The Board Game Thread

[Surfah]

I love trivia games. It exposes everybody for the frauds they are. "What's the capital of Iceland?..."Um, I don't know...let's play Pictionary!"

Exactly.

Something that everyone has to understand about Gidget is that she is the most caring and compassionate being alive. She loves board games too. But her personality won't let her win. She often sabotages her own self so that she doesn't win so as not to offend the competitive gamers. And you know the ones I'm talking about. Gidget has friends that play who seem to determine their self worth on how much ore or armies they can amass.

[ERCougar]

Oh man...so much to say on this. I'm a huge boardgame fan, a boardgamegeek.com regular, this is my mormon substitute for fine wines.

My top ten:
Puerto Rico--all time greatest game
Settlers--but we almost always play Cities and Knights. Settlers is probably a better "pure" game as the C&K mechanics probably overcomplicate things, but Settlers has gotten a little dull after this much play
Memoir 44 - I play this with my 7-yo now as a Sunday afternoon tradition. We have all the expansions and it's a blast. Great way to teach history to a kid and a really fun light wargame
Bang - is a great group card game. Lots of bluffing, lots of strategy, just a fun time. And you drink "beer" cards to recover from gunshots. How cool is that?
Lost Cities - Fun quick two-player card game.
Carcassonne - I have the basic with a few expansions but I like Hunters & Gatherers better
Ticket to Ride - We have the Europe version, as a few friends have the America map. I like Europe better. I've seen a few more versions since this one but haven't played them
Acquire - Old Sid Sackson classic that keeps getting re-released because it's just a dang good game
Diplomacy - Why people still play Risk is beyond me. Well, I guess you need 7 players for this, but it totally rocks. The perfect boardgame if you can get 6-7 people together for a few hours.
Robo Rally - Fun group game
Lord of The Rings Confrontation - two-player stratego-like game, but way funner. Reiner Knizia at his finest.
Modern Art - Great auction-mechanic game, another Knizia product.
Pitch Car - Dexterity racing game. Every adult and kid we play this with loves it.

That's probably more than 10. I have another group of favorites for kids that don't make you want to stab yourself in the eye (e.g. Candyland, Chutes and Ladderes). I'll save it for another post.

[ERCougar]

Boardgames are not for parties. I have a few party game recommendations, but in the right setting only, and they do not include Pictionary, Balderdash, or anything of the same ilk. The reason I love boardgames is that they serve as a prop for a few friends to get together, talk, and use their brains. Or they serve as a much better alternative to my kids watching TV or playing video games. And really, I don't know of a single kid who doesn't love boardgames. My kids would much rather play a boardgame than play Wii.

[ERCougar]

Great kids games:
Gulo Gulo - a dexterity game where your 3-4 yr old can actually beat you. Great wooden components--perfect example of a European game vs American mass-produced crap.
Rat-A-Tat Cat - if you've played Golf with cards, this is essentially the same game, but kids like the Rats and Cats theme. Fun, quick game
Max - cooperative mechanic with a good strategy element.

[ERCougar]

We own Bang, but don't play it too much (it doesn't play 2-player very well, and Little Robin doesn't like it). It is a lot of fun, somewhat Rummy-esque, with a nice pairing of theme to game mechanic. The graphics are fun, and it comes in a little box (for the glove compartment!).

I wish we could find people to play this one with more. This, Phase Ten, and Rook would be a nice collection of small card games for a decent games night.

I love Bang. I'm not sure there's a better light card game. It's not my wife's favorite, as shooting each other with various weapons gets a little too confrontational. She also sucks at bluffing.

I'm not a fan of Phase Ten or Rook.

[ERCougar]

As much as I carry on as a day trading, South Central representing, motorcycle riding, hard living, loose moral bad-ass, the truth is I am a nerdy board game loving family man. Like many Mormons, I learned to love board games during our ritual Family Home Evening Activities each Monday night. Board games are awesome! Many of the Finderson's best friends are those with whom we play board games, an activity that we try to schedule a couple of times a month, and which takes up a full day (at least eight hours) whenever we do it.

Mormons have been pretty good for the Board Game industry, which is evidenced by one of the annual best-selling board games:

Settlers of Zarahemla is a close knockoff of Settlers of Catan, which was the first European style board game to make it big in the United States during the most recent wave of board game mania (in case you didn't know, we are in the middle of the second major serious board game renaissance, the first having taken place during the 70's and 80's when Avalon Hill and 3M were producing great Bookshelf games).

Settlers is a wonderful game. It is unfortunate that for many Mormons Settlers of Catan/Zarahemla is the ONLY European style board game that they know about. This is sort of the equivalent of someone discovering Merlot and then deciding that they like it so much that they will never try any other kind of wine. There are better games! Here are a few:

Ticket to Ride:

Ticket to Ride is a great next step into the world of European style board games. The game mechanics are simple enough for anyone to learn, and it is a lot of fun for beginners and old hats alike. In T2R, each player draws a hand of secret train routes. For example, one player might need to complete a route between Duluth and Miami. A different player might need to complete a SLC to Los Angeles connection. Longer routes are worth more points than shorter routes. This one is great for the whole family if your kids are older than 10. Our boy is a smart nine, and can keep up with us.

Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico is a fun resource management game. Players start off with empty plantations, and must manage them, growing Corn, Indigo, Coffee and Sugar. As with most resource management games, the winner is typically the person who creates the most efficient economic engine, getting his crops to market at their peak value, etc. This one is super fun, and only slightly more complicated than Catan. This would be a great choice for table-top strategists looking for a bit more depth than can be found in Catan.

San Juan:

San Juan is a card game based on Puerto Rico. It is less expensive, takes up less space in the trunk, and has most of the game play of Puerto Rico. Faith and I are always looking for good 2-player games, and this one certainly fits the bill.

Haven't played San Juan, but have heard good things about it. PR is my favorite all-time game, so I'm sure I'd like it.

[ERCougar]

My game friends are only into the Euro-style games, so I haven't been able to play any Axis & Allies in years. I've seen the various new variations come out and wished I had folks to play them with.

Axis & Allies is better than Risk because it is A). More complex. B). Has a really fun connection to history. C). Has many different styles of play (depending on which country you end up playing -- USA, Germany, Russia, Japan, or GB. I used to play this with Mike back at DT. He was pretty good. Those were good times.

And Diplomacy is WAY better than either Risk or A&A.

[ERCougar]

Games the missus and I own: Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride (Europe), Diplomacy, Rummikub, Carrcasonne, and Blokus (Trigon). Most of these games play fairly fast and are still fun even with 2 people. Below I describe the game play.



Blokus is a game for 2-4 people and last about 30 min. You have 20 or so tetras looking pieces of various sizes that you try and place on the board but must have a corner, and not a side, touching one of your other pieces. You try to use up all of your pieces and block the other players from being able to play theirs. In the trigon version the pieces are triangles instead of rectangular.



Rummikub is another 2-4 player game that is around 30 minutes long. You start with 14 tiles, which are numbered 1-13 and are reb, blue, black or orange. You try and play all of your tiles by making runs, of the same color, or sets of like numbers. You can add on to another set or run that has been previously played or rearrange the tiles so as to be able to play. If you are unable to play you draw another tile.



Diplomacy is a long, take over the world type game for 2-7 players. There is no roll of the dice just diplomacy. You gain territory by out numbering your opponent. Success requires convincing opponents to ally with you, playing on side against and other and at the right moment stabbing you allies in the back.



Carcassonne is a 2-5 player game that takes from 30-60 minutes. On each player's turn you draw a tile,which is face down in a pile, and place it on the table face up. The tiles can be roads, cities, cloister or a combination of two of them. The only rule for placing tiles is that is make sense, so you wouldn't have a road randomly intersect with a city. Players score points by placing their men, called meeples, on the road, city, cloister or field. Once a road or city is complete you may score points by how large it is.

My favorite right now out of these games is probably blokus but that might be because that is the one we got most recently.

Yes! A fellow Diplomacy fan. I LOVE this game. Only drawback is how hard it is to get enough people to have enough time to play.

Blokus is a fun one too. Haven't purchased that one yet, but it's one of the rare good games you can find at Target.

[ERCougar]

I definitely enjoy a good boardgame. We've 'converted' many of our friends to the truth that is the euro-game, or more specifically, to the World Beyond Parker Brothers. It's funny how once you show people a good boardgame it's hard to go back and enjoy fatally flawed games like Monopoly and Risk (yeah, I'm not just a food snob).

Puerto Rico is right up there for me, as good a game as there is. We've put together a killer set of Carcassonne in a wood box that saw a lot of play over lunches at work, not so much now. I'm a sucker for just about any Reiner Knizia game and own/play Samurai, Tigris & Euphrates, Lord of the Rings, Amun-Re, and Lost Cities by the good doctor.

Others we enjoy are El Grande, Memoir '44, Ticket to Ride (good intro game), Citadels, and several of the Kosmos 2-player line. Settlers as well, from time to time. Games on the wish list include Caylus, Shogun, and Power Grid. If you're ever in UT county and want to play a game of Puerto Rico, just give me a holler.

Ohio...I remember having a big similar discussion with you on CB a long time ago. Didn't you used to live in Cedar City?

[TripletDaddy]

ER, is that 6 straight replies in the board games thread? What is the CG/CUF record? You are challenging Exie for the most consecutive replies!

[RobinFinderson]

Oh man...so much to say on this. I'm a huge boardgame fan, a boardgamegeek.com regular, this is my mormon substitute for fine wines.

My top ten:
Puerto Rico--all time greatest game
Settlers--but we almost always play Cities and Knights. Settlers is probably a better "pure" game as the C&K mechanics probably overcomplicate things, but Settlers has gotten a little dull after this much play
Memoir 44 - I play this with my 7-yo now as a Sunday afternoon tradition. We have all the expansions and it's a blast. Great way to teach history to a kid and a really fun light wargame
Bang - is a great group card game. Lots of bluffing, lots of strategy, just a fun time. And you drink "beer" cards to recover from gunshots. How cool is that?
Lost Cities - Fun quick two-player card game.
Carcassonne - I have the basic with a few expansions but I like Hunters & Gatherers better
Ticket to Ride - We have the Europe version, as a few friends have the America map. I like Europe better. I've seen a few more versions since this one but haven't played them
Acquire - Old Sid Sackson classic that keeps getting re-released because it's just a dang good game
Diplomacy - Why people still play Risk is beyond me. Well, I guess you need 7 players for this, but it totally rocks. The perfect boardgame if you can get 6-7 people together for a few hours.
Robo Rally - Fun group game
Lord of The Rings Confrontation - two-player stratego-like game, but way funner. Reiner Knizia at his finest.
Modern Art - Great auction-mechanic game, another Knizia product.
Pitch Car - Dexterity racing game. Every adult and kid we play this with loves it.

That's probably more than 10. I have another group of favorites for kids that don't make you want to stab yourself in the eye (e.g. Candyland, Chutes and Ladderes). I'll save it for another post.

ER, you have listed some of my favorites here. I own Pitch Car (a fine flicker), Lord of the Rings Confrontation (I play with Little Robin, since this one drives Faith nuts), and Diplomacy (though I have never played this, for lack of a big group to play with). I kill at Modern Art (we play with the original release, and I have never lost), and Acquire (which is the killer game you describe).

ER's description of gaming, "...a prop for a few friends to get together, talk, and use their brains," is right on.

Hey ER, if you are looking for something really cool in gaming, check out Pandemic! It is a team game where everyone wins or loses together (it is challenging... we typically lose, which makes winning very satisfying). In Pandemic, a shuffled deck of cards models the spread of five deadly diseases around the globe. Players cooperate to find cures for the disease while they simultaneously treat cities, trying to contain the spread and buy time. Well made board, nice components, good art and unique game mechanic make Pandemic a must for serious gamers.

[cougjunkie]

My family plays two games and not very often:

Trivial Pursuit
Phase 10

I dominate at both so nobody wants to play with me. We also own ESPN Scene it, but I ran the table playing with my brother in law and his brothers one night and did not miss a single question, game over I have not been able to find someone to play with me since.

[ERCougar]

ER, you have listed some of my favorites here. I own Pitch Car (a fine flicker), Lord of the Rings Confrontation (I play with Little Robin, since this one drives Faith nuts), and Diplomacy (though I have never played this, for lack of a big group to play with). I kill at Modern Art (we play with the original release, and I have never lost), and Acquire (which is the killer game you describe).

ER's description of gaming, "...a prop for a few friends to get together, talk, and use their brains," is right on.

Hey ER, if you are looking for something really cool in gaming, check out Pandemic! It is a team game where everyone wins or loses together (it is challenging... we typically lose, which makes winning very satisfying). In Pandemic, a shuffled deck of cards models the spread of five deadly diseases around the globe. Players cooperate to find cures for the disease while they simultaneously treat cities, trying to contain the spread and buy time. Well made board, nice components, good art and unique game mechanic make Pandemic a must for serious gamers.

I've played a few of the cooperative-mechanic games. LOTR has a great theme and is fun. Shadows over Camelot is a beautiful game, also with a fun theme. The problem I've had with both of these is that if you play with a strong personality, particularly one who's played before, they tend to dominate the action and tell people what to do with their turns. SoC overcomes this slightly by keeping everyone's hands secret as one of the rules, but it still succumbs. I like the cooperative mechanic though, if you're playing with somewhat laidback people.

Pandemic sounds really cool; I'll have to check it out. Great ratings on BGG.

[ERCougar]

ER, is that 6 straight replies in the board games thread? What is the CG/CUF record? You are challenging Exie for the most consecutive replies!

That's some sweet company.

I was gonna add a seventh, where I juxtapose your thoughts about games ruining fun with your love for trivia games where you can "expose the frauds", but I don't want to dominate this record quite yet.

[RobinFinderson]

I've played a few of the cooperative-mechanic games... The problem I've had with both of these is that if you play with a strong personality, particularly one who's played before, they tend to dominate the action and tell people what to do with their turns.

This can be a problem. It also makes a game like Pandemic a pretty good game to play with the young ones. I play Pandemic with Little Robin. We talk strategies and make consensus moves dominated 90% by me, but the interaction is great and he feels like he is in total control. So it could be good training wheels for budding young gamers (lil' Robin is nine).