Favorite Board Games: Let's Get Nerdy

[NewGeekPhilosopher]

I just played a board game called Sequence with my Dad where you have playing cards that match up to markers on the board, and you have to put chips in a straight line of five chips twice to win. I won the game and my Dad let me have the last super special ice cream block on a stick (Any of you guys had an ice cream called a Golden Gaytime? The "Gay" in it is supposed to mean "happy" by the way).

This got me thinking, in a world where video games are the dominant medium of gaming in our culture now, too often people forget the joys of playing a decent board game with your friends and family. Delivering an ass-whuppin' in Halo 3 or Killzone 2 or Street Fighter IV is satisfying, but can it ever make as powerful (and traumatic) memories as your siblings screwing you over like the capitalist pigs they were in Monopoly as kids? Do you still play board games? Maybe you like tabletop wargames. Technically these count as board games too. This means that whenever you play Warhammer 40,000, you're playing a very customisable board game which is as expensive as a crack habit. But you do it anyway because it is fun.

More mainstream board games like Hungry Hungry Hippos and Jenga and to a nerdier degree Risk and Settlers of Catan bring you non-electricity operated fun which is understandably a highly social activity, even if your family and friends scheme to steal Russia from your clutches in Risk, it doesn't mean it's not fun and you still learn things about your siblings from their board game strategies.

What are your favorite board games? Why do you play them, if you do at all? Do you think video games of board games like Monopoly ports to consoles will ever replace true tabletop board games? To a lesser extent, will Dawn of War I and II replace tabletop 40k?

 

[DeathSnake]

nothing beats a good long game of cludeo, i love how lodgic is brought into a fun game (well i think so anyway), maybe its just because i like the murder-mystery-investigator theme its got going on but i really love the game.

The only problem with cludeo, and in some cases board games in general, is that theres no such thing as a "quick game" and you can never play alone, unless you really want to in which case you may be reffered to as a little crazy. But i think thats what console games offer that board games cannot, the "quick" game and playing alone, sometimes thats just what people want to do.

A good board game once in a while with a few friends is always a good thing to do though and that will never change (a least i hope so)

 

[McClaud]

Man, we've play a lot of boardgames on the weekend.

Right now, the Battlestar Galactica boardgame is getting played quite a bit by my group. And for a time, Agricola was a favorite before we all realized how much of a waste of time that game is. We also play Descent whenever we have time (because it is a 3 hour boardgame).

 

[konkwastaken]

Balderdash wins

probably cos i win most of the time oh and monopoly is always fun.

 

[ChickDangerous]

Oh yeah Balderdash is awesome fun!

I reckon Monopoly and Risk are probably the best though. My sister and one of my brothers has a hilarious habit of going red in the face and throwing things at the rest of us when they are losing badly.

 

[NewGeekPhilosopher]

Balderdash wins

probably cos i win most of the time oh and monopoly is always fun.

Monopoly is the cause of much of my childhood trauma. My brother and his friend saw a "Mates Rates" Holden car ad and hatched a plan where if they had Mates Rates they didn't have to pay rent on each other's properties but I had to still. So evil... may that house rule burn in hell...

*twitches funny* *gibbers*

GET THAT BOARD GAME AWAY FROM ME! MONOPOLY IS EVIL I TELLS YA! EEEEEEVILLLL!

 

[Graustein]

I'm a big fan of Diplomacy, but we're always at least 2 players short, so games are rare and finishing games even rarer (it has happened maybe once).
Oh, and if D&D counts, then that. Most definitely that.

 

[Whiskyjakk]

Twilight Struggle is good if you've got 5 hours or more. Although it's a bit worrying how easy they've made it to win the cold war as the USSR, the game may be some new form of insidious communist propaganda.

 

[Gamine]

Monopoly, Chess, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladder, Ludo...Forever favorites,

But when i was much younger, we used to play with the chess figures like dolls n such.

Monopoly, we tried spending the money at the local supermart, we almost go beat when the dude found out he'd almost been conned by young 'uns!

 

[Xaryn Mar]

Nuclear War and Munchkin are the games I play the most.

 

[Hey Joe]

Risk is particularly awesome because it can destroy lives. Broken promises, blackmail, insults to the very core of a person's existence all hitched on a single gambit to capture Madagascar. Oh yes.

I would also like to mention Trivial Pursuit because I genuinely do enjoy using mah grey matter, and the game allows me to do so.

 

[PurpleRain]

Man, Catan rocks! I got that in Canada on Christmas and played a few games out of it. Played a game of Chess and Scrabble as well. I'm quite bad at Scrabble but I knocked the socks off Larry at Chess! Chess master here!
I'm also digging Monopoly. I have a few different boards as well, one's in French and I have a Lord Of The Rings one that I kinda like too.
Ack, I also wish to mention I haven't played Cluedo before. I know right?!

 

[Lucas113]

I'm a big fan of the card game Fluxx. The beauty of it is that the rules change as you go along, so you've got to think on your feet! Plus, they've just put out a Monty Python version which looks ace!

Other than that, stick with the classics - Monopoly or Cluedo are great favourites.

 

[McClaud]

Nuclear War and Munchkin are the games I play the most.

Hahahaha, nice card games that play like boardgames there.

Munckin Quest is something that's catching on here. We're also playing Illuminati once a month, although that too is a card game that plays like a boardgame. And Fluxx is a CARD GAME. LOL

We used to play a lot of Avalon Hill games. One of the favorites was Fortress America. I still have mine, but I don't think we've played it in like years. Or Shogun. Or Axis and Allies. Since all those games are multi-DAY games, instead of the regular 4 hours we have to play on Saturday nights.

Settlers of Catan was fun until people started being poor sports about it. "Too random" people would say to me as they threw their cards at me. Carcassone was awesome until we lost most of the meeples in a box drop in the snow going out to the car.

 

[Simriel]

Warhammer. Woot!

 

[McClaud]

If you have a Boardgame Geek ID, you should post it here, for reference.

emceekhan [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/emceekhan]

It's nice to know other people over on the BGG.

 

[Incredible Bullshitting Man]

I just love good board games, that´s all there is to it. The aspect of playing together is somehow more tangible than in video games. It´s so much fun to gather a group of nerds together and laugh our heads of at a game of RoboRally. Arkham Horror has also received quite a beating. Carcassonne is a classic and for a light strategy game I would recommend trying Commands&Colors: Ancients (A Game of Thrones for more complex tastes). So many good games.

Settlers of Catan was fun until people started being poor sports about it. "Too random" people would say to me as they threw their cards at me.

Those poor buggers. Randomness is what makes games fun (and occasionally infuriating). I have actually heard the same complaint numerous times.

 

[090907]

cleudo and scrabble are great if you want to finish a game, Monopoly and squatter (is this available outside Australia?) if you want to frustrate yourself.
I also have "super scrabble" which has twice the amount of tiles, a bigger board and quad scores. It's the bomb. me and my wife were bored last weekend so we played it, normal and our travel version all at once. It was an interesting experience.
I also enjoy chess although I suck, but then again so do my regular opponents, so it's not all bad.

 

[Sweep117]

and to a nerdier degree Risk

Woah, woah, woah... Hold up. Since when did Risk become a "nerdy" game? My friends and I love that game! We don't play very often but when we do it's awesome and quite competitive. We add our own "house rules" to it as well. Mostly in the form of treaties, alliances and "no attack pacts." (Where two enemies agree not to attack each other from specific countries) They might seem cheesy but imagine you're the other guy.

You're the third player who has just started to dominate the world. You're a few turns away from sweeping across the globe with your massive armies. Yes, you've left your inner countries weak but it isn't a great risk. Soon, your enemies will be vanquished, the war will be over and you will be the ruler of the world! Then, without warning, your enemies unite themselves. A unity with a single goal: Destroy you. They've stopped attacking each other and focused all their combined strength on you. Maybe leaving the majority of your countries so weak wasn't such a good idea after all...

See? That's not nerdy at all! Risk is a blast. Monopoly is great. Stratego is nearly just as good. Lastly, get a bunch of friends together and play Apples to Apples. So much fun.

 

[Skizle]

nothing like a game of Axis & Allies...unless the game escalates into 10 hours and its still anyone's game. if you can find it get Blood Bath In New York; kinda like a mafia monopoly style game. another game is Lord of the Schtick. all are very fun