the people who were bored were probably the ones that had personal goals that involved other people paving the way for them to stick the knife in. (I'll let you find the egg room, or kill the first alien while I sit here and loot the medical station. )
Anyone get a chance to try Death May Die? The more I play with my friends and girlfriend, the more I realize they prefer faster, easier to learn games. I don't think I'm ever going to get Gloomhaven to the table, for example. (It might be time to try and sell it.) Death May Die looks like a fun, quick dungeon romp, and I still haven't had my fill of Cthulhu.
Yep, we loved it and it went very fast and was super easy to pick up.
Gonna try all the leftover escape room game this holiday with the folks and neighbors.
-Exit: House of Riddles
-that 3D cardboard room thingamajingy I linked to a while ago
-live escape rooms!
Tried a cool new local one that was an arcade setup with a bunch of working games.
A lock in the room required a 5 digit code. Eventually you found two sheets that when put together spelled out a bunch of games.
Castlevania
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy
Contra
Gradius
One of the arcade games was an emulator station with a list of SNES games. I'm such a dork I immediately knew which number went to each game without looking.
Gonna try all the leftover escape room game this holiday with the folks and neighbors.
-Exit: House of Riddles
-that 3D cardboard room thingamajingy I linked to a while ago
-live escape rooms!
Tried a cool new local one that was an arcade setup with a bunch of working games.
A lock in the room required a 5 digit code. Eventually you found two sheets that when put together spelled out a bunch of games.
Castlevania
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy
Contra
Gradius
One of the arcade games was an emulator station with a list of SNES games. I'm such a dork I immediately knew which number went to each game without looking.
4
7
2 or 3
3
3
I got them all too, except...
why is Super Mario RPG 7? Wasn’t it the first in the series?
Granted, I never played the game so I might be....
Never mind, I just remembered the full title of the game.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
The rest of the room had some weird design decisions where there were side puzzles that, when solved, would provide some clue to a main puzzle, but the side puzzles all took longer than just focusing on the main puzzle itself.
- A 3 digit code, and you eventually found the 3 digits but didn't know the order. You could notice an arrow that led you along a long path that would eventually point to some sequence that you could connect with the digits to tell you the order......or you could just brute force the whopping 6 different combinations for the those 3 digits.
- A bunch of shapes next to some block placement puzzle. You could discover a couple letters around the room, use those to figure out which shape translated to every letter of the alphabet, use that key to spell out the message that the blocks were saying which has a cryptic clue that essentially just said "Look at this giant picture on the wall that blatantly shows how to place the blocks"......or you could just look at the giant picture on the wall that blatantly shows how to place the blocks.
I think Photosynthesis, an adorable, pastoral game about cute trees, is the most cutthroat area control game I've ever played. Absolutely merciless.
Sagrada, unfortunately, seems like a worse version of Azul. The complexity makes it much harder to read your opponent's board without making it more engaging, and that's a problem that is redoubled for colourblind players like me.
I wish I'd read a review and held back my impulse for Sagrada. Might trade it, if I don't like it more after a couple of plays.
There's a common Euro thing where player interaction is mostly denial, and that's fine, but when denial is based on reading your opponent's board, I feel like it should be legible at a glance. Sagrada involves me craning to see each opponent's board, mathing out what they need, comparing it to the draft options, and then realizing that it isn't worth the opportunity cost to mildly mess with them vs complete my own board. Feels very solitaire.
We did try the new Camel Up, though, and it's fantastic (and the cards have distinct shapes on the various colours, to help you tell them apart, which I appreciated a ton)
I wish I'd read a review and held back my impulse for Sagrada. Might trade it, if I don't like it more after a couple of plays.
There's a common Euro thing where player interaction is mostly denial, and that's fine, but when denial is based on reading your opponent's board, I feel like it should be legible at a glance. Sagrada involves me craning to see each opponent's board, mathing out what they need, comparing it to the draft options, and then realizing that it isn't worth the opportunity cost to mildly mess with them vs complete my own board. Feels very solitaire.
We did try the new Camel Up, though, and it's fantastic (and the cards have distinct shapes on the various colours, to help you tell them apart, which I appreciated a ton)
THERE'S A NEW CAMEL UP?! Ugh, my wallet...
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tzeentchlingDoctor of RocksOaklandRegistered Userregular
Sagrada (which for the record came out before Azul) in my experience really doesn't reward messing with your opponents until late-game, really the last few turns. Before that most players will just have too many options. The early game interaction of Sagrada is figuring out how best to use the tools before they become prohibitively expensive to do so.
Honestly I think the best thing Sagrada has going for it is the beauty of the components and the shiny colors of the dice making a cool pattern on your board. If one of those is a problem, then it's absolutely not the game for you. The gameplay is light with a bit of screw-your-opponent but it's more of a puzzle game with limited choices, and if that's your goal then maybe there really are better games out there for you.
I wish I'd read a review and held back my impulse for Sagrada. Might trade it, if I don't like it more after a couple of plays.
There's a common Euro thing where player interaction is mostly denial, and that's fine, but when denial is based on reading your opponent's board, I feel like it should be legible at a glance. Sagrada involves me craning to see each opponent's board, mathing out what they need, comparing it to the draft options, and then realizing that it isn't worth the opportunity cost to mildly mess with them vs complete my own board. Feels very solitaire.
We did try the new Camel Up, though, and it's fantastic (and the cards have distinct shapes on the various colours, to help you tell them apart, which I appreciated a ton)
THERE'S A NEW CAMEL UP?! Ugh, my wallet...
it's a 2.0 so if you already have the OG the main differences are the betting partnership mechanic (which might have been in supercup i forget), and 2 "crazy" camels running backwards to mess up the more towards the end of the race. Component wise it's a new art style, a plastic pyramid that poops out a dice instead of you slamming that cardboard top down on the table, and it doesn't work with the supercup expac.
it's woirth an upgrade depending on how much you've abused your old pyramid.
Played Edge of Darkness today with a few friends. 3rd chapter setup. I like it a lot better than Mystic Vale.
It was neat. I like discovering good card combos, like you would in a game of Dominion.
Def would want dedicated people to play it every once and a while tho.
I like that you can win by a half or quarter of a point. Really makes every decision on paying to use other players cards more meaningful.
The Dice tower thing for the cubes got some unexpected laughs, which is what you want from a risky random "aw fuck" mechanic.
Won by just a little bit.
Played Terraforming Mars with the new expansion, Turmoil, as well as Colonies and Prelude.
Colonies and Prelude are fantastic, Turmoil can be really rough. My brother sponsored the Reds, a political party which has the policy of requiring an additional 3 mega credits whenever you get a victory point, and it really bogged the score down. The new rules of annual loss of Terraform Rating was especially brutal in prolonging the game by denying money. I think the game went for 4 or 5 hours, with five players with the winner with 30+ some odd points. Would play it again. The cards specific to what ruling party was in play were pretty cool. I could see strategizing on getting a power in office so that you can use some cool card. Corporations seem cool. Not sure how I feel about the political parties. They mostly give kickbacks of money for actions, and didn't seem to make up for the annual loss in TR. The corporations were neat.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Just got shipping surveys for the next Red Dragon Inn expansion.
Slugfest is also doing an optional survey to ask for more things than Kickstarter will allow.
I haven't looked yet, but I want to express my desire for them to stop using Kickstarter as a pre-order vehicle and partner with game stores!
I am really considering picking it up as the next legacy game my friends and I play but if anyone has any no spoilery impressions that would be great. On paper it sounds like a really fun concept for a legacy game.
El Mucho on
BNet: ElMucho#1392
Origin: theRealElMucho
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Peer pressure saw me do a thing. I've discovered making a Top ## list is like a form of self-flagellation because you immediately realize all the games you haven't played enough to consider putting on the list, and anything you DON'T feel compelled to put on the list you start to wonder why you even have it. I mean, probably great considering I need a little shelf space and I was looking at doing a New Year's auction, but also ... ow, punching myself in the hobby. :P
I am really considering picking it up as the next legacy game my friends and I play but if anyone has any no spoilery impressions that would be great. On paper it sounds like a really fun concept for a legacy game.
Curious too, I'm interested if it's good for online play (either over discord or forum).
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Thanks for posting, it was interesting reading. Would be nice to have a collection of such things in the OPs. Did you only rate games you own? I wonder if I could even list a top 19.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited December 2019
No, I also have a bunch of games I don't own (or previously owned) rated on my BGG account, but obviously they didn't make the cut either. I listed a single game I don't own because I really do enjoy The Great Zimbabwe, but also have trouble justifying it while a friend owns it (we've been making an active effort in our group to not buy games other people have because why bother when we almost always play with each other anyway?). And as I said in my list description, I generally struggle to even make a top 10, so I totally understand having to make the list longer. It was originally supposed to be top 25, but I couldn't find games I had such good, strong feelings for after that, so ... I cut it off. Kingdomino was close because my partner likes playing it, but that's pretty narrow, and Codenames: Duet was in a very similar place.
(Also, that link to that could absolutely be included in the OP, yes, I don't mind)
My daughter and I just had our first game of Villainous, me as Jafar and her playing Queen of Hearts. I got off to a great start, Scarab zinging across the desert right out of the gate and the lamp not far behind it. Her wickets were coming together at a reasonable pace but it looked like I was having a lucky enough run that I was unstoppable. I got everything lined up, all conditions met and ready to claim victory at the beginning of my next turn. So of course she fates me and the stupid monkey steals my lamp. On my next turn I send the hypnotised Genie to deal with my primate problem, and get things cleaned up so I'm ready to win again. At which point she gets her final wicket sorted, Takes The Shot and smashes it by such a wide margin I think she technically won our next two or three games as well. Close, tense, fun - a really brilliant game. Can't wait to play again and will definitely grab the expansions.
0877-0596-8498 | Swirlix, Dedenne, Floette
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Played a game of Food Chain Magnate, and I enjoyed it, though definitely felt like this needs some more playthroughs to figure out "what's good" and at least how to get things working properly. I felt like I was constantly a step behind my colleague who owned the game and taught it to us. to the point we knew he had basically won, but we still needed 4 turns to empty the bank, The thing i'm unclear on, if it was even possible to get back into the game. if it was possible to completely screw the leader out the game. it doesn't feel like it, but this game is atleast worth a few more tries to see if it can get more competitive.
Played a game of Food Chain Magnate, and I enjoyed it, though definitely felt like this needs some more playthroughs to figure out "what's good" and at least how to get things working properly. I felt like I was constantly a step behind my colleague who owned the game and taught it to us. to the point we knew he had basically won, but we still needed 4 turns to empty the bank, The thing i'm unclear on, if it was even possible to get back into the game. if it was possible to completely screw the leader out the game. it doesn't feel like it, but this game is atleast worth a few more tries to see if it can get more competitive.
I just don't understand people who introduce a complex game that requires more than one play to understand effective strategies, then decide to use their sole knowledge of that to runaway with the game. And then they're baffled that people are soured on it and don't want to play it again? Whenever I'm the one introducing, I make it a point to hold back and not go for the cutthroat plays that a first time player couldn't possibly know about. I'll even forgo multiple scoring attempts to keep the game neck and neck. And on top of that, save all the "you should have done this and this" until after the end, because when do that during the game every time a learner makes a move, it also becomes frustrating that you're playing the game for them.
The worst of that I've seen was someone introducing a player to Twilight Struggle for the first time. They let them get an entire hour into the game when they decided to claim victory via Olympic Games DEFCON suicide (DEFCON level being 2, someone plays the Olympic Games event, other player chooses to boycott and lower the DEFCON by 1, triggering nuclear winter which means the person who played the card loses). DEFCON suicide is a mechanic that veteran player know to look out for, but first time players aren't going to be on guard for that. Why the HELL would you take advantage of that when teaching someone for the first time? Did they really think that anti-climatic ending would make them want to play again?
So my group of people that get together for game nights has been slowly growing, and we've gone from 4-5 people to 7 or more fairly regularly.
This makes things slightly awkward, as Betrayal Legacy, EDH and Boss Monster were our go to games when we're playing board games.
So I'm looking for some suggestions for larger games. Ideally that move at a decent clip.
Secret Hitler and CAH are the only ones we have that scale up that high at the moment, King of Tokyo for when we have six or less.
I've heard good things about Codenames, Spyfall and Cosmic Encounters (with expansions to up player count)
Spyfall sounds a little like Secret Hitler, but if it's interesting enough I would be on board.
Split the group and play two games
Codenames and Spy fall are both good party games. Cosmic Encounter is a terrible game without end that had an important place in boardgames for historic reasons
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Played a game of Food Chain Magnate, and I enjoyed it, though definitely felt like this needs some more playthroughs to figure out "what's good" and at least how to get things working properly. I felt like I was constantly a step behind my colleague who owned the game and taught it to us. to the point we knew he had basically won, but we still needed 4 turns to empty the bank, The thing i'm unclear on, if it was even possible to get back into the game. if it was possible to completely screw the leader out the game. it doesn't feel like it, but this game is atleast worth a few more tries to see if it can get more competitive.
I just don't understand people who introduce a complex game that requires more than one play to understand effective strategies, then decide to use their sole knowledge of that to runaway with the game. And then they're baffled that people are soured on it and don't want to play it again? Whenever I'm the one introducing, I make it a point to hold back and not go for the cutthroat plays that a first time player couldn't possibly know about. I'll even forgo multiple scoring attempts to keep the game neck and neck. And on top of that, save all the "you should have done this and this" until after the end, because when do that during the game every time a learner makes a move, it also becomes frustrating that you're playing the game for them.
The worst of that I've seen was someone introducing a player to Twilight Struggle for the first time. They let them get an entire hour into the game when they decided to claim victory via Olympic Games DEFCON suicide (DEFCON level being 2, someone plays the Olympic Games event, other player chooses to boycott and lower the DEFCON by 1, triggering nuclear winter which means the person who played the card loses). DEFCON suicide is a mechanic that veteran player know to look out for, but first time players aren't going to be on guard for that. Why the HELL would you take advantage of that when teaching someone for the first time? Did they really think that anti-climatic ending would make them want to play again?
I get what you're saying - but this was not my experience, and I feel you're projecting a bit.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Just One fits 7. Just saying.
It's also an old odd-duck, but you could look into Shadows Over Camelot for 7. It's one of the original hidden traitor games, and honestly it still holds up better than most others.
Ultimately the problem you tend to run into with 7 is that most games you'll find good for that player count are some form of filler, and bigger games have too much downtime to comfortably fit that many people. They're out there (7 Wonders was mentioned already), but it's not a common product.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Sushi Party Go! I think does 7.
Dekrypto is fine with uneven teams in my opinion.
I played Acquire which is an old cutthroat stock trading game. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it because it was so much friendlier than Chicago Express and Irish Gauge.
I've grown to prefer Sushi Go Party! over 7 Wonders recently. While it's got simpler set-building mechanics compared to 7 Wonders, that also makes it easier to break out. In terms of a bang for buck in both time and money, I feel like Sushi Go Party! is preferable.
As another alternative in the same drafting game genre at 7 players, there's also Between Two Cities. While each building type is pretty much uniform (more like Sushi Go Party!), the thing that makes Between Two Cities slightly more complex is the requirement of cooperation—you need to work with both your neighbors to build cities with the highest scores. I don't think it's as immediately accessible than Sushi Go Party!, but new players can get into the game easier by sitting them next to one or two more experienced players. I haven't played its child game, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but I remember it being a good marriage between the original gameplay and Castles of Mad King Ludwig's varying room abilities.
I've grown to prefer Sushi Go Party! over 7 Wonders recently. While it's got simpler set-building mechanics compared to 7 Wonders, that also makes it easier to break out. In terms of a bang for buck in both time and money, I feel like Sushi Go Party! is preferable.
I've had the same experience. My wife and kids will break out Sushi Go Party without a second thought, but trying to play 7 Wonders is a completely different experience with them. I've probably played Sushi Go Party more this last year than I've played 7 Wonders the entire time I've owned it.
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ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
If you just added unique player mats to Sushi Go Party there would be no reason to have 7 Wonders. Just something small that pushes your strategy in a given direction or a one use power. "At the end of the game you may count one of any card as a dessert instead." Stuff like that.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
I really can't say I believe Sushi Go and 7 Wonders are comparable besides both being drafting games. >_> Yes, you can absolutely prefer one to the other, but they're wholly different experiences ...
My suggestions for 7:
7 wonders
Citadels
Mysterium
7 and more:
Codenames
Great Dalmuti
Sometimes it's better to just split up the group after playing a party game or filler.
Splitting the group works for some groups, but not for all groups. In our casual monthly group ("has never played Catan" level), despite repeated attempts to try to split into different games, it inevitably leads to a handful of people having a poorer experience. They are there for the shared company, not for an intense and tight board game experience, which is fine... all groups have different dynamics (we also have an irregular "Dino Day" group that meets just to play Dinosaur Island, which is decidedly much more complicated than most board games, for instance).
In our large casual group (again, most of them have never played Catan, so keep that skill level in mind), here are the games that worked well: Codenames has been quite popular, although the newer players who've never played it before tend to be sidelined. Just One has been a MASSIVE hit in our casual group (to the point where non-gamers would walk up to me and ask for the name of the game so they can buy it themselves). Instead of using the dry erase markers and boards, I went to the Dollar Store and bought a dozen mini-Magna Doodles ($1 each!), which everyone loves (especially the people who are sensitive to scents). The classic party game Bowl of Nouns or the slick repackaging of it called Monikers also has been a big hit, although the Charades portion is challenging for some people. Same with Eat Poop, You Cat/Telestrations, which is a big hit. We've also played the classic game Liar's Dice (often with Pirate music going in the background, due to the association with the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel movies).
If you look a bit outside the box and more into video games, all of the Jackbox Party Pack games have proven to be pretty reliably awesome.
I like Sushi Go Party, but introducing the concept of drafting is challenging to a casual group. I love Decrypto, but I've yet to try it with the casual crowd. It falls in a similar pile as with Codenames.
I just Watched It Played for Decrypto. That game looks great, I might need to acquire it.
edit: Rodney said you can do almost whatever for clues: hum a song, interpretive dance. How do you write down someone's interpretive dance?
Fry on
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Decrypto is a good time, but it's hugely susceptible to bad players. You really need to make sure your group is ... ugh, I hate to sound like an asshole about it, but ... competent. I remember teaching people the game once and playing with them and having two or three rounds straight end on turn 2, because people could guess the words, because people were being entirely blatant. They didn't understand what they were doing wrong, and didn't enjoy the game. Which, in their defense, was entirely fair. <_<
Posts
Yep, we loved it and it went very fast and was super easy to pick up.
-Exit: House of Riddles
-that 3D cardboard room thingamajingy I linked to a while ago
-live escape rooms!
Tried a cool new local one that was an arcade setup with a bunch of working games.
Castlevania
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy
Contra
Gradius
One of the arcade games was an emulator station with a list of SNES games. I'm such a dork I immediately knew which number went to each game without looking.
7
2 or 3
3
3
I got them all too, except...
Granted, I never played the game so I might be....
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
- A bunch of shapes next to some block placement puzzle. You could discover a couple letters around the room, use those to figure out which shape translated to every letter of the alphabet, use that key to spell out the message that the blocks were saying which has a cryptic clue that essentially just said "Look at this giant picture on the wall that blatantly shows how to place the blocks"......or you could just look at the giant picture on the wall that blatantly shows how to place the blocks.
I think Photosynthesis, an adorable, pastoral game about cute trees, is the most cutthroat area control game I've ever played. Absolutely merciless.
Sagrada, unfortunately, seems like a worse version of Azul. The complexity makes it much harder to read your opponent's board without making it more engaging, and that's a problem that is redoubled for colourblind players like me.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
There's a common Euro thing where player interaction is mostly denial, and that's fine, but when denial is based on reading your opponent's board, I feel like it should be legible at a glance. Sagrada involves me craning to see each opponent's board, mathing out what they need, comparing it to the draft options, and then realizing that it isn't worth the opportunity cost to mildly mess with them vs complete my own board. Feels very solitaire.
We did try the new Camel Up, though, and it's fantastic (and the cards have distinct shapes on the various colours, to help you tell them apart, which I appreciated a ton)
THERE'S A NEW CAMEL UP?! Ugh, my wallet...
Honestly I think the best thing Sagrada has going for it is the beauty of the components and the shiny colors of the dice making a cool pattern on your board. If one of those is a problem, then it's absolutely not the game for you. The gameplay is light with a bit of screw-your-opponent but it's more of a puzzle game with limited choices, and if that's your goal then maybe there really are better games out there for you.
it's a 2.0 so if you already have the OG the main differences are the betting partnership mechanic (which might have been in supercup i forget), and 2 "crazy" camels running backwards to mess up the more towards the end of the race. Component wise it's a new art style, a plastic pyramid that poops out a dice instead of you slamming that cardboard top down on the table, and it doesn't work with the supercup expac.
it's woirth an upgrade depending on how much you've abused your old pyramid.
they are extremely sexual, it's true
It was neat. I like discovering good card combos, like you would in a game of Dominion.
Def would want dedicated people to play it every once and a while tho.
I like that you can win by a half or quarter of a point. Really makes every decision on paying to use other players cards more meaningful.
The Dice tower thing for the cubes got some unexpected laughs, which is what you want from a risky random "aw fuck" mechanic.
Won by just a little bit.
Played Terraforming Mars with the new expansion, Turmoil, as well as Colonies and Prelude.
Colonies and Prelude are fantastic, Turmoil can be really rough. My brother sponsored the Reds, a political party which has the policy of requiring an additional 3 mega credits whenever you get a victory point, and it really bogged the score down. The new rules of annual loss of Terraform Rating was especially brutal in prolonging the game by denying money. I think the game went for 4 or 5 hours, with five players with the winner with 30+ some odd points. Would play it again. The cards specific to what ruling party was in play were pretty cool. I could see strategizing on getting a power in office so that you can use some cool card. Corporations seem cool. Not sure how I feel about the political parties. They mostly give kickbacks of money for actions, and didn't seem to make up for the annual loss in TR. The corporations were neat.
Slugfest is also doing an optional survey to ask for more things than Kickstarter will allow.
I haven't looked yet, but I want to express my desire for them to stop using Kickstarter as a pre-order vehicle and partner with game stores!
I am really considering picking it up as the next legacy game my friends and I play but if anyone has any no spoilery impressions that would be great. On paper it sounds like a really fun concept for a legacy game.
Origin: theRealElMucho
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Curious too, I'm interested if it's good for online play (either over discord or forum).
(Also, that link to that could absolutely be included in the OP, yes, I don't mind)
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
This is the essence of the Jafar experience in Villainous.
This makes things slightly awkward, as Betrayal Legacy, EDH and Boss Monster were our go to games when we're playing board games.
So I'm looking for some suggestions for larger games. Ideally that move at a decent clip.
Secret Hitler and CAH are the only ones we have that scale up that high at the moment, King of Tokyo for when we have six or less.
I've heard good things about Codenames, Spyfall and Cosmic Encounters (with expansions to up player count)
Spyfall sounds a little like Secret Hitler, but if it's interesting enough I would be on board.
I just don't understand people who introduce a complex game that requires more than one play to understand effective strategies, then decide to use their sole knowledge of that to runaway with the game. And then they're baffled that people are soured on it and don't want to play it again? Whenever I'm the one introducing, I make it a point to hold back and not go for the cutthroat plays that a first time player couldn't possibly know about. I'll even forgo multiple scoring attempts to keep the game neck and neck. And on top of that, save all the "you should have done this and this" until after the end, because when do that during the game every time a learner makes a move, it also becomes frustrating that you're playing the game for them.
The worst of that I've seen was someone introducing a player to Twilight Struggle for the first time. They let them get an entire hour into the game when they decided to claim victory via Olympic Games DEFCON suicide (DEFCON level being 2, someone plays the Olympic Games event, other player chooses to boycott and lower the DEFCON by 1, triggering nuclear winter which means the person who played the card loses). DEFCON suicide is a mechanic that veteran player know to look out for, but first time players aren't going to be on guard for that. Why the HELL would you take advantage of that when teaching someone for the first time? Did they really think that anti-climatic ending would make them want to play again?
My suggestions for 7:
7 wonders
Citadels
Mysterium
7 and more:
Codenames
Great Dalmuti
Sometimes it's better to just split up the group after playing a party game or filler.
Split the group and play two games
Codenames and Spy fall are both good party games. Cosmic Encounter is a terrible game without end that had an important place in boardgames for historic reasons
I get what you're saying - but this was not my experience, and I feel you're projecting a bit.
It's also an old odd-duck, but you could look into Shadows Over Camelot for 7. It's one of the original hidden traitor games, and honestly it still holds up better than most others.
Ultimately the problem you tend to run into with 7 is that most games you'll find good for that player count are some form of filler, and bigger games have too much downtime to comfortably fit that many people. They're out there (7 Wonders was mentioned already), but it's not a common product.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Dekrypto is fine with uneven teams in my opinion.
I played Acquire which is an old cutthroat stock trading game. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it because it was so much friendlier than Chicago Express and Irish Gauge.
As another alternative in the same drafting game genre at 7 players, there's also Between Two Cities. While each building type is pretty much uniform (more like Sushi Go Party!), the thing that makes Between Two Cities slightly more complex is the requirement of cooperation—you need to work with both your neighbors to build cities with the highest scores. I don't think it's as immediately accessible than Sushi Go Party!, but new players can get into the game easier by sitting them next to one or two more experienced players. I haven't played its child game, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but I remember it being a good marriage between the original gameplay and Castles of Mad King Ludwig's varying room abilities.
I've had the same experience. My wife and kids will break out Sushi Go Party without a second thought, but trying to play 7 Wonders is a completely different experience with them. I've probably played Sushi Go Party more this last year than I've played 7 Wonders the entire time I've owned it.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I really love how people panic near the end of the game and just make a mad dash for their objective which invariably leads to their demise.
In our large casual group (again, most of them have never played Catan, so keep that skill level in mind), here are the games that worked well: Codenames has been quite popular, although the newer players who've never played it before tend to be sidelined. Just One has been a MASSIVE hit in our casual group (to the point where non-gamers would walk up to me and ask for the name of the game so they can buy it themselves). Instead of using the dry erase markers and boards, I went to the Dollar Store and bought a dozen mini-Magna Doodles ($1 each!), which everyone loves (especially the people who are sensitive to scents). The classic party game Bowl of Nouns or the slick repackaging of it called Monikers also has been a big hit, although the Charades portion is challenging for some people. Same with Eat Poop, You Cat/Telestrations, which is a big hit. We've also played the classic game Liar's Dice (often with Pirate music going in the background, due to the association with the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel movies).
If you look a bit outside the box and more into video games, all of the Jackbox Party Pack games have proven to be pretty reliably awesome.
I like Sushi Go Party, but introducing the concept of drafting is challenging to a casual group. I love Decrypto, but I've yet to try it with the casual crowd. It falls in a similar pile as with Codenames.
edit: Rodney said you can do almost whatever for clues: hum a song, interpretive dance. How do you write down someone's interpretive dance?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?