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[LeoLeonardoIII]

I watch Shut Up and Sit Down, which is a boardgames review site with humor and stuff. The most recent videos kinda suck so don't watch those - go abck to their earliest ones (the ones on their old site).

As for games that I've played, honestly, backgammon is pretty fun for two people to throw a few minutes at. Faster and less intimidating than chess, less of a chess lookalike than checkers.

I also like Mille Bournes, a car-racing attack card game where you each try to get to 1000 miles first. It's not a CCG so you can actually just buy a deck of cards and play and stop handing the damn company money.

Triominoes is kinda cool. You fit triangular pieces together but the numbers on the points have to match.

There's a board game company Ravensberger, one of their games is the Amazing Labyrinth. The basic game is fun, but pretty simple and more for kids. The harder version still involves an ever-changing maze and hunting for treasure, but you also fight a dragon who spins around on his hoard and fills the corridors with fire.

Picked up The Cave. It's fine, but somewhat unsatisfying with two players. The mechanic where you pack up your tent and deploy it farther into the cave seems mathematically worthwhile on the face of it but it feels like such a PITA you probably end up just ditching your tent in the starting tile and running into the cave, refusing to explore beyond any water tiles so you don't have to carry a boat, refusing to explore past squeezes because they're a stupid waste of time, and staggering back starving in the dark because the best strategy is to go as far as you can until all your supplies are exhausted. In summary, it's ok, but it encourages weird behaviors, and based on that I'm far less interested in picking up K2.

Ghost Stories is wonderful. We haven't won a game yet. As a co-op game it's an unusual and delightful change of pace from screwing each other with Mille Bournes.

Monopoly isn't as bad as everyone says as long as you use the auction mechanic, as long as people are wiling to trade each other to form monopolies instead of grinding around the board forever, and you institute a house rule that the nth Go crossing after the last property is purchased is the end of the game - highest personal wealth wins. Which you can generally eyeball. Also putting tax money in Free Parking is fine, but don't seed it with cash after each jackpot - it makes the game very swingy and it lasts much longer.

Tiki Mountain is not great. It's roll-and-move and while it has some interesting stuff it's generally not worth it. Sorry! is better - Parcheesi is even better than that if you can get a game with cute little animal figurines.

Gloom, a card game about piling hardships on your family members and then killing them off in poetic ways, has a cute mechanic with transparent cards where you lay the cards on each other and whatever shows through is what you get, Chief. But the game didn't really capture my delight. It was just okay. We played it once and haven't picked it up again if that says anything.

Zombie Dice is a thing where you roll dice and try to get brains but not shotgun blasts. The dice have different colors for difficulty, meaning harder dice have fewer brains faces and more shotgun faces. You can buy custom dice on a few websites ... it's probably cheaper to do that than buy Zombie Dice. Not sure if fun; it's Farkle-like.

Cosmic Encounter looks like a blast. Incredibly simple rules make you wonder how they will come up with dozens of different aliens - but they do! We've avoided spoiling it by reading the alien powers ahead of time, and have played only two games. Our copy has cardboard pieces that are a bit warped (har!) and it seems like it would be MUCH more fun with 4+ people.

Settlers of Catan is cool, but random board layout will result in obvious wins from the start to whoever grabs the right settlements. Haven't played any expansions. Might be more fun with lots of people.

I have a nice set of Mahjong tiles and would like to learn some games for them but I has a lazy.

[BigD145]

Backgammon is good but you can get royally screwed by the dice, even with good placement. Fjords is excellent if you can find it. It's a really good 2 player. Hive is excellent for chess players.

Don't ever put money on free parking. Money should leave the game. Yes, you need to play by the real rules as printed, but it's still not a good game.

Great Dalmuti is a wonderful time waster to player when you have 10 minutes and you're waiting on more people. You can also play for hours. It's 4-8 but 4 sucks. 5 is okay but you need 6-8. You can build the deck out of 4 poker decks or 2 Rage decks. It's just 2 wild cards and numbered cards 1-12 with one 1 and twelve 12's. Same for other numbers. I've heard it's very similar to the game Thirteen.

[motorbitch]

roboraly.
because its the fuckin best board game ever.
we play it for more then a decade now and its big fun every time.

[TheDarkStar]

I also have some Ravensburger games I've played. There's this game called Carcasonne where you build the board tile by tile throughout the game (the theme is medieval, with walled cities, dirt roads, open fields/pastures, and monasteries) and you can also put one of your pieces on them to claim something on it (city or road or monastery or field) and then you also get the connected things of that type in one way or another. It's a fun game to play, and there are a lot of interesting strategies that you can use. Also, it's hard to tell who will win before the end because of the things you can do at the very end, even if someone wins by a lot.
Also, they made a game called Thurne und Taxis, which is about the postal service in Southern Germany a few centuries ago. It's kind of interesting to play, with the goal being to get the most points by way of getting longer routes, getting better wagons, and getting routes through certain areas. It's like a very much improved version of Ticket to Ride.

Also, has anyone heard of the game Mao? It's actually a card game and not a board game, but it kind of fits here. It's one of those games where you can't be told the rules; you just have to figure them out while playing. There aren't that many, and the game would get boring with just those. However, if you win a round of the game, you can add a rule to it (that usually lasts until the end of the game session or the end of the day), you can make up a rule. Groups of players usually have limitations on it, like not allowing "Player X always wins/loses" type rules. Also, it's played with normal playing cards. For a general overview of some common rules, there's a Wikipedia page for it; pick any of the more specific rules you want from it, but keep them consistent. It can be fun if you're playing with people who also want it to be fun.

[sambojin]

For a lot of easy to play games but with campaign possibilities, I'd recommended the Games Workshop "side catalogue". Space Hulk, Warhammer Quest, Blood Bowl, Battle Fleet Gothic. Every game is different, there's heaps of add-on rules, and they're moderately quick (1 1/2 hours a game). WHQ is best for multiplayer, bloodbowl for 1v1.

If you want a campaign when your friends go back home, try and check out:

www.fumbbl.com

Bloodbowl at its finest. Free, runs on a tiny rig, is easier to get good at than certain AAA titles due to the true top-down graphics, and has a semi-helpful community (yes, choose Block. Why did you ask?).

For more than 2 player, go for WHQ or BFG. Still pretty easy to learn, one being pulp fantasy (limited but fun), the other able to do a 3 or 4 way giant spaceship battle with objectives (diplomacy isn't covered in the rules, but coalitions do form, even against 1 ship. Good 1v1, awesome in multiplayer with objectives).

Anyway, light and fluffy, and not too hard to learn. If you can bodge a four player space hulk variant then you've done better than any PC developer.

[sambojin]

As an aside, you can play BFG without a single overpriced plastic figure. Hell, you *could* print out images of the ships off the internet and move them around the table. But they work fine without copyright violations as long as the front of the ship is obvious. You can even make planets, objectives and random obstacles out of paper. Grab a black sheet/curtain/whatever. Put it on a table. Have pieces of paper. Write what those things are on the bits of paper so everyone knows if it's a planet or what type of ship/whatever. Make sure everyone knows where the front of those things (ships, etc) are, so you all know where the left and right is of that thing.


Wargaming at it's finest. No cost, good rules, quick game, bring friends (so !!fun!! happens). If you want, you can get artistic instead of just bits of paper. It's fun in 1v1 death matches to a certain point limit, it's fucking hilarious with 3-5 different factions fighting over objectives. Why is the future so grim and dark? Because of multi-player BFG. That's why.

Battle Fleet Gothic is pretty cool.

[Mech#4]

I haven't got that many boardgames, the usual Scrabble, Monopoly, Backgammon, whatever. More gamey ones are things like Mouse Trap, Loopin' Louie but those suffer from missing pieces. Oo, I have one called Trapdoor or something. It's a game like Cluedo where you have multiple guests in a house, the board has all these traps like a falling chandelier and rotating bookcase which you use to off other players.

Hm, I would like to get a nice Mahjong set, though other then that I don't play many board games.

I've played some with others though. A number of dungeon crawlers, a card game involving time travel and paradoxes, also a deathmatch one where you run around a maze picking up weapons and shooting each other like in Unreal Tournament.

[sambojin]

As a non-triple-post, why hasn't anyone taken up MP BFG as a license on computers? The objectives can be asymmetric. What one rock is to one race or faction is totally different to another. Bombing? Defending? Fleet+? Need torps? Need to be torped? Mega-weaponed? What of the other areas? Your objective on those objectives isn't the same as the other races. Maybe not even the same as different factions of your own side. Thus fleet load-out and diplomacy. With point values and stuff. Meh.

I'm calling it now. BFG multiplayer with asymmetric objectives will be the next truly "good" GW game on PC (or tabletop).

There. I said it first.

[Erils]

Anyone else played Betrayal at house on the hill

[Ak-Sai]

Good day to everyone.

I like boardgames and played them quite a lot with my friends (I wonder if DnD, Savage worlds,  Vampires the Masquerade, D20 Star Wars counts as boardgames, so dont punish me if they are not).

Could someone suggest some good and free-to-enter-and-play tabletop games? Preferable wargames (such as Brikwars - free and seems quite interesting to spare a few evenings at). I wonder if there are any other good stuff, that is not forcing you to buy costly miniatures, while being deep and/or fun to play, and so on.

BTW, if anyone suggests some good boargames RPG-s which would fit the same description I would be grateful too. 

[Anvilfolk]

I haven't got that many boardgames, the usual Scrabble, Monopoly, Backgammon, whatever. More gamey ones are things like Mouse Trap, Loopin' Louie but those suffer from missing pieces. Oo, I have one called Trapdoor or something. It's a game like Cluedo where you have multiple guests in a house, the board has all these traps like a falling chandelier and rotating bookcase which you use to off other players.

Hm, I would like to get a nice Mahjong set, though other then that I don't play many board games.

I've played some with others though. A number of dungeon crawlers, a card game involving time travel and paradoxes, also a deathmatch one where you run around a maze picking up weapons and shooting each other like in Unreal Tournament.

If you like those, I suggest you grab yourself a copy of Settlers of Catan and go from there. A lot of the people who get into boardgames more seriously as a hobby don't have the best opinion of the games you mention, and awesome new types of games and mechanics have come up in the past few decades that make new games, in my opinion, infinitely better

Sambojin: I've played Battletech and FUMBBL, and for me they took 1.5h to 2h. Very few lasted less than that, so I dunno.

Sambojin and Ak-Sai: Have a look at VASSAL, if you can't find local people to play with. Basically it gives you a virtual tabletop with all the pieces, but doesn't implement the rules. The rules you have to know... but then you can move counters and things from here to there, shuffle cards, draw them, etc. And, as far as I know, it has multiplayer capabilities

Spoiler: Learning Carrier and the Battle of Santa Cruz (click to show/hide)

My saga in getting to know Carrier continues. I've read all of the standard rules and am moderately comfortable with them. I'm doing the final training scenario, which is now on hold because of work. I still have to reference the rules for details all the time, but it's getting better.

Right now I'm doing the Battle of Santa Cruz scenario... I started with TF 16 with the Enterprise and TF 17 with the Hornet. The enemy forces arrayed east of the Solomons turned out to have at least 3 carrier forces. Significant numbers of planes were sent on searching missions in the early morning, to guarantee good intelligence for the morning raids. As soon as we found out about the closest carrier force, we quickly dispatched 3 raids to it. When the raids arrived, they found it to be constituted of the CVL Hiyo and CVE Zuiho. The Hiyo was put out of commission with heavy damage, and the CVE Zuiho got so many bomb hits that he could only put up token raids. The battle starts well!

Unfortunately, another force revealed itself to be a carrier task force when we were massively raided in two waves... The Hiyo and Zuiho must've been decoys! They attacked TF 17 while it was refueling and servicing planes... there was nothing we could do! The Hornet was sunk, forcing its search planes and CAP to transfer from TF17 to TF16 with barely any fuel to spare. The choice was made to let the Hornet sink, and send the rest of TF17 to try to engage in surface naval combat!

The Enterprise of TF16 kept launching planes while TF17 closed on the enemy, but with having to ensure adequate search capabilities and having only a single working deck, the raids we could launch were limited. Nonetheless, one raid did reach and find the Shokaku and Zuikaku. Our pilots managed to put a couple of hits in the Shokaku - only a meagre return for the sinking of the Hornet... All was well and good, but then the Zuiho sent its final lonely aircraft towards us, and while we shot all of them down, they dropped a few bombs smack on the deck of the Enterprise. Some of the Hornet's planeswere on deck when this happened, and they were blown to pieces or had to be thrown overboard.

But then, TF17 managed to close in with the Shokaku/Zuikako task force and engaged in a glorious slugging match! The Japanese must've been surprised, because the surface ships defending the carriers didn't manage to hit any of our ships. We did, however, and as they took damage they were forced to retreat. On their way out they managed to hit a couple of our cruisers, but no matter... by this time we were within range of the carriers and our somewhat damaged cruisers exacted their revenge by further shelling the Shokaku. Last reports were that the Shokaku can no longer launch airplanes!

It's now a little past 1320, and we have strike force coming back towards Enterprise to land, still a ways away, and a few search planes coming back too. I am wondering whether to launch the two final raids of the day with 1) the landing search planes plus leftovers from the Hornet's planes currently in the Enterprise's hangar and 2) the home-bound raid. I think they'll get back before nightfall. We've got a ton of CAP up, so hopefully the Enterprise will survive most of the damage... but I dunno.

Decisions decisions!

[Werdna]

Most of the games I'd normally recommend are on here, so I'll bring up a rarer one called Nexus Ops.  I mention it because my group is often 3 players, and 3 players is a special niche of hell in many head to head strategic boardgames because of the extreme "gang-up" factor that occurs when one player gets ahead.  Nexus Ops involves taking/defending territory and building armies, but you gain victory points through accomplishing secret objectives (ie "kill an opponent's dragon").  Crushing an opponent takes a backseat to meeting those objectives, and you soon learn that it is advantageous to completely lose an army if it gains you victory points in the process.  It plays fairly quickly, is quick to learn, and has decent (but not deep) strategic depth.

Battlestar Galactica is another favorite among my group, but the game take a very long time.  7 Wonders and Citadels have trumped Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico in my group in the "build stuff up" game category, as they play fast with less muss and are easy to learn.  Small World is another favorite (and is on Steam), although I personally am not a big fan (there is a nasty strategy exploit that can result in hurt feelings).  Thunderstone is a fun alternative to Dominion should you be into the deck-building sorts of games.

For those looking for online play, Yucata has a lot of games online.

Edit: Oh, and I'm sure most of you've been there, but for new folks:  Boardgamegeek has everything you need to research your next boardgame.  Great resource.

[Anvilfolk]

+1 for BoardGameGeek

Race of the Galaxy and 7 Wonders feel too single player for me, as does Dominion. Citadels is pretty good - there supposed to be a game which is like that but better, called Mission Red Planet, but it's out of print

I have Nexus Ops overseas, and never really managed to play it, though I really wish I did. I am travelling home for a couple of days and hope to bring it back and get it o the table. Not too deep, but good for some die rolling and laughing! I really like that you get an advantage every time you lose a battle. Great system for keeping you in the battle!

Our last game of BSG went as expected... my wife gained my complete trust, as usual, then turned out to be a Cylon, along with the nicest guy in our game group. Of course, by this time they had managed to put all three humans in the Brig before revealing. It was me, a guy who was played Sharon, who gets 3 loyalty cards instead of 2 and was TOTALLY acting suspicious, and another guy who just likes fighting and won't ever play cooperative games, and was also acting super suspicious. Ugh.

We almost survived too... almost...

[BigD145]

There are lots of print n play games at BGG. I don't recommend Catan without Cities and Knights and the event deck.

If you have a little money for tabletop wargames I have a copy of Heroscape master set (with a couple easily replaceable banners missing) that I would sell for less than market price. I have quite a few games I would sell for less to bay12er's than I would normally sell at BGG. I need to clear out a good chunk of my closet.

[Mephansteras]

Race for the Galaxy is definitely pretty single player, unless you're using the expansion that allows for direct player interaction.

7 Wonders is a good bit less single player, since there can be stronger interactions between players. Even just who you buy resources from can have a big impact on the end result of the game.

Dominion depends a lot on the cards being used. Some set-ups are very much single-player (except for piles being exhausted and when the end condition is met) while others have a huge amount of interaction.