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My go to would have been Deception: Murder in Hong Kong which I think needs between 6 and 9 players to really shine, but discounting social deduction, I’d look at Captain Sonar. The downside there is the player count is brittle… I do agree with @Zipheir that Bohnanza works well from 4-7. If 6 is acceptable, Point Salad is fine and that means you don’t have to sort cards as you use them all.
Really, after 6 people, we break up into two groups. I mean, sometimes we break up at 6…
We borrow like 90% of the time. In an overall group of approximately 35 people (and maybe 25 households), we strive for an overlap of about 2-3 copies except on really popular stuff (e.g. Just One) where I think there are 7 copies across the group. When we sell games, we give each other the first option so it doesn’t leave the group and if nobody picks it up, then it leaves at a convention or sold on BGG. I think we have one, maybe two copies of Catan or Power Grid in the group, and a lot of games we just have one copy of.
I think one thing that is important to keep in mind on the topic of “when do I break this rule vs borrow” is that I think it matters how much notice you’re willing to engage in. Speaking at a purely personal level, if I want to borrow Power Grid, it would be with a couple days notice and I’d either bus over or meet them somewhere for a hand off. Generally, once I want to borrow something, I’m willing to make some effort for it vs just hoping they bring it to a meetup. If I was driving 45min to get to a gaming location though, I’d rethink all of this…
I paid my stuff, but only if I know I’m keeping the game/minis. For example, I have an Arcadia Quest set and I paint those cause I know I could repurpose them for other games if need be. Conversely, I’m not painting my Cosmic Frog set yet cause I don’t know if it’s staying or not.
The hassle of getting that green goo stuff to strip paint turns off a lot of buyers, and there is something about accepting your own mistakes vs mistakes of others…
It’s definitely possible Meta could try to warp the Fediverse so that it kills all instances other than their own.
This is my primary concern; if smaller instances say “we will block them on sight and anyone who federates with them as traitors” then it’s a matter of getting the largest instances to go along with it and suddenly you’ve blocked a large chunk of users due to the fracture of smaller ones trying to defederate their way out of the problem and into a different issue.
I think @JakeBacon has a reasonable take, there are some upsides, and some downsides. I don’t think there is anything that is gained by pre-emptively doing anything though. If they run their own instance, see what it does and then decide accordingly.
I skimmed the review looking for the answer of “but why this over Crokinole” and then got to the end and laughed.
Crokinole is our favorite dexterity game, and my recommendation is to go to a convention and play it and see if it’s worth it to you. I know at Origins and Gen Con in the US that you find some nice boards available for use and people to teach. I think the Mayday boards are acceptable for learning and futzing around, but not for competitive play because of how they are finished and setup (IIRC, they sand, apply poly, and then paint the lines on, you should be doing it the other way around). If I was on a budget and could get a cheap Mayday board, I’d be willing to do it and then look up how to work on the board’s glide.
I’ll keep an eye out for Menara now though, thanks for the heads up.
Big week for me given it was Origins:
Dien Bien Phu: The Final Gamble (2p) - This was my first game due to a confluence of events preventing me from playing earlier in the spring. I’d read the rules and sort of gotten prepped and did pretty well. The French suffered from terrible rain and thus has trouble countering my VM offensive on the North. In 6 hours we finished 1/3rd of the game. It’s just sort of a monster. I have a copy, and I’ll get it played some more, but because it’s as much a sim as a game, I don’t know that I’ll end up keeping it.
Fire in the Lake (2x 4p) - Annual long scenario game with friends. Last year we squeezed in two in the 8 hours we had allocated and this was no different. My VC won on the first coup card cause everyone else screwed around and I triggered appropriate events. Second game I wasn’t so lucky and the ARVN took it after a slog on a late 3rd coup. I think there are some real downsides to the COIN structure (bottlenecks of information planning, how the deck functions with initiative, etc), but we sit and shit talk and otherwise catch up (cause none of us live in the same area currently) so the time isn’t bad.
Mushroom Eaters (4p) - this was my one weird contribution to the con. I go to Origins most years because I want to play games I otherwise can’t play at home. I had a copy and few people do so I brought it. This was less like watching a tribe go on a spiritual journey, find enlightenment, and then select a new shaman (which is the thematic victory), and more watching Ren & Stimpy take drugs and get lost in the woods.
Container (5p) - This is my other annual obligation but this time it’s with people that, at one time, all lived in town but many have moved away and we only get to see them at the con. I won by about $30. Newbies and rusty players almost always overpay at auctions and thus just hand victory margin to the shipper(s).
Two Rooms & A Boom (11 iterations) - The best game I had was the one where we helped (through an informal lieutenant system) everyone except for MI6 and Red Team all met their victory conditions. I love playing this at cons (because it’s more about information trading than about raw deduction), but I’m tired of effectively babysitting a bunch of <10yr olds cause the parents deposit them there and then go play Werewolf or watch the Smithee awards.
Virgin Queen (6p) - TLDR: Abysmal start and then a slow climb out to what we all thought was a T5 victory, only to re-read the rules (after the fact) and someone else won a domination victory on T4. I like the story it makes when we play, but damn if the game isn’t slightly overwrought…
Gardeners (2p & 3p) - Met up with another friend I only see at cons and we did the this and the two Japanese games which were new to him. Gardners is a cute riff on Magic Maze. I think it’s best at 3, and cromulent at 4.
Madrino (3p) - This is borderline an activity but it’s hilarious to play. We rolled 4 toilets the entire game for fixtures, so I plunked them all in the same room with one on one side and the rest all facing it and named my house the Evil Plumber Lair.
Izayoi (3p) - New to both my spouse and our friend. I lost it near the end of the game when I realized that I would get stuck with one of the trinkets which pushed me over my master’s point limit. I really need to sleeve my cards for this if it’s going to stick around.
Light weight: 6 Nimmt
Medium weight: Ginkgopolis
Heavy weight: Fire in the Lake
Your most played game of all time: Wizard (we’ve worn out 3 sets, and everyone in the family has sets. There was a solid decade where we played it constantly)
Your favorite game of all time: That’s a decent question. I have games that I’m quite fond of, a bunch of 9s on BGG but no 10s. There is nothing I have with over 10 plays right now that I’m of the opinion “wow, this is both a game I really like, and one in which I see as a clear first among equals.”
I can understand that line of thinking. In this instance, I think I’m w/ @bionicjoey on this one. If it was a choice of use their app or pay, I’d have paid. I refused to use New Reddit on the PC. I know folks that have gone to using the new app though (even knowing what we know now) and I guess that’s ok. Their choice and all that.