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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/74661938
I recently got back into board games (thanks Tabletop Simulator!) and I found a couple Weird West board games while browsing boardgamegeek. Has anyone played these games? Have you found others you would recommend? I'm mostly interested in co-op games but that isn't a hard rule.
I haven't played any of these but so far I've found:
- Shadows of Brimstone - This seems to be the most popular board game when it comes to a Weird West setting since it has about a hundred expansion packs. It's co-op (so I'm interested) but the rules might be a bit too complex for my simple mind. I'm curious about this one.
- Grimslingers - First of all, I'd just like to say that "Grimslingers" is a fantastic name. I think this one is primarily a card game but it has both a co-op and versus mode and the rules seem less complex than Shadows of Brimstone, so again, I'm intrigued.
- Dracula's America: Shadows of the West - "It is 1875, and Count Dracula is President of the United States of America." Now that's an attention-grabbing intro! I think this might actually be a game that uses miniatures from Shadows of Brimstone to set up its own wargaming scnearios. So I think it's just a rulebook and you're expected to provide your own miniatures to setup a game.
- Grim West - This game came out in 2026. I guess it's a wargame that uses a standard deck of cards? I can't tell if buying this game just gives you the rulebook or if it requires anything more than a single deck of cards. I think the "game" might just be a single pdf rulebook?
This is what happens when I just blindly browse boardgamegeek. I come across games that sound like they have a cool aesthetic or setting but then I can't tell if it's a board game, a card game, or just a rulebook. That's why I wanted to reach out to this community and see if anyone can give me actual recommendations.
I've wanted to play Shadow of Brimstone ever since I saw the Inside the Box episode about it years ago, but the price, space, setup time and prospect of painting hundreds of minis has kept me off. Maybe I'll look into TTS, it hadn't even crossed my mind.
Yeah, it's funny - we loved the premise, kickstarted it, and have the whole game (all of the expansions, everything) sitting on a shelf. We played it a few times, but it's such a massive slog that unless you've got a dedicated game room where you can leave it set up between sessions, or have very long game sessions, it's prohibitive to play.
Then we found it on TTS and played it a lot.
Same problem that Kingdom Death: Monster (which is one of my favorite board games) has - buying it is only really worth it if you're an enthusiast and want to dedicate a shelf to the minis and display them, or want the physical boxes. If you just want to play the game, TTS is far and away a more accessible option.
How is the setup time compared to Gloomhaven? That's kind of been in the same boat for me
I've only ever played Gloomhaven on TTS, so I can't really compare to the physical game setup time, but based purely on the number of components, I'd estimate it's pretty close. Table space requirement is probably similar, too (or greater in SoB, because the 'maps' you're making from the puzzle piece terrain are larger and more sprawling in Shadows of Brimstone).
Kingdom Death: Monster? Well now I have another game to check out on TTS!
KDM isn't wierd west, so it doesn't really fit your recommendation request, but holy cow it's fun. It's brutally difficult, though; if your group isn't okay with setbacks, including losing their favorite character to an RNG event, it might not be for you. That said, it's got crazy good atmosphere and storytelling... if you like the body horror theming and fairly grotesque aesthetic..., and it's very deep. If you want to win the game (and aren't cheating), expect to have to play it multiple times from the beginning - it's usually not a game where you can just rewind 1 combat or event and be fine; when you lose, it's usually the result of cascading losses piling up over time, and by the time you realize you've lost, it's hopeless and the actual turning point was usually many hours of gameplay prior. A full game is 30 combat encounters, and each one typically takes an hour or more, so it's not a short haul.