c/board-game-geeks

Dominion night made me dislike the shuffle meta more

I mean, our group played Dominion every Friday for like 8 months and everyone fell into the same chapel plus lab combo. Last week I bought nothing but gold and skipped the engines, won by 12 points and nobody saw it coming. Has anyone else had a house rule to ban the obvious power cards and see what happens?

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riley595•2d ago

Spent $85 on a dice tower that yells at me now

Bought a 3D printed dice tower from a guy at a local con in Dayton, and the resin smell was so bad my cat knocked it off the table at 2am, cracking the base into 3 pieces. Now the dice come out sideways and my group jokes it's "rage rolling," has anyone else had a custom accessory backfire this badly?

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cooper.spencer•2d ago

I used to hoard every rulebook PDF until a friend in Boise showed me his 200 game BGG purge

I deleted 87 files I never opened and now I only keep the expansions I actually play, has anyone else cleaned their digital shelf and felt weirdly lighter?

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riley595•3d ago

That Kickstarter expansion sat in my closet for 3 years, never played

I backed a dungeon crawler expansion back in 2019 for like $85 because the miniatures looked amazing. By the time it arrived, my group had already moved on to another game. I finally pulled it out last month, tried to read the rulebook for 20 minutes, and just put it back. Anyone else have a big pledge they regret just sitting there taking up shelf space?

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charlie_stone72•5d ago

That $90 ergonomic dice tower felt pointless after two sessions

I bought a fancy wooden dice tower last month because my friends kept knocking over the cup. It looked cool and the price felt justified for the build quality, but honestly it takes up half the table and adds zero fun to the roll. My group now just tosses dice on a padded mousepad and that works way better. Has anyone else shelled out for a gimmick accessory and then gone back to the cheap solution?

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felix_martin56•13d ago

Painted my miniatures with brushes for 8 years, finally tried an airbrush last month

I always thought airbrushes were for pros with dedicated spray booths and too much money. Last month I picked up a cheap $60 kit just to prime and basecoat my Warhammer guys. The difference is insane, it took maybe 20 minutes to prime 30 models that would have taken me two evenings with a brush. But the real win was the zenithal highlighting, doing a white spray from above makes the contrast paints pop twice as hard. My buddy Rob saw the results and asked if I switched painting styles. Anyone else made the jump late and regretted waiting, or is the cleanup hassle actually enough reason to stick with brushes?

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logan_schmidt•13d ago

Ran a 5-player Dune game with the base rules, faction balance fell apart hard

We did a full 8-hour session last Saturday using only the base rulebook, and the Harkonnen just steamrolled everyone because the Bene Gesserit had no shot without the advanced alliances. I've run this game maybe 15 times with the expansion, but going back to basics made it brutally obvious the old balancing is broken. Has anyone else hit this wall trying to keep it simple, or do you just default to the expansion every time?

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lucaslane•15d ago

I finally found why my dice tower was so loud after 3 years

My group kept complaining about the noise every game night, so I tore the thing apart last Saturday. Turned out I glued the felt liner in wrong and it was rattling against the wood spine the whole time. Has anyone else traced a board game annoyance to a build mistake you made years ago?

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blair_butler47•17d ago

Vent: That $120 deluxe expansion was useless after 2 plays

I dropped $120 on the collector's expansion for a dungeon crawler and it's just a pile of extra minis that block the map. My group played it twice, said it felt clunky, and now the box is gathering dust. Anyone else regret a big box buy that sounded great in theory?

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betty_ward•17d ago

My rulebook storage hustle took 2 days, not 20 minutes

I wanted to reorganize my 60+ game boxes so the rulebooks stop sliding around. Thought it'd be a quick afternoon thing. Nope. Sorting by game weight, alphabetizing, and fitting those weird folded maps into plastic sleeves ate 6 hours on day one. Then I needed label stickers and a second bin because my shelf layout made zero sense. It took me two full evenings and my dining table looked like a game store exploded. Anyone else sink way more time into box organization than the games themselves?

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logansullivan•20d ago

Wasted $220 on a crowdfunded dungeon crawler that never shipped

I backed a Kickstarter for a dungeon crawler with miniatures back in 2021. The updates kept saying delays from shipping and mold issues. After 18 months I asked for a refund, but the creator went quiet and the project just died. I got maybe 30% of the minis painted before I gave up hope. That money could have bought 3 solid games off the shelf at my local shop in Portland. Now I only back projects from established publishers with a track record. Has anyone else lost cash on a crowdfunded game and found a way to get any of it back?

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patricia385•21d ago

10 rounds of Dominion later I finally read the rulebook

I played Dominion with my group for about 6 months before someone pointed out that buying multiple copies of the same action card lets you play each one, not just one. I thought it was a bug in the rules, so I checked the manual at a game night in Austin, and sure enough, I had been nerfing every deck we built. My friend laughed and said it explained why my win rate was stuck at 2 out of 12 games. Has anyone else had a rule you missed for way too long that changed everything once you caught it?

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sam_harris68•21d ago

My 3-month Gloomhaven campaign died because of a cardboard divider

The divider between the map tiles and the enemy tokens collapsed during setup last Tuesday, and suddenly every monster type was mixed into one giant pile. It took me 45 minutes to sort it back out only to realize I lost two cultist bases somewhere in the mess. Has anyone else had a storage insert just give up on them mid-game?

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chen.hugo•21d ago

That $140 Kickstarter miniatures bundle has been sitting unassembled since March

I got caught up in the hype video and backed a game called "Forge of Embers" or whatever it was. Pledge manager arrived, I added all the extra mini packs, shipping was brutal. Total came to $140. The game itself plays fine, but the minis are these tiny fragile pieces needing glue and patience. I have a 3 year old and a job, so no chance. They've been in a ziploc bag under my coffee table for 6 months now. Anyone else pay way too much for extras they'll never touch? How do you force yourself to either build or sell them?

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the_sage•22d ago

Lost a full campaign save card at Pax Unplugged in Philly

We were 14 turns into a Gloomhaven scenario last Saturday at a convention table when the table next to us knocked over our drink tray, and the save card I'd tucked under the board got soaked and unreadable, so we had to restart the whole thing from scratch, has anyone else lost progress to a flimsy drink holder?

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danieljenkins•23d ago

Two player co-op games with my wife, dice luck killed it

Last month my wife and I picked up a popular co-op dungeon crawler because we wanted something to do on Friday nights. We tried it three times and every session ended with one of us getting hammered by bad rolls while the other sat there with nothing to do. Then a friend loaned us a game where you flip cards and manage a shared hand instead of rolling dice. That made all the difference since we could plan around what we actually had, not pray for a six. We finished two campaigns in three weeks and actually talk strategy instead of blaming the dice. Has anyone else switched from dice driven co-ops to card based ones and noticed the same thing? I am curious if it is just our luck or a real pattern.

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grant.kevin•23d ago

Focused on winning every game for 10 years, now I just want a fun story to tell after

I used to be the guy who'd read every rulebook twice and calculate every move, but after a 4-hour game of Twilight Imperium in Seattle last Saturday ended in a tie nobody cared about, I'm starting to think the best moments are the ones where everyone's laughing at a dumb mistake, so which do you actually play for, the W or the memory?

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jade618•24d ago

My friend's dice tower advice was dead wrong, and it cost me a tournament round

Back in March at the Salt Lake City game con, my buddy swore by a felt-lined dice tower for reducing crazy rolls. I built one from scrap wood, and my dice bounced so wild they left the tray twice in 3 throws. Turns out he had a misaligned inner ramp for 2 years and never noticed. Has anyone else gotten stubborn advice that just made things worse, or was it just me?

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holly_flores79•25d ago

Serious question, why does everyone treat their first wargame like some kind of test?

Back in 2019 I had to choose between buying Warhammer 40k starter set at Forbidden Planet in Chicago or the older but cheaper Battle for Macragge off eBay. I grabbed the cheap one for 60 bucks and spent 6 hours gluing those old plastic marines together, then got my ass handed to me at a local tournament. The rules were fine, the models were fine, but I learned way more from losing to a guy who ran Guard with three Leman Russes than any tutorial. Anyone else pick the ugly, cheaper option and actually stick with it longer because of it?

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grant569•27d ago

Took me 45 minutes to fix a rulebook typo that confused everyone

I was teaching a game night with my group in Brooklyn and kept getting asked the same question about scoring... turns out the rulebook had a sentence that said 'gain 3 points per set' when it meant 'gain 2 points per card'. I spent the whole pause between rounds flipping pages and checking online forums. Realized later the errata was posted 6 months ago but nobody reads those. Has anyone else found a tiny error that just breaks a whole session?

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the_leo•28d ago

The game night host who ruined deck builders for me forever

I went to a weekly game night at a local comic shop in Portland, and this one guy kept telling everyone they were playing Dominion wrong. He said we had to follow the tournament rulebook or it didn't count. He spent 45 minutes explaining optimal turns while three of us just sat there waiting. I stopped going to that group after 2 months of it. Has anyone else had a game group get wrecked by someone who takes everything way too serious?

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betty_shah•28d ago

Pro tip: I stopped organizing my dice by color and it saved me 15 minutes per game setup

I used to sort all my dice into rainbow rows before every D&D session, but after a marathon 4 hour game last month where I kept losing track of my d20s, I switched to just tossing them in a single pouch with a key chain loop. Now I grab what I need by feel, and my group hasn't had a single argument about 'whose dice are whose' since. Has anyone else found a weird hack that speeds up your game nights?

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uma896•1mo ago

I picked a heavy euro game over a quick party game for game night

Everyone always says party games work better for a mixed group, but last month I brought out "Brass: Birmingham" instead. Seven friends actually stuck with it for 3 hours and three of them asked me to teach it again next week. Has anyone else taken a risk on a heavier game and had it pay off?

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oscarwilliams•1mo ago

Found out my favorite board game from 2019 has a hidden rule that changes everything

I was reading the rulebook for Terraforming Mars again last night and discovered a rule about standard projects that I've been ignoring for 4 years. It said you can use those projects to claim milestones and fund awards, which I never knew. Has anyone else stumbled on a rule they missed for years in a game they play all the time?

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the_jason•1mo ago

Dropped a 1000 piece puzzle in the middle of a game cafe last Saturday

I was at Game Haven in Portland with my group, we were about to start a round of something heavy. I stood up too fast and my elbow caught a shelf, sending this huge box of puzzle pieces everywhere. The owner just sighed and handed me a broom while some random guy yelled "catan would never betray me like this." Has anyone else had a public board game disaster like this?

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