c/board-game-geeks

Spent 150 bucks on a deluxe board game organizer and it honestly made setup worse

Tbh I thought those fancy wooden inserts would save time, but it took me 20 minutes just to figure out where each token went. Anyone else find that custom organizers just add more clutter than they fix?

Kinda shocked me how many board games from the 90s are still being played today

I was looking up old games I played as a kid a few weeks back, and I found out that Settlers of Catan from 1995 has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. That blew my mind because I remember it just being this weird German game my uncle brought over. It's wild to think how much the hobby has grown since then, like now there's a whole aisle at Target for stuff that used to only be in specialty shops. Has anyone else noticed a game from your childhood that just exploded way bigger than you expected?

That $150 Kickstarter game that showed up broken and I can't get a replacement

I backed this dungeon crawler called "Shadow Depths" back in 2023 because the miniatures looked amazing in the previews. Paid $150 during the campaign, waited over a year for it to show up. When it finally arrived, half the miniatures were warped or snapped at the base, and three cards had a weird print smudge that made them unreadable. I emailed the company four times and got one reply saying they'd send replacements in their "next production run." That was six months ago and I haven't heard a peep since. The game is technically playable but I spent all that money on a product that feels defective. Has anyone else dealt with a Kickstarter game company just ghosting you after a bad batch?

Stumbled into a board game cafe in Portland and saw a whole new way to demo games

I was visiting Portland last weekend and walked into this place called The Game Knight. They had a system where each game came with a small card listing the play time, player count, and a one-sentence summary. That little detail made it so much easier to pick something without reading the whole rulebook. I also noticed they had a shelf of 'quick teach' games that could be explained in under 2 minutes. Why don't more game stores do this kind of thing? Has anyone else seen a setup like that at a cafe or store near them?

Shoutout to the guy at the local game store who warned me about sleeving every card

He told me last month at Dragon's Lair in Austin that using penny sleeves on my all my Arkham Horror LCG cards would make the stack too tall for the box. I didn't listen and now I've got 40 bucks of sleeves that don't fit right and a box that won't close. Has anyone else had a store employee steer you wrong with advice that sounded solid at the time?

Last Tuesday I had the WORST game night in 5 years

Five of us sat down for Dune Imperium and after 3 rounds, two people bailed because they said it was 'too much math' and then one guy knocked over a soda on the board. Has anyone else had a session just totally fall apart like that?

Debate: Do you teach new players every single rule upfront or just wing it as you go?

I started running games for total newbies and found that explaining everything before we start kills the energy, but skipping stuff leads to arguments an hour in. What's your take on this?

The time my Catan game got ruined by a spilled drink

Last Friday at a friend's house in Denver, someone knocked over a whole glass of red soda right on the board. The cards got soaked and the hex tiles started to warp. I grabbed paper towels and laid everything out flat on a radiator for 2 hours. The tiles dried okay but a few resource cards stuck together and tore. Has anyone else tried to save a game after a spill like this?

Back when I tracked game scores with a notepad and pencil

Now I just snap a photo of the board and log it in an app before my group even leaves the table - what finally pushed me over was losing three sets of game night notes in a row back in 2022 when my bag got soaked in the rain.

Am I the only one who thinks Catan is way better with expansions than without?

I finally got my group to play Cities and Knights last weekend after a year of nagging them. The base game feels so bare once you add in barbarians and knights. We had 5 players and the game went from 90 minutes to almost 3 hours but every turn had real decisions. Playing just the base version now is like eating plain toast when you know jam is in the fridge. Does anyone else find the base game unbearable once you've tried the expansion packs?

The guy who said 'just sleeve everything' was dead wrong for my group

A friend in my gaming group named Dave told me last year that I should sleeve every single card in every game I own. He said it would protect my investment and keep things looking new. I followed his advice and spent about $60 sleeving up five games including Dominion and Arkham Horror. Turns out my group hates playing with sleeved cards. The stacks slide around too much and shuffling feels terrible. Now I have a drawer full of sleeves I don't use and games that feel worse to play. Has anyone else had a sleeving project backfire on them?

PSA: That perfect board game week turned into a table-flipping nightmare

Last Saturday I finally got my group together for a full day of games. We started with Brass Birmingham, which went smooth for 3 hours, then moved to Root for the afternoon. By the time we cracked open Food Chain Magnate around 7pm, one guy spent 45 minutes on his first turn and another just quit halfway through. Why do we let these heavy games ruin an otherwise perfect gaming day? Has anyone else had a great week ruined by one bad game choice?

Hit 500 plays on my solo board game collection last night

I logged my 500th play of Spirit Island alone and realized I've spent more time playing board games by myself than with my whole gaming group combined, has anyone else crossed a weird personal milestone like that?

My game group in Portland fell apart after a 6-hour argument over a house rule

It started with a debate on resource conversion in Terraforming Mars and ended with someone leaving their player board behind. Has a small rules dispute ever completely derailed your group?

The quiet takeover of the local library's study room

I had to drop off some tax forms at the downtown branch yesterday, and I walked past their main study room. Every single table was taken up by board game groups, not a single person studying. I counted three separate games of Gloomhaven, two tables with Twilight Imperium set up, and one group deep into a campaign for something called Kingdom Death: Monster. The librarian at the desk just shrugged and said, 'Tuesdays are for the conquerors.' It was a full-scale invasion of cardboard and miniatures. I guess the free space and big tables are too good to pass up, but it made me wonder where the actual students go. Has your local library become an unofficial game hall too?

I thought my friend was nuts for buying a $120 board game about farming turnips.

After playing it twice, I'm now the one planning crop rotations and trying to trade sheep for a better plow, so has anyone else fallen hard for a game they thought looked totally boring at first?

Finally picked up a copy of 'Brass: Birmingham' over 'Scythe' for my game group's next big buy.

We had a $75 budget and it came down to those two. I went with Brass because the guy at the game shop in Tacoma said it clicked better with groups that like tight resource puzzles. Played it last weekend and we were all hooked by the third round. The way the industries link up is just so smart. Anyone have a favorite strategy for the rail era?

My friend's game shelf went from a sad little stack to a full wall unit in about six months, and it's all because of a local swap meet.

Update: I used to think game nights needed a strict schedule, but a visit to a cafe in Portland changed that.

I was at Mox Boarding House last month, just watching people play. I saw a group start a quick game of Skull while waiting for their friend. They were laughing and having fun, not worried about a set start time. I realized my own game group spent more time planning than playing. Now I just text my friends when I'm free and see who can make it. Has anyone else found a more relaxed approach works better?

My brother said 'caring about theme in a euro game is like putting ketchup on a steak' and I'm still thinking about it

Had to choose between a huge game night or a deep dive on one new game

My group had a free Saturday and we were split. Half wanted our usual big event with eight people playing three different games at once. The other half, including me, really wanted to try and fully learn and play through the new heavy euro game I just got, which takes like four hours. I pushed for the deep dive, thinking we'd get a richer experience. We set up 'Ark Nova' with just four of us and committed. It was rough at first, the rules are a beast! But after about two hours, things clicked and we had an amazing, tense game. I'm glad we did it, but I do miss the crazy energy of the big party. Has your group ever faced a choice like that between a party vibe and a deep strategy session?

At a game night in Cincinnati, a guy refused to play unless we used his custom rules.

It was a simple game of Catan. He pulled out a printed sheet with his own scoring system. Said the base game was 'broken' and his way was better. We spent 45 minutes just listening to him explain it. Has anyone else had a friend who just can't play a game straight?

My friend in my Gloomhaven group said my analysis paralysis was making the game take 4 hours, so I started using a 90-second sand timer for my turns.

Honestly, it was brutal to hear, but after trying the timer for our last three sessions, we finished a whole scenario in under two hours and everyone had way more fun, so has anyone else found a good trick to speed up a slow player without being a jerk about it?

The way we talk about board game rules has totally shifted in my group

About two years ago, our game nights were a mess. Someone would pull out a new game, and the person reading the rulebook would just drone on for 30 minutes straight while everyone else zoned out. It was a total drag. The change came after we played 'Root' for the first time and got every rule wrong. Now, we watch a 10 minute how-to-play video together before anyone touches the box. It's like night and day. We actually start playing within 15 minutes of sitting down, and people remember the rules way better because they saw them in action. I think YouTube channels like 'Watch It Played' caused this shift. It's so much easier to learn from a video than a wall of text. Has your group made a switch like this, or do you still swear by the old rulebook method?

Update: My group spent 4 hours trying to understand the scoring for that new euro game...

The rulebook was so bad we had to watch three different YouTube videos just to figure out the final round bonuses. Has anyone else had a game just completely stall your night like that?