Board Games! (and card games too, I guess)

[FoulVileTerror]

Seeing @ZorkNemesis mention some board games in the tabletop roleplaying thread made me figure:   We need a thread dedicated to board games.

 

So, quick list . . . all the classic Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers games, give or take a few dozen.  Always had a soft spot for Clue and Battleship, even when I couldn't play them worth crap.  Risk and Monopoly can go die in fires (not that they're bad games, per sey, but they have a way to inspire murder of one's family).  Yahtzee, Mouse Trap, Connect Four, Operation . . . basically anything that had a television advertisement during the 80s.

 

In the last twelve years or so, though, we can add some more interesting board games to the mix.  Arkham Horror, Lords of Waterdeep, Pandemic, NetRunner, Settlers of Catan, Twilight Imperium, et cetera.  We're absolutely spoiled for choice these days!  I'm so sad that my local geek convention was closed this year (even with covid's interference).  It was a wonderful place to try these games for a very affordable price.  The local board game cafes too.

 

And, of course, this list wouldn't be complete without mentioning that:  Yes, I have dabbled in the Gathering of Magic.  The most fun I had with it, though, is watching Loading Ready Run play the RoboRosewater draft.  Beyond that?  bleh.

[FrauleinMental]

In a rough preference order:

• Terraforming Mars is perhaps my favorite board game.  (The Steam version is a decent adaptation of the base game.)
• Black Orchestra is good for a tense "kill Hitler" game.
• Battlestar Galactica is an amazing traitor-mechanic game, but don't bother with any of the expansions.
• If you're a Doctor Who fan, Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks is pretty faithful to the feel of the show.
• I've spent a little too much money on the Arkham Horror Card Game.
• Pandemic is fun and tense, but maybe we've had enough of 2020.  Pandemic Legacy has spoiled me for the regular game, though.
• Robo Rally is fun, but I really prefer to use the timer.

Edited October 14, 2020 by FrauleinMental

[ZorkNemesis]

Hey, I inspired something!  I love board games and always enjoy getting chances to play them with friends and family.  Some of my personal favorites:

 

Terraforming Mars is pretty recent, but I enjoy it when I play it.  Last time I played I managed to snag up all the special colonies (I had Noctis and Phobos) while also churning out VP every turn by turning titanium into warships.  That was a fun round for sure.

 

I'm always down for some Munchkin.  I have the first seven expansions, along with some crossover promotionals like the PAX pack.  Things get real crazy when you start factoring in the expansions.  Add some beer and it's a good time all night.

 

Scrabble is an old favorite.  I used to play it with friends in high school during our study breaks on slow weeks.  One time I even got my English teacher in on it and won against him.

 

My brother and his wife enjoy playing Pandemic and I get in on the action.  It can be difficult but co-op board games are enjoyable and tend to not end with people sleeping on the couch that night.

 

6 or 7 years ago I was bit by the Magic the Gathering bug.  Spent a good year collecting cards and testing my mettle at a local comic shop that held Friday Night Magic sessions.  Played during the Innistrad/Return to Ravnica period where multi-color decks were everywhere and dual lands were more prevailant then basics.  My career wasn't a very noteworthy one however, as I was only in the top 8 once in that span.  The only deck that managed that was a blue/black deck themed around rats where the primary gimmick of the deck was to force my opponent to discard their hand then swarm them with rats that could multiply.  It was a nasty deck when it worked as it left my opponent with few options and even penalized them for having an empty hand (ran 4 copies of an enchantment that dealt 3 damage each during standby if their hand size was 0 or 1).  Innistrad mechanics of being able to play out of the Graveyard made the strategy a little less effective however and sometimes even backfired spectacurally as a result.

 

Cards Against Humanity, I used to play that weekly with some of my old internet friends (we played a web version).  So much fun and of course all the awful answers.

 

Other fun tabletop games: Foxhound where one player is a fox and the other is a hunter with a pack of dogs.  The fox has to survive by locating 3 specific tiles out of 20 while the hunter had to trap the fox with his hounds before then.  Also Settlers of Catan, Exploding Kittens, The Resistance (i'm a terrible liar), Axis & Allies, Superfight, Photosynthesis, and so many more.  I love tabletop games, but just need a few more friends to play them with.

[Ejlertson]

Some favourites.

 

*Cthulhu Wars:

Areacontrol, power management, diplomacy and fighting with The Great Old Ones and their servants for the dominance of earth.

 

*Arkham Horror The Card Game:

Co-op deck building with investigators trying to prevent the awakening of Great Old Ones by thwarting cultists and monsters in campaigns set in the 1920ies.

 

*King of Tokyo:

Giant monsters fight for dominance of Tokyo. Great filler game or with kids.

 

*Junta:

Play as the leading Junta of a banana republic. Backstab your way to have most money in your Swiss Bank account when the game is over. If backstabbing and assassination attempt fails you, make a coup and let tanks roll in the streets. 

 

 

[Techwright]

My former roommates and I always enjoyed Scotland Yard, a board game by Ravensburger.  I never understood why it was originally marketed as a kids game.  It proved to be very challenging for adults.  The premise is that one person plays Mister X.  His job is to avoid all other players playing Scotland Yard agents.  The board is a stylized map of London, and all players move using taxis, buses, or the underground.  The difference is that the detectives have a limited number of passes for each mode of transportation, while X has unlimited.  X also can use a "fog of war" feature to remain unseen for several moves at a time, though he must appear periodically as defined by the game.  The game concludes either by X being corralled by detectives blocking all possible moves, or by X outlasting his opponents limited passes, effectively escaping.

 

Probably my other favorite board game is Avalon Hill's Rail Baron.  It's akin to Monopoly for railroads, but rather than squares, you buy, trade, and move on historic railroad lines.  The game is out of print, but many copies can still be bought on ebay and such.  There's also a fan group's free digital work resurrecting the game as a computer version, which I find speeds up the game considerably.    You can learn more here;  https://www.railgamefans.com/rbp/

[TheOtherTed]

I was addicted to Avalon Hill back in the day - most notably Civilization (nothing to do with Sid Meiers) and Diplomacy.  Just as Hervor's sword Tyrfing could not be unsheathed without drawing blood, neither could these games be opened without being played.  Just, you know, no blood involved.

 

Risk was a favorite with my college crowd, but personally it left me flat (weird, given my love for Diplomacy).  So I introduced them to the card game Illuminati (by Steve Jackson Games), and I don't recall playing Risk after that.  However, that sort of ended after I set out to show just what the Society of Assassins could do...

 

Played a lot of Starfleet Battles as well.  Loved it, but to be honest, I never really got the hang of it.  Then a buddy introduced us to "play by mail" games (no internet back then), and those pretty much took over.  After that, I never really got back into board games again, not even computerized versions.

[Coyotedancer]

I used to spend a lot of time playing one called Broadway with friends... I had great luck every time I picked Oklahoma! to take on the road, for some reason. South Pacific hated me. <_<

 

We also spent a fair bit of time playing Talisman. Between the group members, we had almost all of the expansion boards... and actually played one game using ALL OF THEM. It covered a university conference table and took most of a Saturday to finish.  

 

Past Lives was another fun one.

 

My latest addition to the Coyote House collection is a gorgeous euro-style cooperative building game called Tang Garden. It's just gorgeous, but we haven't had a chance to sit down and play it yet. I also just bought a copy of Settlers of Catan as a Christmas goodie for my middle nephew. ^_^

 

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[Techwright]

On 11/27/2020 at 6:49 PM, TheOtherTed said:

I was addicted to Avalon Hill back in the day - most notably Civilization (nothing to do with Sid Meiers) 

Although I've always liked Sid Meiers' Civilization, and played countless hours on various iterations, I LOVED the Avalon Hill game, just could never seem to coordinate a game with friends, probably due to the time factor.

 

You've brought to mind, however, that there was a fan's online effort years ago to port the board game over to digital.  I need to see if there was any success.  I'd love to have a version that let the computer speed things up a bit.

 

EDIT:  and almost immediately, I discovered it:  http://civ.rol-play.com/ahciv/login.php?horde_logout_token=O0kPoR2fK703JnAhdhztbOkFlxQ&app=horde

 

While on the topic of Avalon Hill, they had another great board game, not well-known apparently: Source of the Nile.  It's another I wish had been ported over to a digital game.  It's essentially a "Lost World" genre, like the works of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, just without the supernatural elements.  Set in late 1800s Africa, it lets players assume the role of explorers, with only the coastlines of Africa known and set.  Each move inland renders a different tile revealing a map unique to that game (no real-world African interiors), with rewards or disaster resulting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_of_the_Nile_(board_game)

Edited November 29, 2020 by Techwright

[Judasace]

On 5/13/2021 at 6:21 PM, WilliamJack said:

For me, one of the best board games is a monopoly. I don't know any person that doesn't like to play monopoly. We still get together with our friends and playing this game day and night. It's fascinating. Also, I love to play poker, but we play only with boys and with a bottle of whiskey. We talk about all political changes and having fun of them. Anyway, another game will always have a special place in my heart. It's solitaire online that I play every day before sleep. It's my first card game that I learned to play.

 

Monopoly is fun for the first little bit, but it's one of those games where it becomes painfully obvious who's going to win after a couple of trips around the board, and then it's becomes just an exercise in rolling the dice until the other players run out of money.

[Xeres]

I loved monopoly and chutes and ladders and life.  But I really really liked Axis and Allies.  I also had Fortress America and did some research with Jane's in the library to create a WW3 version on the AA game board with the Nato vs Warsaw pact, China, The Arab League, etc.

[Thrythlind]

Sentinels of the Multiverse, naturally... such an upbeat superhero universe. Love the characters.

 

Call to Adventure is one I've found recently, it's basically a writing prompt in a box... very cool. Has a competitive scoring mode by default, but I don't really care. I just like the cool stories you build with it.

 

Arkham Horror is a good classic, I got the remake recently and haven't tried it yet.

 

Betrayal at House on the Hill is great, my family finished a run of Betrayal Legacy recently (good-ish ending get)

 

Marvel United is AMAZING.

 

Moonrakers is a cool experience, somewhat Firefly-ish, space-opera freelance flyers doing jobs.

[RufusPentecost]

Since it isn't out yet, I can't say whether or not this board game about Spectre is any fun, but sure looks cool...

 

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/48966/no-mr-bond-i-expect-die-spectre-the-board-game

 

 

[Grey-Ghost]

In no particular order, but games I enjoy

 

Rococo-Build suits and dresses for Nobles, quite fun good mechanics

Space Base-A fun roll and build a point engine game, everyone seems to have fun in this one

Last Will-Think of 'Brewster's Millions' set in the 19th century. First to lose all their money is the winner

Wingspan-A bird migration game, good bird information and an amazingly competitive game

Navegador-Explore the route to Asia via Portuguese explorers and Indian Ocean trade

Terraforming Mars-Others previously have said it better, but nuff said, it's a great game

Royals-A light enjoyable game about dominating control of the Courts of Europe

Underwater Cities-A heavier, longer game about building and supplying cities on the ocean floor

[TheOtherTed]

On 5/22/2021 at 5:48 PM, Judasace said:

 

Monopoly is fun for the first little bit, but it's one of those games where it becomes painfully obvious who's going to win after a couple of trips around the board, and then it's becomes just an exercise in rolling the dice until the other players run out of money.

I was never good at Monopoly.  The only time I enjoyed playing it was in the early 90s.  I installed a computerized version of the game on my old 8088 (four whole colors?!  Wow!!), and my roommate stumbled across it while perusing my games directory.  He'd never played it before, never even heard of it, but when I described it to him, he had to play.  He was a dual physics and math major, and I think he thought that would give him an edge.

 

It did not.

 

He amassed more properties than me, but after an unlucky die roll he fell into the trap of mortgaging properties that I'd already passed in order to unmortgage properties in my path.  He was counting on a big pay-off that would end the game, even after I explained that 1) such a pay-off wouldn't happen if he didn't have houses on his properties, 2) he was losing 10% extra with every unmortgaging, and 3) my cash reserves were staying steady while his were slowly declining.  After that, it became a social experiment to see if the Man of Math would ever actually, you know, do the math.

Edited August 26, 2021 by TheOtherTed

[Kyksie]

I gave up on Monopoly 20 years ago. In a 1v1 game, the optimal strategy is to buy absolutely everything, even if you have to mortgage.

 

Multiplayer introduces deal making which adds another layer. But, if you have a group of peeps together who want a game, there are better choices then Monopoly.

[krj12]

I've always enjoyed playing card games, unfortunately everyone I played with has passed away. 😞

Some of my favorite games:

1.  Rook  ( Kentucky rules, not in the game manual )

2.  Uno Spin ( again, we made up our own rules to spice it up )

3.  "May I"  - a variation of Rummy

4.  Scrabble

 

 

[DougGraves]

I prefer cooperative boardgames, coming from an RPG background where you work together.

 

Eldritch Horror is my favorite.  Arkham Horror has more of an RPG feel, but Eldrtich Horror has better boardgame mechanics and is less frustrating.

 

Firefly amazingly captures the feel of the show and is a fun game.

 

Legendary is a fun deck building game with a marvel superhero theme.

 

Forbidden desert is a fast and fun cooperative game.

 

---

 

Robo Rally is great fun, but I don't own it

 

Arkham Horror I liked but have not played it since we got Eldritch Horror

 

Junta I played decades ago.  It was entertaining.

 

King of Tokyo is fun.  I like King of New York better with the added options for fighting the army and destroying buildings.

 

Pandemic I enjoyed for awhile but it became too mechanical for me.  There is basically just a best way to play in my experience, so it became routine.  But my wife loves it.

 

Settlers of Catan is fun but can be frustrating.  I prefer Starfleet Catan which adds some character cards that reduce the frustration a lot.  The same rules are also in some Settlers expansion, but I don't have that.

 

Betrayal on House on the Hill is fun.  We own the Betrayal at Balder's Gate which is the D&D version of it.  My daughter loves the games.

[Coyotedancer]

'Just got a new one... a very complicated conquest-style game with gorgeous miniatures called Ankh.

I'm sitting here grinning over the game pieces, trying to wrap my head around exactly how to use them all in play. 

[InvaderStych]

Lots of good stuff in here.  Glad to see the "Betrayal..." series getting so much love.  A couple of games I've not seen posted but might have missed:

 

Quoridor - An absolute gem.  Picked up the mini version long, long ago on a whim.  One of those Easy Learn/Complex Play games.

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/624/quoridor

 

The "We Didn't Playtest...." series.  Surrealist Recommended. 😉

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31016/we-didnt-playtest-all

 

 

[Oubliette_Red]

Back when my friends and I leaved near each other and could gather every week, we'd routinely play some fashion of a d20 game. On the days we didn't we'd play one of the many games in my best friend's library of board games. I can't even name all of the games he owned but the ones I enjoyed the most were:

 

Settlers of Catan with all the expansions. We never did any "map" we would put the leaf in his dining table, lay out all the hexes face down and only flip tiles as they were explored.

Betrayal at House on the Hill, so random we had games that the betrayal might happen in 15 minutes of play or over an hour.

Carcassonne with all the expansions

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Colosseum

 

For card games we played a lot of Munchkin and Gloom.

 

One card game that I've played since I was a kid that can be played with 2-6 players, so really easy for a small group is Mille Bornes, a race to reach 700/1000 kilometers while slowing others with hazards like stops lights, speed limits, wrecks, flats and out-of-gas cards.

 

[RogerWilco]

I've played quite a few board games, but I don't remember all the names, only a few of the ones I own.

I think you find Settlers of Catan is a lot older than you seem to think, it's from 1995. I remember playing it around that time when I visited my sister.

I like Munchkin as well.

Boonanza/Bohnanza, Machiavelli and Koehandel are card games I like too. Koehandel doesn't seem to be available in English, but there are even championships for it.

The Lord of the Rings co-op game.

Terrafoming Mars and Ticket to Ride and Puerto Rico.

Targui and Carcassonne and Rumikub for some older ones.

And sometimes Axis and Allies, but that can take a weekend.

Even some really old ones, like Halma, Ganzebord (Game of Goose), Go and Chess.

 

If you want to be really immersed in boardgames, you should visit Spiel in Essen, take at least 2 days.

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by RogerWilco

[Techwright]

On 9/24/2021 at 6:23 PM, krj12 said:

I've always enjoyed playing card games, unfortunately everyone I played with has passed away. 😞

Some of my favorite games:

1.  Rook  ( Kentucky rules, not in the game manual )

Loved Rook back in my college days.  Friends and I would spend way too much of our study time in makeshift Rook tournaments. 

[Getaways]

I see a few on here Games on here I may have to check out myself,  so thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

My daughter and her grandpa used to play master and commander and she enjoyed it so much her grandma gifted it to her when he passed.

 

about a year ago my brother and I found my original heroquest board game and started playing with my daughter and nephew.  By the time we became interested we saw haslab brought the game back but we’re too late to join the campaign.  But we still enjoy our original set and the kids love it.  We try to get together every once in a while and run a quest.

 

there is a local place where you can go play old board games and we love to play fireball island. Haven’t seen the newer version but the old one was enjoyable.

 

fundex heist is another fun game.  Loved it cause it was small and portable so it travelled well on vacations.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it, since there's evidence online, but I used to love playing Gammarauders and no-one else remembers it. Intensely silly, easy to learn, satisfying to master. Hex-based strategy with giant customisable monsters (Hoags or Squawk for me), troops (known derisively as Popcorn), and Vehicles With Fins.

 

In more regular boardgames... never got the hang of or desire to play Monopoly, which probably explains the state of my long-term finances. Or chess, which also reflects a poor grasp of long-term planning.

Scrabble, on the other hand... BRING IT ON, SUCKER / dolt / dumbell / patsy / pigeon / simpleton / schlub / klutz (etc)

[Getaways]

Picked up Here To Slay by Unstable Games for Christmas presents.  Played a couple games with my daughter tonight and had a blast.  Rules can get a little complicated in a few spots on this card game but overall we enjoyed this one.  With 2 players the game was fun but I think this is one where more players = more fun!

 

base set and expansion are pretty inexpensive. However there are kickstarter exclusives (ended campaign) on eBay (expensive), That has more cards. But I would recommend the base sets on this game.