Epic games I would love to have a chance to try are probably (as mentioned by others above)
18XX
Splotter
War of the Ring
18XX feels so intimidating without a guide, but I imagine I’ll pick up some Splotters at some point. WotR I would also need a partner for.
I took the plunge on 18xx.games and it was great. Having all the bookkeeping and edge cases taken care of really lets you focus on the game itself. And the interface, while a little geocities in appearance, is really well thought out for game clarity.
Didn’t help me win at all, but it was an easy way to try it out.
I’d be up for another round of 1889 or 1846 (next week) if people in this thread want to try it out.
Jennifer Lawrence of Arabia
Im always up for both
Sorry… Jennifer Lawrence and/or Arabia?
Yes (10 chars)
I’d be interested if the table is open for more
I’m pretty sure it’s a domestic romance.
Not a comedy? Terry and Dune?
Or a musical?
Love has flown all alone
I sit, I wonder why-yi-yi-yi
Why, you left me
Oh sandySandy, sandy, why-yi-yi-yi-yi
Oh sandy
It turns out that the internet has been here before…
(Complete with the traditional A.I. hand horror.)
The hardest thing I found when picking up this hobby of ours is that the games are too short.
Now, I say this because I come from a background of roleplaying games and computer games. When I was a youth, a single RPG session could last 4+ hours and the only thing we accomplished was burning down an inn or possibly coming up with 3 or 4 nicknames for the NPC dog we met. Computer gaming wise, my history included MMO-style games, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress, etc. Before I had an excess of adult responsibilities, I wasted most of my time pursuing gaming and mostly computer gaming at that.
It takes longer than 30 minutes to learn how to play most computer games, these days. You could be an hour into a new game and still be following the obnoxious and mandatory introductory tutorial.
The few board(-adjacent) gaming experiences I had before this were, besides the usual Monopoly and Clue(do) fare, were things such as the 2002 Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Boardgame, StarCraft: The Board Game, Apples to Apples, and some occasional (proxy-based) Warhammer (Fantasy/40k). Things that were EPIC in time-on-table, but not necessarily interesting-decisions-per-hour that I would expect these days.
Cut to learning about board games and getting to make interesting decisions, but like… a total of 12 actions and then we learn the final score. And the whole thing is done in 20-30 minutes.
Very much this.
However, when I started learning about the hobby, I enjoyed how sleek a lot of the experiences were. I started to appreciate how an entire arc of a game could take place across just a dozen actions, and then we can box it back up and find a new, sleek experience in the next box. These elegant games were entrancing and exciting.
But I still wanted epic. I remember a friend organizing an Alchemists game and loving every brain-aching minute, despite it taking 4+ hours. But at this point, I was already expecting my first child soon and I knew my days of epic games were over for the time… I just didn’t realize how long that time would persist.
These days, I mostly play solo games. And I do love some epic solo games. 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties is my favorite of the bunch. A solo session will take at least 3 hours, and that’s if I’m already warmed up on the rules and have some of the heuristics pre-loaded into my brain (usually because of having also recently played). Normally, I’d expect to spend about 5-6 hours on a solo session of 1862… which is hard to do without a mandated break in the middle; and that feels distinctly less epic (but probably should feel more epic… hmm)
Multiplayer epic experiences are pretty rare for me. Hopefully in the next couple of years I can start making plans to do game days and/or event days at the local gaming convention.
The games:
Playing catch-up with a few topics tonight: forgive me.
Personally, as a soloist who rarely has time for a game of more than 90 minutes including setup/teardown, I find a lot of games are too long. I think I only have one intentionally “epic” game going by the 2.5 hour guideline: my favourite Statis Pro Football which would often take 3-4 hours for a good intense duel game.
I remember a few long games of Kingmaker in my late teens but then we were mostly roleplaying, when a typical session was 4-8 hours long easy; we tried a few allnighters and two or three 24-hour long sessions, although playing a few different rpgs to share the DM/GM-ing.
Of my collecction I can see a few of them might take 2 to 3 hours with a bigger group though, namely:
A few of those I can easily get through a solo game in an hour or so though, but I can see the scope for longer plays when considering a group of 4 or more players. A personal pipedream project would be to use my collection of Last Night on Earth box sets and map boards (including the base game with the Growing Hunger, Timber Peak and Blood in the Forest expansions) to create an extended “Left 4 Dead” style map or campaign.
I’d love to try a few epic games one day, if I find a group locally and ever get a day or long afternoon to play something like Twilight Imperium or maybe an 18XX title or long wargame.
I’m also catching up.
Epic is an area my collection is much more… reasonable. As others, I used to really enjoy a full day (or overnight) game session. These days it’s not just hard to schedule, but I don’t know if I could sit through it. And, if I did have that long of a time, I’d likely choose a shorter game and then catching up over a meal. Social time is as precious as gaming time.
Also, most of these I haven’t played, or haven’t played more than once!
Epic Duel:
Epic Normal:
Played
Not played
I have these hopes that, in the future, the Friday after Thanksgiving, New Years Day, and Father’s Day will become Epic Games Days for my family. Those are all quiet days that aren’t really claimed by structured traditions. Maybe, maybe.
I still love Archipelago, I think it’s great. Tend to leave out the Separatist though; not a massive enthusiast for hidden traitors. But that’s all fine and included as a valid option in the rules, so its not cheating.
Why would you list a solo-game here 
I think that epic duels are not my thing. Unless you count that almost every more complex game with my one semi-regular 2 player occasion turns epic because my friend tends to be very… thinky.
The most epic (both by game length and complexity) game I’ve played in 2 player mode recently is Revive by the way and I doubt that counts.
I am almost sure I am not interested in putting this one before other players as opposed to Pax Pamir 2e. Meaning: If I had a group that I could feasibly put this in front of I would probably go for PP2e instead.
Having seen comments and the SUSD review, I am wondering if this hits way differently for anyone from UK … much like Weimar is a vastly different proposition for me than for most of you (not that I have played it)
There really isn’t much overlap, if any, between Pax Pamir 2e and John Company 2e. One is low randomness card game with area control, the other is a very high randomness negotiation game. That said, I can kind of see that you might not know people who would play either, and Pamir is the easier of the two to table.
Well, it does for me. There are people in the UK who claim to regard the conquest of India as a good thing for the Indians, and of course modetn politics would like to encourage them to do so. I don’t know whether they would regard JC2 as insulting or just play it straight.
I actually think John Company 2e might be easier to table for non-“gamers”, I always find teaching Pax Pamir 2e tricky since the systems all intertwine, and it takes a while for new players to start to understand all the actions and card play. Whereas JoCo you can literally jump in without knowing how to play as long as someone can walk you through your role when it gets to you. And if you play cooperatively for the first round then the negotiation stuff reveals itself in round 2 or 3.
If you are playing with people experienced with board games then Pax is much more familiar as a competitive game. JoCo is so chaotic and luck-driven that if you’re looking for a competitive experience you’re going to be disappointed, at least until you grok how much negotiation really is the core of the competition.
I don’t think I’d want to play JoCo with people who weren’t looking to engage with the colonial aspect of the game, but maybe that’s true in Pax as well… I’m not sure that the satirical aspect lands if you’re not already on board with the core messaging (although I’d love to hear any anecdotal evidence that I’m wrong)
Played some Molly House recently and was pleasantly surprised with how difficult it would be to play without engaging with the themes.
I was thinking about having to explain difficult-to-teach rules in both terms and also my table is more likely–and has done so–to host a game of PP2e than any negotiation game seeing how badly Zoo Vadis was received recently.
