Planet M.U.L.E.

I noticed that a lot of you fellow MULErs like board games as well.  Here are some of my favorites (which you can look up on www.boardgamegeek.com if you are not familiar with them):

Settlers of Catan
Stone Age
Kingsburg
Pillars of the Earth
St. Petersburg
San Juan
Carcassonne

The list goes on, as I have many favorites.  If anyone wishes to learn or play any of these let me know.  It would be a pleasure.

I learned of MULE, back in the 90's, from the same guy who introduced me to Escape from Colditz. Fun times.

If you like MULE.. and board games.. you'll LOVE Agricola.  Ranked #1 on BGG... check it out!

If you love Mule and Sci-Fi, you should check out Race for the Galaxy...

Data2008 LOVES Race for the Galaxy.  And I do too.  Dude, you really need to put netplay into that single player version so we can play online.

What about Power Grid?

I find it too a good economy system simulation...

I haven't played that yet, though I am anxious to learn. They have it on BSW as well.

Who can tell wether Race for the Galaxy is better than Puerto Rico?
I wanted to buy RftG, but i found out Puerto Rico is better rated. Suggestions?

I have played both extensively, so I would argue that both are excellent games, and vary in what they achieve:

Puerto Rico takes longer to setup and also a bit longer to play with same players compared to Race.

Race has been developed specifically as a card game variant of Puerto Rico.
It therefore squeezes all the good elements of Puerto Rico into a cardgame.
Both games are unique, though you can tell the roots of Race when you know PR.

The difference is:
Since Race is a card game, the luck factor is dependend somewhat on the cards you draw, although Race does a very good job at minimizing this as much as possible by giving the cards multiple usage also as money. Puerto Rico is the more hardcore of the two, although there is a factor in PR that has been elegantly eliminated by Race: You can get lucky if you sit next to a (new) player, that does suboptimal moves which help you get an advantage!

This is eliminated in Race with a hidden, simultanously role choosing mechanism and the fact that players don't interfere with the other players cards (at least in the basic set, which is really all good by itself and doesn't imho need any of the expansion cardsets).

So I would guess Race is a safe bet to get into the game mechanism and Puerto Rico should be checked out if you want to master the very same game mechanism with a group of dedicated players.

There is also a very good tutorial video for Race, so this also would speak for Race as first choice for testing it out:

http://www.weihwa.com/~whuang/videos/rftg/rftg.html

Conclusion: Both are excellent games that would appeal to anyone liking Mule or resource related games in general.

I think San Juan is worth mentioning here as well.  It's basically the card game version of Puerto Rico. It's much less complicated to learn than both PR and Race, and its a great way to get the feel of the genre.

So... if the two games are so similar, why is RftG considered as the game not to present to non-gamers, while Puerto Rico tends to be more successful with them (at least according to BGG)? Consider that I would also like to introduce some non-gamer friends to Eurogames...

I highly suggest you start with a "gateway" game like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride.

Settlers +1  :)

Smallworld
Muchkin[1]

[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_(card_game)

Personally, I'm a Talisman fan.  I have all 4 versions of the release game...
-S

People who like M.U.L.E. should definitely look for economic and/or auction-based board games. Here are just some suggestions:

Power Grid (a great game, quite demanding)
Goa (trading and auctions)
Santiago (auctions and farming, simple rules)
Modern Art (an elegant little game, the ultimate auction game really)

All these games require a little bit of thought, so they may not be suitable for introduction to board games. M.U.L.E. players should have no problems though.

If I had to choose between Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico, I would absolutely pick PR. Though both RftG and San Juan use some mechanics of PR, they are card games and quite luck-driven. In PR there's not much luck involved. RftG has about as complex rules as PR. San Juan is somewhat easier.

Ok, I will take my time to decide (more tips are welcome).

Now... I need a card game/filler too. What is your opinion about Dominion? Is it better than RftG?

Completely different game, but Dominion is a great game as well.  Less complicated to learn than Race for the Galaxy.  Also a different theme.

Two big ups for Dominion - it is the most accessible boardish card game I've played in a while; it's enticing to both non-gamers and gamers alike, is endlessly replayable, and fills the urge to build interesting "engines" using game mechanics.

You can play Dominion online at www.brettspielwelt.de.

i'll second race for the galaxy, very good game. puerto rico and saint petersburg, also good.

comparing the two, i'll say i've once played six games of RFTG consecutively, it's a lightweight game and each game is very different. puerto rico is fun but, you only really want to play it once or maybe twice, because it's usually the same experience.

i think modern art is pretty crude by auction game standards, and power grid is really really heavy (3 hours is my record, although i think the game can go on indefinitely)

my favorite haggling-style game is bohnanza, although i don't really like the game all that much. but, it's a light game and fun to play with friends. easy to teach, and enough luck that it's fun even for first time players.

I'm teaching my wife how to play Kingsburg tonight, wish me luck :)  She has started to like Stone Age, so I'm hoping this won't be a difficult transition.

good point with the board games... i like all those like power grid, puerto rico, race for the galaxy, dominion, etc... if any mule players want to play dominion sometime, let me know... i actually was playing that online a lot until i saw mule come along... i haven't been back for online dominion since :)  but i will play dominion at home with my wife... she tolerates it and seems to like it even!

so many c64 games were good... i still play quite a few time to time on my c64... i can't say i have any definitive favorites... whenever i fire it up, i tend to just play a game or two of whatever i end up playing for that day... mule tends to be one of those ones though that i can play a few times before i got tired of it even with the c64 AI

this online version is awesome... i'm anxious to try the new updated future mule version... i'm also curious what the price will be on this or what the situation will be :)

Thanks for the tips! I bought Race For The Galaxy and can't wait to play. I am also going to check out Dominion at BSP.

Mole: were you successful teaching Kingsburg ;)?

Tell us how you liked it !  :)

Online settler's of catan: http://games.asobrain.com

Niiice board games,,, love them :)

Battlestar Galactica is one of my favourites atm!

My favorite board game is 2x4 duelling. Two or more players grab stout 2x4 boards and beat each other with them until all the other players are unconcious or submit.

We did that, only with foam-covered sticks.

That doesn't sound nearly as interesting. It's not even a board game anymore when you don't have boards!