I ask because im in general looking into more and more games lately, and FFG tends to make (from what ive seen) concistantly very high quality games. I ask this question here, to Arkham Horror players because AH was my first FFG, and also so far, my favorite.

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Pertinent Information:
Arkham Horror - The first FFG game I bought, I have all the expansions, and it remains my favorite game from FFG. I love the thematic nature of the game, Co-op, and Difficulty

A Game of Thrones Board Game - The second FFG game I bought, I love all things GoT period, but ive always loved strategic war games.

Game of Thrones LCG - Although I love this game, I dont think I could get into a second LCG at the same time as this one.

Mansions of Madness - Fun game, alot of rules for the keeper but once you get it down its cake. I like this for alot of the same reasons I like Arkham Horror even though the games are vastly different.

Battlestar Galactica - This is a new Acquisition for me, we have only played it once, I love the idea of a enemy perhaps playing against the group the whole time until the end, though it did not seem like he had much of a shot. Ive already ordered the first expansion for this game hoping it will make the game better (as ive heard online)

Twilight Imperium - Again this game is fairly new one of mine, but so far I absolutely love it, Ive ordered both expansions (just waiting on amazon)

(The next games are ones that friends own but ive played)

Death Angel - Fun interesting game, makes me think of Aliens which is awesome, and very difficult also a plus, and unlike most FFG games, its pretty short.

LotR the Board Game - We played this once, I didnt like it much honestly, we lost at the end, but even so it never felt difficult *shrugs*

Warrior Knights - While I liked this game OK I think it may have suffered from a lack of 6 players at the time. Also im told the expansions really makes it better so this one is kinda in limbo for me.

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Now with that information, what other FFG games should I look into? I love highly thematic games, high levels of strategy, and coop is nice but not necessary. Im just asking because there are so many games available and general curiosity of what others who love AH also love.

Thanks in advance!

Love Mansions of Madness through and through.

Descent was an enjoyable experience for me.

Love Doom and its expansion

Android.

Damnit.

As Tibs said, Doom was a wonderful game. I'd love to see a new Doom set in the Twilight Imperium / Warhammer 40K universe, but I hardly think it will ever happen. Sigh.

As for other games… Wiz-war is really good. Very dynamic, brilliant, always fun and - a plus for me - even if strategic, it's kinda quick: one hour, and you have a game completed. Infiltration is also a good one: few rules, but clever dynamics and a thrilling experience (it's not so easy to escape from the facility, and remaining into the building means instant defeat). If you'd like to try something more challenging, you can go with Fury of Dracula: all but the combat system (really luck based) is *great*

Are you saying Android is good? The damnit is throwing me off

Julia said:

Ive always been curious about Doom (more for my love of the game series then anything ive ever heard about it). What do you mean set it the TI universe? like as a playable race, or Doom setting using TI theme?

Ya I could probably use more Quick games, as much as I love TI, AH, MoM, and GoT they are all VERY lengthy games, I pretty much have to dedicate the evening to one of those then fill in the rest of the night with games like munchkin, Catan, Ticket to ride, ect. Fun games, but more of a simple kind of fun. Ill definately look into Wiz-war and Infultration tonight.

As for Dracula, whats good about that one? Just based strictly on name, if I was to see Fury of Dracula I probably would never have given it a second glance lol

By a considerable margin, my favorite FFG game is Battlestar Galactica. It's probably my favorite board game.

After that I think it's Doom. I really regret not getting the expansion to that, but my friends aren't in to it so I seldom play it. I really dislike it when games go out of print. Oh well. I like Descent a lot too, but Doom's theme appeals to me much more. I grew up playing FPSs, not AD&D.

War of the Ring is really good as well. Along with two, they were the first to FFG games I ordered. Sadly, it almost never gets played. The only person I've played it with lives >1000 mi from me.

The last game I like enough to have it be worth mentioning is Fury of Dracula. I like a lot of the mechanics to that game.

Having written all of that I'll point out that every game I listed has two sides with a good vs. evil thing going.

Julia said:

I enjoy Wiz-War, but I can't take a game like that too seriously. Everyone gets one treasure and then it's just a matter of someone getting lucky/unlucky and getting the second point.

After my last play of Fury of Dracula, my group has concluded that the black die isn't fair. I think It seems to roll a lot of sixes. I think I might roll it a bit during TV commericals and collect data.

dwightsboardgame said:

::laughter:: funny thing, my black die keeps on rolling 1s… ::facepalm::

As for Wiz-war… well, it's a little "comic book style" indeed, but still, I've had several games very tense until the end, especially f you play three of four wizards. Not so easy to find the proper timing to attack and win

NateWolfman said:

Like using the TI races and in general the settings. The idea is to have back a *difficult* game. Oppressive. Dark. Challenging. Doom was something incredible, it embodied your worse nightmares and kept you *all* the game under pressure. It's a blast (I'm still playing it, after 50+ games, and I still feel the same, even if I've played the core dungeons to death)

NateWolfman said:

Yeah, the length is a major issue sometimes. You'll find Wizwar and Infiltration very strategic even if they are kinda simple. If you tend to play in 4, Blood bowl is also a good, fast pacened game (difficult in strategy, but we usually end our evenings holding our belly, aching for the too many laughters. Love it)

NateWolfman said:

Dracula is a mind game. Most of the time you tend to corner the Vampire while moving the Hunters after discovering some of the cities he passed by. You have to think a lot, interaction between cards is good, and there is a lot of gothic theme in the game. High replay value: even if the idea is always the say (Dracula moves secretely through Europe trying to build an empire of vampires and you have to stop him before it's too late), there are really tons of possibilities to value, and it's always a very tense game. Definitely recommended

NateWolfman said:

Yeah, it's awesome. In scope and scale, it's as big as Arkham, with literally tons of things you can do. But the problem is, you really have to invest in the game and in your character to get the full experience. In Arkham, you pretty much solely care about your character as far as his stats and abilities go, but in Android, you have to manage your characters personal life, weighing it against solving a crime and uncovering a conspiracy, and eacch of the five characters requires a completely different play style. It requires a lot of dedication to play.

And because of that, none of my friends will play it with me.

Master Fwiffo said:

Sorry to hear that, but at least you woke up my interest in the game. Does it require a lot of time to rebalance some stuff? I've read some severe critics saying that it's completely off balance if you push certain aspects of the game, and this was a huge turn off for me

Julia said:

I haven't had enough experience in playing it to make that call. That said, I *can* believe that possible since there's so much going on in the game, but I haven't seen those same reviews.

Double posting here, but these reviews are what led me to buy the game, and after the one playthrough I've gotten, I can agree with both of them.

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Thx for the links! I've bookmarked them (no time for reading such long comments while at work), I'll go through them later on today!

It's not FFG, but the games that see my table are 7 Wonders and Settlers of Catan (or rather my Ameritrashed hybrid which takes about 4 hours to play, see http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/755085/session-report-barons-of-catan-an-advanced-settler).

Descent and Runebound used to see some action, but Descent is a rules nightmare, and Runebound lasts too long to hold my interest, even when we fixed some of the downtime issues by moving to the AH phasing system. I don't own it, but I've enjoyed BSG when I've played it.

My next FFG purchase is likely to be Talisman The City, but that's a nostalgia kick as much as anything else.

Arkham Horror is obviously the best.

I love the Call of Cthulhu LCG, which in my opinion is one of the best collectable style card games out there and is also a Lovecraftian game.

The Lord of the Rings card game is rather good but infuriating at times, but it can be played solo which is what clinched it for me.

Talisman is another recommended one. I used to have the entire Games Workshop 2nd edition version with all the expansions, but I feel that FFG have done a much better job with the game that GW did.

Blood Bowl Team Manager… not being a Blood Bowl fan I wasn't sure that I was going to like this but after a few games I think FFG are on to a winner. It just needs a couple expansions to add new teams (I want my undead!).

Otherwise I have to be honest and say that while FFG do make some good games most are far too complicated and in depth for my taste. Arkham Horror is about as far in depth as I want from a board game.

I'd be a little skeptical about whatever negative things have been said about Android. Apart from whatever issues people seem to have with the various mechanics and how they relate to the theme or each other, I'm aware of two complaints that often come up:

The silly complaint is about the conspiracy, which is one of the sources of VPs. Apparently, in some groups, all the players go straight for the conspiracy and use up all its tiles in the first few days. I haven't ever encountered this phenomenon with the various people I've played with, and in my opinion, it's the result of a bad case of groupthink that leads some tables to overvalue that one mechanic. People have proposed various "fixes," some of them quite simple, but honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.

The legitimate complaint is about the dark cards, some of which are indeed very powerful. Some characters can lose all their favors, others can lose a turn, others can get dragged to the far end of the map, and so on, and if you leave yourself vulnerable to the wrong one, it can set you back a lot. Unfortunately, this is one of the things Fwiffo alluded to that just requires a real investment in the game; the only way to be safe is to study all your characters' Bad cards to know what can happen to you and plan your risks accordingly. Alternatively, I did (cough, shameless plug) write a strategy guide to help make things easier.

But in any case, it's an extremely Kevin Wilson-y game, and anyone who really likes the storytelling feel of Arkham Horror should at least try to check it out sometime.

Another suggestion which hasn't come up yet (and speaking of the TI universe) is Rex, which I still have not actually played, and this makes me very sad. It's a retheme of the classic Avalon Hill Dune game. Very strategic, negotiation-heavy, with wildly asymmetric player abilities (which I often find to be thematically enriching). (And speaking of asymmetry, theme, and Android, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my current crippling obsession with Android: Netrunner.) In much the same vein, there's Cosmic Encounter, which seems to have a pretty substantial following. I like it okay, but the aliens sure are interesting.

Subochre, thanks for the link and the reasoned guide throught Android. You touched a point I was considering yesterday: the KW-style of games. Actually, all of the games KW wrote I tried (I think all the FFG ones but Android e Civilization - my bad, still in my shelves, but for some unspeakable reasons we always end up playing something else) had something of pure genius inside, so, as a fan, I should really give Android a try.

I guess I'll wait until Amazon lowers a little the price, and maybe around Yule I'll pick it up