Favorite Board Games

[CombatEX]

Thanks Eijolend! Looks awesome (not to mention Mages are always my "go to" class in any game). Too bad the only boardgame my friends play anymore is Catan. I don't know anyone willing to play these more involved games. Maybe there will be an online version someday...

Anyway, here is a game I came across a few months ago when it was on kickstarter.

Infinity Wars

It's not a physical card game, but a digital one. I played MTG briefly during Mirrodin block (something like 8 years ago?) but haven't bothered with a TCG in a long time. This game looks interesting though so I'm going to keep an eye on it. Some of the cool things about it are:

+ No getting mana screwed
+ Cards that change the terrain with visual feedback
+ Animated cards
+ Each faction has a distinct flavor
+ Each deck has 3 commanders*

*These are cards that can be chosen from any creatures from a common to a rare or epic. You can play your commanders at any time for their cost and they have haste. This makes for some very interesting strategies. You don't need to rely on drawing your commanders and the fact that you can use their ability or attack/defend with them on the first turn opens up a ton of possibilities.

Another interesting idea is morale. You lose the game if either your base health OR morale goes to zero. I'm not sure how much this adds to the game, but I like the concept so far from the cards I've seen that involve it. Essentially you lose morale when your creatures die. This opens up some new avenues for victory like a deck that focuses on destroying creatures (or 'characters' in this game). Again, not sure if this really contributes much, but we'll see.

My primary turnoff for this game is the fact that it is a TCG and I've grown out of the idea of spending money on cards (especially digital cards?!). In fact for the last few months I played MTG my friends and I just made decks that were pretty much entirely filled with proxies. All the fun with none of the spending. So anyway, I'm not sure I'll actually bother with it, but I figure for people who are still fans of TCGs it's worth mentioning. Some interesting concepts and the graphical feedback from morphing terrain along with animated images is nice.