Author Topic: What are your favorite board games?  (Read 75010 times)

Villanelle

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #100 on: August 08, 2013, 09:25:20 AM »
I'm in Germany so sadly, none of the standard options work for me.  You'd think that this would be a great place to buy games, but I have yet to find a used game store of any kind, and even if I did, it would have to be a good deal for me to deal with translating the game into English. 

Guess I'm mostly stuck with either high prices new, or taking a chance on ebay or Amazon used and hoping all the pieces are there. 

spider1204

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #101 on: August 08, 2013, 10:53:54 AM »
I'm in Germany so sadly, none of the standard options work for me.  You'd think that this would be a great place to buy games, but I have yet to find a used game store of any kind, and even if I did, it would have to be a good deal for me to deal with translating the game into English. 

Guess I'm mostly stuck with either high prices new, or taking a chance on ebay or Amazon used and hoping all the pieces are there. 

People probably appreciate them too much to sell em cheaply : p

Simple Abundant Living

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #102 on: August 08, 2013, 11:21:51 AM »
I'm in Germany so sadly, none of the standard options work for me.  You'd think that this would be a great place to buy games, but I have yet to find a used game store of any kind, and even if I did, it would have to be a good deal for me to deal with translating the game into English. 

Guess I'm mostly stuck with either high prices new, or taking a chance on ebay or Amazon used and hoping all the pieces are there.

Ticket to Ride is one of our all-time favorites, and I believe it was made in Germany.  "Zug um Zug"  In fact the Marklin edition (Germany) is our favorite one to play!.  USA (with 1910? expansion pack) is fun, as well as Europe and Switzerland.

Simple Abundant Living

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #103 on: August 08, 2013, 01:19:33 PM »
A lot of people here like Settlers of Catan.  Our new favorite way of playing is to place our settlements first, then randomly place the numbers.  It's a fun twist to the game.  You'd be surprised how often the player sitting on 3,4, and 11's will win!

odput

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #104 on: January 28, 2014, 08:37:25 AM »
Ok...just found this thread via another post and found that 2 of my current favorite games are not on this list:

1. Wizard - card game that is kind of a mixture of bid euchre and war
2. Quarto - AWESOME puzzle game for two people

And just to add my two-cents:

Also, I despise Munchkin, but that's just my personal opinion :-D

Munchkin very much depends on who you play it with...a couple of my friends introduced it to me and we had a great time playing.  When I tried to teach my in-laws how to play, it was absolutely miserable

SwordGuy

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #105 on: January 29, 2014, 09:03:48 PM »
"Junta"

"The Fall of Rome and the Rise of the Barbarians"

"Macchiavelli"


sheepstache

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #106 on: January 29, 2014, 09:20:23 PM »
I don't particularly like board games but I love Labyrinth.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000J0JF
It's a visual strategy game with a maze that changes.  Might be too easy for an adult crowd.

markbrynn

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #107 on: February 06, 2014, 09:02:18 AM »
My favourites:
Agricola - I think it's a brilliant game. I play it more on the app than in person, though not by choice; just not enough friends willing to put in the time.
Settlers - played it more than any. Is hands down the best social game that I've ever played, as long as you play with people that you won't get mad/hold a grudge with. When it's not your turn it's still kind of your turn.

One that nobody mentioned (from what I can tell):
Werewolves (could be called something else in other countries) - basically it's one of those murder mystery party games. Some people are villagers, some werewolves. Close your eyes (it's night), someone dies, try to figure out who it is. Not quite a board game, but still good fun for bigger groups (works best with 10+ people).

A couple comments to add:

Variant on Settlers: place villages and roads with the resource tiles turned upside down, then flip them over. Place numbers on the board by picking out of a hat with various rules about where you can put them (no 6 and 8 next to each other, must place numbers next to your own villages first, etc.). If you've played 100's of times it's a way to shake things up.

Regarding games in Europe: If you play them in the original language there are probably more copies available. If you're living there (like I am), learning at least a bit of the language is a good plan. Plus, with most games you'll recognise the cards soon enough and won't need to read them. Even my mother plays with a Dutch version of Settlers and has figure out what the 5 possible cards are on sight.

On price of games: I know this site is all about spending less money, but games are not really that expensive when you consider the amount of use you get out of them (if you get a lot of use out of them). Netflix is $8 every month. For a year's worth of Netflix you can get 2-4 (or more) good games and play them for years and years. [Note: if you don't have Netflix, pick something else that you spend money on for entertainment and reapply the logic.]

My introduction to eurogames was one of the great days in my life.

warfreak2

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #108 on: February 06, 2014, 12:33:44 PM »
Any Go players?

I also play Dominion.

hybrid

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #109 on: March 04, 2014, 02:40:16 PM »
A new local favorite is Terra Mystica. I'm convinced this game will be hot for a year or so and then fade away to the island of misfit games like Princes of Florence and Medici, but it is definitely hot right now. The down sides are that on sale it is a $70 board game (in no small part because there are a lot of expensive to produce components in the game) and it is a busy game to teach, the upsides are that the game has a lot of replay value since you play one of 14 unique mythicals races with their own special abilities, and the game is a building game at heart which most Eurogamers seem to gravitate to.

One other thing interesting about Terra Mystica is that the 14 races seem dramatically unbalanced. Some are just plain much easier to win with than others. What I like about that is the experienced player can teach the game, deliberately choose a hard race, and the newbies at the table will have a decent chance at being competitive in their first game. This game was very ppopular at Prezcon in Charlottesville, which just concluded over the weekend.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2014, 07:10:28 AM by hybrid »

Big Boots Buddha

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #110 on: March 16, 2014, 02:55:39 AM »
My favourites:
Agricola - I think it's a brilliant game.

Variant on Settlers: place villages and roads with the resource tiles turned upside down, then flip them over. Place numbers on the board by picking out of a hat with various rules about where you can put them (no 6 and 8 next to each other, must place numbers next to your own villages first, etc.). If you've played 100's of times it's a way to shake things up.

Its hard for me to wrap my head around these two things being true at the same time. Settlers is so bad and Argicola so good. Settlers, for me at least, is hardly a game at all. Almost every action a person would take, such as building a road or building a dwelling, is clearly the best move. Anyone in the same position would do the same thing. Its just a matter of who gets the resources from the dice. A better game would be to roll dice a hundred times, each person choosing some numbers, and then find the winner. =) As you can see, I'm a big Settlers downer.

Recently played A LOT of Terra Mystica. Play online here against AI (probbaly should play a real game first, to know whats up)

http://lodev.org/tmai/

I like Euros plenty, such as Village, Power Grid, etc.

But there is "more" to a minatures games with battles, terrain, etc. I like one called Battles of Westeros. I use to dream about it!

grantmeaname

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #111 on: March 16, 2014, 06:12:20 AM »
Its hard for me to wrap my head around these two things being true at the same time. Settlers is so bad and Argicola so good. Settlers, for me at least, is hardly a game at all. Almost every action a person would take, such as building a road or building a dwelling, is clearly the best move. Anyone in the same position would do the same thing. Its just a matter of who gets the resources from the dice. A better game would be to roll dice a hundred times, each person choosing some numbers, and then find the winner. =) As you can see, I'm a big Settlers downer.
Okay, fine. But what makes Agricola better? As somebody who plays and enjoys Settlers and has never seen Agricola, what can you tell me to convince me to give it a shot?

arebelspy

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #112 on: March 16, 2014, 09:35:22 AM »
Do you guys do no trading in settlers or something?  Cause it sounds like your negotiating skills need to improve. :P
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Metta

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #113 on: March 16, 2014, 10:30:26 AM »
"Junta"

"The Fall of Rome and the Rise of the Barbarians"

"Macchiavelli"

Machiavelli and Diplomacy are also my favorites. Another favorite lately is Eclipse.

I suppose that given the MMM crowd, I shouldn't be that surprised that games with financial systems or that simulate income-building are popular.

markbrynn

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #114 on: March 17, 2014, 06:33:44 AM »
In response to Big Boots of Buddha

You seem to like Agricola, so I don't need to convince you of why I really like it.

Regarding Settlers. It's a complicated one, but here goes. It is (or can be) an immensely social game. The whole negotiating/trading thing was completely ground breaking for me and is still available in only a small number of games. It keeps you involved even when it's not your turn. I also love to play Settlers with my friends but find it excruciating with my parents. That's because with friends its part of a whole social event of drinking, chatting, joking, (arguing), etc. that makes for a fun evening. With my parents it's a recipe for getting into arguments, and not the good kind. Other advantage that it's extremely easy to learn and fun for a wide range of types (of people). Purely as an intellectual challenge it's not a great game (and Agricola is better), but if I wanted that I would play only games like chess. It's much harder for me to get friends to play Agricola than Settlers, which is a shame, but the truth.

TinyLightsBelow

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #115 on: March 23, 2014, 09:39:22 AM »
Catan
Munchkin
Scrabble
Scattegories
Cranium
Cards Against Humanity
Pandemic
The 'Game of Thrones' card game
1313 Dead End Drive

Oh, and someone mentioned Skip-Bo; that game is great! :D

Big Boots Buddha

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #116 on: March 25, 2014, 10:30:13 PM »
In response to Big Boots of Buddha

You seem to like Agricola, so I don't need to convince you of why I really like it.

Regarding Settlers. It's a complicated one, but here goes. It is (or can be) an immensely social game. The whole negotiating/trading thing was completely ground breaking for me and is still available in only a small number of games. It keeps you involved even when it's not your turn. I also love to play Settlers with my friends but find it excruciating with my parents. That's because with friends its part of a whole social event of drinking, chatting, joking, (arguing), etc. that makes for a fun evening. With my parents it's a recipe for getting into arguments, and not the good kind. Other advantage that it's extremely easy to learn and fun for a wide range of types (of people). Purely as an intellectual challenge it's not a great game (and Agricola is better), but if I wanted that I would play only games like chess. It's much harder for me to get friends to play Agricola than Settlers, which is a shame, but the truth.

I live in a backwater Chinese city and have two different board game groups that play medium to heavy weight games. Not just Euro, but minatures (Battles of Westeros is my favorite, low buy in price for the core set and nearly unlimited game play) and lots of Ameritrash like Chaos in the old world, which is just a terrific roller coaster ride.

You can find board gamers if you live in the USA, easy peasy.

Agricola is a good heavyish game, but I much prefer Martin Wallace, like Brass or Steam. Those are good old brain burners.

Big Boots Buddha

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #117 on: March 25, 2014, 10:36:28 PM »
As you can see, I'm a big Settlers downer.
Okay, fine. But what makes Agricola better? As somebody who plays and enjoys Settlers and has never seen Agricola, what can you tell me to convince me to give it a shot?

If you've only played Settlers, dont jump into Agricola. Im sure you'd enjoy it if you like the idea of a more complex, strategy game, but there are hundreds of great games in between. Settlers is just above Shutes and Ladders on the strategy and complexity range, which isnt such a bad thing, I played some Candyland when I was younger. Settlers is good as an eye-opener, "of this is what a board game is". After that, its all up hill from there.

In Agricola there are meaningful decisions that must be made. In Settlers, the dice god favors you, so you get wood and stone, then you build roads. Thats not very nunaced. I would try Village (great as a 2, 3, or 4) player game. Or perhaphs Castles of Burgandy. Both are medium weight, low luck, high replayability games. If you like those, go to www.boardgamegeek.com and ask for recommendations about other games. Very friendly people there. =)

homehandymum

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #118 on: March 25, 2014, 11:19:18 PM »
Agricola is a game to play if you intend to play it at least half a dozen times.  The first time i played it was so complex I had no idea what I was doing.  Didn't care enough to persevere. 

It's a similar game to Puerto Rico - and I found Puerto Rico easier to pick up and play.

My current favourite is Dominion - this has high replayability, plays out in less than an hour, so you can hit the "oh, i get it" stage in the first evening of play, and works as well for 2 players as it does for more.

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #119 on: March 25, 2014, 11:29:30 PM »
Agricola is a game to play if you intend to play it at least half a dozen times.  The first time i played it was so complex I had no idea what I was doing.  Didn't care enough to persevere. 

This makes me feel better, I have been asking myself all week what is wrong with us! Got together with another couple for a marathon game day last weekend, ended up pulling it out as it had been given to our friends to figure out how to play by a family who couldn't figure it out and even between the 4 of us, who have been gaming for years...we gave up on it.  It started with "Take out the grey tokens" and us scratching our head for 10 minutes and comparing every single piece in the box as there are no grey ones and trying to figure out what everything was, and the rules kept saying to refer to instructions that are on the back of board x..when the boards didn't seem to match. Or pull out the "Blue Cards" when there are three different types of blue cards. An hour and a half in, we gave up.

I think it would be much easier if one of us already knew the game - but the instruction book is so huge and not very well laid out, there are so many pieces that it just struck us as not worth the time investment to stumble through it even more. Might have to wait to find someone who already knows how to play.

JPinDC

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #120 on: March 26, 2014, 07:14:00 AM »
Right now it's Small World, but Dominion and Catan are also favorites. Check out the YouTube series Table Top for quick how-tos from games (I always send these to new players so they can jump right in). Here's the one for Small World: http://youtu.be/X9QtdiRJYro
« Last Edit: March 26, 2014, 11:09:49 AM by JPinDC »

swick

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #121 on: March 26, 2014, 07:24:44 AM »
We love small world! It is a really great game to introduce new people to the wider range of board games out there. We have been playing lots of King of Tokyo lately with the Halloween expansion. It is totally luck based and silly but  the theme is lots of fun and can be a great break form more serious or brain burner games.

Hubby and I have been playing Mr. Jack Pocket as well which is great for a two player brain burner.

wortdog

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #122 on: March 26, 2014, 10:37:24 AM »
My coworkers and I built a digital Catan board with an Amazon scratch-and-dent wide-angle TV and a Raspberry Pi.  We play 1 or two games every day at lunch and keep stats.  It is amazing how much of an advantage going placing your settlements last in a five player game is.


Simple Abundant Living

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #123 on: March 26, 2014, 04:45:22 PM »
My coworkers and I built a digital Catan board with an Amazon scratch-and-dent wide-angle TV and a Raspberry Pi.  We play 1 or two games every day at lunch and keep stats.  It is amazing how much of an advantage going placing your settlements last in a five player game is.



when we play, the highest roll gets to place their first settlement last, then first for their second settlement.  That's a huge advantage.

arebelspy

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #124 on: March 26, 2014, 06:11:24 PM »
My coworkers and I built a digital Catan board with an Amazon scratch-and-dent wide-angle TV and a Raspberry Pi.  We play 1 or two games every day at lunch and keep stats.  It is amazing how much of an advantage going placing your settlements last in a five player game is.



when we play, the highest roll gets to place their first settlement last, then first for their second settlement.  That's a huge advantage.

Depends on how many people and the board setup. Sometimes placing first is best.
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newguy88

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #125 on: March 30, 2014, 01:26:10 AM »
Agricola is hands down my favorite game of all time!  My wife and I have played it hundreds of times and we've taught over 30 people how to play it in the last seven years.  But I definitely agree that the rules are a bit convoluted.  Your best bet is to find someone who has played it before to teach you, or maybe try youtube?

It's worth it! :)

Davin

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #126 on: April 16, 2014, 11:09:24 AM »
My favourites:
Agricola - I think it's a brilliant game.

Variant on Settlers: place villages and roads with the resource tiles turned upside down, then flip them over. Place numbers on the board by picking out of a hat with various rules about where you can put them (no 6 and 8 next to each other, must place numbers next to your own villages first, etc.). If you've played 100's of times it's a way to shake things up.

Its hard for me to wrap my head around these two things being true at the same time. Settlers is so bad and Argicola so good. Settlers, for me at least, is hardly a game at all. Almost every action a person would take, such as building a road or building a dwelling, is clearly the best move. Anyone in the same position would do the same thing. Its just a matter of who gets the resources from the dice. A better game would be to roll dice a hundred times, each person choosing some numbers, and then find the winner. =) As you can see, I'm a big Settlers downer.

Recently played A LOT of Terra Mystica. Play online here against AI (probbaly should play a real game first, to know whats up)

http://lodev.org/tmai/

I like Euros plenty, such as Village, Power Grid, etc.

But there is "more" to a minatures games with battles, terrain, etc. I like one called Battles of Westeros. I use to dream about it!


Agricola is my S.O.'s favorite, but I have to be in the right mood or it just feels like doing chores, or even worse, stressful chores.

Dominion is my favorite; we have all the expansions, although I think Alchemy is a little weak.

Settlers of Catan is often our compromise game, but we never play the base version unless we are playing with little kids, teaching someone how to play, or using the expansion tiles to play with 6-7 people. We find it a lot more entertaining to play the Cities and Knights expansion with the Harbormaster and Fishermen thrown in to make it more strategic.

We both love Cosmic Encounter, Dungeon Petz, and Illuminati, but you really need more than two people to make these work.

When it is just the two of us and we want a quick game, we often play Jambo.

When there is serious drinking going on or younger players we usually go with Citadels, Muchkin, Carcassone, or Cards Against Humanity, depending on who is playing.

For us, what makes the difference in game quality is situational, not so absolute as your Agricola yes - Catan no.

Kierun

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #127 on: April 16, 2014, 04:09:16 PM »
Not a board game, but so much fun with a group of folks, telestrations.  Combination of telephone and drawing. 

Bang! The Bullet
7 Wonders
Power Grid
and many of the others that have already been mentioned.

Davin

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #128 on: January 13, 2015, 06:33:08 PM »
I just saw this. I know this is probably a dead thread but it reminded me of this discussion, and I had to add it. It is a dichotomous key for game selection.

riverffashion

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #129 on: January 14, 2015, 12:23:07 AM »
Scattegories and trivial pursuit (although neither has a board).

riverffashion

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #130 on: January 14, 2015, 12:25:12 AM »
O how funny , I didn't read the above posting about this thread being dead- just saw it in the forum topics.

vern

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #131 on: January 14, 2015, 12:46:28 AM »

riverffashion

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #132 on: January 14, 2015, 12:58:42 AM »
Cards against humanity. How could i forget?

LadyStache

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #133 on: January 14, 2015, 03:33:34 PM »
Backgammon
Pentago

riverffashion

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #134 on: January 14, 2015, 03:39:43 PM »
Davin, thread is revived!

Beric01

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #135 on: January 14, 2015, 03:46:30 PM »
I've been playing Caverna with family lately. Made by the same guy as Agricola. IMO it's Agricola 2.0. Really fixes most of the problems with Agricola. It's not longer a frustrating experience just to feed your family, and you don't have a ton of cards to look through (or get screwed if you are dealt a bad hand).

The other game I really like is Eclipse. It's basically a Space 4X boardgame that takes about half the time of Twilight Imperium 3. Also very Euro-ey, but it can be hard to get a group together willing to play its 4 hours. Rated #8 on BGG though, and for good reason.

Edit: I played my first game of Settlers over 15 years ago (I think I was 8 at the time). It really introduced Euro gaming to the US, and I enjoyed it a lot at the time. But there's really no reason to play it anymore. So many games have improved on its mechanics. A couple specific criticisms:

  • Once the board is laid out and the starting player determined, the game can basically be calculated. Any variations are due to lucky rolls of the dice.
  • Bargaining skills are key (and I'm good at this), but this is where the meta-game starts. Becuase I'm good at the game and frequently win, others would simply refuse to trade with me. Additionally, once a player get ~8 points, everyone will refuse to trade with them, meaning that the dice determine the winner.

Settlers was great for it's time, but nowadays there's always a better game to play.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2015, 03:53:24 PM by Beric01 »

Davin

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #136 on: January 14, 2015, 04:12:47 PM »
I've been playing Caverna with family lately. Made by the same guy as Agricola. IMO it's Agricola 2.0. Really fixes most of the problems with Agricola. It's not longer a frustrating experience just to feed your family, and you don't have a ton of cards to look through (or get screwed if you are dealt a bad hand).
...

I'll have to try Caverna, it sounds way better than Agricola! By the way, you are a unicorn. I lived in the bay area for 3 years and am pretty sure I never saw a single law abiding cyclist, although I did quite a bit of riding myself.

Beric01

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #137 on: January 14, 2015, 04:33:26 PM »
I've been playing Caverna with family lately. Made by the same guy as Agricola. IMO it's Agricola 2.0. Really fixes most of the problems with Agricola. It's not longer a frustrating experience just to feed your family, and you don't have a ton of cards to look through (or get screwed if you are dealt a bad hand).
...

I'll have to try Caverna, it sounds way better than Agricola! By the way, you are a unicorn. I lived in the bay area for 3 years and am pretty sure I never saw a single law abiding cyclist, although I did quite a bit of riding myself.

I definitely recommend Caverna! There's also a lot more interesting strategies to try than simply "bake bread" vs "rancher". And the expeditions are a nice touch.

Yeah, it's pretty lonely out here in the Bay Area. Had a cyclist riding the wrong way in the bike lane almost slam headlong into me this morning. I have stuff like this every day. :(

Inevitable

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #138 on: March 26, 2015, 07:32:32 AM »
My coworkers and I built a digital Catan board with an Amazon scratch-and-dent wide-angle TV and a Raspberry Pi.  We play 1 or two games every day at lunch and keep stats.  It is amazing how much of an advantage going placing your settlements last in a five player game is.

Awesome project.  Not my favorite game, but the project is awesome. 

I just tried Ticket To Ride recently.  It's fun, but extremely easy.  It's probably a good game to play with less geeky game players.

MooseOutFront

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #139 on: March 30, 2015, 01:52:17 PM »
Following.  I love games, but don't have anyone to play with.  Hopefully my kids will help me out here when they get old enough.

MashedBanana

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #140 on: April 14, 2015, 04:23:33 AM »
Dobble!!!!

bauhauss

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #141 on: November 01, 2015, 11:12:43 PM »
Not in any particular order:

Board Games
Settlers of Catan
Scrabble
Chess
Risk (Last time was about 10 years ago)

Card Games
Tichu
Hearts (Digital version only, hardly known here)
Spades (Digital version only, hardly known here)
Truco (brazilian game)
Caxeta (brazilian game)
Canastra
Bridge
« Last Edit: November 01, 2015, 11:15:17 PM by bauhauss »

Lski'stash

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #142 on: November 08, 2015, 07:38:13 AM »
Love this thread!

I'm really into 'Ticket to Ride' right now. There's a lot more strategy involved than first meets the eye, especially if your playing two player. It's also makes for a great dinner party game to if you have a few people over.

'Cards Against Humanity' is a lot of fun. I wouldn't get it or play it with anyone who is easily offended though...

mrpercentage

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #143 on: November 08, 2015, 07:46:19 AM »
Axis & Allies
Chess
Monopoly
Rail Barron

Fbeyer

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #144 on: November 17, 2015, 01:28:20 AM »
I'm surprised that all these Mustachians aren't more into economic games.
If you want lifetime bang for your buck in a non-abstract game, look into the 18xx series. You'll be amazed at the stock market shenanigans you get to pull off.

Personal favorites being:
Android; netrunner (money sink, just stopped buying more cards)
American Rails (10 minutes of rules, 13 games later, the decision tree is still incredibly opaque)
Imperial (1st world war, players are Swiss investors betting on the warring nations, manipulating the actions of the warring nations)
Chess
Hex (world simplest rules, ridiculously deep)
Age of Industry
Commands & Colors; Ancients
Panic on Wall Street (a party game actually. check it out)
Keyflower
Agricola

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #145 on: November 17, 2015, 02:01:54 AM »

Then there are some games we play with dices. One is Yahtzee, but lately it has been supplanted with another which I learned from a Columbian friend. Unfortunately I don't remember what name if any he had for it. The basic principle is that each player starts with 5 dices and throws them in such a way that other players (up to 6) don't see it and then the person who has the first hand announces, for example, that there are four sixes thrown together by all players. The next player has a choice to either claim a larger amount (say five sixes or five threes) or challenge the first player. If the challenger is right then the first player loses one dice, if not then the challenger loses one. The eventual winner is the only player with dices left. Of course the game is intensely competitive and some understanding of mathematical probability is desirable. Anyone familiar with it? 


This sounds like Perudo, you can buy it as a game in a tin, but really easy to make up with sets of coloured dice and cups. It is played in one of the Pirate of the Carribean films. Happy to send you a copy of the published version's rules if you want to make your own copy (there are a couple of rule variants that add to the fun. Makes an excellent drinking game.

arebelspy

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #146 on: November 17, 2015, 03:56:44 AM »
I think Liar's Dice is the most common name for it.
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Lizzy B.

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #147 on: December 03, 2015, 06:21:04 PM »
Whoa, it took until page 5 for Agricola to get some (much deserved) love. Agricola rocks. There's also an app which makes it affordable.

I also love Dominion. In fact, hubby is getting another expansion for Christmas 

Not a huge fan of Settlers or of Pandemic. Settlers gets vicious fast and doesn't work well for 2 players. Pandemic is just epically stressful. Too much pressure! 

YogiKitti

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #148 on: December 03, 2015, 08:21:55 PM »
I just got Agricola! I love dominion as well. But really I'm so eager to play any board game, anything will do. How does one find board gamers?

Beaker

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Re: What are your favorite board games?
« Reply #149 on: December 04, 2015, 08:22:51 AM »
I just got Agricola! I love dominion as well. But really I'm so eager to play any board game, anything will do. How does one find board gamers?

Meetup.com groups, local game stores (many run events or game days), game cafes/coffee shops in some cities, conventions. Or just put out the word to your friends and see if anybody bites.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!