we wiped out the world. it was sort of awesome.

I just got Pandemic a couple weeks ago! SO much fun. Apparently it's being discontinued. And I REALLY want the expansion pack. It's not impossible to win if you only use 4 "Epidemic" cards ;-)

I'm really, kinda wanting to get the BSG board game. It's supposed to take like 3 hours to play, though.

Yeah...must get my hands on Pandemic. You say "wipe out the world," and I am up for a challenge.

crepe!

i think the expansion pack has even more epidemic cards!

i sort of want to see if i can kill everyone in one turn.

My friends have that one and LOVE it. I can't speak for it, as I've never played.



It also lets one player take the role of a bioterrorist!

The BSG board game is really cool. It does take a while to play, though.

Tongue in cheek nerdy= Munchkin. No backstory but it tears things like D & D to funny crumbly bits.

I had to go look it up. Is it suitable for all ages? My 15-y.o. likes board games, and plays D&D, and he might like it. His nerdy dad probably would too.

Edited to delete off-topic chatter

Arkham Horror.
I got it for Christmas last year, and when I posted about it, I know I infected at least one other ppker!

Would mid-teen boys like it, do you think?

I just picked up a copy of "The Healing Blade," which is, I kid you not, a card game about antibiotics, where different diseases and microbes are incarnated as creatures to fight and the antibiotics are warriors, with different strengths vs. different types of beast.

I have no idea if the game itself is any good, but man, the concept is AWESOME. Check out the art:

http://thehealingblade.com/

I haven't played it, but this is a decent writeup:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10/23/cardboard-children-arkham-horror/

Munchkin would be suitable for a 15 y.o. boy, since I'm pretty sure it's my inner 15 y.o. who laughs at least half the time when I play the game.

Arkham Horror is another story though. It's a lot more involved and complex, plus if your son doesn't have familiarity with HP Lovecraft/the Cthulhu mythos, it might be boring for him. It's also an expensive game and has a ton of expansions. I'd say that to make Arkham Horror *really* fun, you have to be willing to roleplay your character quite a bit, otherwise you're just pushing cardboard chits around a board for upwards of 3 hours.

Totally. There's lots of tentacled monsters and weird rituals and symbols and loss of sanity, but it's all in your head (okay, with lots and lots of un-gory plastic-and-carton doodads on the board). You can choose your character from a lot of common archetypes (reporter, scientist, detective, etc). There's a lot of rules to read, but you can pick most of them up while playing (although it really helps if you've taken the time to read the manual once before starting).

ETA: gato might be right about the roleplaying bit. I'm such a geek that sometimes I kind of assume everyone has a RPG background.
You can enjoy the game if you don't have any of the expansion sets, though.

I may have participated in more nerdy game nights than I would like to admit. Most popular among my group of friends is Power Grid. I mean, who doesn't like games about building power plants in Germany? Other favorites include BSG, Settlers of Cataan, and Thurm and Taxis. I will be scoping this threat for ideas for future game nights...

I've heard good things about Last Night on Earth. Munchkin is pretty fun, especially with expansion decks and sequels. I'd like to try Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's not being manufactured anymore, so check Ebay for it.

it's good but it does take a looooong time to play- the first time we played through it it took an entire afternoon! We enjoyed it without any RPG element and without any expansion packs. my partner recently got into gaming and as his roomie I get to play too (I act like I really hate it but I actually love it, ssshhhh!). We have regular games nights with our friends. We are quite into Zooloretto at the moment and we also like Thebes.

I'd like to get him a game for Christmas, does anyone have any recommendation based on the games mentioned above?