9 ms·

Ask HN: What's your favorite board game?

• Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y ago
  Century - Golem edition: grab gems, grab cards, use cards to combine gems into other gems, use gems to buy points or cards. Azul, as others pointed out. A lesser known game: - Titans Tactics: a game without randomness, very deep and intense 1v1 combat An expensive game that is very immersive: - Nemesis (all kickstarter expansions): a game set in something similar to the alien universe. Rules are meant to be very immersive, so for example an alien doesn't have hp in the traditional sense, they change hp on every hit, to simulate the fact that little is known about their anatomy. Finally a master piece that feels like clockwork: - Vinhos: wineries and wine making, competitive I stopped playing coop games because I turned into an alpha player and hated myself in the process. Sadly I don't play anything anymore, my kids are too young and will destroy my precious games. We do play a board game called Catapult Castle that's intended for kids but fun for adults too
• uberman 4y ago
  Liberty or Death from GTM Games. Asymmetric rules and victory conditions for each of four factions. I try to play every 4th of July.
• Claude_Shannon 4y ago
  Aristeia. I love the miniatures and the theme, and I love the gameplay of it.
• sebg 4y ago
  Set (https://setwithfriends.com/ https://setwithfriends.com/) Castle Panic (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43443/castle-panic https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43443/castle-panic) Prime Climb (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159375/prime-climb https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159375/prime-climb) Forbidden Island (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island)
• LanceH 4y ago
  Diplomacy. I like to keep the number of friendships at a manageable level.
  • zehaeva 4y ago
    Zero is a very manageable number, well done!
    • LanceH 4y ago
      The funny thing is that going into a game where someone absolutely hates me (confined to the game), it was easy to get others to see them as being weak. The more people who hated me in Diplomacy, the easier the game became.
• rossdavidh 4y ago
  Carcassonne
  • PeterWhittaker 4y ago
    Was really surprised I had to scroll down so far to see Carcassone mentioned. Some of the things I love about it include pretty much guaranteed gameplay time: amenable to beginners and experts; easy to explain; multiple strategies available; good blend of luck and strategy; interesting expansions; and more that will likely think of later. Mom was in her 80s when I introduced her to Carcassone and she got good quick. Leaving it with my ex was one of my few regrets about the divorce. :-)
    • rossdavidh 4y ago
      My teenage daughter also has a habit of beating me at Carcassonne.
• lakevieew 4y ago
  Terraforming Mars (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars)
• cypherg 4y ago
  depends on the group of people I'm with but Citadels has been great fun
• hemmert 4y ago
  Scythe and Eclipse - I played Catan a lot when it came out, now these two games took its place. Highly recommended!
• lghh 4y ago
  My favorite board game is Gloomhaven. It's a cooperative dungeon crawler with a "campaign" of sorts. There's also a slimmer version of it called Gloomhaven: Jaws of The Lion that is less expansive and expansive, but is a great introduction to the game and feeds into the main product. It's also fun in its own right. Not strictly a board game, but very board game adjacent, I have recently been playing a lot of Magic The Gathering and having a lot of fun with it. I have had bouts of playing it over the years, essentially one a decade since I was born, and it feels as good as ever.
  • scubbo 4y ago
    Having played the computerized version of Gloomhaven, I cannot imagine the complexity of playing it with physical components - I'm impressed!
    • oneoff786 4y ago
      It wasn’t complex so much as a slog to me. I had to give up eventually. It was just so tedious to set up each map. God forbid you don’t win the map. The actual gameplay was good.
    • lghh 4y ago
      I didn't find it as bad as I think I would have expected had I played the digital version first. The best part about playing with physical components is that if you get some minor interaction incorrect you don't know you got it wrong and you just keep playing and are not any worse off for it. You can retcon silly mistakes as well, which is nice if you're like me and are in it for the fun of playing + hanging with friends instead of the fun of "besting" a specific set of rules an interactions.
  • JoshTriplett 4y ago
    I enjoyed Gloomhaven initially, but I found myself losing interest because it's almost exclusively combat oriented. I wish it had more roleplay mechanics, and interesting choices and story developments more often than every few hours.
• glyphy17 4y ago
• glyphy17 4y ago
• glyphy17 4y ago
• Simon_O_Rourke 4y ago
  Chess, have played it on 2 dollar sets with grandmasters, and antique sets older than the US.
  • purplejacket 4y ago
    Yup, I agree. Chess, full stop.
    • otherme123 4y ago
      Well, I stopped playing when I could't find players: I found myself in a middle ground where playing with noobs was extremely boring, and playing with good/semipro players was only a matter on how many movements would I last before the inevitable annihilation, or just falling in an opening trick they played without thinking.
      • sshine 4y ago
        Chess gets fun when you find an opponent you can beat with any frequency, like every third game.
• VoodooJuJu 4y ago
  War of the Ring
• floren 4y ago
  There's no board, but I find that Bananagrams has the fun parts of Scrabble with a faster pace (no waiting for your little brother to figure out his optimal word). Stretching even further, I love cribbage (hey, there's a board involved!). Of all the card games I've played, I find it's the most compelling combination of chance & skill. Lots of room to apply strategy once you've learned the basic rules.
• dunefox 4y ago
  Go
• confident_inept 4y ago
  Any of the four Azul games. They are all loosely based on each other and the rules between them have similarities even though all four are a completely different experience. They fit that great middle ground of being simple to play but have strategic elements for those that want to be competitive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azul_(board_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azul_(board_game)
  • lianna-vba 4y ago
    I didn't know there were 3 more Azules! Which would you recommend getting after the original? Wikipedia mentions Stained Glass of Sintra, Summer Pavilion and Queen's Garden.
    • confident_inept 4y ago
      In my opinion the rules increase in complexity in order of release, with Queen's Garden being by far the most complex. Depending on how much complexity you like, it's a linear scale in my opinion. All four are fun and they are soon to release a special edition of the first game that is chocolate themed.
  • sshine 4y ago
    Azul is simple enough for kids, but can be highly competitive. I enjoyed it more the first three games, now it feels too much like constraint optimisation.
• simonebrunozzi 4y ago
  When I played as a kid, I loved: Advanced Heroquest, Axis&Allies (the original one), and a few others but I'm not sure about their names in English.
• evanelias 4y ago
  Power Grid: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid It's extremely well-balanced, automatically penalizing or rewarding players based on their ranking as of the previous turn. That prevents players from falling too far behind, and also adds an interesting timing dynamic to the strategy.
  • otherme123 4y ago
    Agree. But it doesn't reward bad players (e.g. over-bidding centrals, or not paying attention to the map expansion costs), just don't destroy them in the first rounds so they feel they are dragging the remaining game. Everybody feels the illusion they can win until the last couple of rounds, but only if you played well you win. Only after you lose you rethink your mistakes and how to avoid then in the next game, which makes you want "revenge" instead of hating the game.
• robervin 4y ago
  Agricola got me into board games years ago, and it's always been a joy to go back to it. Uwe Rosenberg's games all have a similar vibe that just kinda works for my brain.
  • cecilpl2 4y ago
    If you like Agricola (as do I), you may also like Caylus. It's a perfect information game with no randomness, and it's also the only board game that has ever truly made me feel like I am incapable of planning out even a single turn.
    • robervin 4y ago
      I’ve not heard of it! Thanks, that sounds exactly like the sort of thing that would frustrate me in a good way.
• kuang_eleven 4y ago
  Spirit Island; an asymmetric co-op game that the thematic opposite of Settlers of Catan; you play the native spirits of an island just starting to get colonized, trying to kill and scare off the colonizers before they get a fully develop the island.
• comrh 4y ago
  My friends and I have moved away from SoC because the haggling that arises takes forever. Ticket to Ride scratches a similar itch with planning and competing over resources (train lines, cards) but gives each player a single action per turn so it moves much quicker. Nothing beats chess for me though because of the infinite replay value and strategy depth.
• halfmatthalfcat 4y ago
  Acquire
• earlyriser 4y ago
  My favourite are games I can play with my family: Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Tiny Towns, Santorini, Sushi Go, Potion Explosion, Forbidden Desert. But I'd love to have a friend to play Feudum.
• inasio 4y ago
  I enjoy logistics optimization games, these two I like a lot: Le Havre: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35677/le-havre https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35677/le-havre Container: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/26990/container https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/26990/container
• powerset 4y ago
  - Code names. It appeals to a wide crowd because you can approach it as creative fun, or a puzzle to be solved. And it leads you to figure out how the other players think, which is a fun way to get to know someone. - Finca (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40628/finca https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40628/finca) is a great game; very accessible with plenty of strategic depth. Sadly it's out of print.
  • xvedejas 4y ago
    If you like Codenames, be sure to check out Decrypto; it has more of a focus on trying to figure out what the other team is saying, while they try not to give too much away.
• jfzoid 4y ago
  for four players: Tigris and Euphrates for three players: Ra for two players: Quest for El Dorado or Azul for solitaire: Agricola Go is on my bucket list, I'll get "around to it" once I get some other stuff off my bucket list.
  • v-erne 4y ago
    Three top spots for Knizia games? Hear, hear! He is the true master craftsman of eurogames.
    • jfzoid 4y ago
      The greatest ever. A true maestro
• kiernanmcgowan 4y ago
  Terra Mystica (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/120677/terra-mystica https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/120677/terra-mystica) This game ruined Catan for me. No more sitting waiting for dice to roll in your favor or getting blocked by the robber. All information is public, there is no randomness, and you have to figure out how best to spend resources to maximize victory points while no falling behind city building. Serious, Catan sucks in comparison. Ricochet Robots (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/51/ricochet-robots https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/51/ricochet-robots) Not the most in-depth game, but rounds are quick and it requires keeping a lot of state in your head to solve the puzzle in front of you. Also very fun to add in house rules to how pieces interact with each other (eg, the black piece is magnetic and drags others around) to make the puzzles more complex.
  • sshine 4y ago
    +1 for Terra Mystica, just great game! -1 for Ricochet Robots, too competitive.
    • kiernanmcgowan 4y ago
      Ha, you should see the TM games with my brothers. It’s absolutely cutthroat :D
  • mcphage 4y ago
    I've played Terra Mystica and like it, but it doesn't have what makes me like Catan—interdependence. In Catan, especially in the early game, you can't generate all of the resources you need, so you have to trade with each other to win. Terra Mystica didn't have any of that; your relationship with the other players is purely adversarial.
• cableshaft 4y ago
  Inis - Clever Celtic-themed area control game, with tight drafting of cards for actions, but the ability to gain some crazy special one-time actions unique from anyone else as well. Beautiful artwork on the cards as well. Spirit Island - Clever cooperative game about building up spirits to protect native tribes and expel colonist invaders. Tons of variety, soloable. Troyes - Love the puzzle of using dice to take actions, and you're not limited to your own dice, because you can buy the dice that other players drew (and pay them so they can buy dice off you in later rounds). There's no time wasted with negotiation either, you can buy them before they've gotten a chance to spend them. Lots of euro goodness surrounding that central mechanism as well. Arkham Horror The Card Game - Story based campaigns where it's okay to lose a mission, the story will accomodate for it. Each campaign is very different from the others. Also great solo. Bohnanza - My favorite light card and negotiation game Kahuna - Super tight 2 player area control where you can build up conditions to start a cascade of destruction to go from losing big to winning big. YINSH - favorite 2 player abstract, where you use rings to place tokens, jump other tokens to flip them (like Othello), and once you get a 5 in a row, you remove one of your rings, which makes you weaker but is also how you win the game. Cribbage - 2 player. For such an old game, it's got a surprisingly modern point salad combo feel to it. Only annoying bit is how often you have to reshuffle, which isn't a problem if you play some of the excellent apps available. Can't Stop - My go-to push your luck game. I enjoy rolling the four dice and making a decision of how to combine them into two pairs for numbers, advancing down those tracks, and deciding how long I think I can stay in without busting. It's possible to win the game in one turn if you get lucky enough, but odds are you will bust if you keep going too far, so at what point do you lock it in?
  • floren 4y ago
    > Only annoying bit is how often you have to reshuffle, which isn't a problem if you play some of the excellent apps available. If you spend an hour learning how to shuffle properly, the reshuffling becomes just another enjoyable part of the process! edit: not implying that you, personally, shuffle badly now, just that I find the act of shuffling pleasing in its own right But speaking of cribbage "apps", the bsdgames package on Linux distros will generally include a pretty good command-line cribbage implementation.
• scubbo 4y ago
  Betrayal Legacy. I have a real soft spot for the flavour of the base game, Betrayal At The House On The Hill, even though I recognize it has flawed mechanics (some haunts can be absolute washes - depending on the configuration of the board at the time the haunt is triggered, it might be utterly unwinnable for one side or the other). Betrayal Legacy adds a compelling story throughline to repeated plays of the game, and some minor legacy mechanics (far less than, say, Pandemic Legacy). And, unlike many Legacy games, the "finished" board is still replayable! I'm surprised not to see Twilight Imperium mentioned in here. It feels like a mash-up of three separate games with all the options and lines of play available, and somehow still manages to remain cohesive and not-overwhelming (the decision trees are broad, but you don't have to plan too deeply, so they can be evaluated quickly). EDIT: each _individual_ decision in Twilight Imperium is not overwhelming; but a regular game will take 6-8 hours and if you are playing with expansions you probably need to schedule a whole weekend and leave the board set up overnight - so an overall game could well be called overwhelming, even if any individual portion of it isn't. Taking a different tack, Dixit is a creative game that can highlight some interesting commonalities (or differences!) in how players interpret artwork.
  • oneoff786 4y ago
    Betrayal is a really great game. You have so little agency but it’s still fun to go through the motions of the early game. The late game is total bullshit but that’s all part of it. Kind of like Mario party.
  • JoshTriplett 4y ago
    I really enjoy the original Betrayal as well. I just wish there were a set of scenarios included that worked for two players: some vs-environment scenarios, some vs-each-other scenarios, and some where it's not immediately disclosed whether you're competing or cooperating. Dixit is great, highly recommended.
  • PeterisP 4y ago
    Twilight Imperium is cool but I would be a bit reserved about "not-overwhelming" since you can't even play it in an evening and need to arrange a whole day for it due to 6-8 hours it takes to play.
• selljamhere 4y ago
  Betrayal at House on the Hill -- Explore a randomly generated haunted house where one of your friends will turn on the rest. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hill https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hil... "Trains" aka Ticket to Ride -- Easy to learn, difficult to master. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride
• phoe-krk 4y ago
  Riichi mahjong. It's a surprisingly strategic traditional board game coming from Japan with several modern clients for online ranked play. Also Neuroshima Hex.
  • bdz 4y ago
    +1 for Riichi mahjong. My favorite one. On the other hand when I tell to asian people that I play mahjong some of them are hmm looking me at like some lunatic because they instantly think about gambling. Like "hey that's a gambler's game you shouldn't play that" etc. But I never did purely picked up as a board game and I love it.
• shepherdjerred 4y ago
  Scythe. It's so addicting, although the first play through takes a very long time.
  • oneoff786 4y ago
    I found scythe converged too quickly to some relatively solitary dominant strategies
• verdagon 4y ago
  Avalon is an amazing board game. It's like a version of Mafia that involves a lot more deduction, and players get to stay in the game until the very end. Highly recommend everyone give it a try!
• raspyberr 4y ago
  I love Food Chain Magnate. So strategic, competitive, and brutal.
• ktpecot 4y ago
  Secret Hitler. Kind of like a formalized game of mafia Everyone is secretly assigned a faction: liberals or fascists and one person is hitler. Liberals have to work together to try and find out who the fascists are and win if they vote out hitler.
• bmacho 4y ago
  Bughouse chess
• nnnnnande 4y ago
  Coup or Smash Up
• gspr 4y ago
  In unranked order: – Friedrich: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12891/friedrich https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12891/friedrich – Small World: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world – Through the Ages (admittedly I only played the digital version; if the bookkeeping is annoying physically, then I retract this one): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/182028/through-ages-new-story-civilization https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/182028/through-ages-new-... – Battlestar Galactica (I know, big franchise-themed games tend to suck terribly, but this one is really good!): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica-board-game https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galacti... – Back an age ago when I was a student with infinite time, Diplomacy (not any more though, it's not as if whole days are free to give up to a single round of a board game): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/483/diplomacy https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/483/diplomacy – Race for the Galaxy: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-galaxy https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-galaxy – Twilight Struggle: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333/twilight-struggle https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333/twilight-struggle
  • evanelias 4y ago
    +1 for Battlestar Galactica. It's long, but very entertaining when played with a group of other BSG fans. It's been out of print a while though, and is now absurdly expensive on ebay... ditto for the expansions.
• timbit42 4y ago
  El Grande
• bmacho 4y ago
  Bughouse chess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14188/bughouse-chess https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14188/bughouse-chess
• dugmartin 4y ago
  It isn't my favorite but if you have the players (you really need 8), Captain Sonar is a lot of fun. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171131/captain-sonar https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171131/captain-sonar
• Neff 4y ago
  I enjoy crunchier board games, but the fun from games usually comes from playing them with others and most of the people I know don't enjoy games that take a non-negligible time to set up and explain the rules. When playing with others, I'll grab games like Tsuro - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16992/tsuro https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16992/tsuro - put down a tile, move tokens along the path, try to stay on the board the longest Skull - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull - a bluffing game where you can see the moment people grok the need to lie to win Monopoly Deal - https://smile.amazon.com/Hasbro-B0965-Monopoly-Deal-Card/dp/B00NQQTZCO https://smile.amazon.com/Hasbro-B0965-Monopoly-Deal-Card/dp/... - A questionable quality board game turned into a great pub card game I have Long Shot - https://www.perplext.com/long-shot-the-dice-game https://www.perplext.com/long-shot-the-dice-game - on backorder at the moment, but it seems like a simple roll & write game that people can quickly pick up. I'm solo playing Bruxelles 1897 - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/275913/bruxelles-1897 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/275913/bruxelles-1897 - before asking my partner to try it. The rules are dense and it seems hard to explain the phases at the moment. If you are looking for tons of board game reviews, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/ https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/ and their youtube channel do a great job IMO of covering a wide range of game types.
  • lapaz17 4y ago
    Hey, in which cafe (actually asking you city) did you play those?
• spc476 4y ago
  Samurai Swords (aka Shogun) by Milton Bradley. It's a Risk like game, but way better balanced, where troop strength is limited to territory held, units are bought (you have cheap, but weak units, or strong, but expensive units) and turn order is randomized each round (although one can bid for turn placement). And there are two variations, the short game (first one to 35 territories wins) or the long game (first to hold 35 territories through a complete round wins) which can change the strategies used in the end-game.
• oneoff786 4y ago
  Captain Sonar! It’s a 4v4 game reminiscent of battleship but you can move around and it’s played in real time. You can make moves as often as you want but do so by announcing them. The opposing team has a person whose sole job is to listen and use your revealed moves to deduce your location. Hectic as all hell. Other than that Twilight Struggle for 1:1. Hopeful that ISS Vanguard will prove to be amazing.
  • gaws 4y ago
    > It’s a 4v4 game reminiscent of battleship but you can move around and it’s played in real time. Shut Up and Sit Down made the game sound super fun. The problem is finding eight people to play this.
    • oneoff786 4y ago
      I find it works fine with 6 and 4. You just need to modify the rules so that the captain can’t rapidly make moves on their own. Needing a second person to affirm their decision is critical. Otherwise they’ll inevitably focus on one task too much.
• timbit42 4y ago
  Tsuro. Easy for friends and family to pick up and play.
  • lianna-vba 4y ago
    Tsuro is a good one, Timbit. For the same reason I like Patchwork. It's a competitive quilt building board game for two people.
• camtarn 4y ago
  Evolution: Climate, a board game about being small furry/scaly creatures at the dawn of time. It uses a fun system of cards with abilities (defenses against carnivores, being able to survive too cold/too hot weather, being able to eat more food when it's available or survive famine) which can synergise very well, and with luck of the draw and a bit of thought you can make a small ecosystem of creatures which all benefit from each others' actions.
  • sshine 4y ago
    Aka “the turd game”: you get a point every time your creatures eat, and then you bag the food token.
• LesZedCB 4y ago
  - clank https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201808/clank-deck-building-adventure https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201808/clank-deck-buildi... - rumble in the dungeon https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130827/rumble-dungeon https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130827/rumble-dungeon both are pretty simple and casual, i'm a casual board gamer. i'm so bad at bluffing games we don't really play them. i also really enjoyed playing magic the gathering when i had access to more cards. never really payed more than $50-100 during my time i played.
• tabularasta 4y ago
  Blood on the Clocktower. It's a recently released social deduction game (similar to Avalon and Werewolf) that has nearly unlimited setup combinations and presents a different puzzle every game. Players are allowed to continue playing until the end of the game, even after being "voted out," and every player is given some measure of agency via unique character roles. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/240980/blood-clocktower https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/240980/blood-clocktower
• PeterisP 4y ago
  If you play the "heavyweight" games listed in other comments, there's generally also a need for "filler" board games that are much shorter and useful when someone has yet to arrive or it's getting too late for another full longer game. King of Tokyo (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo) and Tiny Epic Galaxies (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163967/tiny-epic-galaxies https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163967/tiny-epic-galaxie...) come to mind. Also, Guards of Atlantis (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172965/guards-atlantis-tabletop-moba https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172965/guards-atlantis-t...) was interesting as a team-vs-team game conceptually similar to computer games like DotA or League of Legends.
• ryanchants 4y ago
  Space Alert. The time limit makes it extremely hectic. Most other games, you can think rounds ahead, but Space Alert throws that out the window. There's no "think for 5 minutes per move". It's also co-op, which I enjoy more and more as time goes on.
• RattlesnakeJake 4y ago
  1. I’m a solid Monopoly nerd. I like the way it strikes the balance between skill and luck. 2. I’m uncannily good at Mad Gab, with the downside being that no one will play it with me anymore.
• haffi112 4y ago
  I have played really many boardgames but I think Isle of Skye is the game that is probably the one I would choose as my favorite one. It has a relatively simple auctioning mechanic and the point system makes it different every time.
• MollyRealized 4y ago
  I'll admit to being more of a nostalgia nut and say I love Sorry and Clue(do). I am, however, thinking I'd like to teach myself Go.
  • lemondice 4y ago
• joshxyz 4y ago
  definitely snake and ladders. underrated.
• partdavid 4y ago
  I generally like party games over complex, rules-heavy or strategy-rich games and I hate time-pressure games. I play games to socialize, not for the games. So in all honestly, Trivial Pursuit and variations, followed by whatever casual/party-style game is on offer, like Superfight or Cards Against Humanity. I like the Unlock! series of "Escape Room" style puzzle games: <https://www.spacecowboys.fr/unlock-english https://www.spacecowboys.fr/unlock-english>. They're compact and a lot of fun to work together on, but not much replayabality. For when I want something abstract/traditional, the Royal Game of Ur: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur> suffices, it's like a dumber backgammon. It's just enough game.
• lapaz17 4y ago
  Love letter: 5 min game where you try to stand as last one. Every card has its unique powers. Princess rocks! Exploding kittens: Its most backed kickstarter project( as they claim). You should have imploding, streaking and barking extensions, its where fun begins. Cash & guns : Point prop guns to each other and win the most cash as a mafia. Magic maze: No talking in the game. You must communicate with the pawn by hitting it on desk. Pandemic: One of hardest games. Epic spell wars: tongue twister game with combat fun!
• mattcdrake 4y ago
  My wife and I have gotten a lot of mileage out of playing these 1v1 games: - Twilight Struggle - Hive - Patchwork Choosing one really depends on mood. Twilight Struggle is the kind of game you have to buckle up and commit to playing for a while, but it's worth it. Hive and Patchwork are more bite-sized - both have enough complexity to be interesting, but with a much lower time commitment. You also have to refer to the rulebook less often with those two games. :)
  • sshine 4y ago
    Adding to 1v1 games: Race for the Galaxy It also works for several players, but at its heart, it’s a highly competitive game that you can play casually until you develop strategy.
    • mattcdrake 4y ago
      Thanks for the recommendation! Several friends have also told me about this game - I think I'll go ahead and order it now.
• Arrezz 4y ago
  If you're looking for social deduction: Secret Hitler or One Night Ultimate Werewolf If you're looking for turnbased strategy: Terraforming Mars or Twilight Imperium 4th edition if time allows If you're looking for something quick and mathy: Hanabi
• freediver 4y ago
  Blood Bowl is probably as good fun as it gets in a company of four. Board games I enjoy playing on the web: Acquire and Axis and Allies. Board game I like to play on iPad: Risk Board games I like to play with kids: Snakes and Ladders and Stone Age junior.
  • tomcam 4y ago
    I looked up Blood Bowl and there appear to be 687 variations. What’s the best to start with? I don’t know anything about the game
• n2dasun 4y ago
  Dice Hospital - Dice Manipulation with a hospital ward theme Zombicide Black Plague - mild-strategy Dice chucking dungeon crawler Obsession - basically Downton Abbey: The Game Kingdom Death Monster (only played it once, though) - Grimdark survival horror
• sshine 4y ago
  Robo Rally — a robot programming party game: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6E8fCba7y5w https://youtube.com/watch?v=6E8fCba7y5w Galaxy Trucker — a spaceship building party game: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_X7i6bfWNPA https://youtube.com/watch?v=_X7i6bfWNPA Race for the Galaxy — competitive card game: https://youtube.com/watch?v=o89L8kr-FK8 https://youtube.com/watch?v=o89L8kr-FK8
  • gaws 4y ago
    > Race for the Galaxy Have you tried Roll for the Galaxy?
• anotherevan 4y ago
  Backgammon.
• beej71 4y ago
  Go, Rummikub, Dungeon Quest, Pit, Wits and Wagers, Scotland Yard.
• nunez 4y ago
  I LOVE Azul. It is easy to learn but has a lot of outcomes, moreso when playing with more people. Also really enjoy Calico
• crdotson 4y ago
  I haven’t seen 7 Wonders listed yet. It’s fairly easy to get started but great in that you have to alter your strategy based on what board you get dealt and what your neighbor players are doing.
• molotovh 4y ago
  Because I haven't seen it mentioned and I think it is a very well-executed game: Pan-Am is quite fun and the event deck gives it a good deal of replayability.
• dSebastien 4y ago
  Mine is Arkham Horror LCG, one of the best coop games ever made. The complexity of the game is astonishing and the replayability is incredible. There are so many characters to play, builds to create, scenarios and variants. I could probably play this game for ten years and not be done yet!
• wink 4y ago
  Maybe not absolute favourite (too hard to pick just one), but it's the one we come back playing again and again on our board game nights: Rise of Augustus - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137297/rise-augustus https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137297/rise-augustus