CCCToad on 11/10/2010 at 18:25
If you want to play Risk, I'd suggest the 2142 variation. Not only does the altered game board shake up traditional strategies pretty well (ie, turtling Australia)
Its a bit of an old staple, but Clue can be great fun if you play it with the right group of people.
Tenkahubu on 11/10/2010 at 18:33
For risk style i recommend Warrior Knights. Also Age of Gods is a novel one. Dune board game (1979) is rare but great.
other lighter games: Gloria Mundi, Lord of the Rings (Kinzia) - but it takes a few games to 'get it' because you have to work together, Tongiaki (good backstabbing), robo rally, Bang!
Dominion is a poor game for board game newbs, I wouldn't recommend it for casual players.
hooded_paladin on 11/10/2010 at 18:36
Love boardgames, have a closet quite full of them. Hmm, what's good.
One of my all-time favorites is Modern Art (3-5 players). It's an auction game so you have to decide what to bid, decide which artist's paintings to auction, and get the other players to support your favored artists. And perhaps your group would like its cynical take on modern art.
I love Starcraft the boardgame, if you want a 4-hour wargame. (2-6 players, not too bad with 2 but it can be unbalanced.) Love the buildup of technologies and buildings.
Agricola (2-5) is a farming game, everyone has a family and has to build their ranch and put food on the table. The rules are long but it flows very very simply so a lot of people like it.
Dominion (2-4, 5-6 with expansion but 3-4 is best) is good, another very simply flowing game so everyone likes it. You will get obsessed with it for a few days/weeks, but don't buy too many expansions because you will get sick of it. (But we still play it sparingly.)
For a zombie betrayal game, I like Mall of Horror. (3-6) Not a lot of strategy, but it's a game of cooperating to keep the zombies out, and then throwing the other team's characters as bait when the zombies break in.
BTW boardgamegeek.com is great: the one and only website for boardgames.
fett on 11/10/2010 at 19:41
Hey, Turtle - is that one of the new Lego games I'm seeing everywhere?
Nicker on 11/10/2010 at 20:23
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_%28game%29) Iluminati, for when brute military force is just not satisfying enough. (grrr - no matter how many extra l's I add to Illuminati, the link only allows one to show - so I know how it's spelled, grammar Nazis!)
demagogue on 11/10/2010 at 20:28
This is going to sound like a scene out of
Space Balls, but my former roomate's sister's husband is the owner of the main board-gaming site, boardgamegeeks.com... Every year they host a big board-game convention in Dallas and me and my roommate get in for free to play all the games we can stand for 2-1/2 days.
Aanyway, that site has a ranking: (
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame)
I'm not just being lazy by posting it. While there are some I'd rank higher or lower, and of course it depends on the tastes of you & your friends, for the most part it's a great list to start with. Definitely any game on the first page (the top 100) is a winner.
Edit: That list is on the hardcore side, though (it's actually "all games"; the top-ranked ones just tend to be more hardcore). I think you may be more interested in the ranking list for (
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/partygames/browse/boardgame) party games, which are faster, simpler, and have more trinkets. And maybe throw in a game from the first list every now and then.
As for a recommendation, I can second Carcassone ... Plays fast and is fun.
Edit2: I like Modern Art too. It's fun because high-stakes auctions are fun as a game, and auctioning for great art is more fun than I imagine an auctioning game for cattle...
Tonamel on 12/10/2010 at 02:54
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Risk and Monopoly are still the stable favourites amongst most people I know and I think it's because the rules are simple and they are quite short games.
What? I don't think I've
ever played a game of Risk or Monopoly that didn't drag on so long everyone decided to quit before it was over. Heck, Risk 2210 is limited to five turns, and Board Game Geek still lists its as taking four hours to play. How are you playing them that you'd consider them "quite short"?
I just played Shadow over Camelot for the first time last week, and it was pretty fun. Since it was everyone's first time, we played without a traitor, but I can see how a bit of backstabbery would make the entire game more tense.
I really like cooperative board games, and if you're interested in more, you should check out (
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror) Arkham Horror, (
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823/lord-of-the-rings) Lord of the Rings, (
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica) Battlestar Galactica, and (
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic) Pandemic. They're all pretty hard to win, and a lot of fun. Arkham Horror is probably the only board game I've ever instantly fallen in love with. Like Shadows Over Camelot, BSG also has a traitor mechanic, with the interesting twist of passing out the traitor cards AGAIN halfway through the game, so someone who used to be loyal all of a sudden is plotting against you.
SubJeff on 12/10/2010 at 05:56
They are both over in a couple/few hours is why. Compare to Shogun which takes all day.
JediKorenchkin on 12/10/2010 at 14:27
Apples to Apples is a brilliant game, I'll definitely pick up a copy.
Quote Posted by CCCToad
Its a bit of an old staple, but Clue can be great fun if you play it with the right group of people.
I do think that Clue would be a pretty interesting game to play with this group. I think my parents still have a copy at their place, I'll give it a shot.
Quote Posted by hooded_paladin
One of my all-time favorites is Modern Art (3-5 players). It's an auction game so you have to decide what to bid, decide which artist's paintings to auction, and get the other players to support your favored artists. And perhaps your group would like its cynical take on modern art.
Like I said, I'm playing with art students, so that one should certainly be
interesting.
Quote Posted by hooded_paladin
For a zombie betrayal game, I like Mall of Horror. (3-6) Not a lot of strategy, but it's a game of cooperating to keep the zombies out, and then throwing the other team's characters as bait when the zombies break in.
Yeah I saw that one, and it looked interesting, but I think I'll give Zombies a shot first.
Quote Posted by demagogue
This is going to sound like a scene out of
Space Balls, but my former roomate's sister's husband is the owner of the main board-gaming site, boardgamegeeks.com... Every year they host a big board-game convention in Dallas and me and my roommate get in for free to play all the games we can stand for 2-1/2 days.
Aanyway, that site has a ranking: (
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame)
I'm not just being lazy by posting it. While there are some I'd rank higher or lower, and of course it depends on the tastes of you & your friends, for the most part it's a great list to start with. Definitely any game on the first page (the top 100) is a winner.
Edit: That list is on the hardcore side, though (it's actually "all games"; the top-ranked ones just tend to be more hardcore). I think you may be more interested in the ranking list for (
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/partygames/browse/boardgame) party games, which are faster, simpler, and have more trinkets. And maybe throw in a game from the first list every now and then.
As for a recommendation, I can second Carcassone ... Plays fast and is fun.
Edit2: I like Modern Art too. It's fun because high-stakes auctions are fun as a game, and auctioning for great art is more fun than I imagine an auctioning game for cattle...
I did go through the site ranking a bit before posting here, but I also wanted to see what people on a gaming community enjoy playing. I'm accumulating quite the list of games to pick up and try. :D
Quote Posted by Tonamel
What? I don't think I've
ever played a game of Risk or Monopoly that didn't drag on so long everyone decided to quit before it was over. Heck, Risk 2210 is limited to five turns, and Board Game Geek still lists its as taking four hours to play. How are you playing them that you'd consider them "quite short"?
Yeah, Risk certainly can take quite a while, as much as I enjoy it.
Quote Posted by Tonamel
I just played Shadow over Camelot for the first time last week, and it was pretty fun. Since it was everyone's first time, we played without a traitor, but I can see how a bit of backstabbery would make the entire game more tense.
I'm glad to hear a few people like that one. I think it might be the first one I pick up. DungeonQuest is also high on the list.
BSG wouldn't be a hit with this crowd, but I've heard some great things about Arkham Horror and Pandemic. I hadn't heard of LOTR before, that sounds like it could be great fun.
Ulukai on 12/10/2010 at 16:21
(
http://www.g8lof.co.uk/buccaneer.html) Buccaneer is where it's at. Yarrrr.
(But I'll settle for Cluedo)
Monopoly caused many a fist-fight between my best friend and I up to the age of about 11, and all the houses and hotels would rain down upon the room and people would find Regent Street down the side of the sofa three days later. Happy Days!
