Any good board games?(Read OP)

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I am left with some money over after christmas and I have considered buying a board game to pad out the time when I am not studying/playing sports at college, the specifications are:

-Matches should last either on avg. or up to 1 hour
-The game should not be cumbersome(so I shouldn't require to use an entire table)
-Relatively simple to learn(no RPGs, those take a bit too much of a commitment)
-Matches should be fun to replay
-At minimum, should accommodate for 2 players
-The game should be easy to transport, and shouldn't have too many individual pieces
-Budget is about £25
-It can also be a card game

So far, I've been thinking something along the lines of Go or chess(but chess requires too much of a commitment, Go is simple) but I don't know all that much about board games, so It'd be nice if you fellow Escapists could point me in the right direction,

 

[Bored otter]

I'de go with dominion, a deckbuilder cardgame. But not sure what the prices are now.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'de go with dominion, a deckbuilder cardgame. But not sure what the prices are now.

The base game seems a bit expensive(amazon priced it at £75), but the expansions(?) are waay cheaper.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

We got Scategories this Christmas, it's nice and straightforward. Our trial game (5 players) was only 6 rounds long, but you could raise the point cap if you wanted it to be longer.
By a similar token, Apples to Apples is probably my current favourite board game if you can find it (rated 13 and up).
Clue is an oldie, but a goodie so long as people don't try to cheat.

 

[Bravo Company]

"Cards Against Humanity" is an absolutely hilarious game, it does require an appreciation of satire and the ability to take a joke. It is "Apples to Apples" but with different card types and responses. Its the most fun in a larger group. However it is very easy to transport and set up with almost no learning curve. The starter set is $25 (~15 pounds)on Amazon


I've heard the game "munchkin" is fun, I've never played it so I don't know much about it.

 

[Strain42]

Munchkin is pretty fun, but admittedly not for me. Like I'll play it with friends but I personally wouldn't buy it.

I think it may be a bit out of your price range but I personally love Marvel: Legendary, a co-operative deck builder.

Another super hero game that I dunno if you'll be able to get your hands on or not is Justice League: Axis of Villains. It's kinda like Castle Panic, but with DC characters (which I guess isn't a helpful description if you don't know what Castle Panic is...and Castle Panic is also pretty fun, I'll toss in a recommendation for that)

If you wanna look into it, I also recommend Smash Monster Rampage. This game was recently funded for a more professional release, but apparently a print and play version has been available for a while now.

http://www.smashmonsterboardgame.com/

So I guess the total cost is just whatever you decide to spend to print stuff (and you'll need some dice, but I'm assuming you already have some, and they're cheap)

 

[Flutterguy]

I've trouble thinking of any really great boardgames that fit your categories, Risk and Illuminati card game are favourite to play with my friends.

Although Scattergories and Pictionary would be my two favourite for an hour or less with minimal explaining.

 

[shootthebandit]

Monopoly pretty much meets all of the above criteria, its a classic and everyone knows how to play it

You also said card games. Why not texas hold 'em? All you need is a deck of cards and some poker chips (which could even be as simple as bits of paper with denominations written on them), you can get everyone to put a tenner in and last man standing takes it all or you can just play for free. Its so much fun especially if you get a few crates of beers

 

[Launcelot111]

I'de go with dominion, a deckbuilder cardgame. But not sure what the prices are now.

The base game seems a bit expensive(amazon priced it at £75), but the expansions(?) are waay cheaper.

I see the base game for Dominion as $30, with a deluxe version that's $75. Granted, this is US prices and maybe they are doing something weird with UK pricing, but 75 pounds seems way high. Dominion is a classic though.

Beyond that, Smash Up and King of Tokyo are fun and fairly light games with good themes that would last 3-4 players about 30-40 minutes.

For larger groups, I like the Resistance: Avalon and Bang. Both revolve around secret identities, with Avalon being a fairly intense social experiment of a game and Bang being looser and a bit goofier.

For a bit more complex games, you could take a look at Summoner Wars, Race for the Galaxy, Castles of Burgundy, Twilight Struggle, or Power Grid.

If you're really into the abstract games along the chess/go lines, Abalone is a solid choice. I don't have too much experience with abstract games though.

Last thing: if there are any local board game stores in your area (as opposed to big boxes or Amazon), it's worth checking if any have a dented/scratched section. One place near me takes anything with the slightest bit of damage and slaps a 50% discount on it. I've found some great games for dirt cheap in there.

 

[Callate]

I've recently become fond of Kingsburg, which has simple mechanics that are pretty easy to pick up. But it seems to be running about £35 on Ebay, according to Board Game Geek.

Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are both classics among board gamers of the last decade or so, though Catan requires three players. As long as you play without expansions, both can generally be played out in about an hour. Carcassonne involves building a world out of tiles, so it tends to take over whatever space is free, though. Conversely, however, it tends to play out quite differently each time, so it definitely fits into your preferences there.

 

[Souplex]

If you can track down a copy of "Mutineer" do it. It's a fun card-counting resource trading game. The only catch is that it's only in German. Everything is symbol based though, so if you can find the rules online, you should be completely fine.

"Pandemic" is good if you're into cooperative board games, or "Ghost Stories" if you want a punishingly hard cooperative game.

"Coup" is a 10 minute game of bluffing, bullshitting, and card-counting. I'm not sure if it can be played with two people though.

"King of Tokyo" is a 10 minute Godzilla themed competitive game by the guy who designed Magic.

 

[Drummodino]

Settlers of Catan is pretty good, although it does rely a lot on luck. You roll dice to determine what resources are distributed per turn and you use those resources to expand your settlements and grow your nation. You can trade with other players too. Fun for 3-4 players, never lasts more than an hour and won't ruin friendships.

 

[SlaughterPriest]

Look up 7 Wonders on boardgamegeek.com it makes for a rather enjoyable game. I particularly enjoy the card drafting mechanic it uses, plus not knowing who is going to win until the score is counted means no one is going to feel put out and try to quit because they're losing.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

What do you mean by chess requiring "too much commitment"? You know you don't have to "study" chess or go pro to play it, it's as good as any other game to pass time. You can be as intelligent as you want to be when playing. Alternatively "Stratego" is fun. And Battleship.

 

[doggy go 7]

I'd recommend hearts as a good card game, it's fairly simple, really fun, but does only allow for 3/4 players/teams. Another card game is one I don't know the name of, but it's an easy enough game I can just say the rules and hope someone else can name it;
- get however many players there are, and split up the entire deck between them as evenly as possible
- lay the cards out a bit like solitaire (ie 5 columns, with the first having one card, the next two, next three, next four and next five, with all cards except the top one facing down)
- each player should have a deck left over, take the first card from each and lay it face up in front of you
- place cards that are either one above or below the card on any of the piles (including other players) flipping over the cards in your solitaire thing when the top of the column is removed (you can also combine cards that have the same number on that, but you can't out two 4s down together)
- as soon as one player runs out, hit a pile, aiming for the one with the least cards
- take all the cards you have, combine them into your personal deck, and start again
- if someone doesn't have a deck, they have an empty pile, which is still hit able at the end of a round
- the winner is the person who has no cards at the end of a round (so they must hit an empty pile after having no cards)
I've just remembered, the game's called spit, so google if my rules are bad XD,

As for a board game, my personal favourite is a fame called ticket to ride (the American one, not the European one, which has more rules and is less fun), but that's more for other people reading this, as the board is biggish, and there are a fair few pieces

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

What do you mean by chess requiring "too much commitment"? You know you don't have to "study" chess or go pro to play it, it's as good as any other game to pass time. You can be as intelligent as you want to be when playing. Alternatively "Stratego" is fun. And Battleship.

It's a way of me saying "I don't get it"/"I am too bone idle to take the time to learn the rules/they confuse me slightly".

I'm just not a chess person.

 

[Naeras]

There's a slight problem with your list: most good board games cost more than £25. If you've got the budget to go up to £40, the amount of possibilities expand tremendously.

The only games I know of that would fill every of those criteria would be Guillotine or Fluxx, as both are quite a bit cheaper than most other board games I know of, and the game box will easily fit in your pockets. They're still pretty damn fun, mind, especially Guillotine. If your budget can't handle more than what you mentioned, get that. You're guaranteed to get some fun out of it.

Still, if you slightly raise the price point, you're bound to get more out of it. For the aforementioned £40, you can get your hands on the following gems:

Ticket to Ride
Hands down the best family board game in existence. It's incredibly simple to get into, plays fast and interestingly, and at the same time has a lot of strategic depth. If you're only ever going to buy one board game, this one is it. It's not my personal favorite board game (those would be 7 Wonders and BSG), but it's an incredibly good buy because it's a game almost anyone will enjoy for years.

Settlers of Catan
Almost everything I wrote about Ticket to Ride also applies to this. It obviously plays differently, but at the core it's got the same appealing features as TtR: it's accessible, the turns are fast, and it has a good amount of depth to it. I remember a Cracked.com-article referring to this game as the "the binary test for 'Have you actually played board games, or just terrible family ones?'", and it's pretty much that. Highly recommended.

Carcasonne
This game is one of the most replayable I know of, simply because building the game board from scratch is the entire game. It's thoroughly enjoyable if you're playing this with the right people. It's, however, quite rage-inducing if you're playing it with the wrong people. There's few things in the world that are more enjoyable than finishing a mega-city, and there are few things that make me as angry as having a twat ruin said city(or worse: steal the credit for it). Still, ruining/stealing cities and fields from others is fun, so it definitely get a thumbs up from me.
..I'm a horrible person

Dominion
It's a card game about using your cards to buy more cards from a selected set of card piles, in order to buy even more cards from said piles. Very fun, and very varied, but not quite as fun with only two people as it is with 3 or 4.

Munchkin
It's a silly parody of tabletop RPGs that's great fun in more than one way. It's about backstabbing, being a jerk to the other players, and getting loads of treasure. And having fun while doing so. There are a load of different versions out, but the difference between the versions is usually what kind of setting they're making fun of.
As a note: I've played a couple of other games from the same company, Chez Geek and Ninja Burger. They're fairly similar and also quite fun, but I definitely prefer Munchkin to them.


I'm also going to throw in a couple of games that require at least 3 players in this list, because they're bloody great and deserve a mention.

7 Wonders
It's basically "TCG-drafting: The Board Game", which makes for some damn compelling play. It's one of my personal favorites, and while you'll need 10 minutes to learn the rules before you can start, the game plays fast and has a lot of mindgames and other interesting stuff. It's also very well balanced and has a multitude of effective strategies, giving everyone a chance while usually allowing the better player to win. I cannot recommend this game enough.

Cards Against Humanity
Also a cheap alternative, and one of the best party games I can think of. Provided you and your friends don't mind the game being about setting up jokes about racism, holocaust, teen pregnancy and dead hookers, to name a few of the things in the game. If you can handle that, this is one game you don't want to miss out on.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
Just to throw that out there: this thing doesn't even match any of the points on your list. It's got quite a few rules, takes up a lot of space, needs at least 3 players(5 or 6 is preferred) and a session usually lasts 2-4 hours. So know that I'm only mentioning this because it's a fucking masterpiece. It's incredibly tense, as the entire premise of the game is that you don't know if the guy sitting next to you is trustworthy or wants to kill everyone, and the game mechanics are otherwise incredibly solid and balanced. If this sounds at all interesting, and you have 3-4 friends that could be interested in giving this a go, I'd say go for it.


And, as a final closing note: even though you're seemingly not interested in chess, it's the most economical alternative as it can be played through sites like chess.com [http://www.chess.com], and there's a great amount of helping material out there to get started at playing. I recommend giving this a shot as well, considering it's actually free. =)

And, yes, I love board games =3

 

[thatonedude11]

I personally think Space Hulk: Death Angel is just about perfect for what you're looking for OP. A difficult co-op card game that is a blast to play with friends or by yourself. Takes a little while to learn, as the rule book isn't great, but is very fun to play once you get the hang of it, and games don't take more than an hour.

Some other board games I enjoy:

Power Grid: A game about managing power plants, and is a lot more interesting than it sounds due to several clever mechanics.

Battlestar Galactica: A tricky game made all the tougher because of a few of your supposed allies are waiting for the right time to utterly screw you over.

Seven Wonders: This game is great for large groups, as everyone executes their turn simultaneously, meaning you don't have to spend much time waiting for everyone else.

Carcassonne: Really fun game about claiming territory in an ever-expanding world. Gets boring fairly quickly without expansions though.

Betrayal at House on the Hill: This game won't be for everyone, but some people will have a blast with it. The players start off exploring a haunted house, then at some point the 'haunt' begins, and one player betrays the rest of the group. The cool thing is there are about 50 different haunts, so the game is never the same each time you play.

Settlers of Catan: Absolute classic. If you haven't played this, you're missing out.

Those are just some of my favorites, although I will probably think of more later.