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    The Hank
    Jun 29, 2021
    Edited: Jun 29, 2021

    Guilty Pleasures...

    in Feeling Chatty

    Not all of us have actually played board games all their life. I happen to do so, albeit with big cycles of playing a lot versus playing not at all for a couple of years. My gaming rebirth started some 15 years ago to become a more serious hobby, gradually evolving into more and more cooperative games including solo only. Some of my current favorites are Aeon's End, Too Many Bones, Legendary Encounters Aliens etc. There is actually one solo game which I happen to play on an almost daily basis: Friday by Friedeman Friese. I have to admit I mainly play the digital version, because it is fast and you don't have to shuffle all the time. So far I was lucky to win the King of the Island tournament twice which make me believe I know quite well how to play this game and still do like it a lot, even after 1000+ games...


    Now Looking back I guess most of us started with the usual suspects like Game of the Goose, Ludo, Monopoly, Risk etc. Me too, but there is actually one game which I remember I liked a lot and I still do, but it has been a long time since I played it last. Eventually I played it with my daughters, but they didn't like it because I won all the time. The game is called Tribulation (1974) and I would like to call this my Guilty Pleasure...





    In Tribulation, number tiles are laid out in a 7 x 7 grid, similarly to Boggle. Each tile has a number from 1 to 9 on it (the 9 tile is also used as a 6 in some editions). Number disks from 1-50 are shuffled, and one is drawn. Players race to find three tiles whose equation (first times second, plus or minus third, or any other combination of two tiles multiplied and the other added or subtracted) adds to that total. The first to do so wins the disk. Whomever has the most disks when they are all claimed wins the game. We house-ruled it is also allowed to use powers as operation which makes the game even more fun, that is if you like elementary math, which I do a lot. Reading through BGG it is quite well possible to play this solo as well...I might give this a try as I have so far never done so.


    There is actually one more guilty pleasure which I played a lot in high school during breaks or in-between hours: Mad Magazine Card Game (1979). Just writing this down brings back a lot of sweet memories...



    I still do have my original copy and we still play this at home every now and then. Great fun as a filler and certainly a guilty pleasure as well.


    So, what's your guilty pleasure?


    28 comments
    28 Comments
    C
    Cadet Stimpy
    Sep 23, 2021
    •

    Offhand, I'd say Tripoley is a highly qualified Guilty Pleasure for me, especially when playing with money (we always used pennies, being the high-rollers that we were). I actually own a copy, as seen below. I haven't played it for many years. 🙁

    Image Source: Me

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    G
    Gloomknight
    Jul 03, 2021
    •

    I would have to agree with your opinion of Friday as well. This is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. It was such an ugly game at first glance that I was almost embarrassed to put it on the table. Then, once I tried it I never looked back. I instantly realized my love of Deck-builders, as well as a deep appreciation for how much strategy and challenge could be packed into such a small game. I mean this thing literally beat me to death like I was the ugly stepchild and not the other way around. Definitely taught me a lesson. Now I actually think I like the art...

    But, the bottom line is: while I wouldn’t call it my all-time favorite, it will probably muscle its little green way up there, anyway.

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    T
    The Hank
    Jul 04, 2021
    Replying to

    I'm actually a fan of Friedemann Friese's games. I have some 20+ titles in my collection. Not everything he designs is up my allly, but he has made definitely some very interesting games. I like his way of manipulating and tweaking existing game mechanics into something new and funny. With Friday he has tried to touch upon the core of deck building aiming at chaining and creating value and options to mitigate the risk/randomness inherent in reshuffling your deck as well as getting rid of useless cards. On top of that the different difficulty levels really call for different strategies. Another one of him which I like very much is Finished. Quite unique as far as I know to create a circular deck of cards to play with. It's a kind of next level patience with a clever timer mechanism as well. You can argue about his choice of themes and artwork. I don't care to much about the themes in his games and in general I really like his cartoonish artwork. He really has set his own signature to gaming. I met him once in Essen some three years ago but he seemed to me not much of a talker, but I now do have some signed copies of his games in my collection 🤗

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    Z
    Zerbique
    Jun 30, 2021
    •

    I'm still trying to figure out what my "guilty pleasures" are. Sleeving cards and sorting out components? I sleeve cards more because I think it's fun that because I think it's useful (unless you need lots of shuffling as in a deck-building).


    Maybe jigsaw puzzles? But I don't feel any guilt. Quite the contrary!


    Perhaps more fitting: I still like Risk. To me it's a very cool game. Overlong, and with obvious design issues, but very cool nonetheless.

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    Z
    Zerbique
    Jul 03, 2021
    •
    Replying to

    @Gloomknight If you like Risk I recommend the "future" version, 2210 A.D., it's really good, but there it is quite a step up in complexity. However, it plays in a finite number of rounds, so it cannot last much more than 3 hours - which compared to Risk and its night-long games, is really something.


    Or you can have a look at the rulebook, see how the VP is handled, and adapt that to Risk without the rules overload.


    I also strongly suggest to adapt the rules for reinforcements, so that you get a fixed number of new troops per combo of cards.


    We should write an upgraded version of the rules taking all the good stuff from the Risk variants to streamline and improve the base game!

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    Gloomknight
    Jul 03, 2021
    •
    Replying to

    @Zerbique Yes, I’ve had my eye on this but never bought it. Also, Risk: Europe looks nice as well. Who wouldn’t want to play on a map of the Old World? As far as the ruleset for the base game, it definitely could use some tweaking, or even a new AI variant. Maybe its time I added some of these back to my collection again and consider it my new “guilty pleasure” as well. I wonder if playing it will be as fun as it once was after I take the nostalgia goggles off 🤓😍.

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    Zerbique
    Jul 03, 2021
    •
    Replying to

    @Gloomknight I have quite a few Risk board games... The three Star Wars. The two by Avalon Hill (2210 A.D. and Godstorm). The vanilla one of course. And Europe. I wish I had Lords of the Rings as well but... if I wanted it that deeply I would have got it by now, right?


    I haven't tried Godstorm (even though I think it might my favorite theme-wise) nor Europe. For Europe I'm on the fence: I have it new in shrink and it's now so expensive on the market that I'm tempted to sell it.


    I haven't tried the latest Star Wars (the one that is not really a Risk). But the "Original Trilogy" Star Wars and the Clone Wars one are both fun. Clone Wars is team-based: it's a 4p game, and that's it (perhaps 2p could work). It is also objective-based, and at some point you launch the "Order 66" which puts everything upside down. It's fun, thematic, and more punchy than the original Risk.


    The Original Trilogy is interesting but... it doesn't work as well as it should, imo. It's asymmetric: you have the Rebels, the Empire, the Hutts (you may play with 2-5 players, the Hutts being used for odd player counts). All have a different goal: Empire is galactic domination, Rebels is kill the Emperor, Hutts is getting target planets. But the Empire has a tendency to go turtling, the Hutts are a bit stuck as they are less powerful than the other players (and if one of their target is behind a "bastion" of the other team, it's over). Besides, you have lots of fiddly rules that doesn't interact well with each other, leading to many unsolved rules question.


    One Risk that looks very interesting mechanically is Starcraft. You have public objectives that brings you VP and you win if you are the first to get enough VP. So it should be much more dynamic than the standard Risk.

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    JW
    Jun 30, 2021
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    I still enjoy the games from my childhood: Patience and Yahtzee. A lot of gamers don't count them as "real" games, but I love them. I've even started logging my plays for them. 🙂 No more shame!

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    T
    The Hank
    Jun 30, 2021
    Replying to

    That's the true spirit JW! And man, I played Yahtzee a lot too and it's still fun every now and then: what to do? Should I give up already on Yathzee or push my luck a bit further...and what about the bonus points? Talking about pushing your luck: what about Can't stop? That must be the king/queen of push your luck games!


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    Athena
    Jun 29, 2021
    •

    I don't have any guilty pleasures in gaming at the moment but I always enjoy playing Age of War whenever I have company, even if (or because) it is a very simple game. You basically roll dice and hope to match icons on cards. The dice are custom and very well-made. The cards show Japanese castles. You fight for castle dominance, and sometimes steal dice from your opponents. I always have fun with it. 😊