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Are you kidding? I own in the movie trivia category. *has maybe spent too much time watching the extended edition*
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Never played Risk, never played this mythical "Apples to Apples" thing (seriously, I don't know anyone around here who has it, let alone what it is, only that it's apparently awesome), don't do well at Scrabble (then again I've only recently played my mother, who's an absolute genius at crossword puzzles, so I think I'm at a disadvantage there)... oh, I guess Cranium's fun.
I really like playing checkers, too. I always lose in a blaze of glory, but I have fun doing it. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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If they asked more book based questions and less movie trivia that you have to watch the movies 60 times to see then I'd be totally on board.
It's entertaining from time to time. Though I'll admit I do love Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. But then, I rock at that game, so it's no surprise.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I don't consider Apples to Apples a board game, I think of it as a card game. That's another category. But is is a really fun game. Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Agreed. Though I can't believe Carrie's never played!! It's just a fact of life around here. As is cranium, which is a biweekly occurance. Good times.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Chess, Checkers, or Boggle. Anything where there's either no dependence on chance, or chance gives everybody the same opportunities.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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*bump* (cause I didn't see it the first time round)
As long as you're going for games of no chance, there's always the game of go. We had a game (or about 2/3 of one) in a thread here a while back. And you will never, repeat, never "learn the curve" of this game completely, so many layers of complexity and nuance it has. Yet even for a beginner the game is interesting and at times exciting.
For Risk without chance, there's always Diplomacy. This is the kind of game that takes forever to play and takes over people's lives. I played about a round and a half of it once.
(Incidentally, I once (about 8 or 9 years ago) emailed OSC asking about his alternate rules for Risk. Didn't get a response at the time, so it's good to finally see the answer to my question.)
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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I too love cathedral. I have a nice wooden set on my coffee table trying not too gather too much dust.
Axis and Allies is my favorite though. Great game in itself, nicely flexible out to about five people (6 or 7 in some of the revised editions with France and China). My friends and I also made our own rule set with a twist other than size. We set up two boards in seperate rooms, one allies and one axis. Then had a game master take our moves into the other room, or went to a communal room for attacks. Had to introduce new units such as spy planes and decoy units and factories (I think those got inserted officially at a later date.) It took forever, but much fun was had.
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My personal favorite game is a fairly standard rules risk using the secret mission cards. For one thing, games goes a lot quicker with secret mission, so we can usually get in several games in a sitting. It also adds another level of strategy, since you have to try to keep your own mission secret and guess the other players' missions. We make a few small rule changes, although I can't remember them all off the top of my head. The biggest change we make is with the risk cards. In our games matched sets are always a flat 5 armies. This provides an incentive to attack, but the normal rules distribution is way too unbalancing.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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My favorite board game -- hands down -- is Carcasonne, played with all the expansions. Settlers of Catan is a distant second. And I'm not sure what the third would be; at that point, it becomes kind of a toss-up.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by MyrddinFyre: Clue. But no one will play with me cause I tend to win
Not quite. At least not in my case -- the fact that you won the single time I played with you was not the issue. It was that you take really long turns (because you analyze each move).
Thing is, the two are connected. I prefer to play fairly seat-of-the-pants, and am unlikely to win against as methodical a player as you.
What you need is to find other people who play Clue the way you do.
My favorites are Scrabble, Boggle, and Cranium. Still have an unopened Cranium that I bought right after KamaCon . . . I need people to play with!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Even though (as it's been pointed out) Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are technically tile laying games and not board games per se, they're still my favorites. Another good tile laying game is one called Attika.
Card game-wise there are a few that I really like: Munchkin, Apples to Apples, Killer Bunnies, Citadels.
I recently played A Game of Thrones (based on the book of the same name). It played like a really complex version of diplomacy. It was awesome. If anybody likes the books, they must play.
Finally, one of my all-time favorite board games is Masterpiece. I love that game.
Posts: 194 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I've gotten into Carcassonne and its expansions this year, and enjoyed it muchly.
Started playing Carcassonne -- The Castle recently, and enjoying it as well; still having fun figuring out strategy possibilities with it.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Raia and Myr, I believe there is a version of Clue that lets you play online- just, don't ask me where to find it.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by His Savageness: Finally, one of my all-time favorite board games is Masterpiece. I love that game.
I didn't think anyone else knew that game! I used to love playing that with my parents, but it's been a few years.
I also love Risk, and Battleship was a big favorite when I was a kid. And I still love Balderdash, mostly because I'm better at it than my friends. Guesstures is lots of fun too - any charades-esque game, actually.
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I'll second A Game of Thones--it's a terrific game. Another one that I've been having an enormous amount of fun with lately is Monsters Menace America. I'm not utterly sure how many times it will continue to be fun, but at the moment it's still a blast.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Diplomacy. You want to talk about people's hidden evil, try this classic with 6 of your closest "friends", Brutus. Just try not to get stuck playing Austria-Hungary.
Oh, and I have to second The Farming Game. I couldn't believe when a friend of my husband's brought this over. I was even more surprised how much I enjoyed it. (I don't think Fruit is that good of a deal though you CAN make a killing)
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I love Risk, not least because I usually win. In fact my family won't play with me anymore, because I'm the only one who wins. Another game I like that's similar to Risk is Shogun, though some people might call it Samurai Swords. My family plays a lot Settlers of Cataan, Magic the Gathering (using really old cards), and Age of Empires (a newer board-like game) and I enjoy all of them, but Risk and Shogun are my favorites. I might have to try the Risk 2210 sometime, it sounds like a lot of fun.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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Risk is fun. I recently had an awesome game. I was losing, with only 6 countries, scattered about Europe and Asia. Another player had about 8, controlling most of Africa. Another player controlled Australia and most of Asia, while the last had the Americas and a bit of Europe.
On my turn, I turned in a set of cards for about 20 or so armies. I managed to just conquer the Africa player, and took 4 cards from him. I ended my turn, drawing a card to take the total up to 5.
The other two players sparred with each other on their respective turns. So, when it ended up being my turn, I turned in yet another set of cards. I managed to plot a course through Europe, North America, South America, and Asia, and took out that player. I collected cards from him, so I turned cards in mid-turn, and managed to push the remaining player to the Austrialian continent (also Japan, which my army couldn't get to) before my armies ran out. On his turn, he took Siam and stopped. It didn't matter, since I had yet another set of cards to turn in, and I also possessed several of the continents. I handily wiped him out (though, for some reason, he got really lucky rolling defending his countries in Australia. I probably lost 3 or 4 armies for every one he lost.)
Basically, I went from 6 relatively undefended countries to ruling the world in three turns. 'Twas a ton of fun.
Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Favorite board games: Cranium, Balderdash (although we don't play with the board), Scene It!, and Monopoly.
Favorite card games: SET (I will beat anyone. I'm just that good. I'm modest too. ), Egyptian War (also knows as Ultimate War or Egyptian Rat Screw), Apples to Apples (which I just got for christmas and love), and Quiddler.
Those are my choices. If we ever meet, we should play together. It would be a fun time!
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I prefer using the set values for cards. It's too easy for one player to end a turn with 50 armies when a game lasts for awhile. Set values guarantee that things can't get too far out of hand, and allow for some fun big but reasonably sized assaults and battles.
Card games wise, Egyptian Ratscrew is a classic favorite of mine. But it doesn't beat Euchre which is now, and will always be, the best card game ever. Texas Hold em poker is a recent favorite.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Tom -- when you use all the Carcassonne expansions, do you play with all the features, or only some?
Currently I like using all the tiles, but not all the features -- I leave out the dragon, the fairy, the princess, magic teleporting, the pig, the big follower, and the builder... leaving in inns, cathedrals, trade goods, the thief/longest road card, and the king/largest city card.
[edit to fix typo]
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I'm surprised no one here has mentioned Puerto Rico. Again not truly a board game, but very much in the genre of strategy/tactical games like Carcassonne and Settlers (which are my second and third favorite games).
Puerto Rico has only a smidgen of randomness to it, so it's very chess-like, but gets far more complicated far more quickly.
Posts: 47 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote: Tom -- when you use all the Carcassonne expansions, do you play with all the features, or only some?
All of 'em -- except, ironically, the thief and king. The builder, the big follower (and pig), and dragon are features that I think add a LOT to the game.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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On your recommendation, Tom, I have added Carcassone and it's expansions to my Christmas wishlist.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Othello. Definitely. As far as Risk goes, my partner turns into an utter megalomaniac when she plays, so I don't play it.
Monopoly is cool, and I don't care what the instructions say, any money you have to pay for taxes or from cards goes smack into the middle of the board (which gets seeded with a $50), and when you land on Free Parking, you get whatever is in there. And then the bank ponies up another $50 to start it again.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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What are verbal/non-strategy games that folks like?
(Ones already mentioned in this thread = Apples to Apples, Cranium, Pictionary, Balderdash, Scrabble, Boggle, Taboo. A couple others I know = Scattergories and Guesstures.)
Sometimes when I'm playing games with a group, some folks (especially women) are less interested in strategy games and more interested in more social/verbal games like the ones I mentioned above. So I'm looking for some new options... any ideas?
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I was playing a verbal/non-strategy game at my cousins' house on Christmas but I can't remember the name of it. You have an electronic handheld device that gives you words and you have to give clues for other people to guess.
As for Risk, my friends and I have started playing a variant on the Missions way. Instead of playing through all 4 Missions in whatever order and turning over the last card, you play through them in difficulty order (easiest first) and you don't have to turn over the last card. The only problem is that the more you play, the more you know which Mission goes with which difficulty level and you can pretty much guess what mission the person has.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Guesstures is lots of fun too - any charades-esque game, actually.
