Last night I played a real game of Bang! and I think I like it more than King of Tokyo.
Bang! (the card game) or Bang! The Dice Game? Most people think of "Bang!" as the card game, but your comparison to King of Tokyo makes me wonder if you are referring to the recent dice game.
In the card game, I feel the odds favor the Sheriff/Deputies while the Renegade has the hardest challenge. I like the dice game, but with only one session so far, I do not feel qualified to make a real assessment of the game balance.
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
My favorite tile-laying game is Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Does that really count? I mean, you lay tiles, but not not in the strategic nation-building sense that you think of (or at least that I think of) when you think of "tile-laying games". Hell, I don't know what genre to put Betrayal in. I mean, "horror", obviously, but as far as gameplay is concerned. It's just so freaking unique.
Also, here's hoping for a reprint. A mint copy is currently two thousand dollars on Amazon.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
There are several mechanically flavorful cards in Dominion (Mine and Witch come to mind), and there are some definite gears as well. I would argue though that overall game doesn't feel like a kingdom. I will be curious if Lagoon ends up as an inverse phenomenon.
It seems just so generic though in most of the things it feels like someone took an Age of Empires licensed game and took out all the flavor of the individual countries.
I think the very genericity of Dominion's theme gives it a tabula rasa simplicity and timelessness that is well-suited for the original, classic, unembellished deckbuilding game. It's like Catan or Risk.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I mean, you lay tiles, but not not in the strategic nation-building sense that you think of (or at least that I think of) when you think of "tile-laying games". Hell, I don't know what genre to put Betrayal in. I mean, "horror", obviously, but as far as gameplay is concerned. It's just so freaking unique.
Tile-laying is a mechanic, not a genre. I'm not sure Deadwood, my second favorite tile-laying game, is really about nation building either.
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
I actually think Dominion executes its theme better mechanically. That theme may be kind of bland, but you can understand, "Oh, this is a Workshop, it makes something for me. Oh, this is a Moat, it protects me." Lagoon has a much more evocative theme and better art... but why on earth does the Moon Garden swap sites? Why on earth does the Cairn Colossus move a druid?
I've always been taken a back with people who say Dominion has poor theme. The mechanics match the theme perfectly: you're building up your empire, investing money to make more money, and creating an economy that will outproduce your rival nations. You don't get theme by just slapping on some pictures of vikings and zombies!
Last night I played a real game of Bang! and I think I like it more than King of Tokyo. It has a lot of interesting interactions, and so while King of Tokyo is good from 3-4ish players, Bang! is better with 5-6 Players. I have to say that the game seems a little weighted in the Outlaw's favor, however. They're a lot more free to act and don't have to worry as much about a strategy.
If you like Bang!, you should try Shadow Hunters. I played 2 games of it on Sunday and I'm becoming addicted. I've seen one review describe it as a "Bang!-killer." It's also a game of hidden roles, where the good and evil side deduce each other before fighting to the death. You can't just reveal yourself from the start, though, as it's usually best for Outlaws to do. Also, the neutral roles are much more interesting. They have special victory conditions, which they can do independent of any team, which adds a great X-factor. For example, one neutral just wants to survive...another has to collect certain equipment...and there's a suicidal one which just has to die first!
In my first game last night, I got that suicidal neutral character. I figured out one player was good, and attacked them. Then I figured out one player was evil, and attacked them. Chaos sewn everywhere! And just as I planned, it ended in my death for the win.
I'm looking for recommendations from the group here as to which game would be a good fit to add to my collection. I'm looking for games with relatively simple rules so that it won't scare off more casual friends and family, but complex enough that I'm not going to be bored with them quickly. I'm looking for games that fill a niche my current games don't.
Here is my collection so far:
King of Tokyo (Dice-Rolling, Giant Monster [Giant Monster theme is my favorite])
Pandemic (Strategy, Cooperative)
Zombicide (Action, Horror)
Smallworld (Strategy, World Domination) *Added at this thread's recommendation
Bang! The Card Game (Card Game, Action, Hidden Role) &Added at this thread's recommendation
Blokus (Abstract/Puzzle)
Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars (So sue me. Rodan won't even stand up, but this game is a guilty pleasure.)
Munchkin (Entertaining, but it gets old fast)
Fluxx (Same as Munchkin, it gets boring quick)
These are in my friend's collection (so these games are out):
Battlestar Galactica
Shadows Over Camelot
Bang! The Dice Game
Smash Up!
Werewolf
The Resistance
Various Party Games
Here are a few on my shelf, the niche I classify them under, game weight, and notes for context:
Puzzle Strike 3rd Ed (deck builder/medium weight/helps if players have some familiarity with fighting game tropes) BattleCon (2P Fighting, Coop, Solo/medium/similarly benefits from player familiarity with fighting games, but there is SO GD MUCH good stuff packed into this box!!!) Princes of Florence (Auction + area management/medium) Winner's Circle (Race + betting/light medium/mathematically tight game)
One I don't own, but is a good exemplar for the "War Game" slot:
Combat Commander (War Game/Medium/adds an event/complications deck that really adds a lot of depth to the "GMT Games"-style war game; great presentation!)
I'm looking for recommendations from the group here as to which game would be a good fit to add to my collection. I'm looking for games with relatively simple rules so that it won't scare off more casual friends and family, but complex enough that I'm not going to be bored with them quickly. I'm looking for games that fill a niche my current games don't.
Cosmic Encounter, Cosmic Encounter, a thousand times Cosmic Encounter. Its only weakness is that it can't be played with two players. The core rules are brick-simple: you basically just wager ships, make alliances, then play a card. But every player's alien race turns the rules on their head. They're seriously game-shaking; we thought they were broken when we first read the rules, before we realized that that was the point. And there are fifty races in the core game alone - buying all the expansions brings it up to 135 and counting. It's said of many games, but this time it's absolutely true: you will never play the same game twice.
What else? The components are gorgeous. Games usually end with pretty close scores; it's rare for players to get blown out, and there's tension right up to the end. And by the way the rules work, alliances shift so frequently that hard feelings don't develop. Everybody is engaged during everybody else's turn, because, again, alliances. The whole game runs for an hour on the outside once you know what you're doing. It's simply a classic. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
Cosmic Encounter, Cosmic Encounter, a thousand times Cosmic Encounter. Its only weakness is that it can't be played with two players. The core rules are brick-simple: you basically just wager ships, make alliances, then play a card. But every player's alien race turns the rules on their head. They're seriously game-shaking; we thought they were broken when we first read the rules, before we realized that that was the point. And there are fifty races in the core game alone - buying all the expansions brings it up to 135 and counting. It's said of many games, but this time it's absolutely true: you will never play the same game twice.
What else? The components are gorgeous. Games usually end with pretty close scores; it's rare for players to get blown out, and there's tension right up to the end. And by the way the rules work, alliances shift so frequently that hard feelings don't develop. Everybody is engaged during everybody else's turn, because, again, alliances. The whole game runs for an hour on the outside once you know what you're doing. It's simply a classic. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
If it's got that much of a recommendations from you, I'll give it a shot. Loading up the Dice Tower review now.
I don't really mind it not working for two players, if it's just two of us we'll often play a co-op video game, Magic, or X-Wing.
Not useful information.
Haha, I didn't think it would be, but he's got too many for me to name, and I don't like most of them. Cards Against Humanity and Say Anything are the only ones I remember, be he gets a deluge of board games from family every time presents are called for, and they're okay at best party games.
A game I forgot to mention is Furt. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did, but Furt combines some of the best aspects of party games out there, and it changes it up frequently: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102859/furt
Good for very casual board game people and for parties (and drinking). It's pretty much impossible to keep a straight face for the straight face challenge by the end of the game.
I'm looking for recommendations from the group here as to which game would be a good fit to add to my collection. I'm looking for games with relatively simple rules so that it won't scare off more casual friends and family, but complex enough that I'm not going to be bored with them quickly. I'm looking for games that fill a niche my current games don't.
I'll second the cosmic encounter rec, although I myself don't like the game that much (though I'm definitely in the minority) and I'll tell you why - it's one of those games with really open player interaction and at times frustrating mechanics, so you can easily have a situation where for example one person by chance gets attacked several times in a row AND everyone decides to get in on the action against him, at which point he's basically ****ed that game. It almost never feels like a very fair game - but that's kind of the point I guess it's just not really what I like.
I would personally recommend Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Love Letter. Ticket to Ride is famous as THE gateway board game - I have yet to play this game with someone not into board games and not have them really enjoy it. It's kind of weird frankly. I'm not hugely into it myself but it's pretty good and it definitely fits the idea of "simple to play but deep". Carcassone is also fairly well-known for this, it's not as deep but it's not boringly simple either, and the expansions are generally very good so it's easy to keep interesting.
Love Letter is not very well-known but if you ask me it's a fantastic game, in my top 3 right now for sure. Especially with 3 people the mechanics are very balanced and there's exactly the level of "sometimes ***** happens" that I like, because WHEN someone ****s you over they generally have to take some chance to do so or make some good inference. Even when you just get screwed by blind chance, the matches are short and by the rules the "winner" is determined by racking up a number of matches before others, so it's easy to let go of a single unfortunate match. In fact, a bit of the risk in the game stems from holding onto cards that are more likely to get blindly guessed - because they are more common, because they're cards people tend to hold onto, etc.
As for accessibility + depth, it's perfect in this way I think. It's accessible because every card does 1 thing and has 1 value at the end of the game, but there are multiple actual ways to use them, there are combos, there are things to keep in mind about your opponents, etc - inference and planning are the entire game in the end. You also only ever have two cards in hand, which makes decisionmaking easy on a shallow level, but opens up plenty of opportunity for risk (I'm worried about keeping this card another turn because X could've learned last turn that I had it, I can potentially eliminate someone here but it may reveal that my other card is a high card, etc). On a larger scale, the game includes only 16 cards (of about 8 unique types), a couple small cards to remind everyone what all the playable cards do, and a pouch of small score-keeping cubes. That's it. It also helps that the theme is simple and recognizable but charmingly done. It's kind of comparable to the resistance really.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of games based off of/spinoffs of the resistance/werewolf/mafia that I know are good or have heard are good. Lifeboat is supposedly good if you want to bring out everyone's inner backstabber, and I've played and like both Coup and The Resistance: Avalon.
I'll second the cosmic encounter rec, although I myself don't like the game that much (though I'm definitely in the minority) and I'll tell you why - it's one of those games with really open player interaction and at times frustrating mechanics, so you can easily have a situation where for example one person by chance gets attacked several times in a row AND everyone decides to get in on the action against him, at which point he's basically ****ed that game.
He really isn't. Unless it's a game-ending push. CE is one of the most comeback-capable games on the market. And because of the cardinal importance of alliances, even a player who's far behind can't be disregarded as a spoiler/kingmaker threat.
Ticket to Ride is good too, I haven't played Carcassone enough to have an opinion, and I don't get all the hype about Love Letter.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
He really isn't. Unless it's a game-ending push. CE is one of the most comeback-capable games on the market. And because of the cardinal importance of alliances, even a player who's far behind can't be disregarded as a spoiler/kingmaker threat.
Well that's my general experience, I do admit crazy comebacks can happen sometimes though. Especially since it is very possible to make huge amounts of progress towards winning the game in a single turn.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Virtue, Jacques, is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it..."
I'm looking for recommendations from the group here as to which game would be a good fit to add to my collection. I'm looking for games with relatively simple rules so that it won't scare off more casual friends and family, but complex enough that I'm not going to be bored with them quickly. I'm looking for games that fill a niche my current games don't.
I'd say give Red Dragon Inn a try. It's not all that complex- play a card, hand out a drink, then take a drink yourself. try not to pass out or lose all your gold. When I played it with a bunch of people at a convention last weekend, I had a blast playing it. at one point, I was close to passing out and another player tried to increase the limit of my drink, and we went back and forth trying to negate the cards. I still lost, still had a blast.
the first couple of expansions have fairly basic characters, the third expansion introduces characters that have an extra ability- like an alchemist that sells his potions, or an artificer whose inventions may backfire.
There's also Pandemic: In the Lab, adding an extra challenge to the original game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
SELVAXRI! King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers "Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can." 375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev) Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
I just picked up Duel of Ages II. It's not pretty, and it's not mechanically elegant, but damn is it fun. How many other games pit William Wallace against Quog the Bug-Eyed Alien, or give you the holy terror that is Annie Oakley with an Accelerator Tube? And it's actually pretty tactical. I'd call it a light wargame with a colorful mix of personalities rather than generic units.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I'm looking for recommendations from the group here as to which game would be a good fit to add to my collection. I'm looking for games with relatively simple rules so that it won't scare off more casual friends and family, but complex enough that I'm not going to be bored with them quickly. I'm looking for games that fill a niche my current games don't.
Here is my collection so far:
King of Tokyo (Dice-Rolling, Giant Monster [Giant Monster theme is my favorite])
Pandemic (Strategy, Cooperative)
Zombicide (Action, Horror)
Smallworld (Strategy, World Domination) *Added at this thread's recommendation
Bang! The Card Game (Card Game, Action, Hidden Role) &Added at this thread's recommendation
Blokus (Abstract/Puzzle)
Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars (So sue me. Rodan won't even stand up, but this game is a guilty pleasure.)
Munchkin (Entertaining, but it gets old fast)
Fluxx (Same as Munchkin, it gets boring quick)
These are in my friend's collection (so these games are out):
Battlestar Galactica
Shadows Over Camelot
Bang! The Dice Game
Smash Up!
Werewolf
The Resistance
Various Party Games
Get Red Dragon Inn, especially #1 and #2 (#3 and beyond get kind of power-creepy). With both, you can play with up to 8 people. It's, in my opinion, a fixed version of Munchkin.
Like Munchkin, it is:
-D&D-parody based
-Funny
-Great for larger groups of players
Unlike Munchkin, it is:
-Relatively simple, even later in the game (very minimum of board complexity)
-Interactive through the entire game, unlike Munchkin where you often just tank interactions until the last possible moment and then pile on at once
-Alcohol-related, so incredibly easy to adapt to being a drinking game
-Fun even after repeated plays
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Moderator Helpdesk
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
Oh my God, tonight's Arkham Horror game. Jim Culver - while blessed - randomly died rolling four out of four failures on a Blood Magic check. And I rolled four out of four ones (a.k.a. Lovecraftian snake eyes) on one check to seal a gate. So Bokrug eventually showed up. But it was okay, because our luck was actually amazing. I was Hank Samson with Grapple, an Enchanted Cane, the Golden Sword of Y'ha-Talla, an Alien Device, and Professor Armitage. Getting fire support from teammates with the less insane but still impressive Tommy Gun and Shotgun. And my dice were really hot. I'd estimate my overall success rate was closer to 75% than 50%, and I know for a fact that one round I rolled ten out of eleven. So the farmhand basically just grabbed the elder lizard god and systematically dismantled him. As far as strategy was concerned, we could take very little credit for our own victory, beyond the obvious decision of "give the magic weapons to the guy with Armitage". This bounty was just dumped into our laps, most of it in our initial draws. It was just a crazy crazy game. Exhibit A in the case for why Arkham is not for people who take either gaming or the Mythos too seriously. But we had a blast.
I have yet to play more than the introductory game to the Pathfinder Adventure card game. One of my buddies game blocked me with Marvel Legendary, which has been the game of choice the last couple weeks. I think it's okay, but not nearly as awesome a time as some of my friends are having with it.
I still haven't gotten to try out my new Eldritch Horror.
It looks really good, from reading the rulebook and reviews. Streamlined rules and a muuuch better mechanic for when the Ancient One awakes. But my group has already sunk our money into Arkham Horror plus two expansions, so we're sticking with the clunky oldness.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I still haven't gotten to try out my new Eldritch Horror.
It looks really good, from reading the rulebook and reviews. Streamlined rules and a muuuch better mechanic for when the Ancient One awakes. But my group has already sunk our money into Arkham Horror plus two expansions, so we're sticking with the clunky oldness.
I actually like more cumbersome and involved games generally, I sprung for Eldritch mostly because other people I play with don't. Also I hear Arkham kinda suffers with <4 players.
My wife and I picked up lords of waterdeep a few weeks ago and we found that to be a pretty satisfying two player experience.
It's even better with three, the concept of first-come-first-serve locations is a little weak when there are only 2 players. It's a pretty good game, I just wish it had more replay value...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Virtue, Jacques, is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it..."
I actually like more cumbersome and involved games generally, I sprung for Eldritch mostly because other people I play with don't. Also I hear Arkham kinda suffers with <4 players.
I think I've already said this in my thread, but Arkham is a very different game with two players - not necessarily a worse one. It's a hell of a lot more punishing; you cannot waste any time at all, and you have to pray that the decks will be kind to you. But I actually think three players is kind of the sweet spot, especially without expansions. In cooperative games like this, a key element to that feel of desperation is that there are always N players but N+1 problems, so you have to make careful choices and strategic sacrifices. And in Arkham, there seems to be an average of about four problems at a time. The game can still get away from you with 4+ players, of course, but you've got more of a sense of being on top of things. Even if you try to attack a problem and fail, at least you were able to try.
Each of the new city expansions seems to add roughly one new problem, so makes things more desperate for larger groups. Especially since travel between cities is non-trivial.
But for reference, the game I talked about above was with three players and both the Dunwich and Innsmouth expansions. Because we're gluttons for punishment. (But without the gate burst tokens, because seriously, **** those things.) Yet another way in which we got lucky was that nothing much happened in Dunwich or Innsmouth all game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I'm really excited by March of the Ants. Modular board! Area control! A eurogame with actual battles! Mix-and-match mutant ant parts! And little things, like the on-the-table score track so you don't just count up your points at the end and say, "Oh, I won", which always feels anticlimactic to me.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I looked at it once but was more excited about Omega Chess at the time.
My favorite tile-laying game is Betrayal at House on the Hill. Deadwood is probably my second favorite.
Bang! (the card game) or Bang! The Dice Game? Most people think of "Bang!" as the card game, but your comparison to King of Tokyo makes me wonder if you are referring to the recent dice game.
In the card game, I feel the odds favor the Sheriff/Deputies while the Renegade has the hardest challenge. I like the dice game, but with only one session so far, I do not feel qualified to make a real assessment of the game balance.
Also, here's hoping for a reprint. A mint copy is currently two thousand dollars on Amazon.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
It seems just so generic though in most of the things it feels like someone took an Age of Empires licensed game and took out all the flavor of the individual countries.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
It does to me.
Tile-laying is a mechanic, not a genre. I'm not sure Deadwood, my second favorite tile-laying game, is really about nation building either.
All the on-line game shops I visit are taking pre-orders for the reprint expected in March/April 2014.
I've always been taken a back with people who say Dominion has poor theme. The mechanics match the theme perfectly: you're building up your empire, investing money to make more money, and creating an economy that will outproduce your rival nations. You don't get theme by just slapping on some pictures of vikings and zombies!
If you like Bang!, you should try Shadow Hunters. I played 2 games of it on Sunday and I'm becoming addicted. I've seen one review describe it as a "Bang!-killer." It's also a game of hidden roles, where the good and evil side deduce each other before fighting to the death. You can't just reveal yourself from the start, though, as it's usually best for Outlaws to do. Also, the neutral roles are much more interesting. They have special victory conditions, which they can do independent of any team, which adds a great X-factor. For example, one neutral just wants to survive...another has to collect certain equipment...and there's a suicidal one which just has to die first!
In my first game last night, I got that suicidal neutral character. I figured out one player was good, and attacked them. Then I figured out one player was evil, and attacked them. Chaos sewn everywhere! And just as I planned, it ended in my death for the win.
Corrupt Control B | Burn R | UG Turbofog UG | White Weenie W | GW Tethmos WG | BG Cycling Combo BG
Enchantress GBW | Colorless Tron C | Red Deck Wins R | UG Madness UG | Mono-G Tron G | UR Puzzlehorns UR
Rhystic Tron WU| WU Prowess WU | BR Reanimator BR | Mono-R Control R | Stompy G | Temur Tron URG
Mardu Infinite Priest WBR | 85-Card Dredge BRG | Elves GU | Boros Bully RW | Jeskai Familiars RWU
Here is my collection so far:
King of Tokyo (Dice-Rolling, Giant Monster [Giant Monster theme is my favorite])
Pandemic (Strategy, Cooperative)
Zombicide (Action, Horror)
Smallworld (Strategy, World Domination) *Added at this thread's recommendation
Bang! The Card Game (Card Game, Action, Hidden Role) &Added at this thread's recommendation
Blokus (Abstract/Puzzle)
Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars (So sue me. Rodan won't even stand up, but this game is a guilty pleasure.)
Munchkin (Entertaining, but it gets old fast)
Fluxx (Same as Munchkin, it gets boring quick)
These are in my friend's collection (so these games are out):
Battlestar Galactica
Shadows Over Camelot
Bang! The Dice Game
Smash Up!
Werewolf
The Resistance
Various Party Games
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Puzzle Strike 3rd Ed (deck builder/medium weight/helps if players have some familiarity with fighting game tropes)
BattleCon (2P Fighting, Coop, Solo/medium/similarly benefits from player familiarity with fighting games, but there is SO GD MUCH good stuff packed into this box!!!)
Princes of Florence (Auction + area management/medium)
Winner's Circle (Race + betting/light medium/mathematically tight game)
One I don't own, but is a good exemplar for the "War Game" slot:
Combat Commander (War Game/Medium/adds an event/complications deck that really adds a lot of depth to the "GMT Games"-style war game; great presentation!)
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Cosmic Encounter, Cosmic Encounter, a thousand times Cosmic Encounter. Its only weakness is that it can't be played with two players. The core rules are brick-simple: you basically just wager ships, make alliances, then play a card. But every player's alien race turns the rules on their head. They're seriously game-shaking; we thought they were broken when we first read the rules, before we realized that that was the point. And there are fifty races in the core game alone - buying all the expansions brings it up to 135 and counting. It's said of many games, but this time it's absolutely true: you will never play the same game twice.
What else? The components are gorgeous. Games usually end with pretty close scores; it's rare for players to get blown out, and there's tension right up to the end. And by the way the rules work, alliances shift so frequently that hard feelings don't develop. Everybody is engaged during everybody else's turn, because, again, alliances. The whole game runs for an hour on the outside once you know what you're doing. It's simply a classic. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
Not useful information.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
If it's got that much of a recommendations from you, I'll give it a shot. Loading up the Dice Tower review now.
I don't really mind it not working for two players, if it's just two of us we'll often play a co-op video game, Magic, or X-Wing.
Haha, I didn't think it would be, but he's got too many for me to name, and I don't like most of them. Cards Against Humanity and Say Anything are the only ones I remember, be he gets a deluge of board games from family every time presents are called for, and they're okay at best party games.
A game I forgot to mention is Furt. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did, but Furt combines some of the best aspects of party games out there, and it changes it up frequently:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102859/furt
Good for very casual board game people and for parties (and drinking). It's pretty much impossible to keep a straight face for the straight face challenge by the end of the game.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
I would personally recommend Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Love Letter. Ticket to Ride is famous as THE gateway board game - I have yet to play this game with someone not into board games and not have them really enjoy it. It's kind of weird frankly. I'm not hugely into it myself but it's pretty good and it definitely fits the idea of "simple to play but deep". Carcassone is also fairly well-known for this, it's not as deep but it's not boringly simple either, and the expansions are generally very good so it's easy to keep interesting.
Love Letter is not very well-known but if you ask me it's a fantastic game, in my top 3 right now for sure. Especially with 3 people the mechanics are very balanced and there's exactly the level of "sometimes ***** happens" that I like, because WHEN someone ****s you over they generally have to take some chance to do so or make some good inference. Even when you just get screwed by blind chance, the matches are short and by the rules the "winner" is determined by racking up a number of matches before others, so it's easy to let go of a single unfortunate match. In fact, a bit of the risk in the game stems from holding onto cards that are more likely to get blindly guessed - because they are more common, because they're cards people tend to hold onto, etc.
As for accessibility + depth, it's perfect in this way I think. It's accessible because every card does 1 thing and has 1 value at the end of the game, but there are multiple actual ways to use them, there are combos, there are things to keep in mind about your opponents, etc - inference and planning are the entire game in the end. You also only ever have two cards in hand, which makes decisionmaking easy on a shallow level, but opens up plenty of opportunity for risk (I'm worried about keeping this card another turn because X could've learned last turn that I had it, I can potentially eliminate someone here but it may reveal that my other card is a high card, etc). On a larger scale, the game includes only 16 cards (of about 8 unique types), a couple small cards to remind everyone what all the playable cards do, and a pouch of small score-keeping cubes. That's it. It also helps that the theme is simple and recognizable but charmingly done. It's kind of comparable to the resistance really.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of games based off of/spinoffs of the resistance/werewolf/mafia that I know are good or have heard are good. Lifeboat is supposedly good if you want to bring out everyone's inner backstabber, and I've played and like both Coup and The Resistance: Avalon.
Ticket to Ride is good too, I haven't played Carcassone enough to have an opinion, and I don't get all the hype about Love Letter.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I'd say give Red Dragon Inn a try. It's not all that complex- play a card, hand out a drink, then take a drink yourself. try not to pass out or lose all your gold. When I played it with a bunch of people at a convention last weekend, I had a blast playing it. at one point, I was close to passing out and another player tried to increase the limit of my drink, and we went back and forth trying to negate the cards. I still lost, still had a blast.
the first couple of expansions have fairly basic characters, the third expansion introduces characters that have an extra ability- like an alchemist that sells his potions, or an artificer whose inventions may backfire.
There's also Pandemic: In the Lab, adding an extra challenge to the original game.
King of Misfortune & Master of Rocket Launchers
"Do ya feel lucky? Because you'd better start runnin' while you still can."
375 Misfortune {+3 signed AP's} & 104 Rocket Launcher (41 AQ/ 63 Rev)
Edgar Rice Burroughs, forgotten legend of the word.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Get Red Dragon Inn, especially #1 and #2 (#3 and beyond get kind of power-creepy). With both, you can play with up to 8 people. It's, in my opinion, a fixed version of Munchkin.
Like Munchkin, it is:
-D&D-parody based
-Funny
-Great for larger groups of players
Unlike Munchkin, it is:
-Relatively simple, even later in the game (very minimum of board complexity)
-Interactive through the entire game, unlike Munchkin where you often just tank interactions until the last possible moment and then pile on at once
-Alcohol-related, so incredibly easy to adapt to being a drinking game
-Fun even after repeated plays
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
A game I'm particularly interested in getting my hands on (if it actually releases) is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmxgames/copper-country-the-board-game-life-work-profit-dea Mostly because of the theme, and the fact that it's based on the area where I went to undergrad, but the game play looks pretty solid too.
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Each of the new city expansions seems to add roughly one new problem, so makes things more desperate for larger groups. Especially since travel between cities is non-trivial.
But for reference, the game I talked about above was with three players and both the Dunwich and Innsmouth expansions. Because we're gluttons for punishment. (But without the gate burst tokens, because seriously, **** those things.) Yet another way in which we got lucky was that nothing much happened in Dunwich or Innsmouth all game.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.