Hey guys, I'm looking for a little help. Wallybee is of a mind to buy me a board game for Christmas (shock!). I'm looking at either Agricola or the Battlestar Galactica boardgame. (BTW, with the fall in the Aussie dollar, either choice now costs in the order of A$140 here.) Agricola has the advantage that you can play with two people, and I am impressed with comments that you do get caught up in the internal game logic rather than feeling like you're just maximising arbitrary VPs, for most of the game at least - but the BSG session reports sound like such fun, and just the sort of thing I'd enjoy.

So, since I've played neither, I was wondering if anyone else here has, and had an opinion? Thanks in advance.

I've played The Gric, and in fact we're having Agricola Day tomorrow. I notice it's shot up to #1 on boardgamegeek. I'm not entirely sure why, but I like it quite a bit. It is fine with two people, although better with 3 or 4. And it's cute! And you really are doing internal game stuff.

There's a little bit of a learning curve, and a whole lotta setup (not quite as bad as Puerto Rico).

We just ordered BSG for a friend (who idolizes Roslyn and Cain, but that's another story), so I haven't played it yet. I HAVE played Shadows over Camelot, so I was pretty much sold by the review that said BSG was similar except the traitor mechanic worked better (that's game mechanic, not viper mechanic). And, you know, pretty pictures of pretty people.

Kevin, re

I've made the mistake of giving my character skills which revolve around sneaking and stealing, and in a post apocalyptic world those aren't the most useful skills ever.

I refer you to Zero Punctuation: [link]

Raq, okay, you've made me feel better about my skill set choice now. I just need to start stealin' stuff, methinks.

I have to admit, the game looks AMAZING, but I'm struggling to figure out what to do in it. I can't progress the main quest because I'm a weakling, and I can't blow up the bomb thing in Megatron 'cos I can't have the skills.

See, Raq, that just makes me want them both (still). I'm not saying this isn't helpful, but Wallybee might say it isn't helpful.

I have, however, already discussed with my brother which of his friends might be in for BSG.

Has anyone seen this article in the SF Chronicle? Some board game love: [link]

We actually played Amun Re, rather than Agricola. Amun Re is another classic Kniezia bidding game, which means I lost. Other aspects too; one thing I noted was that while you can hold an unlimited number of cards, it doesn't guarantee victory (unlike Ticket to Ride, for example).

The guy we got BSG for? Got us BSG.

This happens with one gift every Christmas...the first time it happened, DH and I got each other Wadjet, which is a very pretty, very broken board game. Since then, either we will get each other the same thing, or someone else will get us the thing we got them. We call it "wadjeting."

Credit Crunch, the board game, from The Economist.

"Spouse defects to a better credit risk. Move back three spaces."

The Great Depression produced Monopoly®. We can beat that!

My parents got me Far Cry 2 for Xmas. Any fellow Buffistas got it?

I beat Mirror's Edge on Friday. It was pretty fun, but I thought it could have stood to be cooler.

Right now, I'm almost done with Dead Space, which is AWESOME. I keep marveling at how good this game is.