What are your favorite board games? Me and my friends love playing board games, but I get the feeling their tired of playing the same things. What do you guys usually play? My favorite board game of all time is HeroQuest. I never get tired of playing it. Also love Catan, Arkham Horror, Betrayal House on the Hill, Spyfall (great at parties)
Hive is a modern, fun take on chess with a dynamic board. Its super fun and unlike chess its not figured out and people just don’t bother to throw a “book” at it. Every board game convention I try to find someone wirh Hive and it’d awesome!
My partner and I love playing Wingspan. A game about bird may not sound great but it’s full of strategy without being too hard to pick up. It’s competitive, but just total points at the end, you can’t screw each other up during play.
I came here to say Wingspan. I have gotten my friends and family to play it, and everyone likes it.
My second favorite game might be Scythe, another one of their games. They just make good stuff.
Ooh, we picked up the digital version of Scythe because it was a few dollars during a Steam sale, we’ve only played one game so far, but it almost immediately jumped onto our list of games we’re planning on buying.
Nice! It’s super good in real life. It feels like there’s so many things at the start since there are so many ways to win. But I really think the game is pretty smooth after a couple of turns. Every time I play it I have a good time — even if I lose.
I ended up buying the expansion that tells a story as you go. But unfortunately my friends and I haven’t had a good time to really play through it.
There is a board game I played years ago at a comic shop, and I can never remember the name of it. I only played it once but it was super fun. Kind of like if Freelancer were a board game. You had a huge game board with a bunch of planets and you picked up missions. I dont remember what the win conditions were, but I remember I had a lot of fun with it.
I vaguely remember totalbiscuit and the gang play some games that would fit the description. Maybe worth a shot digging through his old stuff
Yeah, I’ll have to go and check some of those out, thanks for the suggestion!
That could have been:
• Xia, legends of a drift system
• Star Wars, outer rim
• Firefly
• Merchant of VenusThose are probably the most well-known games along that line 💁🏻♀️
Maybe it’s Xia or Merchant of Venus, those are activating something in my brain…
You had me at “Freelancer the board game”. I love that game, and what you’re describing sounds fun as hell
It was years ago, so my memory may be a bit foggy on it lol. I looked up the names someone else suggested and it was Xia: Legends of a Drift System. I remember it was a lot of fun, even if I was totally out of my depth the first time playing it
We have a wider circle of friends who are boardgame enthusiasts, so we go through a rather lot of them. Some stick, some don’t. These we play regularly and have a lot of fun:
There are more that made an impression on me, I remember playing them a few times, but do not want to play them again (Do you know that feeling? :D ), eg. Eclipse (the galaxy-wide battle 4X preparation-takes-as-long-as-playing-and-playing-takes-a-whole-day strategy), Agricola, Mice and Mystics…
Brass Birmingham is a masterpiece. I absolutely love that game. It’s and absolutely heartbreak that my SO dislikes it.
Have you tried Lost Ruins of Arnak? It’s great!
It might be Marrakech now that I think about it. It’s not too time taking and friendly to casual players yet not completely luck based. Also placing the rugs just feel so good. Are there other board games that comes with neat little items like Marrakech?
My city is an astoundingly good game. My wife and I are playing it basically every weekend at the moment. Super easy to learn, tactically rich, the art is lovely and you make your own city story to some extent. It’s just wonderful.
I like the ones that platform socialisation and banter - things like hidden role games, party games, etc. Less focus on the game’s strategy and more on the people you’re playing with.
Codenames (and Codenames Duel) is slower-paced but an engaging word-based game.
Just One is a simple word game that even drunk people can play (and likely have more fun in).
Detective Club is a bluffing hidden role game, where all of you are using weird art cards to match a prompt, but one of you didn’t have the prompt and is spinning bullshit - guess who!
Concept is Pictionary for people who can’t draw.
And my all time favourite*:
Telestrations, a blend of ‘the telephone game’ and illustrations. If you’re familiar with Gartic Phone, you already understand the gist. Every event that I’ve brought it out, it has been a good time.
The Red Dragon Inn is fun, especially when you drink real alcohol when you “drink” in game
For a newer board game I like Ticket To Ride, especially the Rails and Sails edition but I’m most partial to the old Avalon Hill games like Titan and Merchant of Venus.
Not sure if this counts as boardgame, but I’ve been enjoying Farkle a lot (a dice game) thanks to Kingdom Come Deliverance xD
I never really like this kind of stuff but Farkle is quite simple and fun!
I have very little experience with board games so I’m using this thread for ideas to try out. But I did play Betrayal and liked it so I’ll say that one is my favorite.
Carcassonne and Rummikub.
I’ve been absolutely loving a couple of the Button Shy games at the moment! They’re really nice because I can just slip them into my work bag and play them at lunch. In particular, I’ve been playing a fair bit of Sprawlopolis and Food Chain Island, both of which are really great solo games.
With other people, I’ve been playing a whole lot of Spirit Island, which is probably one of my all-time favorites. The amount of diversity in how each of the spirits play is mind-boggling and makes every game feel very different. My regular play-group is also getting pretty excited for the new expansion that’s coming out in the next couple of months.
Gloomhaven came out at the perfect time in my life- after my party days but before my marriage/kid days. I had a friend group that would play at least one scenario per week, and sometimes we’d just spend an entire Sunday playing. That’s been my best experience so far.
I wish I could play Frosthaven with them but we’ve all moved away and I don’t have a group that would ever be consistent enough right now.
I really love Spirit Island because i find the setting really nice. You are Spirits and need to destroy the invaders to your island. Another great part is that its a coop game and you can chose many different spirits with each different playstyle.
Feels like everyone I know has eventually ended up with their own copy. Hands down my favorite coop board game - it does a good job of minimizing the problem where one person effectively ends up playing for the whole table. Plus as you said the flavor is great.
