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Boardgame Recommendations For Xmas?
Thanks to GamerDad for their article discussing recommended board games to buy or play this Christmas. The writer argues: "Particularly in the last ten years, board games have evolved and changed, so that they are a far cry from the games of old", and goes on to recommend anything from the Lord Of The Rings board game ("one of the most unique board games of recent years"), to Dvonn ("A game that could best be compared to the abstract strategy of checkers.") What are you going to be buying novice board gamer relatives this Xmas?
Only board game worth playing. TTT Risk on my XMAS list, got LOTR Risk last year.
I am the bastard of base minus 12! Turing was the ejaculate of my complete machine!
There are lots of good boardgames available from Cheapass Games: http://www.cheapass.com. I usually buy 4 or 5 games from them around christmas time as stocking stuffers.
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
Settlers of Catan.
Per my post in the other /. thread on this sort of subject:
Nuke War.
Gotta be Nuke War.
Got change for 25 million people?
www.eFax.com are spammers
RoboRally. Simple enough for all my relatives (and that's pretty simple), but still enough stratigery to make it fun.
There isn't a single doubt in my head that this is the best family boardgame out. Another game I wouldn't mind recieving is a nice chess set. With both monopoly and chess, there are different themes. Some are very nice. My cousin is a big corvette fan, I think I might wanna pick up monopoly corvette for him from ebay. My 2 cents.
Warning!!! Brain Required
The Farming Game. Imagine monopoly with seasons and crops and much more debt.
It's quite a tricky little game.
.@.
Icehouse from Looney Labs. You buy the pieces and then either buy a separate multi-game rulebook or just look up rules for Icehouse games online. Check out the rules for Volcano, RAMbots, and IceTowers... our three favorites.
10. Hacker the deluxe edition (until recently oop)
9. Wizwar
8. Nuclear War (which someone made into a silly computer game of a similar name.)
7. Settlers of Catan/Seafarers of Catan (you can find this at nearly every game store)
6. Eurorails/Empire Builder
5. Family Business
4. Risk and/or the NEW risk (of course)
3. Chess
2. Checkers
1. A set of these
Go
---Lane
For those of you not in the know, the Germans own the boardgame market. Boardgames are a much bigger cultural thing in Germany than anywhere else. Almost all the best boardgames are German in origin and luckily you can mostly get them in English translations. Rio Grande is the biggest manufacturer of translated German games.
For family-style boardgames with a bit of depth, you can't go wrong with any of the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winners. This is an annual award. As I recall, it's awarded at the Essen Game Festival. Winners tend to be fairly simple games suitable for family play (rather than being aimed at hard-core gamers) while having enough strategy to satisfy the hard-core gamer at the same time.
I have never played a bad game that won the Spiele des Jahres. Some of my favourites that have won in previous years:
Settlers of Catan
Manhattan
Carcassonne
Mississippi Queen
As the parent points out, Puerto Rico is also a fabulous game and I would highly recommend it.
Settlers of Catan and it's siblings/children are all worthy of family battle - er -gaming time.
We play them as a family (a wide range of ages) and it's great fun. At times, it can get fairly heated, but overall it's great, especially with the expansions.
Mind the gap...
if you want some thinker games... then i recomend these:
puerto rico by Alea $35
Prince of Florence by Alea $40
Euphrat & Tigris $50
if your looking for more lighter games then:
The Settlers of Catan $35
Drakon by fantasy flight $20
Carcassonne $25
kill doctor lucky by cheapassGames $7
Card games:
guillotine by wizards of the coast $10
give me the brain by cheapassGames $15
Lord of the fries by cheapassGames $15
Unexploded cow by Cheapass Games $7
i own all of these games and the rankings are in no particular order... i believe that anyone of these games will probably be fun... hope this helps. ^_^;
We used to play monopoly all the time, it was almost a tradition. Then, our gaming group tried settlers and fell in love. The reasons I like it so much are as follows:
*It's not really a cut-throat game like monopoly where your main sorce of income is from making other players pay. Instead, the game is heavily focused on trading with other players for mutual benefit.
* It's also fairly simple. Most people learn the game about halfway through their first game though learning to master it is a different story.
* Close games. The game is played to points and games are usually close until the end. I dislike lots of games, both computer and boardgames, because there comes a point when a player's really lost and the game's over but it goes on anyway because some player still thinks he has a shot or always plays until the end.
* Expansions. Though I don't like seafarers so much, Cities and Knights is a great expansion which adds complexity and additional levels of strategy.
* Staying power. This game was released almost 10 years ago. It's still very popular (see here). That's the sign of a classic.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Ghettopoly? From the site: "Buying stolen properties, pimpin hoes, building crack houses and projects, paying protection fees and getting car jacked are some of the elements of the game. Not dope enough?...If you don't have the money that you owe to the loan shark you might just land yourself in da Emergency Room." What more could you want from a game?
Fluxx is brilliant and the Scrabble(tm) card game is pretty decent.
At least it's nostalgic for me: Acquire (now owned by Wizard's of the Coast via Avalon Hill
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3076w .boardgamegeek.com/game/822g eek.com/game/555m e/1
http://ww
http://www.boardgame
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ga
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3931
The bestest games they be. Settlers is good, but played out.
I was too lazy to turn these into links. But if you used Firebird and had the textlink extention it wouldn't matter.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
a) ignore age recommendations, generally -- they're mostly nonsense :)
... these games make you solve a problem visually or physically, communicate with the other players.
b) Get games that require creativity in some form. Monopoly could be seen as requiring financial creativity at least, but many games are nothing but throw-the-die-on-your-turn. Win, Lose or Draw, Pictionary, Cranium (if the players are all prepared for it)
c) Avoid games with complex pieces, or that require batteries to power whatzitz or doohickeys. They will get lost, or break.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Still, there's nothing wrong with a little Mexican Train dominos or Euchre for whiling away a long holiday weekend.
At Christmas time, you usually have a bunch of potential players around if your family is into games, so you may want to think about buying a party-type game.
Here's some solid recommendations. My personal favourites out of that list:
Balderdash. Solid party word game. Very little kids will have trouble keeping up, however.
Perudo. Simple bluffing dice game that pretty much anyone can play.
Apples to Apples. Excellent family game.
Pit. A classic trading game. Very, very noisy to play, your house ends up being like the NYSE. Lots of fun though and kids like the noisiness of it.
Boggle. A classic word game. It does heavily rewards skill with word games, so if you have a couple of total word game freaks in the family it may not be that much fun to play with them (e.g. if you wouldn't play Scrabble with them, you might want to steer clear).
Not strictly a board game, but Apples To Apples is really, really fun with five players or more. Nothing to do with the computer manufacturer. Alcohol is sufficient but not necessary.
Mousetrap. Heh, anyone remember this one?
Seriously though, a game that both adults and children can enjoy is Rummikub. It's pretty simple to learn but it can lead to some intense games that involve borrowing numbers from the game board during your turn while still leaving the board in a consistent state (just realized I borrowed this phrase from my database class for which I'm cramming for the final exam, which is tomorrow). It's kind of hard to explain, but it's a good game. This is coming from someone who really hates learning new card games and such.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Ok, not quite, you need a pack of index cards, but otherwise free.
As discussed in an oddly similar thread about 4 posts down, this is a DIY game I stumbled upon recently, and have bcome totally obsessed with.
The rules are very simple, you can google for it, or read the rules on my site (second post from top).
It's a game that gets more & more fun the more you play, and no two games will ever be the same.
What were you expecting?
Dvonn is part of the GIPF project, there are 4 other games (with one more game to follow apparently). (Since you probably didn't follow the link :) )
Based on my experience with Dvonn, I asked for two of the other games for Christmas. :)
So that's an unqualified thumbs up for Dvonn.
They're putting dimes in the hole in my head to see the change in me.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid= 624
antimonopoly is what monopoly is really all about, but the focus was lost through marketing.
You might also look at getting cash flow
R
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russel
Go
Not really a "gather round the table" kind of game, but incredible complexity for a fairly simple set of rules. Well worth learning, and very worth learning young.
There are computer versions so you can play against a program and IGS so you can play over the net against humans.
Not as immediately attractive to 10 year olds as some games, but will pay off for many over a much longer period.
For the Video Game Type
Age of Mythology. - Awsome translation of the popular RTS video game. A unique style of play indeed. 2-4 players without expansion
Civilization: The Board Game - Not a direct translation of CIV III but provides players an opportunity for intense military, political and economic strategy. 2-6 players (standard and advanced rules)
Warcraft: The Board Game - Provides all the elements of the RTS Game in a very nice turn based style. The board is dynamic to allow for many different playing scenarios!
Frag! - Take a First Person Shooter like Quake and turn it into a board game. Run around collecting weapons to kill other players. Very fun for a quick game. Capture the flag to deathmatch rules.
For the War Gamer Type
Axis & Allies. - Classic WWII simulation. Will soon be updated with a new rules release. 2-5 players
Risk 2210 AD. - Beefed up version of the original RISK. Not my favorite game, but it is fun. 2-6 players I believe.
For the Formula One Type
Formula De. - Formula One simulation board game with real tracks! Rules for standard and league type play. 2-10+ players.
For the Fun Type
EVO. - Play as a species of dinosaur struggling to survive until the doomsday meteor hits. Great game for all ages. 3-5 Players
Drakon. - An evolving tile based board game that is different every time. The expansion is great! 2-6 Players
And Finally... For the Geek Type
Chez Geek. - This isn't a board game, but it doesn't matter. This is a must have for any gaming geek. Take everything funny (true or not) about geeks, design a wonderful card game and add in some hilarious flavor text and art and you have this game. I've played this game for hours on end with geeks and non-geeks alike. Huge laughs for all. Get this game. Trust me. Do it now. Oh, and the expansions are great too.
And no, I don't work for Steve Jackson Games.
History of the World is a great game. It got me interested in ancient history, architecture(from trying to figure out what were on the monument pieces) and non-western history in general.
Don't forget the classic that started the rule modification game craze: Cosmic Encounter. Hours and hours of complex, mind bending fun.
I am astonished neither game has been mentioned in the discussion so far. Perhaps my tastes are a bit different.
I can thoroughly recommend the following games...
Any GIPF project game... These are abstract strategy games for two players... The games link into one megagame, and individually and collectively they are extremely compelling...
I recommend trying them in this order...
Zertz
Yinsh
Dvonn
Gipf
Tamsk
each game is based around a different core mechanic. For example, Gipf is sliding, Zertz is jumping, Dvonn is stacking, Tamsk is time, and Yinsh is... well I'm not sure, but it's different.
The linked megagame uses Gipf as a hub, and introduces characteristics from the other games (e.g. jumping from Zertz) to augment the rules.
Other highly recommended games are Bohnanza and Mamma Mia!, although the rules of the latter are hard to follow from the printed documentation. There are plenty of explanations available on the web though.
These (and of course the classic Settlers of Catan, are games that our gaming group play repeatedly, and have stood up well to the test of time.
The ZX Spectrum Book 1982-199x
I highly recommend Clans, which is a strategy game for 2-4 players that takes about 30 minutes to play.
It's fast moving, the game has a clear ending, all players are in the game until the end, and best of all, you don't let the other players know what your color is, so part of the fun is trying to figure out what everyone else is.
You can buy it from Fun Again Games
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
Classic, conventional games have a great advantage in that most people already know how to play them. Also, most are really quite good.
So here's my list:
Dominoes (These also double as a good block type toy for younger kids)
Monopoly
Risk
Any card game
These are all great games, without being too complicated. They also all require substantial strategic thinking to master.
The important thing is to spend most of your time playing rather than reading the rules, unless your family is a bunch of die-hard grognards.
evanchik.net
... is thousands of years old. Unfortunately, no one can be told how awesome Go is. You have to experience it for yourself. And it requires patience (which is why it hasn't taken off in the US :)
As a 30 year old I wish I had rather learnt Go and not Chess when I was 7 years old. :)
It's fairly cheap to get a good board, but can be thousands of dollars for a propper one. (So it's for players of all ages)
It's possibly the only one of three board games people of ages 70+ still play for money, and it's possibly the most intellectually stimulating game in existance.
Sure, I've got Settlers of Catan (and expansion), DnD, Magic the Gathering and a host of computer games... but nothing has gripped me like Go.
Anyone who has played at least 10 games (or watched Hikaru) will be able to tell you.
A 17 kyu (and climbing) signing off.
If you can find it (it's sadly out of production now) this Gamesworkshop classic from 1987 is one of the best boardgames I've ever played. For 2-4 players, one of whom plays as Dracula, while the others play the vampire hunters, it's just a truly superb game all round. You might be lucky enough to find it on ebay I suppose....
Gentlemen, start your penguins
One of the best word games of all time! It's been out of print for ages, but a new company has bought the rights and are now selling it in a nice tin package.
It's an excellent two player game, as each player always has something to do. However, we had luck playing as two teams of two over Thanksgiving.
Board game, card game and RPG recommendations for christmas: check out the Ogrecave's Christmas Guide 2003.
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
JOTTO is also good for two people, sort of like MASTERMIND with words instead of colors.
I got mine at KayBee a few years ago for $5 (on clearance). Each of the properties is a different dot com company. The game came out in like 1999, so if you can find the game today, you'll notice that many of the dot coms listed around the board are actually bankrupt in real life! It may be discontinued just for that reason. I know it's getting harder to find.
Monopoly Dot Com Edition
Carcassone.
This is a cool little game where players take turns laying down tiles to create a country with roads, cities and farms. Players have peasants they can place on the various resources to get points. Player with the most points when the tiles run out wins.
http://home.earthlink.net/~dumpty5/carcasso.htm
Trumpet - Minutes to learn, lifetime to master. One of those games with rules so simple anyone can learn them, but enough random thrown in to make it impossible to ever get too much of an edge. Truly an excellent game. Royalty - (OK its a card game) If you like Scrabble, you will love royalty
Has a 20 buck starter set, that comes with rules, 8 miniatures, and a 2 sided map(the "board"). Even if you aren't into collectable games, the rules are quite elegant and fun to play even with just the starter set.
http://sabertoothgames.com/lotrtmg/index.jsp
Me and my friends has spent hours playing Munchkin against each others. It's somewhat unbalanced, but it can change a lot during the play. Usually, the sneakiest (or lucky) player ends up winning, but it's great fun, since all cards are very fun in a geek way ;)
This is a Reiner Knizia, Lord of the Rings two player game that is easy to learn, quick to play and has a lot of replayability. My 10 year old daughter picked it up real quick and has gotten quite good. Essentially each player takes the white (good) or black (evil) pieces. Each piece is of a character from the books and each has a special ability. Good players try to get Frodo into Mordor and the bad player tries to eliminate Frodo or get three of its pieces into the Shire. Since there is no set order in placing the pieces initially and each piece has an ability that breaks the basic rules, it can be replayed many times without duplicating the game. There are also cards that each player has that are played to influence the outcome of each confrontation of pieces. My adult friends also found it engaging as well although it won't hold their attention for more than a few games. See it here on Amazon. Only $14.95
One of the games I have had most success getting other non-gamer types to play is Naval War by Avalon Hill. Although technically it's a card game.It's rated a 1 on AH's skill level so anyone can learn it in about 5 minutes, even kids.I had some trouble buying it a few years back at local shops when a friend wanted a copy, but he found one on ebay immediately. I bought the Lord of the Rings game for our last family New Years eve party and it was a big success. I was debating between it and Settlers of Catan, but chose LOTR since 5 people could play without expansion packs. This year I'm taking Settlers since I have aquired the expansion pack. The people at this gathering are never hard core gamers, and this may be the only time all year they get to play what I would consider to be a real board game. We have also been playing Puerto Rico lately which is very fun, especially because of the huge number of ways to win. I have to put in a plug for one of my all time favorites Axis and Allies. Although you need to be somewhat hard core to play this, but not as much as a serious wargame. The person who described it as Risk plus is about right, although it may be slightly more comples than that implies. I hear Carccassone is great, and that will be my next purchase.
Star Wars: Epic Duels This is a great game for 2-4 players. It is quick to learn, and since each character has their own special abilities, has a lot of re-play in it.
Boeing commissioned the Century of Flight Edition of Monopoly. http://store.brainygames.com/usa193.html They tell me that more are on the way.
The 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight is December 17th.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
Game details and a few customer reviews here. I guess it also got the Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award in 1983.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
This game is totally fun.
Zombies!!
I have the original and the second expansion. We usually just play with the expansion now, since the game balance/pace seems to be a bit better.
As the players take their turns, they lay out the map, kill zombies, and move zombies.
Takes a few rounds for everyone to "get" it, but then it is good times till you leave everyone in the Zombie infested mall from the safety of your helicopter!
I love a good game of Liar's Dice, except we play with our own dice and slightly different rules from the version you can buy.
Number of players: 3 or more. More is better, but only to a limit, since games get longer with more players. We usually play with 5 or 6.
Required equipment: 5 dice per player plus something for each player to hide their dice from the other players. We use opaque disposable plastic cups with the bottoms cut off.
Each player starts with 5 dice. Before actual play starts, players can roll to see who goes first, although so early in the game it doesn't matter all that much who goes first, so it's fine to just have somebody volunteer instead.
At the start of a round, players throw their dice into their cup. Play then moves in a circle, clockwise, with each player either making a bid or challenging the previous bid. Passing is not an option.
When bidding, players are trying to guess how many of a certain die number exist among all the players without exceeding the actual amount. Example bids are "two threes" or "four sixes." Bids always have to increase. That is, each bid must be for a larger die number (and same count) or for a larger count. One way to think of this is as two-digit numbers, count followed by die number. Given a bid of "two threes" (23), "two fours" (24) and "three ones" (31) are increases (24 > 23, 31 > 23) while "one six" (16) and "two ones" (21) are not (16 < 23, 21 < 23).
A player can challenge instead of bidding. In this case, all the dice are revealed and counted. If there are at least as many of the die number stated in the previous bid, then bid is a winning one, and the challenger loses a die. Otherwise the bid is a losing one, and the player who made the bid loses a die. If only one player remains with dice, that player is the winner. Otherwise, the round is over, and next round begins with players rerolling their remaining dice. Bidding starts over with the winner of the challenge making the first bid.
The last thing is that twos are wild and count towards the total when counting up the dice. However, if somebody bids twos, they are no longer wild for that round.
I've found it to be a fun game, and a good mix of luck, strategy, bluffing, and reading other players.
There is a similar version of this game that uses the serial numbers on dollar bills, but that game gets old fast because you can't reroll the serial numbers.
Go is the opitime of strategy games. Minutes to learn, eternity to master. Yes, not a lifetime -- eternity.
Richochet Robot is a fun game for a small group of folks. Definitely will drive you nuts to some degree. Really racks your brain and puts it into overdrive. Hell, I think I'm going to bring this one into the office.
Formula De is just nifty. Pretty quick games, some strategy, some luck. Yeah, you'll need to pick up extra boards over time, but it's a tough game to get sick of. I've even played in a local tournament a few times. There is supposedly a "simpler" mini version coming out, but I found the original to be simple (and you don't even need to run the advanced rules if you don't want).
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Yet another $20 for the game you already own...
Air Force Monopoly
The only reason I care is because I am in the U.S. Chair Force. Although it would be cool to zip around the board in an F-22 or stealth bomber...
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
Diplomacy.
No luck element.
Simple rules.
Complex human interaction.