We’re back in Derail Valley to discuss board games. I was supposed to be discussing the merits of board games rather than video games but I lost that thread really early on, probably while I was talking about my cool grandmother and dungeons and dragons (which I played waaaay before you did, so shut up about your half-orc bard already). Also covered, why Pandemic is a good game and really isn’t.
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Great stuff! I still play the Avalon Hill, Squad Leader/ Advanced Squad Leader board games at best 4 times or less each year, it requires deep thinking people, that's why we drink beer, smoke cigars out on the deck on a nice day at the lake and no one will give a flip!
Yeah we tried playing Pandemic with a friend who was less familiar with the rules, so all of their turns were basically dictated by people who knew the game better.
learning to enjoy losing is hard.
yes, especially when you cheat!
Thanks for the topic Andrew, I'm thanking you because so far this was the best of the series. So yea, thank you.
None of these have been bad Colonel, don't get me wrong. I personally want these to be more about the topic than the game and this one was moreso than the first few.
Keep it up, looking forward to the next episode. Your friend, Miggs.
"Don't let the dice get in the way of the fun." are important and extremely wise words.
Loving this new series Colonel. I was a massive Paranoia fan, still am, but don't get much chance to play these days. As for board games. The two I loved was Buccaneer which involved pirate ships and had no dice, everything was controlled by cards. And Escape From Colditz, which was easy to understand, but took ages to master
Talisman – best game ever. Endless variety and you get to turn your brother into a toad.
Gran: I bought this D&D thing for your kids
Aunt: But its the work of Satan and will lead them into depravity!
Gran: Is it? OK I'll give it to young Failure.
@Colonel failure if you do another one of these, would you mind terribly turning on the gauge lights, it makes the guages so much easer to read. Otherwise grat vudeo as allwayse
I recently adapted the Avalon Hill game TITAN to Fantasy Grounds, an RPG campaign system. I can report Fun was had by All.
1982, I was -11 years old
My brother and mates (about 4 of them) played D&D amongst other similar board games back in the day, i tried to get into but myself and my weren't as inveseted. I was at the tender age of 11 at the time LOL
Been so long can't even remember all the board games we used to play. Tho we did play Stratego and alot of world war/scifi type games, we even had a place nearby that would host gaming sessions every weekend with hundreds of games to chose from and LARGE handcrafted models/maps for the war type games
Got to the pinnacle when the video crossover games started. Loved Nightmare and Atmosphere with the "VHS" game master talking you through the game creepily LOL
Intentionally losing at Uno is very hard when you are playing a small child and all you've got is a Wild and Draw Four Wild…It's much more fun when the teenagers are playing. They can be crushed ruthlessly.
I still have my original 'Monopoly' game with the original price tag of £1.75 still on it. My favourite game from when I was a kid was 'Escape from Colditz'
I replied to the Twitter earlier before watching this so here is my take.
Agency – the single most important aspect of any good board game. It’s your game, never the same in the confines of rules set before you.
As a man of a certain vintage, Monopoly, Escape from Colditz (Boxing Day every year must) are a given. Abandon Ship (still played by my grown up kids now) Trafalgar and Campaign too.
Really Nasty Horse Racing Game from the 90’s.
Todays vintages … Scotland Yard, Ticket to Ride.
The people you play with, incredibly important but a good game can turn the ambivalent to an enthusiast for one.
And it’s the Agency that will do it.
Really appreciate the informational content in this one as we have been looking to get into board games again for quite some time and the vast array at the local emporium is frankly overwhelming. I now have a handy dandy list. Solid.
Many thanks, Colonel! Great discussion
I have fond memories on 'axis and allies'. You started a weekend with setting up the board in about an hour and then try to replay ww2 in the rest of the hours in that weekend. Sometimes it feels like playing the war in realtime. I think mid 80's. You had all different rule sets.
I'm a DM and I've never read the entirety of the DMG. LIkely never will. The rules are more guidelines anyway. 😛
Used to cheat a monopoly…..looks at all the business games covered on the channel….Yeah that tracks 😉
L is for left isn't it? And R would be right, right?
I have a fair few board games. Monopoly, Cluedo, Kerplunk, Battleships, Connect 4, Snakes & Ladders along with a couple others. They go unused most of the time, partially due to being buried in a box under random junk we've nowhere else to put it, but also cos we don't have the time/space to play them.
We have card games too like Top Trumps and CAH but the time issue crops up again.
“It’s a parallel! I’ve created an inadvertent metaphor!” ❤️
So good.
11:38 Calling yourself an arsehole in terms of how you played Monopoly tickles me greatly.
I totally enjoyed playing BSG and the social/deception aspect of the game. It was always a bummer playing with the new person that didn't quite understand the rules and then immediately outted themselves as the cylon against the experienced players. The time to setup and actually do the game is bad, but it's a great night of drinking and many stories to be had for the deception and then shoving the president/admiral out of the airlock! 😂
Gosh, I'd forgotten Dover Patrol.
I learned not to mind about losing when the gang in the office would play Doom or Quake for an hour or so after stumps. I'm useless at shooty games. But playing as part of a team was fun and I was happy to be the guy that would trigger the trap or get all the other team to reveal their hiding spots by running in, even though I would inevitably die and have to rejoin the team from the respawn point. My game name was "Cannonfodder".
Friend Computer approves your high rating of late 80's Paranoia. Please pick up your orange security upgrade conveniently located in the Ultra Violet compound of Alpha Complex.
Great video Colonel, I played snakes and ladders with my daughter when she was about 5 or 6 and she just kept on winning even when I was trying to win, that then put and end to any board games for me… 🤣 Thanks for sharing!
Number one rule, play games that suit the group, one bunch of friends are like yourself Colonel, lots of interaction and laughs-go to games are Coup, Cosmic Encounter and the magnificent Cockroach Poker. Other bunch, worker placement, best game there is Orleans-what a magnificent game.
Playing the wrong game with the wrong group, that can be a tough evening.
But no matter the group and the game, just have fun with friends and family.
So much fun with Diplomacy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(game) ) in the eighties. A game of politics an deceit for 7 players. Me mum baking hamburgers for the lot….good memories.
A game started at 10 am until 11 pm….really long but fun nonetheless
I'm very much enjoying this new format Ted Talks is using. Their new host is very entertaining.
How this for religious zealots( some of my peoples history),
In 1788 when white genocidal christians landed in Australia, They where horrified that woman in Aboriginal society had equal standing with men, they where included in all civil matters including law, These white christians then started killing whole Aboriginal communities, Men woman children new born`s because my people refused to deny the rights of woman who had had those rights for over 65,000 years.
Great video. It feels like board games (and RPG systems) are a bit like music, they get more and more noodly with a more simulationist approach meaning more tokens, decks of cards, and intertwined systems until it reaches a critical mass and you get a punk explosion of simple fast playing games that just focus on one kind of interaction and do it really well.
The punk version of Battlestar Galactica for me is The Resistance, it has the hidden traitor in a team of people trying to do something feel with a few cards and a fraction of the play time.
I love Dominion; perfect game. Settlers of Catan is a great gateway game, too.
I'd forgotton about Paranoia and Cosmic (Comic) Encounter.
I used to play these back in my university days (early '80s) and thouroughly enjoyed both of them
Thanks for the memories!
One 'low entry' game I quite enjoyed was SPIVs (Self-Propelled Interstellar Vehicles).
Lots of fun – and the kind of game I imagine the Colonel would like.
I've been fortunate to have been born into a board gaming family. Yeah Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble were around the house. But it was the 3M classics that got played. Acquire, Mr. President, Stocks & Bonds. There was also APBA, of course, as my dad had been playing APBA Baseball since he was a kid. I think we had got Settlers of Catan in '97 and it's been gaming heaven ever since.
Colonel, I could listen to you ramble on any day of the week. This series is fantastic, absolutely love it. Cheers
"A lot of great things happened in the mid to late 80s" – I'm one of them!
We like Settlers of Catan and various expansions.
Pandemic legacy was fun.
Stratego is a gussied-up version of a much older game called L'Attaque! This was one of a threesome done in the same style (cardboard units in little metal stands). L'Attaque! was land warfare, Dover Patrol was the naval game, and there was an air game as well the name of which I don't recall. All dated back to about WW1.
Good show, Colonel!