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[vagel7]

Hey guys! I'm looking for a board game to add to my collection. Basically I really like games that don't put a lot of emphasis on dice rolls, as in purely luck based and while I haven't played a deck builder, it seems that I wouldn't like it. I also like very competitive games, where players either directly or indirectly compete against one another.

Currently I play a lot of Game of Thrones with by friends.

So help a fellow forumite out and suggest some boardgames.

[Arx]

Settlers of Catan? Really obvious suggestion.

That, Carcassonne and Small World are the three best competitive (mostly) luckless board games I can think of. Both the latter involve chance, though. The luck in both mostly serves to keep it skill based and not "do this and this and this for the optimal strategy".

[vagel7]

I have thought of Carcasonne or Settlers of Katan. But right now I'd want something epic. Has anybody played Lords of Waterdeep? How is it?

[Draxis]

Sounds like what you're looking for is Diplomacy; absolutely competitive and luck-free (except for which country you get at the beginning); it does take seven players and several hours, but it's extremely good.

[Cicero]

I'm going to reccomend a little known game that I've been playing a lot of lately: Innovation. It's a deck of cards with each card representing a technology or invention. Players go through 10 ages, struggling for supremecy. One of the best things about it is how fast turns can go once everyone knows what they are doing. The second link below is a place where you can play it online for free.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/63888/innovation
http://innovation.isotropic.org/

[Djohaal]

Doesn't exactly fit your request but Eldtrich Horror is an excellent (and punishingly hard) cooperative lovecraftian board game. It's cooperative and heavy on dice, but a great game all around.

[ndkid]

I'd second Innovation (though I'm biased, as I'm good friends with the publisher), though I'm not big on its expansions.

If you want something epic and competitive and not die-roll driven, I'd recommend one of the many crunchy train games. The various 18xx are the classics in the field, but my favorite of the bunch is Baltimore & Ohio.

[Elfeater]

An old game that I quite like, Kingmaker.

[Anvilfolk]

My friends and I played 3 or 4 games of Game of Thrones, which took 5-8h each and never played again OVERANALYSE EVERYTHING. Because of it being prone to analysis paralysis, I'm not a big fan.

War of the Roses is the closest I can think of to Game of Thrones, but the game is more "simultaneous" so it takes less time too.

You've also got Eclipse, which is epic space-empire building with a euro vibe, meaning not that many die rolls. Then there's Exodus: Proxima Centauri, which I've heard described as the "true Twilight Imperium light", so it probably features more dice.

Blood Bowl Team Manager is VERY in your face, in a dice-rolley kinda way. Not very epic, but essentially you get to punch other players almost every turn, and it keeps you on your toes. It's really interactive and a lot of fun.

There's also Khemet, which is a pretty big game, and you might enjoy Cyclades. Combat is resolved with die rolls, and they can be a pretty big factor, but it's got a really cool bidding mechanic to decide what you get to do each round.

Hope these help!

[BigD145]

Eclipse is a good one but only up tp 4 maybe 5 players. The expansion adds a simultaneous turn mechanic needed in a 5+ game. In space games I also recommend Supernova. You will get in fights as everyone is escaping the supernova while still building their empire.

[BishopX]

Highly competitive board games not mentioned yet:

• Sabateur
• Bang!
• Love Letter
• Gentleman Thieves
• Nanuk

[Sonlirain]

There's this new Witcher themed boardgame http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147116/witcher-adventure-game can't really say much about it tho.

[puke]

Honor of the Samurai.

Or was it Sword of... I forget.  One was a boardgame precursor to Shogun Total War (seriously, they totally copied it) and the other was a competative card (fixed deck with random draw, not building or collectable) game.

Both good.

[de5me7]

Heres a list of games. Most of them are at the lower end of the luck scale. Some have a fair amount of hidden information though, and some have card draws.

Wargames; Dune/Rex (the best wargame), Imperial, Clash of Cultures, Eclipse, Neuroshima Hex

Hardcore economic; Planet Steam, 1830, Brass.

Building; Caverna (dorf fortress the boardgame), Castles of Burgundy

Small card game; Intrigue (this game is pretty evil as a competitive game), High Society, Modern Art,

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/DukeofChutney?comment=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1 is a complete list of my comments on games. I usually have a few games to hock as well; https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekmarket/user/DukeofChutney

hope some of this helps.




@ puke, Sword of the Samurai, Shogun, Ikusa, all the same game, renamed several times. Its a milton bradley / Hasbro game with tonnes of plastic dudes.

[puke]

That's the one.  I meant that Creative Assembly copied it for the computer game.

The other one was a card game:  http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/607/honor-samurai  which seemed to have a lot of diplomatic options and deal making between players.

Lots of the "euro games" or "german style boardgames" are low luck and competitive.  Puerto Rico was pretty good:  http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico

In a similar vein: Agricola, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, Carcassonne...  Ask at your friendly local game store, and I'm sure they'll have suggestions for similar games. Dominions was hugely popular for a while, but I think it has collectible decks or at least a billion accessory and expansion packs.

I'm going to echo they guy who said that Diplomacy is the game you want to play, though.  Very low random factors, highly competitive.  Great way to alienate friends and anger people.