Board Games

[Ridrith]

I recently purchased a few board games and played through them this weekend with a group of friends. Damn was that fun, generally we find ourselves sitting around our computers and playing League of Legends or some other PC game but I'm glad we decided to try something different this time around.

We played: Fantasy Flight Games - Relic, it's Talisman but with a Warhammer 40k twist.

Mage Wars (Card game), and Summoner Wars (another card game.)

What other recommendations do people have it comes to board games? I've been told that Settlers of Catan is a good one but I've never got around to trying it.

 

[Esotera]

The only one I've played is Small World as my housemate has a set, and apparently we were so annoying we are no longer allowed to play it. But it was great fun and I'd recommend it.

 

[Sabitsuki]

If you don't mind long set-up time, Arkham Horror is extremely enjoyable. It's a board game based on Lovecraft mythos where you play a group of investigators (chosen from character cards), trying to seal away one of a variety of ancient ones while exploring the city of Arkham.

It's a highly chaotic game. The kind that never really plays out the same way twice. With such a huge amount of events (Every single location has a deck of cards that determines what occurs there), a good amount of characters and horrors to choose from that all change the game in different ways, it keeps the game from becoming predictable.

Plus if you like it, it has a good amount of expansion material to add on top of it.

 

[mbarker]

Power Grid is cool.
Another fun game is Civilization.
We started playing Tammany Hall, and Viva Java those games are fun too.
there are somany cool games it's hard to just pick a couple, these are the games that we last played.

 

[Gatx]

Resistance/Avalon. Absolutely one of the best games I've ever played. It's kind of like Mafi/Werewolf, but without player elimination. Basically the good guys are trying to successfully complete a set of missions, while the traitors are trying to sabotage a majority of them. A small team of 2-3 is chosen from the group, but if there's a traitor in the group, they can fail it. So if a mission fails, all people on that team are suspect and from that point on, accusations are flying.

 

[Silvanus]

Played the Game of Thrones board game for about five hours yesterday.

Sometimes board games are awesome. I love monopoly & scrabble, for example.

 

[Artina89]

I love playing Zombies!, The last night on earth and Allies and axis with my friends and sometimes with my dad and brother. I remember one time at university me, my roommates and a couple of friends from my course played a game of Zombies! that started at 8 O'Clock in the evening, and lasted until the wee small hours of the next morning. A lot of banter flew back and forth, a lot of laughter was shared, and a good time was had by all.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a lot of fun and different every time you play.

 

[clippen05]

I have been playing Axis and Allies since last year and its pretty fun if you have enough people and have a lot of time to spare but last weekend I was introduced to Settlers of Catan and all I can say is wow... That game is amazing. From the first game I played it was just indescribably fun; I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[Smertnik]

If you're looking for games easy to get into I can recommend these:
Fluxx
Ricochet Robots
Muchkin

If you like Risk-based games and Discworld you could also take a look at Ankh-Morpork. It doesn't support more than 4 players, though, in case that matters.

 

[Mana Fiend]

I love board games, some of my favourites are Ticket to Ride, Talisman and Zombies! (with a few choice expansions - my go-tos are the university, military base and shopping mall. Each adds a little extra fun. Me and my mates also occasionally tweak it to a siege-type situation where you lay out the town at random then try to survive an onslaught of zombies. You need a lot of room to do that though).

I'm no longer allowed to play Cluedo. Apparently I get far too into it... Never start a game without a pipe to hand

Also, there are some great card games - Arkham Horror, Munchkin and Gloom are all fantastic.

 

[miso2002]

If you google boardgamegeek they have a comprehensive list ordered by votes. You can search for theme or mechanics. I personally love dominion but there are a lot of really enjoyable games.

Lords of Waterdeep is a dungeon and dragons worker placement game
Dominion and Thunderstone are deckbuilding game (Kind of like magic the gathering but you all build your decks from a common pool of cards so there inherent advantage for players but rather a system of choices for cards)
Descent Journeys in the Dark is similar to talisman but takes place in a dungeon(A little longer set-up time but a lot more rpg'ish plus one person gets to be the bad guy against everyone else)
Fantasy Flight also has a lot of LCG (living card games) In my opinion the game of thrones card game is the closest game I have seen to magic the gathering for 2-5 people and works really well when scaling up.

Honestly check out the website. Fantasy Flight puts out a lot of good games but also some crap ones so just check a score to see if it fails and then read one of the high rated forum reviews if you are interested if it works for you. Summoner wars has a lot of good expansions. I haven't played Mage Wars but really want to.

p.s. there are two types of game types Euro and American. American games have luck and lots of mechanics, Euro games are typically less luck and options but still a lot of strategy.

 

[Ferdy Hoefakker]

You really should try Settlers of Catan. The game is amazing. I think my mom, aunt and I have nearly worn out our copy of the game by now! I don't visit as much as I used to anymore, but whenever I do, that game is the one we retrieve from the attic!

It can be a bit daunting at first though. My first time playing it, I had NO idea what I was doing. Also, I do highly recommend the first two expansions (not sure about the English names, literally translated the titles would be "Seafarers" and "Cities and Knights".) If you don't want to buy both, at least get the "Cities and Knights" one. It adds so much more enjoyment to the game in my opinion.

 

[Megalodon]

Depending on you and your group of friends, Diplomacy could be worth a go. You play out the European balance of power pre-WW1. The mechanics are extremely simple, because most of the game is actual bargaining and diplomacy between the players. The point of the game is essentially being a two-faced backstabbing bastard and screwing your mates over to win.

 

[triggrhappy94]

I'm a big fan of Life.
Also, Risk and Monopoly. Apples to Apples is also a good one. I kind of like Scrabble, but my Dad's an English teachers, so it's normally a competition for second.

 

[themyrmidon]

Battlestar Galactica is my favorite. Most of my friends started watching the show because they loved the game.

7 Wonders and Race for the Galaxy are also good ones to check out.

 

[citrusfr00t]

RED NOVEMBER
RED NOVEMBER
RED NOVEMBER

Its a game where you and your friends are gnomes on a submarine, what else needs to be said?

Some other games that come to mind are, Puerto Rico, Dominion, Power Grid, Chinatown and Red November

 

[Little Woodsman]

If you don't mind long set-up time, Arkham Horror is extremely enjoyable. It's a board game based on Lovecraft mythos where you play a group of investigators (chosen from character cards), trying to seal away one of a variety of ancient ones while exploring the city of Arkham.

It's a highly chaotic game. The kind that never really plays out the same way twice. With such a huge amount of events (Every single location has a deck of cards that determines what occurs there), a good amount of characters and horrors to choose from that all change the game in different ways, it keeps the game from becoming predictable.

Plus if you like it, it has a good amount of expansion material to add on top of it.

Arkham Horror is great--but it can be quite an investment of both money & time.
A couple my best friends will oftentimes bring it to our usual FRPG night if we know that normal gaming can't occur for some reason (player/GM absence, etc...)
We've actually gotten so good at it that we were *winning* better than 3 games out of four...we changed the rules to narrow the number of potential characters & put in another couple of house rules to make it harder. Now we are back to the horrors from the unknown eating us on a regular basis again.
I'll never forget the game when it came down to my mobster and my friend's nun fighting the Wendigo for the fate of the world!

 

[Little Woodsman]

In my game group we've recently really been enjoying Sentinels of the Multiverse...
We also have a *huge* Munchkin deck....
Bang can be a lot of fun too.

 

[Belaam]

Discworld: Ankh-Morpork is a lot of fun. Once you get the basics down, a game runs about an hour. Four players, but at the beginning, you draw a card that gives you one of 7 different ways to win (so you also don't know what your opponents need to do to win) which keeps some good variety for replays. Having read the books means you'll get many of the in-jokes, but you really don't need to know the books at all. i.e. playing the card The Seamstress' Guild allows you to give any other player one of your cards and then have to give you $2 in exchange. Knowing that the Seamstress's Guild is what the prostitute's guild is called may make you chuckle at that, but you don't need to know it to play.

My wife and I have it and play all the time, with people who know all, some, or none of the books and we always have fun.