NorvilleBarnes
Footballguy
We differ on the order but that's a great list. In fact, for me it's reversed.
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Best Board Games (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Klimtology
- Start date
Whiplash Inc.
Footballguy
Orange Crush
Footballguy
Ok, yes, I played at an international Diplomacy tournament once. But, it was in my home town, so it's not like I had to go out of my way to participate. And I got my butt royally kicked.I remember that particular game. I was so paranoid about playing online where I couldn't read people that I think I made an alliance with every single player. And then I had a scheduling conflict and had to quit.
Sounds like a great game.
cobalt_27
Footballguy
What's the expertise of the player(s) you've seen?I've played this game on/off for the past 20 years. Allies definitely has more going for them, but...Germany and Japan, if played well, can definitely win the game 50% of the time, in my experience.
cobalt_27
Footballguy
Once you're in, it's worse than crack.
Buddy Ball 2K3
Footballguy
When I was a kid it was with out question The Dark Tower. I wish I still had mine, they are worth some good coin now.
Dexter
Footballguy
LOTR Risk > Risk
TexanFan02
Footballguy
Between good players I'd say the Axis has about a 20% chance to win. It basically hinges on the Axis getting really good die rolls the first two turns and then playing perfectly after that. Anything else and a decent Allied team will wipe the floor with them. Has anybody tried the new Hasbro version? They revamped the game, but it's still slanted towards the Allies, it just takes longer.
Well, now we're into my industry. I basically run a board game retail outlet here, so we're right in my wheelhouse now.
Settlers of Catan continues to be our number one selling game, and for good reason. Still a very approachable, easy to learn gateway game. Same with Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, also top sellers. But those games all give up elegance of design for simplicity and approachability. Not that that's a bad thing, but somebody looking for more depth may come up short.
The deeper Eurogames offer a little more for the thinking gamer. Puerto Rico (#1 on the geek still) has already been mentioned. The Alea Big Box series on the whole is generally a good place to go for this stuff. Both of the newest releases, Notre Dame and In The Year Of The Dragon, are reminiscent of the early Alea success. But these games sort of start to blur together for me after a while due to their abstract nature. There's no doubting the elegance of the designs, but at the end of the day I like me a good theme. Nowadays, when I want a Euro fix, I find myself turning to Power Grid as the most engaging of that genre. That really is a solidly-designed game top to bottom.
I find the GMT games hard to engage in due to the relatively simple production quality. Small cardboard counters only do so much. But Twilight Struggle, mentioned a few times already here, is a very notable exception. This game does a great job at capturing and re-creating a Cold War theme. It's very engaging and very clever.
But my current favourites are the stuff coming out of Fantasy Flight Games. These guys are specializing in exactly what I'm looking for: epic, engaging themes with high production values and quality presentation combined with a good European-inspired rule design. Top of the list there for me would be War Of The Ring, an absolutely brilliantly designed re-creation of the Lord Of The Rings epic. Those who mentioned Scotland Yard ought to give a try to Fury Of Dracula, which basically turns Mr. X into a vampire. Not only do you have to just find him, now you also have to fight him. Their adaptations of World of Warcraft and Starcraft also show very clever design concepts. Their A Game Of Thrones adaptation is also an extremely well-balanced design with an engaging theme. Arkham Horror is an excellent co-operative game for a change of pace which excellently captures the Lovecraft mythos. Warrior Knights, Dust, Tide of Iron, all decent designs. And, of course, the one that started it all for them, Twilight Imperium, continues to be an absolutely epic design and concept. Played a game of it last night, completely engaging. We all had a great time.
Okay, enough pimping of Fantasy Flight. I should at least give a nod to Days of Wonder (of Ticket To Ride fame) who also has some good stuff out there on the market. A recent favourite is Colosseum, a neat little package revolving around putting on gladiator shows in ancient Rome. Reminiscent of Fabrik der Traum, but also borrowing a lot of neat concepts from some modern games. Shout outs also to newer games Cuba and Pillars of the Earth for some neat designs. I'm not sold on the hype around Race For The Galaxy yet, it's just San Juan re-packaged as far as I can tell.
Okay, I could go on and on. But for those of you who think Monopoly and Scrabble are the pinnacle of the board game industry... dudes, there's a whole world of fun waiting there for you to discover. Seriously. Check out what the Germans have been up to. It will blow your mind.
Settlers of Catan continues to be our number one selling game, and for good reason. Still a very approachable, easy to learn gateway game. Same with Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, also top sellers. But those games all give up elegance of design for simplicity and approachability. Not that that's a bad thing, but somebody looking for more depth may come up short.
The deeper Eurogames offer a little more for the thinking gamer. Puerto Rico (#1 on the geek still) has already been mentioned. The Alea Big Box series on the whole is generally a good place to go for this stuff. Both of the newest releases, Notre Dame and In The Year Of The Dragon, are reminiscent of the early Alea success. But these games sort of start to blur together for me after a while due to their abstract nature. There's no doubting the elegance of the designs, but at the end of the day I like me a good theme. Nowadays, when I want a Euro fix, I find myself turning to Power Grid as the most engaging of that genre. That really is a solidly-designed game top to bottom.
I find the GMT games hard to engage in due to the relatively simple production quality. Small cardboard counters only do so much. But Twilight Struggle, mentioned a few times already here, is a very notable exception. This game does a great job at capturing and re-creating a Cold War theme. It's very engaging and very clever.
But my current favourites are the stuff coming out of Fantasy Flight Games. These guys are specializing in exactly what I'm looking for: epic, engaging themes with high production values and quality presentation combined with a good European-inspired rule design. Top of the list there for me would be War Of The Ring, an absolutely brilliantly designed re-creation of the Lord Of The Rings epic. Those who mentioned Scotland Yard ought to give a try to Fury Of Dracula, which basically turns Mr. X into a vampire. Not only do you have to just find him, now you also have to fight him. Their adaptations of World of Warcraft and Starcraft also show very clever design concepts. Their A Game Of Thrones adaptation is also an extremely well-balanced design with an engaging theme. Arkham Horror is an excellent co-operative game for a change of pace which excellently captures the Lovecraft mythos. Warrior Knights, Dust, Tide of Iron, all decent designs. And, of course, the one that started it all for them, Twilight Imperium, continues to be an absolutely epic design and concept. Played a game of it last night, completely engaging. We all had a great time.
Okay, enough pimping of Fantasy Flight. I should at least give a nod to Days of Wonder (of Ticket To Ride fame) who also has some good stuff out there on the market. A recent favourite is Colosseum, a neat little package revolving around putting on gladiator shows in ancient Rome. Reminiscent of Fabrik der Traum, but also borrowing a lot of neat concepts from some modern games. Shout outs also to newer games Cuba and Pillars of the Earth for some neat designs. I'm not sold on the hype around Race For The Galaxy yet, it's just San Juan re-packaged as far as I can tell.
Okay, I could go on and on. But for those of you who think Monopoly and Scrabble are the pinnacle of the board game industry... dudes, there's a whole world of fun waiting there for you to discover. Seriously. Check out what the Germans have been up to. It will blow your mind.
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War Of The Ring >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> well, everything else.
Pai Mei
Footballguy
Yah the most popular games involve a lot less thinking.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
##### please. I dominate the northern hemisphere in Boggle.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Pskov> Hi.In no particular orderuerto RicoTwilight StrugglePower GridDiplomacySettlers of Catan
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Whats the deal here? See a lot of answers for this, but I've never heard of it.This is my favorite
s_ezy
Footballguy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_CatanWhats the deal here? See a lot of answers for this, but I've never heard of it.
It's the poster child of a (relatively) new approach to board gaming, commonly called "Eurogaming". Eurogames generally revolve around abstract resource management and an attempt to reduce random elements from the board and introduce more strategy.Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber was one of the first. It one the German Game of the Year (SDJ) award in 1994 (I believe) and continues to go strong. It features a modular game board design, which is already a new approach to gaming for most people. The main idea is all the players are on an island and use their limited resource availability to gather the goods necessary to expand their settlements via roadbuilding and city construction until you have acquired 10 "victory points" worth of various construction options (settlements, roads, a prize for the "longest road" or "largest army", or other developments). Resources are gathered via an interesting bell-curve production array based around rolling two dice, which is also randomly distributed when the game is set up, guaranteeing a new set of choices every game.Whats the deal here? See a lot of answers for this, but I've never heard of it.
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Wow, this would have been way easier than doing all that typing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_CatanWhats the deal here? See a lot of answers for this, but I've never heard of it.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
heh. thanks smoo
falconeyed
Footballguy
Edited because it's basically a rip off of Jericho's last post and I didn't read everything before responding.
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2 things. One:
. Two: PLEASE edit your post to get rid of most of those >s. I hate that stupid scroll bar that ####s up the screen.Edit: heh, never mind, you did already. Double
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falconeyed
Footballguy
You mean the theater specific versions? I played the Europe one once as the Germans and it basically came down to St. Petersburg falling. I couldn't crack it and the game was basically over after that battle.
falconeyed
Footballguy
Game seems WAY too involved for me. Makes War of the Ring look like checkers and War of the Ring is on the extreme edge of my game sensibilities. Saw it being played in a shop awhile ago and thought it looked interesting but there's a LOT of #### going on.
This has always been my beef with the A&A stuff. It seems like it all comes down to which way one battle falls. I haven't tried the theatre versions, but the decisive battle in the main version always happened in the first two turns, so the rest of the game was just playing out an inevitable ending. That's not fun.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
I still have mine and it works great. The box is almost 100% duct tape though...
There IS a lot of #### going on. That's why I like it. There's a political agenda, fleet building, invasion combat, random action cards, a Puerto Rico-inspired role selection mechanism, multiple tiers of objectives, limited action points, fleet size restrictions, trading, bribes... #### man, it's got so much packed into it. And while you say this is why you dislike it, those are the exact reasons why I love it. So much bang for your buck. IF you're willing to sit down and play it for 6 hours. Which I am. But I can understand how others wouldn't be willing to make the same commitment.
falconeyed
Footballguy
I thought it was sort of interesting given than, in my understanding, the European theater was largely decided by Germany's inability to take St. Petersburg, which was the beginning of the end for the Nazis.
It seems Falconeyed is with me on my praise of War of the Ring. Man, I can't say enough good things about that game. What a beautifully balanced game.
I've heard people talk about the game being weighted towards the Free Peoples, but I haven't encountered that problem yet. I've won some pretty good games as the Shadow. But then I haven't played against a lot of experienced opponents, so maybe those problems do creep up with two veteran players.
I've heard people talk about the game being weighted towards the Free Peoples, but I haven't encountered that problem yet. I've won some pretty good games as the Shadow. But then I haven't played against a lot of experienced opponents, so maybe those problems do creep up with two veteran players.
Then good for them for making sure the game plays that way. But when does this battle take place? Again, my biggest beef is that if one battle decides the game, that battle shouldn't occur on the second turn of the game, like the German invasion of Karelia or the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbour in the main game.. That makes the rest of the game a waste of time.
falconeyed
Footballguy
I've never played it, so perhaps I shouldn't rush to judgment. It was just my initial reaction based on comparing TI3 to games I know I like. When I played AA with my friends and roommates, we would play for an hour or two and then walk away. Board would be set up on the kitchen or dining room table for a month at least. Reminded me of Kramer and Newman playing Risk.
falconeyed
Footballguy
Good point.
Apparently there's a version (I think it's called "World At War") that starts the game in 1939 rather than 1942, and it vastly improves the game. Now the big battles become the climaxes that are built towards and end the game, rather than the start of the game.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
No, the theater specific versions suck. They redid the whole game, but not that much. Russia is bigger and harder to capture overall, but the Axis gets more money and units to start with, so it somewhat compensates. There are also "Random Event Cards" you can use for special powers for each country. Like the UK starts off with a Factory in India or Australia, or the Germans knock off a portion of the UKs money for every sub they build. Really changes the game. But, unfortunately, the cards all favor the Allies more than the Axis, and since the Allies almost always win anyway, you're better off just not using them.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
GMT has some of the best games going right now, I've already mentioned them in this thread. They're a little more complicated than the Euro games you're pimping, but they're great games if take the time to understand them. And yes, I've played the games you've mentioned, they're fine and have their place too.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
I think you may be thinking of Stalingrad. St. Petersburg is Leningrad, which was pretty much a siege situation during WWII, but not a turning point in the war. Although your statement is pretty general, you could say that the Germans inability to take Moscow was even more of a turning point. If you're thinking of it in terms of Axis and Allies, the importance of Karelia is vastlly overstated, it's abstracted for game purposes.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
War of the Ring is a beautiful game, I'll give it that. But it's negatives are that it takes quite a while to set up, and it's not always satisfying. There's kind of a blitz you can do with the ringbearers that makes the game come down to a few rolls and not that fun. Not the best game ever, but a good one.
But there's a counter for the Fellowship blitz. If the Free People blitz, the Shadow just dedicates more eyes to the hunt pool and corrupts Frodo out the wazoo. There's always a counter strategy to any strategy. That's the hallmark of a good game.
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Mjolnirs
Footballguy
This ain't checkers
I've got a buddy who's trying to get me to play a game of ASL with him. I'm hesitant, because I've seen the rules (they're pretty intimidating) and also because WWII ain't really my thing. And also, I prefer large scale. I'd rather play on a global map than a battlefield map.
On a side note, how many of you guys have (and maintain) logins at boardgamegeek? I'd be curious to read some of your ratings and reviews of some games. I'm there as 'Smoo' (surprisingly).
On a side note, how many of you guys have (and maintain) logins at boardgamegeek? I'd be curious to read some of your ratings and reviews of some games. I'm there as 'Smoo' (surprisingly).
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TexanFan02
Footballguy
People that like it swear by it. I quit trying years ago when the rules got to be several hundred pages that you had to carry around in a big binder. But the people that know how to play it can tell you what happens when a French Partisan unit gets caught coming out of a whorehouse by German military police who are tired and low on ammo, and then the partisans jump in a canal to escape and some Vichy French collaborators that have had too much to drink stumble onto the scene. Meanwhile, some UK Special forces guys are coming up the canal...It's not really like that, it's even more complicated.
Give me the reasons why this is your favourite. There are so many board games better than this. Give me some info and I'll find you a game you'll like even more.What the heck are most of you talking about. Quit coming up with clever names, and just admit you are playing D&D!My favs:Risk
falconeyed
Footballguy
Short Corner
Footballguy
jabarony
Footballguy
Thanks. I'm sure there are plenty of games better. I've just only ever purchased what's on the shelf at ToysRUs. I've looked up some of the games mentioned, and will probably order a few. I'm looking towards the 1-3 hour type games, not the 1-3 day types.Give me the reasons why this is your favourite. There are so many board games better than this. Give me some info and I'll find you a game you'll like even more.What the heck are most of you talking about. Quit coming up with clever names, and just admit you are playing D&D!
sirelfman
Easy as 3.1415926535...
My personal favorite is JUNTA: Revolution in a South American Banana Republic. I played this at least twice a month in high school (about every other weekend) and it was a hoot. We would elect the least-liked player President for Life, and then kill him. I always bargained to be the secret police, because I got the extra assasination attempt and could end up with all the money the PFL hadn't passed out because nobody could agree on how the Budget the Peso the USA had given us.
bryhamm
Footballguy
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