[Board Games] Saving the world from Monopoly and Life, one person at a time

jergarmar

Hey there! This thread is about board games. Let me tell you about them!

But first, story time! Once upon a time a member of my family announced a GAME NIGHT! Oh, that sounds fun! I come over to discover... Guitar Hero and Life. Nothing intrinsically wrong with either of these (I lied, Life is horrible horrible), but I knew deep in my soul that there must be something better-suited for hanging out with family and friends. Thus began my journey (helped by previous incarnations of this thread) into board games that are actually fun.

The first thing to say about board games is that there’s this wonderful website called BoardGameGeek.com.
See how I didn’t make that site a link yet? There’s a reason for that. You can’t just go running there and expect things to just work out. The site is huge and daunting, and if you just start buying the top rated games, you will very likely be disappointed. So consider this your introduction into what is possible in cardboard, and then AFTERWARDS you can go and make irresponsible financial decisions.

Oh, and I promise some Wil Wheaton! The famous superstar! It's a new age in cardboard, I'm telling you.

GREAT GAMES TO INTRODUCE TO JUST ABOUT ANYONE (including those new to games):

Settlers of Catan

Ah, the grandfather of what’s called the “euro-game”. Little direct confrontation, trading, grabbing valuable resources or positions before your opponent, a bit abstract, and you win by accumulating the most points. You accumulate and trade to get certain combinations of resources to get cities and roads. Your cities help you gather more resources. It’s a bit grey around the temples these days, and there are probably better expressions of these mechanics, but it has stood the test of time and one huge reason to include it here is that you may have already played it. If you want an expansion, get “Seafarers”.

Ticket to Ride

Quite possibly one of the best entry-level games. Draw cards into your hands, claim a route between two cities with your train cars by laying down same-color cards that match a route on the board. Simple, intuitive. Kids can grasp it, adults can play it more cut-throat and get into deeper strategies. Many versions have been made; they are pretty much all great, but check to see how many people can play. There’s also plenty of expansion maps, including a highly-rated Asia map for team play up to 6.

Dominion

This genre-defining game is played entirely with cards. Hey, I thought we were talking about board games! We are, shut up, it’s a problem of semantics, whatever. Anyway, in this game you build up your own personal deck by accumulating money cards (to buy things), action cards (to make cool stuff happen), and victory point cards (which give you points but clog up your deck). Each game has different action cards to buy so every game is different. There are a TON of expansions; good ones are Seaside (adds effects which carry over into later turns), Intrigue (a lot more interaction between players), and Prosperity (adds higher-value money and victory point cards). It plays fast, but some of the expansions slow it down a bit. Don’t buy Village.

Carcassonne

Another older game, which has aged well because of its short length and wide appeal. Pick up a tile, add it to the tiles already placed so that you match the road, castle, or field. You may optionally “claim” a road, castle, or field with one of your followers or “meeples”, which gives you points. A great, quick game for pretty much all ages, but it is especially good for a younger crowd.

Small World
As promised, Wil Wheaton! In this very spoiler! But if you let him out you'll have to say his name three times to put him back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9QtdiRJYro

Choose from the randomized races, spread out, hold key areas, gain points every round. Once you have extended as much as you can, put the race into decline (i.e. you can’t do anything with it but it still gives you points), and choose a new race. You get the good feeling from wiping someone out without as much of the hurt feelings, because they can just get a new race and ethnic-cleanse you in return. Popular, has a bunch of expansions.

REALLY GOOD TWO-PLAYER GAMES:

Twilight Struggle

Probably the best epic 2-player game. Epic because of its length and scope. Intensely confrontational without being a wargame. Imagine a game about the Cold War where the mechanics take, at face value, the rhetoric of both sides. In other words, it’s the USA versus the USSR, and all the other nations in the world are just pawns to be influenced one way or the other. Influence is what you “spend” every round, to control a nation or even cause an uprising in a less-stable nation. Influence tends to spread through a region like a virus. You can use an event card for the event (which is some historical event or concept), or use it for influence, or even put it towards the space race. The only possible downside is that it’s long for a 2-player game, so it is hard to introduce to a casual gaming group.

Memoir '44

This is simply the easiest introduction into a whole family of light wargames: Commands & Colors: Ancients, Commands & Colors: Napoleonics, BattleLore, BattleCry. Most can be played within an hour, but can feel suitable epic. The basic idea is that the battlefield is divided into a left, center, and right flank. You play a card that “orders” units in a flank (or flanks), which allows it to move and attack. You attack by rolling dice, which can cause hits or retreats. You win by wiping out a set number of units (and maybe occupying critical points). A brilliant system that each game has a special “spin” on. Memoir is a bit simpler and has a very appealing theme. Ancients is also highly regarded here (and is my favorite); it has a priority on melee attacks and gives additional benefits if your units are lined up.

Summoner Wars

Think of this as some strange asymmetric chess variant where the pieces are cards. Each player chooses a faction, and your goal is to kill the enemy summoner. Your units are ranged or melee, and have different attack strengths, and different hit points. You attack with dice. You bring new units out of your hand onto the board if you can pay the cost in magic. You gain magic by killing units or by dumping cards from your hand. Each faction plays VERY differently, and in fact every single card has some special ability (like moving extra spaces or attacking in a different way). There are a TON of factions for this game -- I think 16 right now -- so there’s a lot of combinations to try.

Battle Line

This SOUNDS like another combat game, but it’s not. It’s an abstract game where you’ve got 9 flags in a row, and you take turns playing one card in front of a flag. You need a better “set” of three cards in front of a flag to “claim” that flag as yours. Get 5 total flags or 3 adjacent flags to win. It’s a game where you’re working through the odds of finishing a “set”, against a bit of guessing as to what your opponent is holding onto in his hand.

Hive

This is an abstract game where the entire game is 22 hexagon pieces of bakelite. There’s not even a board. The pieces are bugs, each of which moves in a particular way. The winner is the one that surrounds the enemy queen. It looks pretty nice as the game plays itself out, too.

Lost Cities

Probably one of the best “husband and wife” games. You play cards, one at a time, in same-color and increasing-value stacks. The trick is that if you place even a single card down of a particular color, you need 20 points in that color to break even, so you can’t get too aggressive or you’ll end up deep in the hole. Also, each color has its own shared discard pile, so you often have to hang onto cards you’ll never play yourself to keep them away from your opponent.

BattleCON (War of Indines)

Round 1! Fight! Yes, another "fighting game simulation" where you have a movement track and play attacks simultaneously, and try to out-think/out-maneuver your opponent. Your "hand" is made up of a few "styles" (unique to your character) and "bases" (mostly the same for everyone). Each card has modifiers for power (how much damage it does), range (spaces on the movement track to your opponent), and priority (who hits first). You combine one style with one base to form your attack for the round (or "beat"). For example, "Grapnel" style + "Strike" base = "Grapnel Strike". Any attack you do is on "cooldown" for 2 beats, which means that neither card can be used. The game comes with 18 characters, and they are all QUITE different to play. This one will inevitably get compared to Yomi (and Flash Duel), but I think that this is somewhat easier and/or more fun to learn. The print-and-play comes with 4 characters and is pretty easy to put together, if you want to try it out.

Android: Netrunner

Newer asymmetric game that is very geeky and very good. The "corporation" player must defend and score their agendas. The "hacker" player must steal agendas from the "corporation". The agendas are worth points, and first to 7 points wins. What really sets this one apart is that almost everything the corporation does is hidden information (i.e. face-down cards), so there's ample room for bluffing and traps. This is a "Living Card Game", which means that there are numerous expansions, each of which is a fixed number of cards so you know what you're buying. Still allows for spending a lot on the game, but the base game comes with a LOT of stuff to try out (i.e. multiple hacker and corporation "identities").

BIG-GROUP FUN (6+ players):

Dixit (Odyssey)

A party game! Well, sort of. In this game everybody is given a hand of imaginative, surreal, and evocative cards. The active player puts a card face down, and give a phrase, word, or noise that goes with it. Everyone else ALSO puts in a card that best goes with that “clue”. They are mixed up, shown, and people get points for picking the active player’s card, or for getting people to choose their card. But if the clue is too obvious, the active player gets NO points. So there are serious demands made on the imagination of the players -- dull clues or simply half-hearted ones diminish the game experience. But knowing that caveat, it’s a GREAT game. There are a couple of versions of this one, but Odyssey plays up to 12.

Time’s Up! (Title Recall)

Another party game, but you might call this one a “proper” party game. You start with a small stack of cards with short phrases or titles on them. You play in pairs, and you have 30 seconds at a time to make your partner guess what’s on the cards. In the first round, you can use just about any clues, gestures, and noises. In the second round, you are limited to ONE WORD for a clue and one guess. In the third round, NO talking but gestures and noises still allowed. Absolute hilarity ensues. The genius of this game is that even when it’s not your turn, you care very much about each hint and guess, because you’ll probably run into that card again in a later round. The "Title Recall" version is the best, because even if you don't know the movie/book/song, you can give hints one word at a time (i.e. "Devil With the Blue Dress On" is easier than "Rutherford B. Hayes" if you are unfamiliar with both).

Citadels

Straight-forward, almost bare-bones social game that is also great and plays up to 8. Pass around the role cards, pick one secretly, the king calls out the roles in order. A good way to introduce the “social” type of board games.

7 Wonders

VERY popular game these-a-days for a group of up to 7. You build up a civilization, which really just means you play cards that produce some product, or provide military strength, or give you points directly, or improves your science. So multiple win paths, which is always cool. Each player has a hand, but you only play ONE card before passing your hand to the adjacent player. You can also trade with your neighbors, so overall you are VERY interested in what other players are doing, and you often have to change your strategy to thwart theirs. Highly recommended by this thread.

EPIC IN SCOPE/LENGTH/THEME:

Twilight Imperium (3rd edition)

Ah, the game that defines epic space expansion and warfare. In a nutshell, the hex-based “board” is made up of planetary systems, which can be conquered. You “spend” command tokens to activate a system and move stuff there or build stuff. Then there’s technology research, trading, dice-based warfare, secret objectives, phase selection, a hand of action cards,... and on and on. Pretty intense. Pretty long. But there’s something about the theme that makes it almost irresistible.

Eclipse

This game LOOKS similar to Twilight Imperium. Sci-fi space exploration with hexes, dice combat, and tech research. However, it is QUITE different in scope and "feel". This is a premier mechanic-centered euro in the same class as Power Grid and Agricola. This means that it’s a bit more indirect than you might expect in the genre; it has been described as “intensely passive-aggressive”. Many of your thoughts are about optimizing your actions or making other people’s actions sub-optimal, rather than "space ship battle pew pew". However, direct conflict has a definite place in this game, and furthermore it has awesome stuff like exploration-produced initial maps, and also customizing your own spacecraft blueprints.

Arkham Horror

In many ways this is on the other end of the spectrum from the sterile spaceships and abstracted planet-conquering of Twilight Imperium or Eclipse. This game is all about the atmosphere, and trying to hold it together while you avoid being devoured by nameless horrors. Those horrors are of the Lovecraftian kind, and the rulebook kind. Seriously, the FAQ has its own FAQ. But if you can pierce through the “rule crust” into the pulsing black heart of the game, you’ll probably... uh... go insane. But madmen are often happy, right?

Risk: Legacy

This has consistently been one of the most-talked-about games since it came out. It’s a streamlined version of Risk with a huge twist -- after each game you will permanently alter the board (naming a continent, adding a city), the cards (ripping up(!) one of them), and/or the rule book itself. It comes with packets that you will open after meeting certain criteria. It’s meant to be played over 15 games with the same group of people, producing a totally unique map which is also a testament to each previous battle. Not all groups can make this kind of commitment, but we can dream, can’t we?

And here are some common board game categories, and some representative games for each:

DECK-BUILDING:

Dominion -- (mentioned above)

Thunderstone (Advance)

This was the next big game after Dominion that used the same mechanic, but it has a real theme! It’s a dungeon crawl. Wait, what? No, seriously! The basic idea is that you alternate between buying adventurers and weapons and stuff in the village to improve your deck, and then trying to defeat monsters in the dungeon, which also get added to your deck, giving you points and other benefits. Has a ton of expansions. There’s a new version of this called “Thunderstone Advance” that is probably your best choice if you’re starting off.

Quarriors

Dice. Lots of dice. Cool dice. You roll dice and buy things with... ugh... “quiddity” shown on them. You buy monsters that attack other players’ monsters. Doesn’t have a lot of depth, especially when compared to other games with this mechanic (I would lean towards calling it filler), but it’s flashy and quick and good for getting an “Oh, cool!” out of people you introduce it to. There are some "advanced rules" if you want to mix up and/or deepen the gameplay, though it makes the game a bit longer.

ECONOMIC:

Power Grid

A meaty, polished, economic game. Buy a network of cities, bid on power plants to power those cities, profit. You need to supply your power plants with resources (oil, nuclear, etc), but the cost of a resource goes up if everybody needs it. There’s math. LOTS of math. There’s also a bit of fiddling as you decide the turn order (and whether you’re going through it forwards or backwards), refilling resources, knowing when to go to “Step 2/3”, and so on. So not really an introductory-level game, but very satisfying.

Race for the Galaxy

Card-based space-exploration/conquest economic game, though the theme isn’t very strong. Players choose a phase simultaneously, and the only phases in the round are the ones that players picked. Has a pretty dense iconography, making it a bit daunting for new players, but it allows for a fleshed-out and satisfying game with multiple paths to victory. Low player interaction. Has a bunch of expansions; I suggest the first one (Gathering Storm), as it improves the base game and adds some optional goals to provide a focus for new players. Good with two players, also.

HIDDEN TRAITOR:

The Resistance

You ever play mafia or werewolf? Some smart guy boiled it down into a 5-10 player game that can be played in 30 minutes. Every round someone becomes the leader, who then chooses a team for a mission. Each person on the team secretly contribute a “pass” or “fail” card for that mission. Since there are spies, some missions are going to fail. Incriminations will fall like the rain on the moor. Best 3 out of 5 missions. An elegant and tense social game, but like all social games it is somewhat dependent on the group. Quick enough for multiple games (which will often be stridently demanded). There's also a newer, advanced version of this game called "Resistance: Avalon", where one character (Merlin) knows who the bad guys are, but the bad guys will win if they identify Merlin.

Battlestar Galactica

In the description for The Resistance, I called it “tense”. Battestar Galactica redefines the term into something devastating. It’s a game with a strong theme from the TV series, but the game is good enough to be fully enjoyed by people who have who have never seen the show. The goal is to get to Earth, but the ship is faced with environmental threats in deep space, hostile Cylon warships, and internal Cylon traitors. Each player has a hand of cards that is used to meet (or sabotage) these threats. The basic flow is “Jump into terrible location, deal with terrible event after terrible event, deal with an increasingly terrible Cylon armada, and then jump again... if anybody is still alive”. Popular here on the forums as PbP.

ABSTRACT:

Ingenious

Great, intuitive abstract that scales well from 2-4. Place a tile on the hexagonal board to score points for matching icons. You need to score well in EVERY icon type, because only your WORST icon score is your actual score. Get it? Part of the appeal of this game is the excellent component quality. Chunky plastic tiles, fabric bag, and solid cardboard.

Blokus

A more confrontational abstract, where you simply need to get as many of your pieces on the board as possible. Anything not placed counts against you. Blocking others is inevitable but still tricky. Simple enough for young players. A possible downside is that it is really best with 4 players. For a slightly more flexible (in terms of players) and forgiving variant, try Blokus Trigon. But my wife swears by the original.

Qwirkle

This has been described as “Scrabble without letters”, because of the way in which you lay down a group of tiles and connect to other groups. Has a mix of luck and strategy that makes it another good introduction game. Another game with really good components.

Hive -- (mentioned above)

Yinsh

jergarmar

WORKER-PLACEMENT:

Kingsburg

A pretty and fairly light dice-driven euro. Roll dice, place dice, manipulate dice. Build buildings and reap the rewards. Fairly high amounts of interaction. You’re fighting over resources, but at the end of every round you fight off a growing Horde. Each phase has lots of interesting choices. Has some catch-up mechanics too, making it fairly easy to introduce to new players.

Agricola

Farming-themed game of resource management. Sound exciting? It is! You struggle just to get your family fed, and yet you also need to scrabble for resources to improve your farm. One of the most satisfying things is upgrading your wood hut to stone. Fairly easy to teach to others, simply because the theme is so immediately understandable, and the turns are quick, and because at the end of the game, even if you lose, you can admire and show off the farm you made. So I would call it a good introduction to the longer euro games.

Puerto Rico

The premier euro game. Shoot, the premier board game. Rich, deep, and meaty. Grow crops, sell them, buy buildings which give you abilities and benefits, and you need laborers for all this stuff as well. You choose a role which helps you in some way every round. High player interaction, though it's not direct. For such a deep game, it’s not actually that difficult to teach to new players, but there can be a big gulf in player skill. Some people who have played this forever can be a bit hostile to newbies, but that is NOT true of the people in this thread, that I've seen. Playable online -- many people here will help you get started if you ask.

NEGOTIATION:

Cosmic Encounter

A strange entry into this genre, but this is a difficult-to-classify and yet really good group game that I must mention. In this game each player has 5 planets and 20 ships, and to win they need to get at least one ship (a "colony") on 5 foreign worlds. Each player also gets an alien power, and some of them are absurdly powerful and unfair. But that just means that they will find everyone teaming up against them. You don't choose who to attack (the destiny deck decides that), but you CAN choose who to ally with. So it takes the fangs out of the confrontation, and fewer people get their feelings hurt. It's very much a social game that can be played as friendly or as back-stabby as the group wishes. It's not TOO serious or strategic, so it might not be the best for your hardcore wargame group, but it is a lighter game that has aged amazingly well.

Game of Thrones

I LOVE that I'm putting this game after Cosmic Encounter. They could not be more different in tone. CE is ponies and rainbows, and this one is flint knives and broken glass. In other games there is a back-stab mechanic -- in this game it is the driving force of the game. This is because you have your territory to defend, but you simply can’t defend against all threats. You place order tokens face down into different regions on the board, allowing for a surprise on the reveal phase. And even after you reveal, you have opportunities for deception (for example, promising to help defend but then you join the attack). Here’s a bible verse: “Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.” Except that EVERYBODY is Egypt, including you. As soon as you reeeeally need someone to support you (or vice versa), that's when they will invade your unprotected flank, undoing what it took you half the game to build up. There seems to be some common sentiments that this is the kind of game where you can’t WAIT to play again... and also where you FEAR playing it again.

COOPERATIVE:

Pandemic

This is the most “mainline” of a group of games with similar mechanics. The others are Forbidden Island (search for treasure theme, a bit easier) and Defenders of the Realm (fantasy theme, a bit more involved). You play cooperatively against the game, needed to coordinate and combine your special abilities in order not to die horribly. In Pandemic the theme is fighting disease outbreaks all over the world.

Space Alert

In the “Pandemic family” of games, one criticism is that one knowledgeable player can power-game and boss the other players around. Space Alert seeks to solve this problem. You actually play a track off of a CD, which will give you a certain amount of time to meet each threat. You play cards to “go to this room, press this button” to deal with the threat. After the mission track is over, you go through everyone’s cards and determine whether you succeeded, or (much more likely) you determine which threat caused everyone to die a gruesome death. Super cool but also a much more intense and stressful games than some people enjoy. But those people don’t deserve to be your friends, now, do they?

AREA CONTROL:

El Grande

An older euro game, but the daddy of all area control games, and still very highly regarded. You play "caballeros" into regions adjacent to the movable “king” figure, and then you score points in a region by having more of them than the others. There are semi-randomized event cards which drive the action every round, so every game and every round is different. A bit abstract but still pretty approachable.

Chaos in the Old World

Area control meets Warhammer fantasy chaos gods. Not exactly child-safe content (“Rain of Pus”, et al), but a strong theme meeting a solid euro mechanic. Encourages some deliciously evil role-playing and temporary alliances. The characters play out VERY differently in how they score points and manage their hand -- kudos for the (mostly) balanced asymmetrical play. Popular here as PbP.

Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery

A bit of genre-crossing while colonizing the new world. You place colonists to establish control of an area, but you’re also putting down buildings to get benefits and points, and doing some worker-placement to make stuff happen. “Stuff” can be over-generalized as discovery, trading, and colonizing, each of which is a valid path to victory. A nice way to scratch that civilization-building itch in just a couple of hours.

RACING:

RoboRally

Programmable robots! You choose 5 instruction cards out of your hand to move your robot on a board filled with hazards. Cards are revealed simultaneously, keeping the action moving along. You need to land on flags in order, which are scattered across the board. If you bump another robot, that robot continues its instructions for that round, potentially driving it into a pit or missing the flag. Hugely customizable -- it’s almost a game system in its own right, allowing and encouraging variants like “blocker” robots and team-based capture-the-flag.

Formula D

An attractive Formula 1 racing game. There are some flaws here, such as a runaway-leader problem and player elimination, but it plays quickly so it doesn’t matter TOO much. You want to get into the higher gears to move faster, but it has a contrary push-your-luck mechanic in that you have to stop X number of times in a corner. It also has drafting, customizable car stats, and fiery crashes. It plays a LOT of people, too -- up to 10.

DEXTERITY:

Crokinole

Dexterity games are not mentioned much here, but they are still worth a look. Crokinole is a classic where the gameplay revolves around flicking disks into certain areas of a circular board. It’s also about letting your teammates down, after being set up for the perfect shot. This is an expensive game, but it can also be a beautiful conversation-starting display game.

Sorry! Sliders

This is a cheap, readily available dexterity game that kids seem to love. You slide pieces down a track to score points on a concentric-ring target. The track can be made longer for a more “adult” difficulty.

Pitchcar

A modern dexterity classic where you race around a track by flicking your car. There’s also a version of Sorry! Sliders (Cars 2?) with this mechanic that might be easier to find.

Catacombs

A newer dexterity game with a dungeon-crawl twist. You flick your heroes (or monsters) against the enemy to score “hits”. Some characters are ranged and have little discs to fire, also.

TACTICAL MINIATURES:

Earth Reborn

This game looks like it fell out of the 80's. Tongue-in-cheek post-apocalyptic mechs vs zombies. Not hugely popular, but those that play it love it to death. Part of that is because of the highly-regarded combat system, which works with your icon-dense character card to produce a fairly intuitive system. Has initiative bidding for things like LOS opportunity attacks. Also has a modular board which can be set up according to the standard missions, or you can create a new one with the mission-generating rules. The mission system can have things like switches, searching for loot, and torture. You heard me. Ramping up to the "full game" requires playing through some introductory missions, so there's a time investment required to really crack that shell.

Super Dungeon Explore

Some games here remind one of a video game (i.e. space exploration --> Masters of Orion); this game tries to evoke something like Gauntlet in a more direct way. Anime-style characters, monster spawning portals, light hack-n-slash gameplay, and really really impressive miniatures. But there's the rub -- you have to put the darn things together, and it is NOT trivial. But once you're done, you'll have something that turns heads when you bring it out.

FILLER:

No Thanks

Simple, light bidding (or perhaps anti-bidding) game that everybody enjoys. Each player is given chips, which give them the ability to "pass" and avoid taking a card. The chips build up on the card until somebody takes it. Plays in 20 minutes, tops.

For Sale

Simple auction game that everybody likes. In the first phase you bid on properties ranging from cardboard box to space station. In the second phase you blind bid properties to get checks. Count up the checks at the end and the person with the most money wins.

jergarmar

good places to find out more about games:
-- BoardGameGeek
-- The Dice Tower (also has The Dice Tower podcast)
-- Shut Up and Sit Down
-- Critical Failures PbP Gaming Index

And finally, here are some previous incarnations of this thread (newest to oldest):
-- Discussions of Wil Wheaton's cardboard nerd-cred...
-- Risk Legacy is Neat...
-- Space Alert Owns...
-- Citadels For > 5 People...


NOTES:
-- New thread! It looks strangely similar to the old thread! Suggestions welcome, but I'm already working on adding the obvious Android: Netrunner, X-Wing Miniatures, Lords of Waterdeep, Eclipse, Yinsh, and Bohnanza.
-- My goal is to fit everything into 2 main posts, and with the new stuff I'm adding they will be quite full. If you have a suggestion for something to add, it would be very helpful to have a suggestion for something to remove, as well.
-- I added spoiler tags for the "category" sections, trying to make it easier to find stuff

PMAvers

SMERSH get!

Oh my goodness, this is a heavy box full of stuff.

mi-go hunter

Loving the new thread title.

Vyolynce

Holy shit, dude. Now I see why the new thread was taking so long. Excellent work!

EDIT: Oh... just a copy of the old thread? Still, impressive. I came into that thread LTTP.

Suggestions...

Two-Player/Abstracts: Yinsh, Zertz
Deck-building: Ascension, Eminent Domain
Epic: Android, Fury of Dracula
Economy: It pains me to see Power Grid up there, but that's just bias; Power Grid: The First Sparks is PG goodness without nearly as much math
Worker Placement: Alien Frontiers
Dexterity: Tier Auf Tier (Animal Upon Animal) (also: awesome for kids)
Co-op: Sentinels of the Multiverse

InkSplat

Glad I suggested editing, or else you might never have stopped. :P

Custom Special

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

Also, sudden awesome things on BGG. I got two different PMs for trades that I'm excited for.
Trading away Levaithans and Fearsome Floors for Pitchcar and Extension #1 (he's paying shipping!).
Trading away Dixit Odyssey and Bohnanza for Castle Panic and Wizards Tower expansion (no free shipping on this one).

Pretty much trading away a few games I don't play for games that I will totally play (and one thats hard to find and expensive!).

Also winning a local geeklist auction for Mystery of the Abbey, my sole bid stands at $15!
I had another winning (at the time) bid for Battlelore at $39, but she had left it up on the marketplace and someone snatched it up before the auction ended. Super sad.

InkSplat

Again, for X-Wing fans, for the new thread, and because the TIE Interceptor pics got posted.

TIE Interceptor: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10748680#10748680
A-Wing: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10744490#10744490
Slave 1: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/896021/runner-up-in-kessel-run-event-in-western-australia/page/1

Daredevil pretty much lets a ship with Boost do a 1 K-turn, at the expense of their action. That could be wicked.

jergarmar

Vyolynce wrote: »

Suggestions...

Two-Player/Abstracts: Yinsh, Zertz
Deck-building: Ascension, Eminent Domain
Epic: Android, Fury of Dracula
Economy: It pains me to see Power Grid up there, but that's just bias; Power Grid: The First Sparks is PG goodness without nearly as much math
Worker Placement: Alien Frontiers
Dexterity: Tier Auf Tier (Animal Upon Animal) (also: awesome for kids)
Co-op: Sentinels of the Multiverse

I don't want to make the thread TOO long, so I am trying to be really picky and choose things that are not redundant in their category, easily available, have some kind of wide appeal, and have shown themselves to have staying power.

That being said, there are some good recommendation. Yinsh would be a nice addition. Doesn't look like many other abstracts. It pains me to add Power Grid, also, for a similar bias. Sentinels of the Multiverse would be an interesting addition, but I'm curious how it stands up against the new Marvel game. Also, is SotM that much of a generally-audience co-op? I mean, I wanted to add Ghost Stories to that category as well, but it's difficult enough (and the art is unusual enough) for it to have a somewhat narrow appeal.

Custom Special wrote: »

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

It's actually already in the thread, under "racing games", but that might be a nice place to move it. Let me take a look at that.

ObiFett

InkSplat wrote: »

Again, for X-Wing fans, for the new thread, and because the TIE Interceptor pics got posted.

TIE Interceptor: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10748680#10748680
A-Wing: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10744490#10744490
Slave 1: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/896021/runner-up-in-kessel-run-event-in-western-australia/page/1

Daredevil pretty much lets a ship with Boost do a 1 K-turn, at the expense of their action. That could be wicked.

Man...

I'm gonna be happy with no matter what I get if I finish top 4 this Saturday

Custom Special

jergarmar wrote: »

Custom Special wrote: »

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

It's actually already in the thread, under "racing games", but that might be a nice place to move it. Let me take a look at that.

Ah, my bad. Didn't read all of the sections; racing sounds like a decent place for it, I just seem to break it out with big groups for a quick lap or two.

Brainleech

Well I would like to tell a story that pretains to the current thread title
On OKC there was a girl who said she liked board games. i made the mistake of asking which ones. She replied with what do you like to play after I told her the ones I was playing at the time {creationary, omega virus, the d&d ones and hero quest} and then gave her suggestions of what other ones were out there in the vast and confusing world of board gaming. I did get a reply of thank you and it was something she did not need to know as she was going to stay within the easy realm

MrBody

I must lodge a protest to the OP calling Memoir 44 brilliant
=\

eelektrik

Brainleech wrote: »

Well I would like to tell a story that pretains to the current thread title
On OKC there was a girl who said she liked board games. i made the mistake of asking which ones. She replied with what do you like to play after I told her the ones I was playing at the time {creationary, omega virus, the d&d ones and hero quest} and then gave her suggestions of what other ones were out there in the vast and confusing world of board gaming. I did get a reply of thank you and it was something she did not need to know as she was going to stay within the easy realm

That does not surprise me in the least. Most people wouldn't know a good board game if it slapped them in the face, and aren't interested in actually learning what makes a good board game. Thus continuing the sales of Monopoly and its multitude of themed versions.

At least Target with its partnership with Geek and Sundry are getting some good board games on their shelves, like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Dixit, Pandemic, and a few of the smaller FFG games. I am honestly amazed they aren't selling the Game of Thrones game yet given the increase in popularity since the release of the TV show. But hopefully these will help get the awareness that life exists beyond Life.

The_Tuninator

Anybody here ever played the Advance Wars board game?

It's a fanmade print-and-play that captures the essence of the GBA games quite well while translating them into a more group-friendly tabletop format. I've obtained a copy and played a few games and am looking to discuss tweaking some mechanics. If you haven't played the board game but you are familiar with the video game series input is still welcome, as the two play very similar.

Brainleech

ToyrS has a lot of games I really don't expect to see in a store like that. They have the D&D games the new D&D mini game they had the Warcraft adventure game from FFG {I got most of the figures for it but not the main game}. Still it's the only place I have seen Battleship Galaxies. I would be neat if they had a sub. with fast attack ships {like a submarine} and a carrier! but I don't see that comming out

I pointed her in the direction of Boardgame geek but I think that was a fruitless advice

jakobagger

Great OP, jergamar. A bit of unreasonable pedantry: Chaos in the Old World is about the Warhammer fantasy chaos gods, not the Warhammer 40k ones. I mean, they are basically the same but since CiTOW takes place in the Warhammer fantasy world it doesn't make sense to mention 40k. Same gods, different settings.

Namrok

Isn't there speculation that fantasy is actually taking place inside the eye of chaos in 40k and that Sigmar was one of the lost primarchs?

Just sayin.

Darkewolfe

Namrok wrote: »

Namrok wrote: »

Isn't there speculation that fantasy is actually taking place inside the eye of chaos in 40k and that Sigmar was one of the lost primarchs?

Just sayin.

There was support for that during the really early editions, but eventually GW decided to try to shore up some "less silly" fluff and all of those hints went away.

jergarmar

jakobagger wrote: »

Great OP, jergamar. A bit of unreasonable pedantry: Chaos in the Old World is about the Warhammer fantasy chaos gods, not the Warhammer 40k ones. I mean, they are basically the same but since CiTOW takes place in the Warhammer fantasy world it doesn't make sense to mention 40k. Same gods, different settings.

That's okay, I'm a bit of an unreasonable pedant, myself. CitOW entry fixed per your suggestion.

MrBody wrote: »

I must lodge a protest to the OP calling Memoir 44 brilliant
=\

In my defense, I called the system brilliant. My personal adoration of Ancients has been expressed often and with enthusiasm.

EDIT: I need a table of contents! Eureka! That probably means the post is TOO LONG. Heh.

jakobagger

Namrok wrote: »

Isn't there speculation that fantasy is actually taking place inside the eye of chaos in 40k and that Sigmar was one of the lost primarchs?

Just sayin.

Maybe, but that's really a stretch in my opinion. Plus, it makes the fantasy setting kind of meaningless (or significantly less epic) if it's just one planet among thousands. But apart from that there's things like magic not existing in 40k.

I feel like it makes more sense to just view it as different settings with similar themes. At most, parallel universes. But of course this is a discussion that will quickly approach Zelda chronology levels of pointlessness.

Vyolynce

jergarmar wrote: »

Sentinels of the Multiverse would be an interesting addition, but I'm curious how it stands up against the new Marvel game. Also, is SotM that much of a generally-audience co-op? I mean, I wanted to add Ghost Stories to that category as well, but it's difficult enough (and the art is unusual enough) for it to have a somewhat narrow appeal.

I'd like to think that "comic book superheroes" is becoming as "general audience" as it's going to get thanks to all of the brilliant movies we've been getting lately. Besides, is it really any less general-audience than, say, Pandemic? Given the choice between "we're a team of doctors and scientists trying to prevent outbreaks over the world" and "we're a team of super heroes working together to kick a villain's ass" I know what I'd pick just about every time.

And as much as I enjoy having Ghost Stories rip my face off a few times a year, I have a hard time recommending it to people who aren't hardened veterans of co-ops. That game is just demoralizing 9 times out of 10.

Namrok

I can see why Memoir 44 would be in the OP and not Ancients. Ancients is very much a gamer's game, and any ol' person who wonders in here and is curious about all these new games they've heard of could actually pick up and play Memoir 44.

Tayrun

Namrok wrote: »

I can see why Memoir 44 would be in the OP and not Ancients. Ancients is very much a gamer's game, and any ol' person who wonders in here and is curious about all these new games they've heard of could actually pick up and play Memoir 44.

Seconded. I actually needed to choose between these for a wargame about a year back. I chose Memoir '44 based on this thread, partly due to its description in the old OP. I would have been unhappy with C&C Ancients. OP is good.

jergarmar

Vyolynce wrote: »

jergarmar wrote: »

Sentinels of the Multiverse would be an interesting addition, but I'm curious how it stands up against the new Marvel game. Also, is SotM that much of a generally-audience co-op? I mean, I wanted to add Ghost Stories to that category as well, but it's difficult enough (and the art is unusual enough) for it to have a somewhat narrow appeal.

I'd like to think that "comic book superheroes" is becoming as "general audience" as it's going to get thanks to all of the brilliant movies we've been getting lately. Besides, is it really any less general-audience than, say, Pandemic? Given the choice between "we're a team of doctors and scientists trying to prevent outbreaks over the world" and "we're a team of super heroes working together to kick a villain's ass" I know what I'd pick just about every time.

And as much as I enjoy having Ghost Stories rip my face off a few times a year, I have a hard time recommending it to people who aren't hardened veterans of co-ops. That game is just demoralizing 9 times out of 10.

My concern about the general-audience appeal of SotM is definitely not the theme. I just don't know if it deserves to stand next to Pandemic and Space Alert, because I haven't played it. Also, how do you get it? Availability seems to be a issue with some Kickstarter games.

Brainleech

Is Space Alert the one that needs a CD player? It looked like a teamwork survival thing?

Vyolynce

jergarmar wrote: »

My concern about the general-audience appeal of SotM is definitely not the theme. I just don't know if it deserves to stand next to Pandemic and Space Alert, because I haven't played it. Also, how do you get it? Availability seems to be a issue with some Kickstarter games.

Fair enough. The in-store availability has been weird lately if my LGS is any indication, but you can pretty reliably get it directly from their website.

Namrok

Vyolynce wrote: »

jergarmar wrote: »

My concern about the general-audience appeal of SotM is definitely not the theme. I just don't know if it deserves to stand next to Pandemic and Space Alert, because I haven't played it. Also, how do you get it? Availability seems to be a issue with some Kickstarter games.

Fair enough. The in-store availability has been weird lately if my LGS is any indication, but you can pretty reliably get it directly from their website.

Actually if you follow through, their store says they are out of stock of the Enhanced Edition, but are expecting more in December. Which is now. Nowish.

If only board games hadn't been stricken from the budget. Man, once they are back on, I am going on a spree. It'll probably be a year long purchasing spree.

ArcticLancer

I will also suggest that SotM is not nearly as strong a game as Pandemic or Space Alert.
The theme is fine - in fact, it's better than fine. They've done very well putting together their little world. But when it comes down to playing, things are ... less refined. The volume of effects to track is not user-friendly (depending on characters being played, of course), and the randomness of how villains and heroes each play can make things boring.

It's a great game for those who like it. But I don't think Sentinels has the same 'good introduction' game as Pandemic, because a lot of the villains basically require you to game them or develop specific strategies against them, rather than reacting to the situation as it evolves.

Vyolynce

Yeah I noticed that when I verified the URL, but in general terms that seems to be the most efficient non-Kickstarter path. Gotta remember that this company is literally just three guys. Supply issues are gonna happen.

jergarmar

jergarmar wrote: »

Custom Special wrote: »

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

It's actually already in the thread, under "racing games", but that might be a nice place to move it. Let me take a look at that.

I was thinking about the difficulty in finding stuff, so I put spoiler tags around all the "category" sections. I think it makes it a bit more difficult to read, but easier to navigate. How does that look?

Hensler

New deck builder, need something with equal parts theme and gameplay. Should I get Marvel Legendary (has anyone actually played this?), the Resident Evil deck building game, or Nightfall + expansions? I've seen good reviews of all 3, but haven't had a chance to play any of them yet. I'm going to be trying some different deck builders at my game shop to lure in some Magic/Yu-Gi-Oh/Pokemon/etc. card players (Netrunner is already on the list and ordered).

Also, my Zombicide order got cancelled because it was out of stock, so I just ordered Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, which looks fantastic .

Vyolynce

jergarmar wrote: »

jergarmar wrote: »

Custom Special wrote: »

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

It's actually already in the thread, under "racing games", but that might be a nice place to move it. Let me take a look at that.

I was thinking about the difficulty in finding stuff, so I put spoiler tags around all the "category" sections. I think it makes it a bit more difficult to read, but easier to navigate. How does that look?

Looks good; any plans on doing that to the stuff in the first post, just for consistency?

jergarmar

Vyolynce wrote: »

jergarmar wrote: »

jergarmar wrote: »

Custom Special wrote: »

Formula D needs to be appended to Big-Group Fun post haste!

It's actually already in the thread, under "racing games", but that might be a nice place to move it. Let me take a look at that.

I was thinking about the difficulty in finding stuff, so I put spoiler tags around all the "category" sections. I think it makes it a bit more difficult to read, but easier to navigate. How does that look?

Looks good; any plans on doing that to the stuff in the first post, just for consistency?

I'm thinking about it, but the first couple of sections are more general, so you can see the "cream of the crop", as it were. It was my attempt at a middle ground. I'm open to changing it if it looks weird.

EDIT: I just realized that the 2-player section will have to be messed with quite a bit, since I'll be adding X-Wing AND Netrunner to that section. I'll probably be moving several games out of there, which should make it easier to read.

Darkewolfe

I insist that Small World should not be in the "great games for anyone" section. Puerto Rico was commonly held in that place before all you whippersnappers came along. Yeah, the best players have broken it, but it's one of the simplest to learn "role-based worker placement" games.

The_Tuninator

Hensler wrote: »

New deck builder, need something with equal parts theme and gameplay. Should I get Marvel Legendary (has anyone actually played this?), the Resident Evil deck building game, or Nightfall + expansions? I've seen good reviews of all 3, but haven't had a chance to play any of them yet. I'm going to be trying some different deck builders at my game shop to lure in some Magic/Yu-Gi-Oh/Pokemon/etc. card players (Netrunner is already on the list and ordered).

Also, my Zombicide order got cancelled because it was out of stock, so I just ordered Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, which looks fantastic .

I've played Resi extensively. I find the game to be a lot of fun, though I would only recommend it for fans of the series; if you haven't played the video games, there are probably DBGs you will enjoy more.

desc

InkSplat wrote: »

TIE Interceptor: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10748680#10748680

Unf unf unf

jergarmar

Darkewolfe wrote: »

I insist that Small World should not be in the "great games for anyone" section. Puerto Rico was commonly held in that place before all you whippersnappers came along. Yeah, the best players have broken it, but it's one of the simplest to learn "role-based worker placement" games.

Ha! I was actually just looking at Small World, asking myself if it really belonged there. I totally get your point. My only concern is that playing Puerto Rico with an experienced player can really feel like a flogging. The section is intended to be for satisfying games that you could still introduce to non-gaming friends, so they should be immediately understandable, appealing, and light. (I think I'll modify the title somewhat to support that).

Darkewolfe

Carcassone might fit that spot well, then. It's so fundamentally simplistic, yet it's a decently strategic worker placement game.

jergarmar

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Carcassone might fit that spot well, then. It's so fundamentally simplistic, yet it's a decently strategic worker placement game.

True. Which is why it's already in that section. Directly above Small World.