Help me get a new board game!

[Harvey]

I'll also say that Settlers of Catan is great for 3-4 players. If you ever get more in your gaming group, there is a 5-6 player expansion that is balanced perfectly.

[ejamer]

Many great suggestions so far.

Settlers of Catan gets my vote as well. The game is fast and keeps people involved, has enough strategy to learn but can still reward risk-taking, and has a variable board so it's different every time. Considered a "modern classic" for good reason.

A personal favorite card game that you might enjoy is Fairy Tale. You draft and then play cards, but it's easy to learn and quick to play.

Finally, do you have any interest in cooperative games, or do you want something where players compete against each other? If cooperative sounds fun, try playing either Pandemic or Forbidden Island. Most people I've played them with had a lot of fun.

None of these games really offer aggressive "take that!" moments though. You can screw over your opponents in subtle ways, but not directly in most cases. So if you wanted something Risk-like where you go into combat and fight then they might not be the best choices.


Links:
Settlers of Catan - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/ ... s-of-catan
Fairy Tale - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13823/fairy-tale
Pandemic - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic
Forbidden Island - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/ ... den-island

[fastbilly1]

What kind of game would you like? Something light and introy or something with some meat to it that takes a couple games to get use to?

Also, what kind of games are you interested in? Boardgaming is ancient, so there is a huge amount of different games. But if you are interested in a game like Risk, something like Factory Fun typically wont do.

[aaron]

[Erik_Twice]

Wow, thanks for all the responses!

When it comes to games I think we lean to competition but co-op is fine too. I prefer something with meat, games that narrow down to a few strategies very fast are not what I'm looking for.

I think that the following traits are very appealing, from the top of my head:

1) Diplomacy

But it shouldn't be required by the rules to win. You can kill everyone in Bang! without ever making a truce but it's harder than using diplomacy

Two players shouldn't be able to lock the game, kill everyone and then battle between themselves.

2) Portability
3) Easy to learn, hard to master
4) Skill gap doesn't render player unable to play
5) Ganging on the leader, no preying on the weak

For some reason Catan and Carcassone never apealled to us. They surely are great games but I have never felt compelled to play them. The same applies to Ticket to Ride.

Ruse & Bruise and Inkognito unfortunatedly suffer from a bad print according to reviews and boardgeek with many cards that do exactly the contrary that they are supposed to do and all that. I think I will pass on those.

Pandemic looks great and I dig the theme, unfortunatedly the game seems to produce a lot of "tell me what to do" situations with many players so I think it's out. If we ever get a reliable forth player I may reconsider it. The rest of the games ejamer mentioned do not really appeal to me much.

Uno is kind of meh, too shallow and I don't like luck based games so Fluxx is out too.

I left some I may read about them later!


I think that I will get Risk: RE if one of the most common players outside of the hardcore circle likes the idea. That game really shines with more than 3 players, 3 is kind of stretching it.

[Hatta]

1) Risk: Revised Edition

Risk was always a flawed game, with games that lasted hours and luck imbalancing the game (the cards and turn order). It seems like the revised edition did a great work fixing those issues and the game clocks at less than an hour.

Don't you mean:

Risk was always an epic game, with games that lasted hours where luck matters as much as it does in real life. It seems like the revised edition dumbed it down to appeal more to people with short attention spans.

Yeah, it's hard to get a group of people together for a full game of classic Risk. But when you do, holy shit.

[Bradtemple87]

Catan! yes by buddy raves about that game

[EllertMichael]

dust off the vcr and get down on some Nightmare!


also, the astro boy board game is pretty fun

[mjmjr25]

Chiming in on "Settlers of Catan" also, and another nod to "Carcassone" and it's numerous expansion packs.

"Tikal" is very good for 3-4 players.

I would recommend 90% of the games put out by Rio Grande Games (Euro style gaming, not as easy and tedious as monopoly, not as time intensive as say D&D).

There are some fantastic card games:
"Bohnanza" is excellent, as are the expansion packs "Bohnaparte" and "High Bohn".

"Ticket to Ride" is also good for multiple players.

Some games are intimidating at first w/the rules, if you want simple set-up, fast games, yet challenging, i'd recommend:
"Lost Cities" (2 or 4 players), very quick yet strategic card game.
"Balloon Cup" (2 players), once you have the rules down, this is outstanding.

The first group I mentioned are more "board", the latter are more "card", but all are very, very good and I think Amazon carries most if not all for cheaper than you'll see in a gamestore.

[mjmjr25]

....oh, forgot spatial and building games.

"Qwirkle" is quite good, strategy, no cards, just laying marked tiles. Similar I guess to dominoes in feel and setup I guess, but still quite different.

"Rumis" is a strategic building game, don't let the small pieces and easy rules fool you, there is a lot of strategy and wits in this one too.

And while were at it, we'll gave mainstay Milton Bradley a little love,
"Parcheesi" is a classic, simple setup and rules, but much more strategy than sorry or simple board games like that. 2-4 players.