Anyone playing good board games these days?

[NW_Cryptid]

I realize I'm posting this on a web forum of people who mainly talk about more digital means of entertainment; but I'm generally curious as a board game enjoyer. I play a good few board games fairly regularly and I enjoy finding more unique stuff. Not to sound needlessly aggressive but absolutely none of that Monopoly or Life shit.

I've been playing a lot of Gloomhaven lately, along with some other stuff like ROOT, and Unsettled.

If anyone else out there enjoys board games I'm curious to know what you've been playing or what you find that's good. Every time I mention board games to people they think I'm talking about Yahtzee or something.

 

[LostintheCycle]

I tried. Got a few board games sitting at home that only I've ever played. Nobody wants to learn the rules of even Pandemic. I nearly got a game of Diplomacy running once but they pulled the rug out last second. You can't even get people to play Monopoly. All despite board games probably being the most popular they have ever been.
Screw all that, I've given up on board games. It's not worth the effort or the money to me.

 

[Red]

Dead of Winter, pretty good zombie survival/social intrigue boardgame, but as mentioned. getting people to sit down and learn the rules is a miracle itself

 

[NW_Cryptid]

Seeing the responses to this containing the idea that it's hard to get people together for board games makes me wonder how people generally feel about things like tabletop simulator and other board game applications.

Personally I'm indifferent about it, I could take it or leave it. I believe it absolutely changes the dynamic of playing a board game, it sort of feels like it defeats the purpose a bit. However if it means people can actually get to a board game night, or that there's less set up and cleaning to do; I don't know, I don't really mind it.

I will say nothing beats "the real thing" in that it will always be more fun to invite a few friends over, break out some drinks and snacks and just chill with some board games. I suppose there's sort of a balance to it in my mind, like I can give up the in-person socializing with snacks and drinks, if the game is fun enough. Then I'm just happy to play the game and hang with friends virtually, even if it's a bit lacking.

 

[LostintheCycle]

I suppose there's sort of a balance to it in my mind, like I can give up the in-person socializing with snacks and drinks, if the game is fun enough. Then I'm just happy to play the game and hang with friends virtually, even if it's a bit lacking.

That defeats it, in my mind. Nothing beats hanging out in person. But unfortunately, not many feel that way, or at least their actions do not express that.

 

[Mamisu]

I played an awesome board game called Wingspan with my sister, her husband, and my gf a month ago. It's hard to explain, but its a board game about birds. Been meaning to buy it, but just haven't felt like spending 50 bucks yet lol.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

• Catan (especially with seafarers)
• Carcassonne
• King of Tokyo
• Codenames (and Codenames Duet)
• Camel Up
• Evolution (especially with the Climate Change expansion)
• Namiji (basically refreshed Tokaido, from the same creators)
• Honorable mention: Risk Game of Thrones edition, which is far more balanced than traditional Risk

These are by far my favorite games, which to board game nerds makes me a normie but to a normie makes me a board game nerd. My friends have some others that I enjoy from time to time too.

makes me wonder how people generally feel about things like tabletop simulator and other board game applications.

It depends. For games like the ones I mentioned above, it does seem rather silly. As I wrote about here though, I honestly think they make big, complex games (e.g., Gloomhaven) far more enjoyable to play. It's best when the app or whatever is used as a supplement so that you can focus on the actual game and not just the insanely complex mechanics that some games have. I can drink beer and shit talk my friends between rolls playing Catan - good luck doing that while playing Gloomhaven without any digital assists. It's also nice to use a board game sim to play online with people I no longer live close to - because it's either use a sim or don't play at all. I understand some people like getting deep in the weeds of game mechanics and rules, but they're very much in the minority even amongst people who are willing to play board games in the first place. The point is that while sitting around the kitchen table rolling dice with people is usually the best option, sims and software designed to aid play definitely have their time and place.

I played an awesome board game called Wingspan with my sister, her husband, and my gf a month ago.

Can confirm, Wingspan is a cool game.

 

[Ardea]

Got a game called "Your Worst Nightmare" recently. You draw a number of cards with a list of things people are commonly (or less commonly) afraid of. Each player has a whiteboard, and the object of the game is to rank the other player's fears in descending order. It's quite good, and helps to stimulate conversation. I'd love to get into more sophisticated board games, but at present I simply don't have the time.

 

[morus]

I like Santorini. I normally dislike perfect information games because they make me feel stupid, but I can actually explain the rules for this one in 2 minutes to both kids and adults and it doesn't play like an accounting job so it's miles above every other board game I know.

 

[WKYK]

along with some other stuff like ROOT

Been playing a ton of root with friends recently, really enjoying the game. Have you tried any of the expansions? We are thinking about getting one soon.

 

[Noxy]

I been into Legends of Andor lately, it's fun!
Besides that not much, I got a few board games on my 'to buy' list but I have not had the chance to buy any yet.
Deal with the devil, and Bitoku really call my eye, they're next on my list.

Besides that, I actually have an idea for a board game, I been playesting it extensively with a friend, and it's fun! It's called 'Slimes!' and it's kinda sort of similar to chess in a way.

 

[幽邃森林]

I prefer board games that don't incentivize players to be on their phone while waiting for their turn (though really there isn't any justification to be on your phone during a board game session).

Space Base: Fun dice rolling game where you can base your strategy on your rolls or other players rolls or both.

Robo Rally: An old robo arena game with which players have a limited amount of time to program their battle bots. I would say this is one of the few board games where skill is a major factor in winning.

Rising Sun: Japanese themed war strategy game that I find enjoyable.

Wingspan: Mentioned before, but this is a card game that also has instances where players can take actions based on their opponents' actions.

Maybe ill think of more later.

 

[MindControlBoxer]

Used to play the shit of lord of the rings: the confrontation, because you can just do a quickie and finish a game in 20 mins or so and every game is gonna be different.

 

[Vitnira]

I am big into board games. Not as much as a group of autists on the internet, but my main extracurricular in college was a weekly board game club. My husband and I spent a lot of time there together and it's one of our main couple hobbies. My dining room table is the fancy Wyrmwood table, because gaming is that important to me, and I can't wait for my kids to be old enough to play so I can finally have a consistent group again.

As others have mentioned, the hard part is getting people. I've found as an adult it's best to have "board game friends" and other friends, and while the BG friends can be regular friends too, trying to force certain people - even smart people - into board games is impossible. My best luck with this has been going to board game nights at game shops and picking out people I "vibe" with, who are generally new to the area or otherwise not already part of a group, because even BG groups can get cliqueish. My greatest success was when I worked at $BigEvilCorp and we had a corp-based game club, since the corp was engineering and the job required a drug test, it really weeded crap people out and I made some good friendships that lasted until people moved.

Anyway, onto the actual games!
My favorite first "real" game was Betrayal at House on the Hill. In college I seriously played like, half of the scenarios. Love the flavor. The mechanics, eh. You really do have to go into it expecting you might get wrecked. After playing Betrayal Legacy with a group of adults, every week, for several weeks, I don't know if I'm ever going to play it again. The Legacy was someone else's copy too so I'd either have to fill out my own Legacy or deal with the standard edition, which I feel I can't stand anymore.

I have ended up having a strong preference for flavorful "Ameritrash" co-op games. Neither I, nor my husband, really enjoy winning over others. And really don't enjoy losing. So my collection centers around co-op.

Co-op:

Nemesis**: (Not) Alien: The Board Game. Play as people on the not-Nostromo while evading or struggling to kill not-Xenomorphs. It's hard to sell this one, great social dynamics but a lot of upfront rules knowledge needed. Definitely my favorite and hits the table a lot. Hidden Role Game, can be full co-op or semi-co-op depending. Expensive and token heavy, but I love painting minis.

Dead of Winter**: Zombie surival. Another Hidden Role. Token heavy. Play as a group of survivors against an objective. Dog is best character. One interesting mechanic of the game is that every turn the player to the right of the active player has to draw a "Crossroads" card that has certain conditions. If the conditions are met, the event triggers. Some of the events are really dark or force hard decisions, which is great. One of these events revealed a character in The Long Night expansion is a FtM tranny and an event option is to refuse to get them testosterone. Pro tip if you get both expansions: Pick your favorite survivors equal to the survivor deck size of the base game (like 50 or something), and remove the rest you don't like, including their Crossroads cards. If you try to lump the two games together it dilutes the events too much and less ends up happening. My copy has the dog and monkey, because duh.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Fixed deck co-op game, play as comic book superheroes against a supervillain in different environments. Balance is all over the place though. Before every game, once everyone has picked heroes they like, I go to the "Calculator and Randomizer" here: https://mindwanderer.net/sotm/
I "lock in" the hero versions each person is using, hit the random button, and then let it give me the chance of winning. Generally I try to hit 60-70% for a good challenge. In exchange for terrible balance, the options make the replayabalility near endless! I cannot get a group together to play the final expansion yet though.

Spirit Island: Anti-Catan. Play as angry spirit gods on an island trying to kill the white token invaders. Has some deckbuilding mechanics but isn't a deckbuilder. Rougher co-op, requires a lot of working together.

Direwild: Dungeon deckbuilder, fun and more casual. Every round you take your cards and charge up one animal with the other animals' traits. It's very cute. You will only find this used since it was a single Kickstarter run and never took off.

Aeon's End: Deckbuilder, I don't actually own this but played a ton.

Competitive:

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Do you like Superjail/Adult Swim and wizards? This is the game for youuu! Combine cards to make spells and kill each other. If you love the art, you'll love it. https://dudetakeyourturn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/epic-spell-wars.jpg?w=698

Cartoon Network Crossover Crisis: Deckbuilder that uses classic CN shows for flavor. I plan on making some fanmade expansions at some point.

Smallworld (Recommend SW Underground, it's base game++): You control a race and try to spread them throughout the map. The kicker is that at any time, 5 are available and you have to spend points to get to further up ones, and the races are paired with a random adjective. Like Flying + Gnomes. Or Bulwarking + Vampires. Does not fit into any standard board game categories. Eventually the race goes "in decline" and you still gain points from their territories, but cannot expand them. I personally always choose Shrubmen (they are completely immune to attacks in forests even while In Decline) and make it my goal to conquer all the forests, even though there's no bonus points for that.

King of Tokyo: Good newbie board game if a normie looks at my collection and "wants to play a board game". You play as giant monsters attacking Tokyo, another deckbuilder. I personally can't believe the "powers" expansion isn't standard, it makes the monsters unique.

Other:

Blood on the Clocktower: Fantastic social deduction game like Mafia and Werewolf. Well worth the cost. I have somehow managed to get groups of people together to play this. But, yeah you need like 10 people together who are willing to play. It's much easier for normies to play though, the rules are pretty simple and it's more about social interactions than nerdy board game stuff. If you have a board game convention near you (I have Dice Tower) there will be people playing it. I like Shut Up And Sit Down's review:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImcG8sC7qT4&pp=ygUsYmxvb2Qgb24gdGhlIGNsb2NrdG93ZXIgc2h1dCB1cCBhbmQgc2l0IGRvd24%3D

 

[Corn Flower]

I've been playing 1841 on 18xx.games. I like it even more than Diplomacy. Italian board games just hit different.

 

[Vitnira]

I honestly think they make big, complex games (e.g., Gloomhaven) far more enjoyable to play. It's best when the app or whatever is used as a supplement so that you can focus on the actual game and not just the insanely complex mechanics that some games have. I can drink beer and shit talk my friends between rolls playing Catan - good luck doing that while playing Gloomhaven without any digital assists.

This is why, in spite of Gloomhaven on paper being perfect for me (co-op, theme), I can't see it ever hitting my table. I played once at a friends' house and it just seemed like Too Much. It felt like a video game converted to tabletop.

This thread is telling me I should really check out Wingspan and Root.

Other pro-tip for aspiring board game nerds: If you're interested in a game, your local game shop probably has an open board game shelf. Watch a youtube video on the rules in advance, bring some friends, and try it out. Saves you money in the long run. Wingspan and Root are popular enough my game shop probably has them to play. And obviously, buy the game at the shop even if the game costs more! They're offering a lovely service letting you try it out.

 

[GENOSAD]

My uncle's really into board games, to the point where my cousin plays them all the time with him and they both bring plenty of games to family functions just for the three of us to play and everyone else to ignore because more than 3 rules is too complicated for them. As much as I'd like to get into them more, D&D is pretty much where the interest in tabletop games begins and ends with people who live in my area, so I'm not exactly well-versed on what makes a game good or not. However, I can name a few that I've really enjoyed playing.

• Dorf Romantik - Something of a "city builder" where the objective is to string together forests, villages, wheat fields, etc. into coherent plots of land. Some tiles will require you grouping a certain number of other tiles together, such as 4 village tiles or 6 forest tiles all put adjacent to each other.
• Catacombs - Something of a dungeon crawler where the players make up 4 characters: a wizard, an archer, a thief, and a barbarian. One person plays as the DM, setting up the dungeons that the protags will go through. The combat system is pretty fun and interesting, as you have to flick your character tokens across the board to deal damage to opponents, or flick a projectile towards them to do the same.
• Mysterium - Sort of a Clue game that takes place between a game master and another group of players. The master plays the role of a ghost who was murdered in their mansion, while the other players are mediums who are trying to figure out who murdered the ghost, where they did it, and how they did it. Every night, the ghost gives everyone a different dream by dealing out cards with different pictures on them as clues to one of these pieces of info. The thing is, the ghost can't choose which pictures to show the mediums, as they're all shuffled in a deck of cards, and none of the dreams have anything directly related to the suspects, places, or murder weapons. The mediums really have to stretch their brains to figure out what the connection is, which makes for an interesting game of interpretations.

 

[NW_Cryptid]

Been playing a ton of root with friends recently, really enjoying the game. Have you tried any of the expansions? We are thinking about getting one soon.

Genuinely all the expansions are absolute class. I recommend em if you're enjoying the base game; they add a lot to the game and I'm a huge fan of how the different factions added in the expansions play compared to the base game. Personally I'm a huge fan of the Riverfolk expansion but I've seen most people go for the Underworld expansion first. I'm bias because I love the lizard cult so much, they're probably my favorite to actually play.

Personally I've found that the Clockwork expansions are huge for helping new players get into the game. I see a lot of hesitation for people to play Root because it's a competitive game, and if you don't already know the rules or don't understand the game it can be intimidating to play against someone who does. The Clockwork expansions allow for the game to be played solo, though this is rather boring personally; however it also allows for you to play cooperatively. Which is nice to get first time players familiar with the game without feeling like they're constantly at a disadvantage.

My household is also similar to a few others I've seen on here, and prefers co-op games over competitive ones. I don't much enjoy winning over someone else; so much as I enjoy winning WITH someone else. So having the co-op option for Root is absolutely welcome in my book.

I'd say they're all worth it honestly, it's a matter of which one you feel like you'll get the most out of getting first. Expansions like Underworld give you new maps to play with; Riverfolk gives you some really fun factions in my opinion, and Clockwork would give you the option to play solo or co-op.

 

[WKYK]

Genuinely all the expansions are absolute class. I recommend em if you're enjoying the base game; they add a lot to the game and I'm a huge fan of how the different factions added in the expansions play compared to the base game. Personally I'm a huge fan of the Riverfolk expansion but I've seen most people go for the Underworld expansion first. I'm bias because I love the lizard cult so much, they're probably my favorite to actually play.

Personally I've found that the Clockwork expansions are huge for helping new players get into the game. I see a lot of hesitation for people to play Root because it's a competitive game, and if you don't already know the rules or don't understand the game it can be intimidating to play against someone who does. The Clockwork expansions allow for the game to be played solo, though this is rather boring personally; however it also allows for you to play cooperatively. Which is nice to get first time players familiar with the game without feeling like they're constantly at a disadvantage.

My household is also similar to a few others I've seen on here, and prefers co-op games over competitive ones. I don't much enjoy winning over someone else; so much as I enjoy winning WITH someone else. So having the co-op option for Root is absolutely welcome in my book.

I'd say they're all worth it honestly, it's a matter of which one you feel like you'll get the most out of getting first. Expansions like Underworld give you new maps to play with; Riverfolk gives you some really fun factions in my opinion, and Clockwork would give you the option to play solo or co-op.

Good to know! My friend group is very competative lol, we've had so many intense games. It's actually interesting, we try to optimize the game so much that we can usually trace one single misplay/bad roll that decided who would go on to win the entire game.

It sounds like we are getting the underworld expansion first which should be really fun. I think we are also getting a new deck to play with which is exciting, personally I didn't think there were many ability cards (if thats a good way of putting it, idk real terminology) that were worth crafting, except for the one that allows for a free battle at birdsong.

 

[【ｄｉｅｔ ｄｅｉｔｙ】]

I used to be the "board games" guy. I ran a sort of club that included "achievements" to unlock for various games aside from just winning. As others have noted here, a funny thing that happens when you're "the guy" is that you and your inner circle become rulebook savants and develop a generalized skill of asking the right questions and pushing the right boundaries to get the most out of a game as fast as possible, but then the outer circle guests hit -state really fast anytime a new game or weird rule comes up. I got more efficient teaching but I started to really prefer games that had the shortest onboard:funnest gameplay payoff.

games I don't recommend... I couldn't call these games bad but they just have accessibility issues that are hard to get around when people's attention is at a premium:
- twilight imperium (takes 2 hours to set up and 10+ hours to play)
- catan (good gateway game but as with monopoly the dice can make the game take FOREVER to end)
- gloomhaven (similar issues to T.I. and catan combined, though the box & storage architecture is sexy. just playing some form of D&D is probably literally simpler)

games I recommend:
- dominion is hands-down my favorite tabletop game. you generate a new "map" of cards every round of play which you use to make your deck on the fly. players build their decks from a common pool of cards and try to balance out their cards that do things, and their cards that only hold points to decide the winner. easy to learn and feels fresh every game.
- coup. stripped-down social deduction in a 20ish card deck. good with alcohol, and rounds often end in minutes. tiny box and few components.
- carcassonne. it's like super-tictactoe you could teach your grandma to play. you can be ultra strategic or haha-i-made-a-dick-shape, kinda like in scrabble. the game has only 2 component types that fit into an unintimidating box