Board Games - what are you playing?

[Daniel]

Mmm...board games. Definitely my facepunch worthy habit.

Got Photosynthesis and Raiders of the North Sea for Christmas, both are great games, both are a little too much for my main board gaming times with coworkers. I need to figure out how to get a regular group together to play longer and more in depth games.

[Lews Therin]

meetup.com

[nereo]

Got Photosynthesis and Raiders of the North Sea for Christmas, both are great games, both are a little too much for my main board gaming times with coworkers. I need to figure out how to get a regular group together to play longer and more in depth games.

Got Photosynthesis as well but still haven't taken it out of the box due to a  lack of time (to be rectified this weekend!!)
I've been chomping at the bit to try Scythe and Mechs vs Minions but I, too, need to find some people willing to spend a few hours learning a game that takes an hour+ to play.

On the other end of the spectrum I got Bears vs Babies and everyone who's played it has loved it.  They make a nice "how to play" video that's ~5 minutes long so it's quick to learn, and after the first game everyone immediately wanted to play again to test new strategies.  Each game only takes 10-15 minutes, and there's little setup, so it's a really fun fast game for groups of people that don't want to spend a lot of time learning complex rules.


Also got the Streaking Kittens expansion pack for Exploding Kittens.  At $7 it's a pretty low-cost expansion that adds another 15 cards (not a great card-to-cost ratio, but overall not very expensive).  Most of the expansion cards allow you to screw over (i.e. beat) an opponent, which is great so long as you don't have players that get hurt feelings when another player kills them (rather than random chance from the draw pile).  Definitely allows you to be more vindictive, but attacks can backfire comically and blow up in your face.

[talltexan]

Our children (ages 7 and 4) were given "Catan Junior" by a family friend as a Christmas gift. They are great at it. Even the four-year-old has gotten good at planning his purchases. It's a great way to teach them about management of scarce resources, even if the resources are a lot less scarce than in the grown-up version of the game.

[NorthernBlitz]

Our children (ages 7 and 4) were given "Catan Junior" by a family friend as a Christmas gift. They are great at it. Even the four-year-old has gotten good at planning his purchases. It's a great way to teach them about management of scarce resources, even if the resources are a lot less scarce than in the grown-up version of the game.

When I play with my kids, they're all about getting as many Polly cards as they can.

[ender]

I have a lot of board games. I enjoy collecting them too.

Most recently? Probably would be Photosynthesis, Scythe, and Sidereal Confluence.

[Will]

I have a lot of board games. I enjoy collecting them too.

Most recently? Probably would be Photosynthesis, Scythe, and Sidereal Confluence.

A buddy of mine just asked me if I would play Sidereal Confluence with him if he got it.  I agreed to at least try it once.

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

[nereo]

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

wait, what?  why did your friend get the games in a settlement just to give them to you?  Good for you - too bad for them
Any titles of note among the new collection?

[Will]

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

wait, what?  why did your friend get the games in a settlement just to give them to you?  Good for you - too bad for them
Any titles of note among the new collection?

It was a bitter divorce.  When he said he was taking all the games (even though she bought a good portion of them herself), she said "No way!"  She really did plan on playing them, but her new man isn't into gaming at all, and when she did play was just reminded too much of the ex.  So they had to go.

A sampling of what I got:  Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Grand Austria Hotel, Le Havre, The Colonists, Istanbul, Pandemic, Orleans, Terra Mystica, Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Splendor, Tyrants of the Underdark, Alhambra, Smallworld, Mystic Vale, Dominion (and 2 expansions).

[neo von retorch]

A sampling of what I got:  Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Grand Austria Hotel, Le Havre, The Colonists, Istanbul, Pandemic, Orleans, Terra Mystica, Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Splendor, Tyrants of the Underdark, Alhambra, Smallworld, Mystic Vale, Dominion (and 2 expansions).

Shame about the divorce!

But I love Terraforming Mars! Also enjoy Grand Austria Hotel, Terra Mystica, Pandemic, Splendor and Smallworld though I don't play any of them very often (except Terraforming Mars!)

[nereo]

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

wait, what?  why did your friend get the games in a settlement just to give them to you?  Good for you - too bad for them
Any titles of note among the new collection?

It was a bitter divorce.  When he said he was taking all the games (even though she bought a good portion of them herself), she said "No way!"  She really did plan on playing them, but her new man isn't into gaming at all, and when she did play was just reminded too much of the ex.  So they had to go.

A sampling of what I got:  Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Grand Austria Hotel, Le Havre, The Colonists, Istanbul, Pandemic, Orleans, Terra Mystica, Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Splendor, Tyrants of the Underdark, Alhambra, Smallworld, Mystic Vale, Dominion (and 2 expansions).

50 games is a lot - if you need a repository for holding some of those, I'll offer my own bookshelves as a no-cost option ;-)

[Will]

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

wait, what?  why did your friend get the games in a settlement just to give them to you?  Good for you - too bad for them
Any titles of note among the new collection?

It was a bitter divorce.  When he said he was taking all the games (even though she bought a good portion of them herself), she said "No way!"  She really did plan on playing them, but her new man isn't into gaming at all, and when she did play was just reminded too much of the ex.  So they had to go.

A sampling of what I got:  Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Grand Austria Hotel, Le Havre, The Colonists, Istanbul, Pandemic, Orleans, Terra Mystica, Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Splendor, Tyrants of the Underdark, Alhambra, Smallworld, Mystic Vale, Dominion (and 2 expansions).

50 games is a lot - if you need a repository for holding some of those, I'll offer my own bookshelves as a no-cost option ;-)

I considered getting a Kallax 5x5 from Ikea, but will probably just pick out the ones I really want to keep and sell the rest (or math trade them away).

[NorthernBlitz]

Anyone play Pandemic Legacy Season 2?

We're going into November in Season 1 (which we've really liked).

I've heard mixed reviews on Season 2 (Shut Up and Sit Down seems to say it's worse, Dice Tower seems to say same or better?).

Looking to see if there are any comments from here from anyone who's played it.

[talltexan]

A recently divorced friend of mine gifted me almost 50 games she got in the settlement.  Yay!

wait, what?  why did your friend get the games in a settlement just to give them to you?  Good for you - too bad for them
Any titles of note among the new collection?

I'm spending too much of my time around people with strong marriages. I need to start looking into the "my spouse bores me, but boardgames don't" crowd...
It was a bitter divorce.  When he said he was taking all the games (even though she bought a good portion of them herself), she said "No way!"  She really did plan on playing them, but her new man isn't into gaming at all, and when she did play was just reminded too much of the ex.  So they had to go.

A sampling of what I got:  Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, Grand Austria Hotel, Le Havre, The Colonists, Istanbul, Pandemic, Orleans, Terra Mystica, Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Splendor, Tyrants of the Underdark, Alhambra, Smallworld, Mystic Vale, Dominion (and 2 expansions).

[Lews Therin]

A friend bought me We didn`t playtest this at all: Perfect game to play with any number of people, especially if you want to avoid explaning rules to people. It's literally a 2min explanation.

Read the card, play the card. Done.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31016/we-didnt-playtest-all

[BuffaloStache]

I know it's been mentioned here before, but I played The Resistance: Avalon (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128882/resistance-avalon) recently. I really like how it's light, quick, and can be played in multiple rounds. Definitely a good game.

[DadJokes]

I played Camel Up this week - that is a fun game and relatively fast.

[vern]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93grYim8kLc

[neo von retorch]

Been playing lately...

Isle of Skye - still a really great twist on tile-laying with a clever and hard to master auctioning element, and great dynamic goals. Keeps making it to the table.

Scoville - a cute and fast-playing spicy chili pepper growing game. Seems mildly intimidating at first but once you learn the rules you can really get your hands dirty.

Bunny Kingdom - a bit of an area control game with a basic math-y scoring system but we seem to enjoy this game more than most due to accessibility and credit due to the slightly swingy luck of the draw. Also it's just so dang cute! This isn't for your hardcore game solvers, but it is a good for social board game night! Excited to try out the expansion we just got!

Letters to White Chapel - mixed feelings but this felt a pinch too one-sided. The "Jack the Ripper" player will have a lot more fun so you'll have to take turns, and suffer through being hapless detectives! We haven't played it enough, though, to really land on an opinion. Perhaps give the game solvers the detective hats and see how it shakes out.

Gloomhaven - we are just so intimidated. We've opened the box a few times and my spouse broke out the pieces. We still haven't worked up the nerve to play. What is happening here?

[lemonlyman]

Been playing Spirit Island with my wife and The Adventurers/Key to the Kingdom with my 5 yo.

[nereo]

Photosynthesis - unusual tile based game where your goal is to grow your trees and harvest sunlight, while shadowing your opponent's trees.  Each turn you can choose to either grow existing trees or produce seeds to start seedlings.  The 'sun' keeps rotating throughout the game, which creates an interesting thinking element as you have to anticipate where the best spot will be to grow a couple turns ahead.


Planet Each player in this tile-based game creates their own planet from shared cards.  The object is to develop the best habitat to attract a wide variety of animals to your planet.  The unique/unusual part is each person's "board" is a sphere (technically a hexadecagon) so it requires a lot of spatial-thinking.

Both games play well with 2 players (which we love, and is GREAT during Covid-isolation), but can also work with up to 4 people.  In 2-player mode each lasts us about 30-40 minutes.  The graphics are also very well done on both.

[Playing with Fire UK]

Got Pandemic for Christmas and we LOVE it.  We play board games as a family fairly often, but this is our first cooperative game. We have a 9 and 12 year old, and they were immediately hooked.

I love pandemic but have found it very hard to win with just two players. I think in the 8 or 10 times we've played it we've only won once.  Do others have similar experiences?

Actually I think 2 players is easier than 4. A lot does depend on your roles. Having the medic can be a huge help while the operations expert is kind of a dud. The scientist and researcher combine into a powerful combo as well.

As for winning, I'd say shooting for better than 50% with 2 is a reasonable goal. I think many beginners often lose because they focus too much on eradicating diseases (which is very satisfying, but often not a good use of time) at the expense of pushing for cures through card exchanges. Also, allowing strategic outbreaks at remote cities like Santiago, Johannesburg or Seoul/Bejing/Tokyo can buy you some extra time.

We play two player with two characters each. You get to cover a lot more of the board so spend less time moving around reactively.

[DadJokes]

Got Pandemic for Christmas and we LOVE it.  We play board games as a family fairly often, but this is our first cooperative game. We have a 9 and 12 year old, and they were immediately hooked.

I love pandemic but have found it very hard to win with just two players. I think in the 8 or 10 times we've played it we've only won once.  Do others have similar experiences?

Actually I think 2 players is easier than 4. A lot does depend on your roles. Having the medic can be a huge help while the operations expert is kind of a dud. The scientist and researcher combine into a powerful combo as well.

As for winning, I'd say shooting for better than 50% with 2 is a reasonable goal. I think many beginners often lose because they focus too much on eradicating diseases (which is very satisfying, but often not a good use of time) at the expense of pushing for cures through card exchanges. Also, allowing strategic outbreaks at remote cities like Santiago, Johannesburg or Seoul/Bejing/Tokyo can buy you some extra time.

We play two player with two characters each. You get to cover a lot more of the board so spend less time moving around reactively.

I play it with the app, and I control four characters myself.

[ender]

Photosynthesis - unusual tile based game where your goal is to grow your trees and harvest sunlight, while shadowing your opponent's trees.  Each turn you can choose to either grow existing trees or produce seeds to start seedlings.  The 'sun' keeps rotating throughout the game, which creates an interesting thinking element as you have to anticipate where the best spot will be to grow a couple turns ahead.


Planet Each player in this tile-based game creates their own planet from shared cards.  The object is to develop the best habitat to attract a wide variety of animals to your planet.  The unique/unusual part is each person's "board" is a sphere (technically a hexadecagon) so it requires a lot of spatial-thinking.

Both games play well with 2 players (which we love, and is GREAT during Covid-isolation), but can also work with up to 4 people.  In 2-player mode each lasts us about 30-40 minutes.  The graphics are also very well done on both.

I love photosynthesis! And yeah, it's such a good game graphically speaking.

It's also great to introduce less serious board gamers too. Easy to explain and play with a short explanation. Planet looks neato too. I might get it :)

[nereo]

Photosynthesis - unusual tile based game where your goal is to grow your trees and harvest sunlight, while shadowing your opponent's trees.  Each turn you can choose to either grow existing trees or produce seeds to start seedlings.  The 'sun' keeps rotating throughout the game, which creates an interesting thinking element as you have to anticipate where the best spot will be to grow a couple turns ahead.


Planet Each player in this tile-based game creates their own planet from shared cards.  The object is to develop the best habitat to attract a wide variety of animals to your planet.  The unique/unusual part is each person's "board" is a sphere (technically a hexadecagon) so it requires a lot of spatial-thinking.

Both games play well with 2 players (which we love, and is GREAT during Covid-isolation), but can also work with up to 4 people.  In 2-player mode each lasts us about 30-40 minutes.  The graphics are also very well done on both.

I love photosynthesis! And yeah, it's such a good game graphically speaking.

It's also great to introduce less serious board gamers too. Easy to explain and play with a short explanation. Planet looks neato too. I might get it :)

Planet gets points for being unusual (a hexadecagon) and having magnetic tiles which stick on your board.  It's challenging because you have to envision your board while your eyes can only see ~half of it at any one time ... and that takes some getting used to.

My biggest "complaint" about photosynthesis is that my brain seems much better at dealing with the "rotating board" (the changing sun angle) than does my spouse, and so she now refuses to play against me because I've beaten her every time.  Oh well... she beats me at other games.

Both were gifts - as someone who studies plants for a living and loves board games they were pretty perfect.

[NorthernBlitz]

Funkverse sets are on clearance here at Target.

We got the Harry Potter and Batman sets.

Is pretty fun to play with my kids (8 and 10).

[ender]

Planet gets points for being unusual (a hexadecagon) and having magnetic tiles which stick on your board.  It's challenging because you have to envision your board while your eyes can only see ~half of it at any one time ... and that takes some getting used to.

My biggest "complaint" about photosynthesis is that my brain seems much better at dealing with the "rotating board" (the changing sun angle) than does my spouse, and so she now refuses to play against me because I've beaten her every time.  Oh well... she beats me at other games.

Both were gifts - as someone who studies plants for a living and loves board games they were pretty perfect.

I got this and it was pretty great. Wasn't super expensive on Amazon either - thanks for the commendation!

[phildonnia]

Our family started playing a lot of chess recently.

But right before the stay-at-home started, we got a new board game called "Pandemic".  It's a cooperative game where you try to stop diseases from spreading all over the world.  It was a total coincidence that this game came to us now.  If you're wondering, the diseases win about 70% of the time with us.

[nereo]

Our family started playing a lot of chess recently.

But right before the stay-at-home started, we got a new board game called "Pandemic".  It's a cooperative game where you try to stop diseases from spreading all over the world.  It was a total coincidence that this game came to us now.  If you're wondering, the diseases win about 70% of the time with us.

Pandemic is a fantastic cooperative game.
You might want to give Pandemic Legacy a try.  As with other 'Legacy' games, it starts out similar to the original but the board changes - permanently - each time that you play so that the gameplay becomes sometime entirely unique and unpredictable. 

[bbates728]

We have been playing

Azul: Summer Pavillion - A beautiful tile laying game that hits that sweet spot between worrying about my own game rather than my opponent but oh, wait, I can't let her have THAT MANY of those tiles, but oh shit I needed that, ahh hell! It can really get the blood pumping and then there is a nice break where you figure out just how badly you screwed up. The game has a bit of a bumper lane so that it never feels like you screwed up toooooo badly, you just set yourself up for next round ;)

Dominant Species - This game is full on war masquerading as a top notch Euro-style, worker-placement game. We have only played it at 2 people and am not sure how it would scale up without hurt feelings but it is absolutely exquisite in the tension and tactical strategy of spreading your species and adaptations.

[rocketpj]

Not sure how many on here are aware, but I've really been enjoying playing on the site 'Board Game Arena'.  They have a lot of the games listed here and you can play for free - turn based or real time.

Sadly my family isn't much into games, and busy life means there aren't many options to set up game nights with others.  So I get into a bunch of turn based games on that side to get my fix.  It's also a good way to take some games for a spin before buying them for live play.

Recently on there I've been playing a lot of Carcassone, Eminent Domain, Lost Cities and Backgammon.  I have wanted to try Terraforming Mars and Terra Mystica, but haven't made the time to read the rules etc.

[simonsez]

Haven't yet but about to play Dark Tower.  My buddy snagged it from his parents' house recently and it still functions perfectly.  Not bad for a 40 year old game with electronic parts!

Aside from that - Sequence, Chess, Catan, Scrabble, Risk, and Monopoly* are probably the most frequently board games played at my house.

Have played all types of games (cards, dice, jigsaw puzzles, dominos, etc.) more frequently since pandemic hit and I would be fine with that moving forward.

* I see Monopoly gets a ton of hate in general for being too slow (and then for being too rudimentary amongst more serious board gamers) but it's hard for me to see how the game takes much longer than say, 90 minutes.  I like that negotiation and auction are key elements.  Makes it different every time and keeps it super short.  Maybe house rules are too variable?  I've played at other's houses and trading is often a minor facet and the auction process is non-existent!

[nereo]

* I see Monopoly gets a ton of hate in general for being too slow (and then for being too rudimentary amongst more serious board gamers) but it's hard for me to see how the game takes much longer than say, 90 minutes.  I like that negotiation and auction are key elements.  Makes it different every time and keeps it super short.  Maybe house rules are too variable?  I've played at other's houses and trading is often a minor facet and the auction process is non-existent!

Monopoly is probably the most maligned and misplayed game ever.
When playing by the actual rules, a typical game lasts 60-90 minutes, and IME many end in less than 45. 

The major reason why people think it takes forever is (as you suggested) the various “House Rules” that almost invariably inject more cash into the game.  There’s no money won by landing on “Free Parking”.  Fees pay for taxes, Chance or Community Chess cards go to the bank (i.e. are “lost” from gameplay). If you don’t purchase an available property that you land on, it goes up for auction (i.e. anyone can buy it, including the player who declined).

Drawing a “pay property taxes” card late in the game can seriously break a player if s/he doesn’t have a lot fo cash.

[PDXTabs]

My favorites:
Dominion
Terraforming Mars

Great for two player:
Jaipur
Carcassonne

Honorable mention:
Risk
Seven Wonders
Lost Cities (good for two player)

[talltexan]

* I see Monopoly gets a ton of hate in general for being too slow (and then for being too rudimentary amongst more serious board gamers) but it's hard for me to see how the game takes much longer than say, 90 minutes.  I like that negotiation and auction are key elements.  Makes it different every time and keeps it super short.  Maybe house rules are too variable?  I've played at other's houses and trading is often a minor facet and the auction process is non-existent!

Monopoly is probably the most maligned and misplayed game ever.
When playing by the actual rules, a typical game lasts 60-90 minutes, and IME many end in less than 45. 

The major reason why people think it takes forever is (as you suggested) the various “House Rules” that almost invariably inject more cash into the game.  There’s no money won by landing on “Free Parking”.  Fees pay for taxes, Chance or Community Chess cards go to the bank (i.e. are “lost” from gameplay). If you don’t purchase an available property that you land on, it goes up for auction (i.e. anyone can buy it, including the player who declined).

Drawing a “pay property taxes” card late in the game can seriously break a player if s/he doesn’t have a lot fo cash.

I love to play Monopoly, but I've come to accept its substantial flaw is the amount of the game that happens after it becomes apparent who will win.

[nereo]

* I see Monopoly gets a ton of hate in general for being too slow (and then for being too rudimentary amongst more serious board gamers) but it's hard for me to see how the game takes much longer than say, 90 minutes.  I like that negotiation and auction are key elements.  Makes it different every time and keeps it super short.  Maybe house rules are too variable?  I've played at other's houses and trading is often a minor facet and the auction process is non-existent!

Monopoly is probably the most maligned and misplayed game ever.
When playing by the actual rules, a typical game lasts 60-90 minutes, and IME many end in less than 45. 

The major reason why people think it takes forever is (as you suggested) the various “House Rules” that almost invariably inject more cash into the game.  There’s no money won by landing on “Free Parking”.  Fees pay for taxes, Chance or Community Chess cards go to the bank (i.e. are “lost” from gameplay). If you don’t purchase an available property that you land on, it goes up for auction (i.e. anyone can buy it, including the player who declined).

Drawing a “pay property taxes” card late in the game can seriously break a player if s/he doesn’t have a lot fo cash.

I love to play Monopoly, but I've come to accept its substantial flaw is the amount of the game that happens after it becomes apparent who will win.

This is how I feel about Risk (which i also enjoy) - typically there's about 10-15 minutes of gameplay when any player could win.  Then there's this slow decline as one player gains an unsurmountable advantage† and each turn s/he slowly gobbles up the rest of the board.  The final 5-10 minutes (or longer if the winning player is a jerk like my brother) is just a futile exercise in stopping an opponent with a comically large advantage each turn.

†usually the tipping point comes one or two turns after a player secures (and holds!) a continent... usually Australia or S.America.  At which point the added armies and easily defensible position become too much for the other players to overcome.

[simonsez]

* I see Monopoly gets a ton of hate in general for being too slow (and then for being too rudimentary amongst more serious board gamers) but it's hard for me to see how the game takes much longer than say, 90 minutes.  I like that negotiation and auction are key elements.  Makes it different every time and keeps it super short.  Maybe house rules are too variable?  I've played at other's houses and trading is often a minor facet and the auction process is non-existent!

Monopoly is probably the most maligned and misplayed game ever.
When playing by the actual rules, a typical game lasts 60-90 minutes, and IME many end in less than 45. 

The major reason why people think it takes forever is (as you suggested) the various “House Rules” that almost invariably inject more cash into the game.  There’s no money won by landing on “Free Parking”.  Fees pay for taxes, Chance or Community Chess cards go to the bank (i.e. are “lost” from gameplay). If you don’t purchase an available property that you land on, it goes up for auction (i.e. anyone can buy it, including the player who declined).

Drawing a “pay property taxes” card late in the game can seriously break a player if s/he doesn’t have a lot fo cash.

I love to play Monopoly, but I've come to accept its substantial flaw is the amount of the game that happens after it becomes apparent who will win.

Yeah, that would be torturous.

The Monopoly games I've played are usually resigned well in advance of bankrupting everyone but the victor after the conclusion is foregone.  If you have a group of 3+ and one person won't accept defeat, I've seen where everyone else besides the eventual victor and the stubborn person quit and give everything back to bank (with properties auctioned if playing that way or returned completely to bank if not).  I don't think I've ever seen a comeback from the stubborn.

Farkle is one of the rare games that I won't resign early just for the "hero roll" that can occur when you have nothing to lose.  My MIL had a 8000+ roll (at least 6 clearances of all dice) a month or two ago and it's not like she was all straights or 3 pair or 2 sets.  She was wayyy behind and actually took a slim lead at over 11,000 before losing on the next turn.  It was awesome!

[PDXTabs]

This is how I feel about Risk (which i also enjoy) - typically there's about 10-15 minutes of gameplay when any player could win.  Then there's this slow decline as one player gains an unsurmountable advantage† and each turn s/he slowly gobbles up the rest of the board.  The final 5-10 minutes (or longer if the winning player is a jerk like my brother) is just a futile exercise in stopping an opponent with a comically large advantage each turn.

†usually the tipping point comes one or two turns after a player secures (and holds!) a continent... usually Australia or S.America.  At which point the added armies and easily defensible position become too much for the other players to overcome.

I've been playing a lot of five player Risk lately and I don't see this pattern. In specific, I usually see two or so players break into all out war resulting in Pyrrhic victory for one and outright loss for the other. So my strategy is to try to not be one of those two players so I have a shot at the end game.

[nereo]

This is how I feel about Risk (which i also enjoy) - typically there's about 10-15 minutes of gameplay when any player could win.  Then there's this slow decline as one player gains an unsurmountable advantage† and each turn s/he slowly gobbles up the rest of the board.  The final 5-10 minutes (or longer if the winning player is a jerk like my brother) is just a futile exercise in stopping an opponent with a comically large advantage each turn.

†usually the tipping point comes one or two turns after a player secures (and holds!) a continent... usually Australia or S.America.  At which point the added armies and easily defensible position become too much for the other players to overcome.

I've been playing a lot of five player Risk lately and I don't see this pattern. In specific, I usually see two or so players break into all out war resulting in Pyrrhic victory for one and outright loss for the other. So my strategy is to try to not be one of those two players so I have a shot at the end game.

Interesting.  I don't think I've ever played 5-player Risk before.  Most of the time it's 3 or 2 player games.... maybe I need more friends?

[neo von retorch]

I do think Risk plays well with 4-5 players... early on people will just choose someone to harass, and you might be lucky enough to fly under the radar, but if two people are warring, and they notice you growing, and they are able to give up on their fruitless initial grudge... they can easily decide to gang up on you. And so, the tide can turn quickly in that game. Of course, a few lucky/unlucky dice rolls and turns where someone is gaining an advantage can be enough to really build momentum for one person.

Has anyone played Risk: Legacy? We played maybe half a dozen games. I don't think it has nearly the progression of Pandemic: Legacy but it does add some spice to the game. But I also think it adds advantages to the winners, and that just amplifies the king building aspect across multiple games!

I haven't played Monopoly in a very long time. I don't even particularly love Catan, but with the right crowd, bartering adds a lot of fun. But I think Catan, while still filled with luck, has more meaningful decisions in it in comparison to Monopoly. Plus good trades can help the losing players try to find some way to gain advantage over a leader.

[PDXTabs]

Interesting.  I don't think I've ever played 5-player Risk before.  Most of the time it's 3 or 2 player games.... maybe I need more friends?

It does help to live with four other people that are willing to play with you. I just had another five player game tonight. It took a few hours and was never clear who was going to win until the very end. There were three people close to the end and it really could have gone to any of them based on strategy and luck.

[lazycow]

A friend received Wingspan as a gift and we need to set aside an afternoon at the local brewery to try it out. It is absolutely gorgeous-looking (and quite pricey) so hopefully fun to play.

[DadJokes]

A friend received Wingspan as a gift and we need to set aside an afternoon at the local brewery to try it out. It is absolutely gorgeous-looking (and quite pricey) so hopefully fun to play.

I really enjoy Wingspan. It has its flaws, but it is still a fun and pleasant game to play.

[simonsez]

Interesting.  I don't think I've ever played 5-player Risk before.  Most of the time it's 3 or 2 player games.... maybe I need more friends?

It does help to live with four other people that are willing to play with you. I just had another five player game tonight. It took a few hours and was never clear who was going to win until the very end. There were three people close to the end and it really could have gone to any of them based on strategy and luck.

I don't think I would consider playing Risk unless I had 5 or 6.  It's been awhile but I've played with fewer on the app and it's okay but the board is almost too dynamic at the beginning IMO.  I would be curious what the avg number of turns would be for 5 or 6 player game vs. <5 players.  I feel it is very rare for a game to last more than 10 turns when I play with 5 or 6 (live or on app).  More people to take over in the mid-game leads to more cards to trade-in and can be a catalyst to make games go quickly when something breaks open.

Love the addition of blizzards and the 4, 5, 6 on 1st turn for those starting 4th-6th on the app, I've translated those over to live play.  Haven't figured out a good way to add Fog of War though without being obnoxious (having people leave the room/adjust the board when not their turn), that might have to remain online-only.

[tygertygertyger]

Now that our board game friends are fully vaxxed, we're gonna play more Flamme Rouge. It's an old timey looking Tour de France game where each player controls a team of two bicyclists. If your biker leads a pack, then you get exhausted sooner, but if you manage to stay the right distance behind someone, you coast on their hard work.

And yes, we DO put on a playlist of appropriate era bicycle music.   

[zolotiyeruki]

We love games in our house, and here are some that have been more popular lately:

Azul - this one's a good one, and it's often not clear who will win until the bonuses are tallied up. One word of advice:  buy or make a second bag for "dumped" tiles.  It'll save a lot of aggravation.
Pandemic - I enjoy it, but if you have a bunch of strong personalities, it can feel like an argument.  If you have one strong personality, then it starts feeling like a one-player game, and if nobody is assertive, it's not as fun. I think it might be a fun challenge to play a "no talking" version of it, so nobody dominates the decision-making.
Kingdomino - 2-4 players.  Each round, a number of tiles are revealed, and players take turns picking tiles to add to their lands.  You score based on the number of matching contiguous tiles you have.  A good balance of strategy and luck, and is also a quick game (<15 minutes), so if you lose, it doesn't feel like you wasted a lot of time.
Sagrada - I think of it like "Azul, but with a bit more depth"  It's a great game, with some similar mechanics to Azul.  You take turns, picking colored dice to fill out a "stained glass window" (your board), with some restrictions on what color or what number can go where.
Jaipur - A fun 2-player game, can be pretty quick if you don't dawdle.
Sushi Go - Similar mechanics to Seven Wonders (take a card and pass the hand), but simpler and more fun IMO (although I like Seven Wonders, too).
Bohnanza - Easy to play and lots of fun.
Bananagrams has seen a revival recently.  It's stimulating, easy to learn, fast-paced but not chaotic, and doesn't take a lot of time.  Also a great way for our kids to practice spelling without realizing it.  Good mix of skill vs luck (if you win with both J's, it's oh-so-satisfying!).
Splendor is a great one, and there's more depth to it than you might initially think. My only criticism is that a player who gets some lucky breaks early in the game can steamroll to the end, and the other players don't have much leverage to rein in the leader.
Settlers of Catan has fallen out of favor a bit.  It's a solid game, but has the same steamroller issue as Splendor.

[tygertygertyger]

We love games in our house, and here are some that have been more popular lately:

Kingdomino - 2-4 players.  Each round, a number of tiles are revealed, and players take turns picking tiles to add to their lands.  You score based on the number of matching contiguous tiles you have.  A good balance of strategy and luck, and is also a quick game (<15 minutes), so if you lose, it doesn't feel like you wasted a lot of time.
Jaipur - A fun 2-player game, can be pretty quick if you don't dawdle.

We play a lot of these also! And Morels, which is my favorite 2 person game.

[EricEng]

Anyone play Pandemic Legacy Season 2?

We're going into November in Season 1 (which we've really liked).

I've heard mixed reviews on Season 2 (Shut Up and Sit Down seems to say it's worse, Dice Tower seems to say same or better?).

Looking to see if there are any comments from here from anyone who's played it.

I know this is old, but we just finished season 2 a few months ago and had a really good time!  Very different gameplay.  We were sad there wasn't a lot of story at the end, but gameplay always had new challenges.  I would recommend it to anyone that enjoyed season 1.

[Nick_Miller]

I'd say "Near and Far" is our current favorite. We've played it 3 times and I think we're finally playing it correctly after missing a few details the first couple of times. There's a lot to learn!

It just has such a great mix of roleplaying/storytelling and mechanics, and we've barely scratched the surface, just playing on "normal" mode instead of the more robust "character" mode. I barely defeated Mrs. Miller last time; I focused on swords and hearts to let me go on more quests and defeat more threats, while she mined the sh*t out of her mines and focused on search and skill. She obtained vast mountains of coins and gems from camping and fulfilled a few journey cards that I thought would sink me (they almost did).

[neo von retorch]

I'd say "Near and Far" is our current favorite. We've played it 3 times and I think we're finally playing it correctly after missing a few details the first couple of times. There's a lot to learn!

It just has such a great mix of roleplaying/storytelling and mechanics, and we've barely scratched the surface, just playing on "normal" mode instead of the more robust "character" mode. I barely defeated Mrs. Miller last time; I focused on swords and hearts to let me go on more quests and defeat more threats, while she mined the sh*t out of her mines and focused on search and skill. She obtained vast mountains of coins and gems from camping and fulfilled a few journey cards that I thought would sink me (they almost did).

Just reading that I think it's from the same make as Above and Below? (Puts on Google operator hat.) Yup! It's the sequel! Really great game. The story book is a lot like Tales of Arabian Nights in a way, but of course much more digestible, and your choices actually feel a bit more significant. (It's very easy in Tales for things to happen to you somewhat regardless of your decisions!)

Given all that, I'm sure we'll need a copy of Near and Far in our collection before long!