Well, essentially, i've done a search and noticed that when it comes to board games... there's basically nothing on MTGS about them at all. And considering that they are a resurging media, and that i know a fair bit of magic players who transferred to Boardgames, or who play both, i was quite surprised at the lack of discussion.
Im fully aware that there is boardgamegeeks for boardgame discussion, but, i like the MTGS community and would rather talk about it here
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As an aside, i've recently tried / purchased "Chaos in the Old World", a great and fairly unique game. For those who don't know what it is, its a pretty new game (my FLGS only just got it in friday) wherein you helm one of the Warhammer 'Gods of Chaos', and use them, their spells, and their followers to corrupt and destroy civilization, while preventing your allies from doing the same.
If you destroy your competitors too much, the game can stall out long enough that the board itself, (The nations represented by the board) wins, and all players lose. It's a great game, (Generally believed to be one of the best games of the year, and one of the best 4 players games PERIOD by those who have played it), and after 4 games of it, i can say it was a very worthwhile purchase.
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To the rest of the people who are reading this thread, what games are you playing now? (new or old you're just getting around to), what games do you recommend? (I havent been playing long, and advice would be great)
And what are your favourites?
(P.S. Any Boardgamers in the vancouver region, send me a PM If you could :))
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[19:59] greymon90210: Hey StormBlind how tall are you? "I'm six money *****, don't forget it"
"The Critics always said that we'd only have a black president when pigs flu"...
I've actually discovered a lot of new board games this year. Some of my favorites are Agricola, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico. If you're looking for more board game discussion in general, you might want to check out Board Game Geek.
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GOD DAMN FIGHT THE MAN, MAN!!! GRRRRRRR REBEL MAN YEAH!!! GET OUT YOUR TIE-DYE T-SHIRTS AND SOME ATOGS WITH PEACE SIGNS MAN! YEAH! LETS GROW OUR HAIR OUT LONG AND COLOR ON OUR MAGIC CARDS WITH SILVER SHARPIES TO REBEL! YEEEEAH!
I've actually discovered a lot of new board games this year. Some of my favorites are Agricola, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico. If you're looking for more board game discussion in general, you might want to check out Board Game Geek.
Puerto Rico is a fine, fine game. Around the time my friends & I discovered it, we also discovered The Settlers of Catan. The expansions are so-so, in my opinion, but the original game is excellent.
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(about the English language) It's kinda like a raft that was cobbled together from parts of three different boats and since then has been kept barely afloat with crude repairs every time a leak appeared.
Carcassonne is plenty of fun for 2+ players, and you should be able to find a really good deal in the form of a big "expansion box" wherein you get the base game and like 6 expansions of varrying size for around 1/2-3/4 the price of buying them seperately.
For old school adventure boardgaming, I'm a big fan of Hero Quest, but rarely have the 4 other players to play it. Supposedly the new DOOM and Decent games are spiritual successors to Hero Quest, but I haven't personally played either.
I'm a big fan of settlers. It can be frustrating with how luck based it is, but its still fun.
I also have played power grid and its fun too. I don't really like cascarrone and entdecker, but ticket to ride is fun.
Starship Command is a cool non collectable card game where you just blow eachother's ships to smithereens. If you're trying to get people interested in gaming, I recommend printing out a set of cards and showing them it.
Does anyone have a suggestion of a good one hour or so board game, preferably one that is super complicated (say, no more than power grid)? I'm looking to get a new game to take to college.
Couple of my favorite games are some already mentioned carcassone, settlers, puerto rico. Power grid is fun as well.
A couple other good games I've played recently are Smallworld, Empire Builder, and Conquest of Pangea. Empire builder takes a long time (like 4 hours) to play, but smallworld and conquest are pretty short games
Settlers of Cataan is a must have for any collection. It's one of the few boardgames I own that I can get the general public (i.e. my parents and uncles/aunts) to play. Their generation tends to prefer more abstract games, like Joke-R-ummy, various card games, or Ameritrash like Monopoly.
My brothers and our significant others are more inclined to gaming, but used to be very skeptical of any boardgame I brought (playing Magic, Dreamblade, WoW minis semi-professionally tends to leave you a reputation as playing obscure games that normal people can't like, and being overly competitive, for some reason ;)) but they've loved every one of them so now they'll just try them out out of faith that I wouldn't bring them something that sucks or sucks all the fun out of their life. Sadly, this is why I can't get a classic like Die Macher... they wouldn't go for it and it would sit unused, 50+$ paperweights aren't a good investment in my book.
I've got them to play:
Mall of Horror (imo the best zombie game out there, much much better than Zombies!)
The Queen's Necklace (great auction mechanic game, getting them to try it in spite of the 'fruity' theme and pinkish box was the hardest part... the fact I'm bi and out didn't help, it sort of made them not trust me that they wouldn't catch teh gey from it)
Vegas Showdown (strangely, I was worried about this one because my brothers don't usually like sims/god type computer games and this is a boardgame equivalent... build a casino and have it be better than your opponents')
Bang! (this got a lot of good reviews since it's beer & pretzel type game that you can get into even when you're not in the mood for heavy thinking)
Smallworld (it's their, and mine, current favorite). I got them at "Flying Giants attack your Diplomat Skeletons". Bonus: I see they just announced upcoming expansions this week!
Back in college we played a lot of Steve Jackson's games (Chez Geek, Munchkin, Illuminati) which are geeky as hell and weren't well received, hence my bad reputation now that I had to work through. Only Chez Geek was liked, and I think it's because it reminded them of their real life.
I like Puerto Rico but I think it's too heavy for them. Die Machter is one I'd like to try but no way I could find a group or good time to play this.
I've been lucky enough to find a couple of great boardgaming groups in Columbus, so I've been exposed to a lot of new boardgames/non-CCG card games the last few months. Here are some of the highlights:
-Battlestar Galactica: One of the best adaptations of a TV show/movie into a board game ever. If you like forum Mafia, this is definitely a game you're going to want to check out... paranoia and deducing the identity of the hidden Cylons before they reveal themselves is a huge part of the game.
-Power Grid: Great economy game in which you have to budget expanding your power network, upgrading power plants, and buying raw fuel for them.
-Dominion: Non-CCG card game in which players start with a 10 card deck and use those cards to "buy" new cards from a communal pool. It's a bit like Rochester drafting, except the drafting is the game.
-Agricola: Resource-management game in which each player controls farming families. Just got to play this for the first time this weekend and I'm definitely looking forward to the second round.
-Guillotine: This game was originally printed by WotC back in 1997 and has since been reprinted. It's a simple card game where players are rival guillotine operators in the French Revolution beheading nobles for points. Takes about 5 minutes to teach to new players. When we have new people show up for the group it's usually the first game we teach them.
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acquire is generally good fun.
ZOMBIES!!!!! don't know if it quite qualifies, but it is extremely fun.
The most noob-friendly board game i have ever seen is ticket to ride.
i agree on guillotine, settlers and carcassone
If you have hardcore gamers then arkham horror is fun too
OR! mystery of the abby (it's my favorite) clue on steroids.
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Thanks to mchief111 @ rising studios for the avatar/sig
Me my favorite board game is Heroscape. I got alot the figures and even got the Marvel version of the game. I just wish could find other people to play because this game is awesome. Another fun one is Star Wars Duel game. I like all the figures and had some fun games playing as my favorite character Obi-Wan Kenobi.
As for others I like the classics like Monopoly and Clue.
just curious: has anyone else here had the chance to try out the new remake of Space Hulk from GW? If so, what are your thoughts?
My take: WOW. The minis are spectacularly well molded, the board is solid and very well-made, and the rules are organic, easy to learn, and conceal a surprising amount of strategic depth. I'd say the gameplay is fairly well-balanced, though it feels a little tilted against the Marines, but then to have that survival-horror feel it needs to be.
Pandemic is my all-time favorite and it is amazing. It is such a nerdy and smart game.
Small World and Pirate's Cove are both really fun to play with more casual gamers.
Dominion - build your deck as you go and try to balance buying cards that make the deck more efficient with cards that give you victory points. It's extremely fun, but also relatively fast, so you can play several games at a time. I recommend the expansion set also.
Agricola - Farming themed game where you have to do a little bit of everything to earn points (build a better house, expand your family, plow fields, plant crops, raise and slaughter animals - all while keeping your family fed). There's a lot of tension and it feels like there's just never enough time to do everything you need/want to do, plus your opponents can block you from taking the actions you need the most, etc. I love this, but certain people in my group complain that it makes their head hurt too much and I'm not sure when I'm going to get to play it again.
Puerto Rico - Here you have to produce goods which you trade for money or ship for victory points. The money can be used to buy buildings which give various advantages as well as more victory points. This game had an innovative role selection mechanic that was coppied by many games afterwards.
Power Grid - This game is strange, but I like it. You have to bid on Power Plants which come up for auction each round, then you have to buy the materials to "power" them, and then you can expand your Power Grid Network across the map. You earn money based on how many cities you can "power" each round, and this is limited in terms of how much it costs to build into each city and how many people can have plants in the same city. If you do it right, you earn more money than you spent, and then have more money to buy new plants, resources, and expand the next round. If you do it wrong, you are pretty screwed.
I also like Carcassonne quite a bit, but we don't seem to play it that much anymore. Same is true of Settlers of Catan.
Games I would like to try include Small World and Battlestar Galactica.
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Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
OK now this is a topic totally up my alley as I just love boardgames (and play them much more than I play Magic these days). Now in regards to the games themselves I will refrain from adding more needless praise on games like Settlers, Carcassone, and Puerto Rico as they are very well great games but I will mention a few that people often overlook.
1)Titan- Originally published by Avalon Hill (pre WOTC takeover) and now relicensed and published by Valley Games out of Calgary. This in my opnion is simply the finest game ever devised and have wasted literally hundreds if not thousands of hours on this game. The game is for 2-6 players with each player starting with 2 legions of monsters 1 of which contains their "Titan" which is akin to a King in chess as once your Titan is dead you are out of the game. You move around the main board between spaces like Plains, Marsh, Swamp, Jungle, Tundra, etc. and in each of the dfferent spaces different monsters are "native" and these creatures can summon more creatures to your legions allowing them to grow. When you land on another player's legion that player then decideds to fight or flee and if they fight smaller blowup boards of the indivual spaces are used to fight the battle. There is much more to this game but this gives you a basic overview.
2)Buck Rogers Battle for the 25th Century-Published by the old TSR games back in the early 80's and out of print ever since this is a truely wonderful space based wargame that takes place entirely in our own solar system. The way the planets orbit at different speeds amke movement planing and options very interesting in this game and playing with the special commanders (the Major Buck Rogers Characters) adds some very interesting if slightly unballanced variable factors to the game. To find this game now adays you either have to get very lucky, for search ebay until one shows up and get into a crazy bidding war but if you can find this one dont let it pass you by.
3)Talisman 2nd Edt.- When asked to describe this game I usually say that it is like Monopoly for Fanatasy Gamers, which is to say that it is a simple easy game with little real skill involved but it is still a damn fun way to waste a few hours. Now although the 2nd Edition is by far the best IMO the 4th Edition which is presently in print is not that different and looks very nice and wont set you back nearly as much as a vintage 2nd Edition copy.
4)Junta-The game of governance in a Banana Repbulic. This game takes a bit to get throught the first time but is just a crazy fun game with all the players screwing one another until 1 player can syphon off enough money to their swiss bank account to win.
5)Civilization-The original NOT the Sid Meyer version and if you are lucky enough to be able to find it the Advanced Civilization expansion. Simply this is a game where each player takes on the role of one of the great ancient civilizations in the region around Mesopotamia and the winner is the first player to be able to advance from the stone age through the iron age and finally into the bronze age, all teh wile having to survive natural disasters and horrible calamities. This one as far as I know is no longer available in English although it is apparently still being published in french by the company Descartes.
6)Acquire- By legendary game designer Sid Saxon this is a wonderfully fun, fast paced, and quick little stock market based game where players start and merge corperations until there is no more space on the board to expand definately at least a 7/10 in my book which makes it an anomoly among stock based games for me.
7)Robo Rally- Actually the first game Richard garfield ever published and IMO still the best. A totally kick ass game where each of the players is uses a series of basic order cards to attempt to get their robot through an obsticle course the first while all the time needing to avoid pitfalls, conveyor belts and the other players robots as well. This game is a very quick game and can be played with quite a large number of players, it is also presently in print from Avalon Hill (WOTC) and is well worth every penny.
Well those are a few of my faves hope this gives someone something new to discover that they enjoy.
I've actually discovered a lot of new board games this year. Some of my favorites are Agricola, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico. If you're looking for more board game discussion in general, you might want to check out Board Game Geek.
@DLPJRinPA: Agricola is great yes, and i go to BGG fairly often, but it's... simply too large, and yeah.. I like MTGS :p.
@Qtiplord: I've been wanting to try settlers of Catan, but thusfar, only got to try the settlers cardgame. Unfortunately, the card game caused the groups i play with to run away from settlers :p.
@Taipan: Regardless of complexity, i will recommend Dominion / Dominion Intrigue. If you can only get 1, i suggest intrigue as its better balanced, but both together are awesome.
@Binary: Ive been really wanting to try the battlestar galactica game set, but I've yet to find someone who has the game to try. Same with Age of Empires III, which ive heard is amazingly good as well.
Dominion is probably one of the best games ive played thus far. Especially with 4+ player groups.
And Agricola Is great.
@Kaseryn: Ive heard that the new spacehulk was pretty amazing really. great figures, simple to understand rules, ect. Havent had a chance to play it yet tho.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. If you don't mind somewhat not simplistic rules, i suggest Through the Ages. Unfortunately, its somewhat complex, its got quite a few screw ups in distribution (I personally was missing a whole set of required cards and had to wait for them to get shipped to me.) but the game itself is... amazing really. You lead a faction through 4 distinct ages, and it is essentially civilization the card game.
Happiness, researching, population growth, Wonders, Special People, things like that. It very closely encapulates the feeling of Civilization. Especially the later versions.
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[19:59] greymon90210: Hey StormBlind how tall are you? "I'm six money *****, don't forget it"
"The Critics always said that we'd only have a black president when pigs flu"...
Ooooo boardgames! I love them, although I don't have the greats like Argicola, Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Carc, Settlers.... yadda yadda... I do have these: (also includes CCGs, card games, and minis)
Unplayed:
Wordrop
DaVinci's Mancala
Chatturanga
Battleball
DiscWars
Lord of the Rings: TCG
Scrabble
Tri-Ominos
Magic, Blockuses, RoboRally are my favs, though I'll play them all from time to time. 90% of these I have scavenged from thrift stores (Battleball for $2!) or from Barnes and Nobles annual 25-50-75%-$1 board games sale!
just curious: has anyone else here had the chance to try out the new remake of Space Hulk from GW? If so, what are your thoughts?
A friend of mine picked it up and we spent half a day with it. I thought it was a lot of fun, but I really dislike the two player limitation and have a lesser dislike of the anti-Marine bias. That and other small issues like wanting a lot of playing surface and minis that don't interact well when in adjacent squares keep me from going head over heels for it. Still, I definitely enjoy the game, and it's beautiful considering the limitations.
Current favorites are Blokus, Stratego and Robo Rally, but I haven't played the important classics like Catan or Puerto Rico. They're on my to-do list, though, so I should get around to them in... five years or so.
@Binary: Ive been really wanting to try the battlestar galactica game set, but I've yet to find someone who has the game to try. Same with Age of Empires III, which ive heard is amazingly good as well.
BSG is highly dependent on the group you're playing with... if they're not getting into the "metagame" aspect of finding the Cylons, or aren't capable of seeing the "big picture" in terms of long-term goals, your experience is not going to be nearly as enjoyable as it could be. Get the right group and it's an amazing game though.
Dominion is probably one of the best games ive played thus far. Especially with 4+ player groups.
The game gets a bit weird with more than 5 I've found, but 4 players seems perfect.
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Im fully aware that there is boardgamegeeks for boardgame discussion, but, i like the MTGS community and would rather talk about it here
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As an aside, i've recently tried / purchased "Chaos in the Old World", a great and fairly unique game. For those who don't know what it is, its a pretty new game (my FLGS only just got it in friday) wherein you helm one of the Warhammer 'Gods of Chaos', and use them, their spells, and their followers to corrupt and destroy civilization, while preventing your allies from doing the same.
If you destroy your competitors too much, the game can stall out long enough that the board itself, (The nations represented by the board) wins, and all players lose. It's a great game, (Generally believed to be one of the best games of the year, and one of the best 4 players games PERIOD by those who have played it), and after 4 games of it, i can say it was a very worthwhile purchase.
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To the rest of the people who are reading this thread, what games are you playing now? (new or old you're just getting around to), what games do you recommend? (I havent been playing long, and advice would be great)
And what are your favourites?
(P.S. Any Boardgamers in the vancouver region, send me a PM If you could :))
Puerto Rico is a fine, fine game. Around the time my friends & I discovered it, we also discovered The Settlers of Catan. The expansions are so-so, in my opinion, but the original game is excellent.
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For old school adventure boardgaming, I'm a big fan of Hero Quest, but rarely have the 4 other players to play it. Supposedly the new DOOM and Decent games are spiritual successors to Hero Quest, but I haven't personally played either.
WCommander EeshaBDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefBGGlissa, the TraitorBWVish Kal, Blood ArbiterRUNin, the Pain Artist
UGEdric, Spymaster of TrestWRBasandra, Battle SeraphBGWDoran, the Siege TowerBGWGhave, Guru of Spores
RGWUril, the MiststalkerGUBThe MimeoplasmUWGRafiq of the ManyWUBRGSliver Overlord
I also have played power grid and its fun too. I don't really like cascarrone and entdecker, but ticket to ride is fun.
Starship Command is a cool non collectable card game where you just blow eachother's ships to smithereens. If you're trying to get people interested in gaming, I recommend printing out a set of cards and showing them it.
Does anyone have a suggestion of a good one hour or so board game, preferably one that is super complicated (say, no more than power grid)? I'm looking to get a new game to take to college.
Herbal_Poultice_Deck_Wins
Rules Advisor
A couple other good games I've played recently are Smallworld, Empire Builder, and Conquest of Pangea. Empire builder takes a long time (like 4 hours) to play, but smallworld and conquest are pretty short games
My brothers and our significant others are more inclined to gaming, but used to be very skeptical of any boardgame I brought (playing Magic, Dreamblade, WoW minis semi-professionally tends to leave you a reputation as playing obscure games that normal people can't like, and being overly competitive, for some reason ;)) but they've loved every one of them so now they'll just try them out out of faith that I wouldn't bring them something that sucks or sucks all the fun out of their life. Sadly, this is why I can't get a classic like Die Macher... they wouldn't go for it and it would sit unused, 50+$ paperweights aren't a good investment in my book.
I've got them to play:
Mall of Horror (imo the best zombie game out there, much much better than Zombies!)
The Queen's Necklace (great auction mechanic game, getting them to try it in spite of the 'fruity' theme and pinkish box was the hardest part... the fact I'm bi and out didn't help, it sort of made them not trust me that they wouldn't catch teh gey from it)
Vegas Showdown (strangely, I was worried about this one because my brothers don't usually like sims/god type computer games and this is a boardgame equivalent... build a casino and have it be better than your opponents')
Bang! (this got a lot of good reviews since it's beer & pretzel type game that you can get into even when you're not in the mood for heavy thinking)
Smallworld (it's their, and mine, current favorite). I got them at "Flying Giants attack your Diplomat Skeletons". Bonus: I see they just announced upcoming expansions this week!
Back in college we played a lot of Steve Jackson's games (Chez Geek, Munchkin, Illuminati) which are geeky as hell and weren't well received, hence my bad reputation now that I had to work through. Only Chez Geek was liked, and I think it's because it reminded them of their real life.
I like Puerto Rico but I think it's too heavy for them. Die Machter is one I'd like to try but no way I could find a group or good time to play this.
Netdecking is Rightdecking
My latest data-driven Magic the Gathering strategy article
(TLDR: Analysis of the Valakut matchups. UB rising in the rankings. Aggro correspondingly taking a dive.)
-Battlestar Galactica: One of the best adaptations of a TV show/movie into a board game ever. If you like forum Mafia, this is definitely a game you're going to want to check out... paranoia and deducing the identity of the hidden Cylons before they reveal themselves is a huge part of the game.
-Power Grid: Great economy game in which you have to budget expanding your power network, upgrading power plants, and buying raw fuel for them.
-Dominion: Non-CCG card game in which players start with a 10 card deck and use those cards to "buy" new cards from a communal pool. It's a bit like Rochester drafting, except the drafting is the game.
-Agricola: Resource-management game in which each player controls farming families. Just got to play this for the first time this weekend and I'm definitely looking forward to the second round.
-Guillotine: This game was originally printed by WotC back in 1997 and has since been reprinted. It's a simple card game where players are rival guillotine operators in the French Revolution beheading nobles for points. Takes about 5 minutes to teach to new players. When we have new people show up for the group it's usually the first game we teach them.
ZOMBIES!!!!! don't know if it quite qualifies, but it is extremely fun.
The most noob-friendly board game i have ever seen is ticket to ride.
i agree on guillotine, settlers and carcassone
If you have hardcore gamers then arkham horror is fun too
OR! mystery of the abby (it's my favorite) clue on steroids.
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Trade with me: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=6993873#post6993873
new and updated list!
As for others I like the classics like Monopoly and Clue.
Pinkie is the Best!
Trade list: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=361168
My take: WOW. The minis are spectacularly well molded, the board is solid and very well-made, and the rules are organic, easy to learn, and conceal a surprising amount of strategic depth. I'd say the gameplay is fairly well-balanced, though it feels a little tilted against the Marines, but then to have that survival-horror feel it needs to be.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who is up in Heaven now. EDH WUBRG Child of Alara WUBRG BGW Karador, Ghost Chieftain BGW RGW Mayael the Anima RGW WUB Sharuum the Hegemon WUB RWU Zedruu the Greathearted RWU
WB Ghost Council of Orzhova WB RG Ulasht, the Hate Seed RG B Korlash, Heir to Blackblade B G Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G *click the general's name to see my list!*
Small World and Pirate's Cove are both really fun to play with more casual gamers.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Dominion - build your deck as you go and try to balance buying cards that make the deck more efficient with cards that give you victory points. It's extremely fun, but also relatively fast, so you can play several games at a time. I recommend the expansion set also.
Agricola - Farming themed game where you have to do a little bit of everything to earn points (build a better house, expand your family, plow fields, plant crops, raise and slaughter animals - all while keeping your family fed). There's a lot of tension and it feels like there's just never enough time to do everything you need/want to do, plus your opponents can block you from taking the actions you need the most, etc. I love this, but certain people in my group complain that it makes their head hurt too much and I'm not sure when I'm going to get to play it again.
Puerto Rico - Here you have to produce goods which you trade for money or ship for victory points. The money can be used to buy buildings which give various advantages as well as more victory points. This game had an innovative role selection mechanic that was coppied by many games afterwards.
Power Grid - This game is strange, but I like it. You have to bid on Power Plants which come up for auction each round, then you have to buy the materials to "power" them, and then you can expand your Power Grid Network across the map. You earn money based on how many cities you can "power" each round, and this is limited in terms of how much it costs to build into each city and how many people can have plants in the same city. If you do it right, you earn more money than you spent, and then have more money to buy new plants, resources, and expand the next round. If you do it wrong, you are pretty screwed.
I also like Carcassonne quite a bit, but we don't seem to play it that much anymore. Same is true of Settlers of Catan.
Games I would like to try include Small World and Battlestar Galactica.
1)Titan- Originally published by Avalon Hill (pre WOTC takeover) and now relicensed and published by Valley Games out of Calgary. This in my opnion is simply the finest game ever devised and have wasted literally hundreds if not thousands of hours on this game. The game is for 2-6 players with each player starting with 2 legions of monsters 1 of which contains their "Titan" which is akin to a King in chess as once your Titan is dead you are out of the game. You move around the main board between spaces like Plains, Marsh, Swamp, Jungle, Tundra, etc. and in each of the dfferent spaces different monsters are "native" and these creatures can summon more creatures to your legions allowing them to grow. When you land on another player's legion that player then decideds to fight or flee and if they fight smaller blowup boards of the indivual spaces are used to fight the battle. There is much more to this game but this gives you a basic overview.
2)Buck Rogers Battle for the 25th Century-Published by the old TSR games back in the early 80's and out of print ever since this is a truely wonderful space based wargame that takes place entirely in our own solar system. The way the planets orbit at different speeds amke movement planing and options very interesting in this game and playing with the special commanders (the Major Buck Rogers Characters) adds some very interesting if slightly unballanced variable factors to the game. To find this game now adays you either have to get very lucky, for search ebay until one shows up and get into a crazy bidding war but if you can find this one dont let it pass you by.
3)Talisman 2nd Edt.- When asked to describe this game I usually say that it is like Monopoly for Fanatasy Gamers, which is to say that it is a simple easy game with little real skill involved but it is still a damn fun way to waste a few hours. Now although the 2nd Edition is by far the best IMO the 4th Edition which is presently in print is not that different and looks very nice and wont set you back nearly as much as a vintage 2nd Edition copy.
4)Junta-The game of governance in a Banana Repbulic. This game takes a bit to get throught the first time but is just a crazy fun game with all the players screwing one another until 1 player can syphon off enough money to their swiss bank account to win.
5)Civilization-The original NOT the Sid Meyer version and if you are lucky enough to be able to find it the Advanced Civilization expansion. Simply this is a game where each player takes on the role of one of the great ancient civilizations in the region around Mesopotamia and the winner is the first player to be able to advance from the stone age through the iron age and finally into the bronze age, all teh wile having to survive natural disasters and horrible calamities. This one as far as I know is no longer available in English although it is apparently still being published in french by the company Descartes.
6)Acquire- By legendary game designer Sid Saxon this is a wonderfully fun, fast paced, and quick little stock market based game where players start and merge corperations until there is no more space on the board to expand definately at least a 7/10 in my book which makes it an anomoly among stock based games for me.
7)Robo Rally- Actually the first game Richard garfield ever published and IMO still the best. A totally kick ass game where each of the players is uses a series of basic order cards to attempt to get their robot through an obsticle course the first while all the time needing to avoid pitfalls, conveyor belts and the other players robots as well. This game is a very quick game and can be played with quite a large number of players, it is also presently in print from Avalon Hill (WOTC) and is well worth every penny.
Well those are a few of my faves hope this gives someone something new to discover that they enjoy.
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@DLPJRinPA: Agricola is great yes, and i go to BGG fairly often, but it's... simply too large, and yeah.. I like MTGS :p.
@Qtiplord: I've been wanting to try settlers of Catan, but thusfar, only got to try the settlers cardgame. Unfortunately, the card game caused the groups i play with to run away from settlers :p.
@Taipan: Regardless of complexity, i will recommend Dominion / Dominion Intrigue. If you can only get 1, i suggest intrigue as its better balanced, but both together are awesome.
@Binary: Ive been really wanting to try the battlestar galactica game set, but I've yet to find someone who has the game to try. Same with Age of Empires III, which ive heard is amazingly good as well.
Dominion is probably one of the best games ive played thus far. Especially with 4+ player groups.
And Agricola Is great.
@Kaseryn: Ive heard that the new spacehulk was pretty amazing really. great figures, simple to understand rules, ect. Havent had a chance to play it yet tho.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. If you don't mind somewhat not simplistic rules, i suggest Through the Ages. Unfortunately, its somewhat complex, its got quite a few screw ups in distribution (I personally was missing a whole set of required cards and had to wait for them to get shipped to me.) but the game itself is... amazing really. You lead a faction through 4 distinct ages, and it is essentially civilization the card game.
Happiness, researching, population growth, Wonders, Special People, things like that. It very closely encapulates the feeling of Civilization. Especially the later versions.
Played:
Boogle
Twixt
Tsuro
Dead Man's Treasure
Knights of Charlemagne
DaVinci's Challenge
Dudo (Liar's Dice)
Blockus
Blockus 3-D
Stratego
Robo Rally
Hecatomb
Heroclix
Star Wars: TCG
Jenga
Rummikub
Magic:TG!
Yatzee
Clue
Overpower
Unplayed:
Wordrop
DaVinci's Mancala
Chatturanga
Battleball
DiscWars
Lord of the Rings: TCG
Scrabble
Tri-Ominos
Magic, Blockuses, RoboRally are my favs, though I'll play them all from time to time. 90% of these I have scavenged from thrift stores (Battleball for $2!) or from Barnes and Nobles annual 25-50-75%-$1 board games sale!
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TheWarden's Creative Commons Music Pick Project (Retired):
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Current favorites are Blokus, Stratego and Robo Rally, but I haven't played the important classics like Catan or Puerto Rico. They're on my to-do list, though, so I should get around to them in... five years or so.
BSG is highly dependent on the group you're playing with... if they're not getting into the "metagame" aspect of finding the Cylons, or aren't capable of seeing the "big picture" in terms of long-term goals, your experience is not going to be nearly as enjoyable as it could be. Get the right group and it's an amazing game though.
The game gets a bit weird with more than 5 I've found, but 4 players seems perfect.