2004 Board Games Gift Guide

The Morning News has come out with a nice guide to good gift boardgames, while Funagain Games has the list of the 2004 Board and Card Games of the Year (and the runners-up). Like a bowling ball with your name engraved upon it, these make great gifts for your significant other. Any other suggestions for good adult boardgames?

Comments

Do not pass "Go"

[SIGALRM]

The last time you played a board game you got the Adam's apple caught in the funny-bone slot and then you couldn't pass GO or collect $200

Speaking of Go... now there's a fantastic game of strategy; one I've only recently discovered. The potential for complex and intricate maneuvering seem (like chess) to be limitless. I've heard there are Go masters who have played for fifty years and still consider themselves to be serious students of the game.

Me: still a Go newbie but loving every minute of it.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[entrager]

Want a headache? Look into the current state of "Go" in the computing world.

It's amazing how simple the game is, yet the best computer programs in the world only play at an intermediate level at best.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[Sabaki]

Go is actually far more complex than chess in strategy and tactics (see earlier note about the best computer programs being only as good as intermediate level players [like me], and much weaker than professional level players).

On the flip side, it's actually easier to teach than chess (fewer rules, no difference in the pieces), so it fits a guideline in the article ("can be taught within five minutes") much better than most, if not all of the games in the article.

Incidentally, if you do get a board, you might want to get one online. Places like Samarkand have good stuff. And the US Go Association has links to more vendors as well as local clubs.

(Incidentally, "sabaki" is a Go term meaning light and flexible play.)

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[smclean]

Also check out IGS, http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/

Lots of nice feature-rich linux clients support it.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[Anonymous Coward]

Trust me, you'd rather play at kgs.kiseido.com. Yahoo doesn't use standard ranking, and is full of people who escape losing games. KGS is full of friendly people who actually want to help each other improve. KGS has an extensive set of features for reviewing games and examining alternative plays. KGS rankings tend to be close to real world rankings.

In short, learning Go at KGS is fun, while learning Go on Yahoo is horrible. Your milage may vary, of course.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[pcraven]

My understanding is that "Go" has a huge branching factor. Chess has a fewer number of moves. And many of these are obviously poor choices. "Go" has a larger number of possible good moves. This makes it harder for the computer to 'look ahead' at the different possibilities.

It has been a while since my AI class. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[entrager]

You're both wrong and right...

Before I go on, I have to point out that I only have a deep interest in AI, I haven't actually started my post-grad coursework in it yet (hopefully next year). So my information might not be 100% correct (I look forward to someone correcting/supplementing my post). I should also add that I play Go on occasion, but I suck at it...

Go does have a very large branch factor, so brute-force techniques to playing well are nearly impossible (or take WAY too long to compute). Chess doesn't have a large amount of branching (relative to Go), so brute-force is actually somewhat effective. But the real problem comes when trying to actually write an AI that makes decisions instead of exhausting all possibilities.

In Go, there is a very large amount of information to process. The relative strengths of each player in each position of the board, the aggressiveness of the other player, common move patterns, and of course the number of possible outcomes of an action. Simply put, Go is simply too complex to represent and analyze in a simple manner.

It's my understanding that successful Go programs work by simply looking up common scenarios in a large database of pre-programmed moves, supplementing that with some basic neural network pattern recognition, and then narrowing down decisions with a brute force attack on a reduced set.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[ChuckleBug]

Actually, the number of possible moves in a game of Go far outnumbers those in chess. In fact, they outnumber the number of atoms in the universe!

The possible number of moves in a 40-move chess game also outnumber the number of atoms in the universe.

Yes, Go has much more branching, complexity, etc. But the Go players' hype is a bit misleading. It's like comparing the damage done to someone who jumps off a 30 story building with that to someone jumping off a 110 story building. The latter will hit a lot harder (let's just ignore terminal velocity for this analogy, OK?), but 30 stories is hard enough. Chess is hard, and complex, enough to devote a lifetime to.

I'm not bashing Go (I like them game, and recommend it, but I'm more into chess), but I get tired of all the Go fanatics acting as if Go makes chess look like Slapjack. It does not.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[captwheeler]

Go programs work by simply looking up common scenarios in a large database...

Humans do to; they are called Joski and there are many of them. The hard part is that a sequence is not definitive -- its just one small area of the board and it's linked to all the other areas with different strategies. This is very different then an opening sequence in chess where all the pieces start in the same place, or even a latter game sequence where a common arrangement might arise. The Go board is just too big for this. Brute force is impractical for the strategic decisions.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[ChaosDiscord]

On the flip side, it's actually easier to teach than chess (fewer rules, no difference in the pieces)...

As someone who has casually played Chess for years and has spent the last month or so learning Go, I'm less certain about this.

In terms of learning the rules, Go is certainly simplier, but it's jarring to many people. While Chess requires memorizing a bunch of arbitrary moves, the core ideas are obvious to people: pieces move from space to space, you kill (capture) other pieces, you're trying to get the leader (king), you're on one side the other guy is on the other now charge. In Go you play on intersections, you surround territory (and have to learn to recognize when surrounded territory is still in play), you rarely remove pieces. As The Interactive Way to Go puts it, "Go is sharing game." That's a weird idea for most western game players.

Similarlly, basic Chess strategy is relatively obvious; you get surprisingly far with just rough ordering of the value of the pieces (pawn < knight or bishop < rook < queen < king) and a few simple strategies (claim the middle, threaten as much space as possible). This based on my own experiences. I know I suck and my strategies are childish at best, yet I stomp most people I play. It's rare to have a "wouldn't it be fun to play" with someone who plays seriously. Of course, against a serious player I'd be crushed flat.

Go strategy, the on other hand, is harder to understand. You're confronted with a huge number of possible moves (I'm only just becoming comfortable with 9x9 boards; full 19x19 boards scare me). The early game tends to look confused and scattered; you're looking for general patterns. At first you'll be spending your time fretting over forming eyes and seeing ladders. I'm starting to grasp that I'll often need to ignore opportunities to capture or block my opponent's advance because I know I can block them later and can make an offensive move instead. (This is also true in Chess to an extent, but I'm finding I need to track many more "keep an eye on now, but do nothing now" positions, again on the small 9x9 board.)

I'm enjoying the heck out of Go, but I'm not convinced it's necessarily easier that Chess for a new player. To make a crude generalization, I suspect most "Western" minds more easily mesh with a small pile of rules and straightforward strategy than simple rules but holistic strategy.

That said, I encourage everyone to take some time to learn Go. The Interactive Way to Go is a great gentle introduction with lots of Java boards to practice concepts on.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's my understanding that successful Go programs work by simply looking up common scenarios in a large database of pre-programmed moves, supplementing that with some basic neural network pattern recognition, and then narrowing down decisions with a brute force attack on a reduced set.

Um.. no.

Computer Go is very much in its infancy, and pretty much all computer go programs operate by using hand-coded heuristics to suggest moves, and then doing lots of old-fashioned local search. While there are some pattern databases used, as well as opening 'books' for common beginning-game corner patterns (joseki), in general, large pattern databases are not used, though there are some people working on this approach. Only one well-performing Go program I can think of uses neural networks; it's definitely very atypical.

The problem with Go is not just the branching factor; while obviously it's a difficulty, it's not the largest problem in computer Go. The problem isn't that not enough positions can be checked in a reasonable amount of time, the problem is that not even one position can be accurately checked in any practical amount of time - that is, coming up with a good evaluation function has been a major challenge. In lay terms, a computer cannot look at a Go board and accurately judge how good or bad the position is. When humans look at a board position, they use lots of fuzzy, partially defined concepts like, 'thickness,' 'influence,' 'territory', and 'potential' that are very hard for one human to explain to another, let alone get a program to perform the same analysis.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[Sabaki]

Yep, I very specifically didn't say that Go was easier overall, just that it's easier to teach. I was playing Chess for twenty years before I learned about en passant. I've taught Go to classrooms of kids within a few minutes, and they got a kick out of playing right out of the gate. But I admit that the strategies and tactics get complicated quickly, which is why I always advise the 9x9 board for beginning players. As for the Western mind being used to the concepts behind Chess, but not Go, all the more reason to expose more people to the latter. I think if we all had a competitive mindset that only required a little more than our opponent, rather than violent, bloody death, we'd be better off. (Granted, it's certainly not a panacea in Asia.)

Incidentally, "claim the middle, threaten as much space as possible" are valid Go strategies, too.

Re:Do not pass "Go"

[xenocide2]

It is indeed true that Go has a large space of possible board positions, and that it also has a huge number of possible moves for each player. But that alone doesn't make Go a difficult problem. The critical element is how one measures success.

Most people measure the success of an AI by its comparability to humans, especially in games. It's important to note that not every AI researcher agrees; some feel that the state of the art is what matters more than material success. That aside, there is a game that plays similar to Go, and features similar gamespace factors: Othello. Despite this, computer opponents usually trounce their human counterparts.

Go never recieved the attention that Chess programs do in the States, which partially explains why the state of the art lags behind other game agents. But behind that surface analysis, I've found that today's researchers in the field feel that human Go players utilize a strong sense of pattern recognition that common min-max and other brute forcing techniques fail to capitalize on. The human pattern finding ability quickly outpaces move searching, because the board doesn't change much. We can predict much of what the future will look like from the present. Reversi/Othello is a contrast to this property, where every move can drastically alter a number of pieces and potential moves therein.

I have to admit that I too haven't a PhD in the field, but to my credit I share an interest in the field, and I've studied under a fairly brilliant mind in the field. This is my meager understanding, and probably indicates why you can't play a Go game against a bot on Yahoo! games ;)

Slashdot account

[fembots]

Last year I signed up a Slashdot account for my better half, what a mistake! We've been fighting for the first to open door, switch on the TV and whatnot ever since.

But seriously, how about a set of Mahjong, it's something different and provides endless hours of fun. They now come in travel size that you can bring along in trips.

And are there any ethnic-based board games that you can learn about other cultures (not Indians being shot at).

You sunk my Scrabble Ship!

[bigtallmofo]

Bart: B6! Homer: You sunk my Scrabble-ship! Lisa: This game makes no sense. Homer: Tell that to the good men that just lost their lives. SEMPER FI!

Apples to Apples

[TheAngryArmadillo]

If you want a game everyone can enjoy, pick up Apples to Apples. It's easy and a game only lasts 30 minutes or so. A perfect party game length if you ask me. Whenever we get together with friends that's the first game to come out.

Re:Apples to Apples

[zx75]

Settlers of Catan! Quick to pick up, 30-45 minutes for a 4 player game (6 with the expansion tiles) great fun and addictive, no game is complete without loud good-natured badgering of your fellows and monty python quotes.

Works best after a case or two when the phrase "Pressing wood into sheep" takes on whole new meanings.

Adult Boardgames?

[Tackhead]

> Like a bowling ball with your name engraved upon it, these make great gifts for your significant other. Any other suggestions for good adult boardgames?

Twister.

But for the love of God, put away the engraved bowling ball before you start. (Trust me on this.)

Re:Adult Boardgames?

[gosand]

But for the love of God, put away the engraved bowling ball before you start. (Trust me on this.)

That would be the "goatse game". I think I'll pass.

For our wedding, my wife and I registered for, and received, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Operation, Connect Four, Mastermind, and a few other classic games. They are still fun. We are planning on having a party where you have different game stations, and everyone visits various stations. If you win, you stay at that station (and do a shot). If you lose, you have to go to a different station. (and probably do a shot) Games are much more fun when there is drinking involved.

What! No Risk?

[tomhudson]

Risk isn't there? Heathen SOBs :-)

Re:What! No Risk?

[jellomizer]

Risk can be a very long game especially when you get people like myself even if I going to loose I will hold on to the last guy because who knows I might get lucky. A couple of times I did. My last little Guy held off an army of 80. After they saw that they gave up figuring that God was on my side. (that and it was late and they wanted to go to bed.)

Re:What! No Risk?

[mjwills]

Risk? You need to play some good games. http://www.boardgamegeek.com

Ob. Simpsons Quote

[Zorilla]

Bart: B6!
Homer: You sunk my Scrabble-ship!
Lisa: This game makes no sense.
Homer: Tell that to the good men that just lost their lives.

Heroscape

[Shadow Wrought]

Missing from the list, but a really fun game, is Heroscape It is a good blend of luck and strategy and can be played by various levels of expertise. I played it with the kids and they loved it. They actually turned OFF Halo 2 to play!

Settlers of Catan!

[kisielk]

Discovered this one over the summer and played with some friends online. Would love an actual board game version. Great strategy game, especially since you're forced to barter with other players to succeed, there's lots of strategy involved.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid= 13

Re:Settlers of Catan!

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew Catan would pop up in this thread. This German Game is so well balanced between probability, bartering, and good old fashioned down'n'dirty strategy that it is nearly impossible to get a strong advantage from the beginning. Excellent design: when you play for the first time, there comes a point where you sit back, smirk and think "holy shit".

Here's the company site:

http://www.mayfairgames.com/mfg-shop/0480-0499/q ps /0483.html

You can also buy it here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001ZT4 D/ 104-1779319-6863144

Re:Settlers of Catan!

[Senobyzal]

Settlers is a great game; I've converted most of our circle of friends to it and we've played about 10 matches total (most with the 5-6 player expansion). Almost all of the games have been balanced and tight until the very end.

There's a java version with AI bots at http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/. Although sometimes the servers get clogged and you cannot get on, there's also a mirror linked at that site.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

[StupidEngineer]

My suggestion is Betrayal at House on the Hill from WotC. My friends went to GenCon in Anaheim last weekend and picked up the last copy they had. (It was selling like hot cakes). I can see why. The board changes every game giving players get that haunted house feeling. But the coolest part is that the game objectives aren't revealed until midway through the game (about 50 different game objectives, all unknown) when one of the players becomes the 'traitor' and plays against everyone else. It's fun.

Lord of the Rings

[th1ckasabr1ck]

The Lord of the Rings board game that came out a while back was fairly decent. I played it with four players and it was very fun. Everyone plays as one of five Hobbits, and your goal (of course) is to throw the ring into Mt. Doom. It's a cooperative game that is actually fun. You all have to work together and actually play as a team, often giving up some of your valuable swag for the good of the team. There is a secondary board which shows how close Sauron is to you. When certain things happen in the game he moves a bit closer. If he touches you it's lights out.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous. The boards, cards, etc. are all extremely well done.

Re:Lord of the Rings

[chialea]

I have to agree, it's a very good game. Then again, I'm a real fan of Kniza's games (the designer). Like most of his games, I found this one to have a small number of rules which seem rather strange when you're reading them, but which make perfect sense when you start to play.

Other Kniza games I'd reccomend:
* Through the Desert (think multiplayer Go, but this may be quite hard to find, as I don't believe it's been reprinted yet)
* Samurai
* Schotten Totten/Battle Line (two player card games, and quite portable. I'm not sure if they're currently in print, but they're easy to make with two decks of cards)
* Tigris & Euphrates

Some other good games which would work well as gifts:
* Lost Cities (2 player card game, simple but addictive)
* Guillotine (multiplayer card game where you get to collect the heads of French nobility. funny and silly, even my mother likes it)
* Bohnanza (great card game I've found works well with non-gamers. being cooperative is good strategey, and the cards are cute)
* Warhamster rally (hamsters!)
* San Juan (reasonably simple and quite fun)
* El Grande (this is more complex, but easy to learn and play)

This is just a short list based on what I have in front of me. If I were looking for gifts for people who don't play games regularly, I'd have to look at www.boardgamegeek.com for ratings, and start by looking at Bohnanza and Lost Cities. If you want a party game, try Apples to Apples.

Lea

Mensa Recommended games . . .

[93,000]

Past winners of the Mensa Select seal can be browsed by year here. Have some fun while exercising your brain.

Previous winners include Taboo and Magic-The Gathering.

Re:Mensa Recommended games . . .

[spacepimp]

mensa a group that exists to fill the self indulgence of moderately intelligent people to each other. let me use them as my guide.

Balderdash

[willith]

Balderdash. Balderdash is perhaps the greatest board game ever created. It's provided more hilarity and riot to my friends and I than anything else I've ever encountered.

Without Balderdash, I never would have known that vagitis means "what my wife is going to do to me when I get home" and that a shittah is "a ghetto toilet".

"Diplomacy" from Avalon-Hill is a must-have

[Boone^]

It's like Risk, but targeted for adults and mature teenagers. You still vie for control of Europe, but there's no dice, you have to sign secret (or not so secret) pacts with your opponents, and there's no battles. Moving into an unoccupied territory makes it yours, but if the territory has a supply depot you could increase your armies (and decrease the armies of the opponent who was just on that square). During the moving phase if 2 armies attempt to occupy the same land they bounce. I could go on and on. Oh, and reserve 4-5 hours to complete a game.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q= diplomacy+board+game&btnG=Search

Re:"Diplomacy" from Avalon-Hill is a must-have

[kscguru]

4-5 hours? My dorm's been playing the past four WEEKS!!!

And the Evil Turkish Empire is about to learn what happens when he crosses both Russia and Austria every turn for two game years... we finally got him flanked!

Re:Trivial Pursuit

[eln]

It used to be that you could buy one edition, then buy different card packs of other editions for cheaper than buying a whole game. My family used to have like 5 or 6 different card packs, and one board. Now, they don't seem to do that anymore, and 30 bucks a pop seems a little steep for different questions, and a bunch of pieces that are exact duplicates of the crap I already have (except with different pictures on the board).

Re:Trivial Pursuit

[Pxtl]

While the questions are excellent, the actual game in Trivial Pursuit is moronic. The board game is horribly chance-oriented "Oh, missed the pie. Missed it again. Missed it again."

Re:Trivial Pursuit

[Lev13than]

I'm from Canada you insensitive clod! The American History category is crappy enough to make us take hours upon end to find one that's easy enough to answer :)

Ironically, Trivial Pursuit is a Canadian invention. Chris Haney worked as a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette, and Scott Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. A good history of the game can be found here

Settlers of Catan

[BobBoyken]

...continues to satisfy. Even after several years, the original remains the best. I have the 5/6 player expansion and the gameplay is good, but the original version, played with exactly four people provides the most consistently fun and even gameplay of any game I have ever played. I like the fact that we can complete a game in an hour or so, but my favorite "feature" is that the games are almost always extremely close, so everyone feels like they have a chance to win.

May not be intellectual but fun regardless

[linzeal]

I live in a house with 2 other college juniors and we are constantly entertaining with a fully stocked mame unit and board games but one still stands out as a way to get people to "loosen up". Twister, and before you laugh I would estimate that at least half the time when we bring it out someone gets laid in the house.

Extensive list

[gopher_hunt]

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/rankbrowse.php3?ranki ng=45#45

Pretty much lists everything you won't find at a local wal-mart.

cheapass games

[johnjay]

None of the games mentioned are from the eponymous Cheap Ass Games company. I just found out about this company a few weeks ago, when I was looking for cheap ass Christmas presents. I can't vouch for their products but they seem like a good deal for 2 reasons.
a) The games sound like fun. Sure, who's going to advertise their games as totally boring and stupid? No one. But, Kill Doctor Lucky and Deadwood to name two I remember, have funny concepts and sound interesting to play.
b) They are CHEAP. And, seeing as to how most board games I've owned have been played about 3 times, max, the money spent seems much closer to the value derived than the $50 it costs for a lavishly wood-crafted board game.

Again, I don't know much about the product so don't come crying to me if they suck, but I'm probably going to risk a few bucks on them this year.

Re:cheapass games

[dvdeug]

Those that I've played have been pretty good. Give Me the Brain is a nice cute game; I doubt anyone would play it regularly, like some people play spades or euchre, but it's good for a few plays. Agora is an interesting strategy game; it probably has more replay value that Give Me the Brain, but it doesn't have the party value of playing fast-food worker zombies who need the brain to finish their shifts.

I love One False Step for Man... It's a 3-4 hour long board game that takes a lot of strategy, so I'd play it with the same people I'd play Rail Baron (another game I recommend, but it's out of print) or Axis and Allies with. It's biggest problem is that it's a Cheap Ass game; while coming up with a six-sided die for Give Me the Brain or a dozen counters for Agora isn't a problem, One False Step takes literally a hundred counters, in at least as many distinct varieties as you have players. Those of us roleplayers dragged out the mondo bags of dice and used different types of dice, or a Risk set would probably have enough counters, but you've got to be prepared before the game. The board is somewhat random, which keeps variety but makes it feel a little generic. Names like "Desperado City" just doesn't have the feel that using real cities names does. All in all, a great strategy game, but be prepared for a lengthy strategy game and get out the counters to start with.

seeing as to how most board games I've owned have been played about 3 times, max,

Yeah. What's worse, for games that have trivia cards, they start to lose their fun once you get familar with them. I've played Cranium enough times that I know what many of the cards are. (Again, Cranium; a decent game, if you like party games and are willing to spend $50 on a game where you learn a lot of the cards after playing it 3 or 4 times. Me, I prefer to go head to head in a nice multiplayer strategy game where it's strategy, tactics and a little bit of luck.)

Fluxx

[Shadow Wrought]

Another great game is Fluxx. If you have not heard about it, its a card game in which the rules are constantly changing. I've played rounds that last close to an hour, and some that lasted less than two minutes.

In the latter category was in which the player who won, wasn't even there! I played a card which basically caused everyone to play all the cards in their hand. One of the guys got up to answer the phone right before it became his turn. We played for him (since he had to play everything anyway;-) and the *&$*#&*&#*($&%**#&$^%*@&$ won.

Mindtrap

[echocharlie]

I'm partial to Mind Trap. It's like Trivial Pursuit with Riddles. Here's a sample question:

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black. None of the street lights are working due to a power failure caused by a local storm. A car with two broken headlights drives towards the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting him. How could the driver have seen the dog in time?

Re:Mindtrap

[finnw]

The dog is on fire.

Re:Mindtrap

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: You've been experimenting with your pet gerbil "fluffums'" plastic tube cage again, and you've managed to get his 8'' long bridge-pipe halfway up your butt. Suddenly you hear a loud crash and Fluffums--scared by the sound--leaps into the pipe and scurries up your anus and into what may be your lower intestinal track. All you see around the room is a flashlight, a rusted spoon, last months edition of "YM", a lighter, your linux computer with firefox opened to your slashdot homepage, and a battle axe. How can you get the girbel out before your mom gets home in five minutes?

Re:Mindtrap

[lmh2671772]

How would you get the ping-pong ball out?

The ping-pong ball is on fire.

Re:Mindtrap

[Anonymous Coward]

Based on the success of previous answers:

The gerbil is on fire?

Classic Battletech (What Else?)

[RobotRunAmok]

Classic Battletech.

Okay, so technically, it's not so much a boardgame as it is a religion and a Way of Life, but is there any geekier reason to throw dice and push things about a tabletop?

Be a Cheapass...

[rilister]

my favorite find of the last few years has been Cheapass Games: http://www.cheapass.com/products/index.html

All their games are imaginative, fun and, best of all, cost next to f-all. It's refreshing to see someone trying to be fresh about game styles.

Personal favorites:
Unexploded Cow - a poker-style game involving incinerating BSE infected cattle in French minefields...

The Great Brain Robbery - Get your Zombie out of the runaway train by stealing brains with special abilities.

Bitin Off Hedz - even works for kids - a standard-ish board game where dinosaurs race to extinction.

They're so cheap you can afford to take a risk anyway.

Settlers of Catan

[JavaSavant]

Probably already mentioned, but Settlers of Catan http://www.mayfairgames.com/mfg-shop/central/mfg-s oc.html(as well as many of it's expansion sets) never seem to get old, particularly "Cities and Knights"

Settlers is a great game!

[Savatte]

Very modifiable, hackable, and completey different each time you play. You can make up your own rules, like only moving the robber a certain number of spaces, or using other players' ports. Try mixing the land tiles in with the water for extra randomness.

And the Cities And Knights expansion for the true hardcore player is a great gift. Of course, the true hardcore player probably already has this. And the Seafarers. Plus the 5-6 player expansions for all 3...

Re:Trivial Pursuit

[Dynedain]

I'm from Canada you insensitive clod! The American History category is crappy enough to make us take hours upon end to find one that's easy enough to answer :)

Most Americans would say the same thing.

Only one game for me...

[biglig2]

... Mornington Crescent!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0752847 29 5/qid=1102452478/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-2652614 -5252413

1000 Blank White Cards!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

1000 Blank White Cards is the Best game of all time!

The game is totally self-adjusting to the playing environment, creative, fun and good for all kinds of times.

Plus it's the best game ever invented for getting women naked and doing nasty things!

-posted anonymously to protect the identities of women ive gotten naked-

Well, it is a card game, but I would suggest this.

[AltGrendel]

Mille Bornes.

It's a great game and you never get the same play out of a round twice.

My favorites

[Komi]

I'm an avid board game player. I love to play games with big groups, and I love one's with just my wife.

Here's a list of games that I play a lot (in order that I think of them):

• Settlers of Cataan (and Seafarers expansino)
• Carcassonne (and many expansions)
• Game of Thrones (with Clash of Kings Expansion)
• Risk: Godstorm
• Ticket to Ride (great for people new to gaming)
• Bang (great for large groups of 6-8)
• St. Petersburg
• Diplomacy (can cause you to hate your friends!)

Here's a few games that are good for 2 players:

• Carcassonne
• Knightmare Chess (1 and 2)
• Settlers of Cataan: Card Game (with expansions)
• St. Petersburg
• Ticket to Ride
• Balloon Cup
• Battle Cry

komi

Cashflow 101

[hojo]

For those of you who enjoyed/enjoy Monopoly or other financial-type games, give this one a look: Cashflow. My wife and I have loved playing it. It's expensive, but you can consider it to be an education in a box. It can carry some real-world lessons on finances.

We got ours through eBay, not the link I provided, and it was cheaper. It was this game that got us started in real investing, not just 401(k) stuff.

Bad list !!! Use the offficial gamers database !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

This weekly updated (as needed) list of the top 100 games (countless more in the full list) complete with total votes and standard deviation scores :

http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Top100/

voted on by thousands of board gamers!

bookmark it.

All your favorite baord games are in it (sometimes under german original release spelings)

Most of my favorites still in publication made it to the top 100 in THAT LIST.

I'd compare it fully to the other list in the news link but it was slashdotted instantly. Please avoid slashdotting
http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Top100/
though its a major university, it may still be possible.

that list is a true gem,

by the way "Puerto Rico" is currently top game.

Lost Cities is still in top 35

a decent sampling of the top 60 games have been turned into online versions on a variety of free little known java game multiplayer web sites, ad free, etc.

Mensa best game list.

[zimage]

Every year, Mensa USA releases a list of their favorite games from the past year. I found it to be a very good gift list for my geeky friends.

http://mindgames.us.mensa.org/participant/past_win ners.php

PUERTO RICO PUERTO RICO

[Grabble]

Puero Rico is the #1 ranked game on boardgamegeek.com. That's why I bought it.

Then, I discovered why. Every person that I've introduced Puerto Rico to gets hooked. Here's a list of reasons why I'm a fanboy about it...

--) No waiting: When other people take their turns, all players must make decisions.

--) Creepily well-balanced. There is no (to my knowledge) "power move" or "race for a certain card" that lames out the game.

--) Incredible replayability: each time you play is different

--) Minimized randomness: Randomness exists in only a SINGLE aspect of the game. Everything is else is based on seating and "what are my opponents likely to do".

--) Fast games: You can play it three times in an evening. Crucial.

Zillions of Games

[SeanDuggan]

Yes, I know that, as a computer game, it's strictly not a board game, but Zillions of Games is one of the best generic board game simulators available on the computer, at least for discrete non-math-based, non-card-based games. About 30 games and their variants are included with the default installation and users can modify these files or create their own to create new games. The best part of it is that ZoG has an AI such that you can input the rules of a game and the computer can generally play competently enough to beat you a large amount of the time by brute force. This is an especially excellent program for people who are fond of chess variants and want to see how an invented variant might play out. It allowed me to implement a chess variant I wrote in middle school. ^_^ And showed me that the variant was hideously unbalanced, but that's another matter entirely...

Axis & Allies

[Plecostomus]

In my oh so humble opinion, Axis & Allies beats Risk in all regards. Sure it's not for everyone, but the more advanced rules, AA guns, and multiple units makes this game great fun for most adult boardgamers. Unfortunately, the most players you should try to incorperate is 5 (1 per nation), otherwise it gets quite hectic (we tried this once, it didn't work very well). And, if you're a diehard for wargaming: Warhammer! Tiny models you paint and assemble yourself and then pit against other people. Fun for some, paintful for others.

Heroscape!

[SeanDuggan]

Also look at http://www.heroscape.net/ which has the rules as PDFs and various extensions by fans. It's essentially a very light wargame, simple enough that children can figure it out easily, but it can easily be made more complex for adults. (It ships with easy and "master" mode rules) There may be expansions if we can get people to buy the original game...

Three wining games

[SuperMallen]

1. Settlers of Catan (already mentioned)
2. Carcassone
3. Acquire

All of these games have the four attributes which make good adult board games:

- They are fun to play
- The more you play, the more strategy you develop
- They take around an hour
- No one gets eliminated

Re:Trivial Pursuit

[shotfeel]

In other words, its one of those pesky games that combines skill and chance?

Munchkin!

[Masker]

Munchkin is a great tongue-in-cheek board game for the RPGer in your social circle or family. It's a card game (not CCG) with quite a lot of expansion packs. Basically, you try to clear a dungeon & if a friend gets in the way or is going to win first, you screw them over.

Very fun, quick game.

Days of Wonder

[Obiwan Kenobi]

Days of Wonder just produce some amazing stuff, including the heralded Memoir '44, which was recently released, along with a bunch of others that me and my wife can't get enough of.

Mystery of the Abbey is like a thinking man's/geek's version of Clue. Instead of that boring ole rag of a board game, you get an intricate and well designed whodunit that has strategy and tactics involved as to who finds out what and how to play the game to win. This is a favorite in our household and whenever we have a gettogether it's the first board game pulled out.

Ticket to Ride is another Days of Wonder production, designed by a frenchman I believe, who ironically created a game about US train lines around the early 1900's. You have a set # of trains and must build them in tandem across the country. You must connect certain cities according to your "tickets" you recieve at the beginning of the game, always giving you a goal and with multiple paths to each city there is strategy involved as far as how you connect them and by what color (each route is defined by color). It gets more in-depth and is very fun/interesting and fast paced to boot. The younger kids in the family really like this one as its color-based, easily followed, and easy to learn.

As far as other games, we love card games. Bang! is hands down the best multi-player card game I've ever played. Take that as you may, but I've played my share and it is awesome stuff. When a friend/family memeber asks us what we want to play, it's always Bang! Great mechanics, interesting roles to play, fun and funny to boot. There are some expansions to it (about a dozen cards each) to throw some variety to the game, but we've not needed those just yet. This is an absolute must-buy.

Queen's Necklace is another Days of Wonder production and is very cool. I know, a guy saying that playing a card game based on jewelry is cool, but it's a blast and is still fun with just 2 players (me and my wife play it occassionally). Easy to learn, hard to master, plenty of strategy and lots of enjoyment to be had.

Lastly I'll mention that Cheap Ass Games is a treasure trove of goodness, particularly Kill Dr. Lucky. This is a game that happens -before- Clue. Instead of figuring out who died and how, you actually get to kill that person! Of course, he's the luckiest guy ever, so it takes awhile and each person chases the good Doc around the mansion in an attempt to finally kill him in a variety of ways.

I think my favorite "Foiled!" card that showed up as I tried to Kill Dr. Lucky said something like "And suddenly...you felt not so fresh."

Hilarious, fun, and cheap!

Hope this helps :)

Carcassonne

[Kraegar]

The first game I've played that I enjoy more then the Settlers of Catan. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/822 (Both Settlers and Carcassonne are incredibly fun, go get them now if you've never played it)

May not be a board game... but

[Ced_Ex]

I've always found 52 Pick Up to be a rather entertaining game to play!

Absolute Balderdash

[Mister_IQ]

Absolute Balderdash is our favorite. Not many people have heard of it, but they always go away loving it after playing a round. It's Balderdash (or Dictionary, or any of the other basic "make up a definition for this word" games) with extra categories. So each round could be one of:

• Here's a name, make up what s/he is famous for
• Here's a movie title, make up a short plot synopsis
• Here's a date, make up what happened on that day
• Here's an acronym, make up what it stands for
• Here's a word, make up a definition

Each needs a slightly different skill. The "what happened on this date" answers need to be time-appropriate, the "what is this person famous for" is completely open ended and is usually quite bizarre, etc. Great game.

History of the World - and others not to be missed

[andrewbaldwin]

If you've never played this you've missed a treat.

Played in 7 rounds (epochs) you need to gain (and keep territory; opportunities for 'stitching up' your fellow players -- great fun (lasts around 3 hours).

Other great board games (which we've played for over 12 years without tiring of them) include:

Kingmaker - England at end of 15th Century - Wars of the Roses. Great game but can sometimes drag on.

Plague - a really wacky (if slightly tasteless game of gathering corpses in Black Death Weymouth (a town on the south coast of England - the game has a passing acquaintance with real history). Whoever created it had a real sense of humour!

Brittania - Britain from romans to normans - manage your invaders / settlers to get the right areas at the right time.

Civilization -- brilliant game but a real 'all nighter!' - good mix of competition / cooperation / trading / development. Not rlated to the all time brilliant Sid meier game of the same name (but there are several similarities)

Flux - a wacky little card game where the rules, and the goal of the game change all the time

I could go on.... as a games fan I spend most Sunday nights with a group of friends, a board game, several cups of tea and many Jaffa cakes (a chocolate and orange biscuit popular in the UK) -- GREAT ;-)

BTW I have no connection with the makers of any of the above.
Don't know how easilyany of the above can be obtained outside the UK.

The Dot (Box) Game

[dman123]

So this isn't an actual board game unless you count a piece of paper as a board. At least it is free.

Take a large piece of paper and make a grid of dots that leaves enough room for a single legible letter inside the confines of each square (3/8" x 3/8"?). Make sure the paper is at least 20" x 30" to get enough of a grid. There is only a minor peanalty for trying to use equivalent metric units.

Everyone knows how to play this one, right? Connect two vertically or horizontally adjacent dots and write in your initial if you happen to complete a 1 x 1 square. Repeat until you cannot complete a square with just one line. The winner is the one with the most initialed squares when the grid is 100% filled in with squares.

The game works best when you see your opponent almost every day for just a few minutes at a time. Perfect for killing time in between (or during) school classes.

Reid Strand, if you are out there, I demand a rematch from our game in Ms. Moran's french class!

Modern Art by Reiner Knizia

[irontiki]

Modern Art is a great game link. Players represent competing art galleries and buy and sell art. Depending on what is purchased and what is sold the value of the art varies dramatically. Buying a piece can turn out to be a waste or turn a huge profit but you have to keep in mind how the money will add up in your competitors hand later as well as how the piece shifts the value of the other art in everyone's collections. It's endlessly fascinating with usually very close games that differ radically with different mixes of players.

Note: the original is in German though it's also available in Enlgish.

Board Game Gift Guides - Another one

[hapycamper]

Well, the GamerDad Unplugged Board Game Gift Guide comes on on Monday, Dec. 13th... watch for it at: http://www.gamerdad.com/

Keep yourself amused by looking at last year's - http://www.gamerdad.com/modules.php?op=modload&nam e=News&file=article&sid=424&mode=thread&order=0&th old=0 They're all still good games.

Scruples, Psychologizer, Articulate

[Bifurcati]

A fabulous game is Scruples (or "A Question of Scruples" formally.) It poses moral dilemmas such as

You scrape a car on the way out of the carpark. No-one sees you. Do you leave a note?

and

A magazine offers you $10,000 for a nude photo you have of your ex-lover. Do you accept?

You have to ask these questions of your friends, and predict what they would do. You can also challenge them if you think they're bluffing, and argue your case to the rest of the players who must decide who they believe. (We actually play it where everyone tells the truth; we find it makes for more interesting after dinner conversations.) The Millenium edition is great, or you can pick up older editions on Ebay for very little (most questions still fine, although occasionally one is a little outdated.)

"Psychologzier" is another game in a similar vein, and is great fun too, but is out of print. You can still pick it up on Ebay every couple of weeks or so, though. Well worth it! Oh, and "ImagineIff" is great too. (Even if my mathematician friends call it "Imagine if and only if"...)

Articulate is another fabulous game, a sort of verbal Pictionary somewhat akin to Taboo and is absolutely hilarious. Great fun!

Finally, you should try Killer Bunnies. Hilarious when you've got a group of friends, and the designers have put a lot of work into making this quirky game fun. Lots of expansion packs, too!

Cosmic Encounter and others

[Finkbug]

Cosmic Encounter is a legendary game. As brilliant a design as Magic: The Gathering without the crack hit payment. I first came across it when I saw people playing with handmade sets. (The game had been many years out of print.) It's currently online in free/pay form at http://www.cosmicencounter.com/screens/home.html. The play is fast, deep, and silly. Four player rounds last at most twenty minutes. The rules are simple and each player is randomly assigned an alien race that can break one rule. A single Macron unit counts as four, another race can force negotiations, a third can win with low cards (and lose with high). Support this game. It is friggin great and the online implementation is too.

Can't say I recommend them given they are out of print, overly complicated or both but my favorites have always been Junta, Stellar Conquest, Starfleet Battles (made into a series of buggy PC games), Down With the King, Chase, and Ipswich.

Junta is a hillariously frantic trading game, Stellar Conquest a strange semi-limited movement numbers game. Starfleet Battles is unbelievably complex and simulates everything from marine combat on exploding planets to strategic war between dozens of galaxy spanning civilizations down to individual ships. [Ie., Derke Smart has been trying to write it for years. Derek Smart Derek Smart Derek Smart] Down With the King is...oh, heck, there is a table to roll on while visiting the funeral of the player you've just assassinated and results range from impressing the nobles to getting drunk and falling into the grave. Chase was a slick pure strategy release by TSR that got no attention and Ipswich is a similarly dead, brutally difficult word game.

For the truly obsessive, find Magic Realm.