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Fun Tabletop Games?
Mr. Ghost asks: "My friends and I have recently been in the market for a good new boardgame or other tabletop game. We have worked through the gamut of games like Axis & Allies, Supremacy, and War! Age of Imperialism. More recently we have been playing tile based games like Carcasonne and Settlers of Catan. I am looking for some suggestions on some new games we could get into."
i can higly recommend the civilization boardgame
-- never underestimate someone who overestimates himself
Or work up to dice. Shake em up shake em up shake em up shake em. Nothing beats that shit.
Does anything ever really beat RISK? I've been ready to kill people over that game.
When me and my buddies want to play board games, its either: 1 RoboRally (with all the expansions, especially Armed and Dangerous), or 2. Cosmic Encounter, which was the inspiration for Richard Garfield to create Magic: The Gathering
If you havent tried go, then I think it is about time to. It has a great handicap system for new players, yet allows people to improve over a life time.
Warhammer and Warhammer 40K are pretty fun. They do require a bit of a commitment though.
Risk is the type of game that rises above the board when you're playing among other adults. What starts out as a game of pieces and movement generally becomes one of political intrigue, making alliances, and casting doubt upon other alliances. We've reached the point where everyone has to go to the porch for a smoke break at the same time because no one feels comfortable about what strategies might be birthed behind their backs...
I think most geeks would like Robo Rally. You use movement cards to "program" the movement of your robot in a race against other robots. Great fun!
This is not a sig.
Check the top rated games at BoardGameGeek. My personal favourite is Puerto Rico.
Munchkin Fu homepage
IceHouse is awesome! It's a game construction set and has rules for lots of games, and you can make up your own. It's perfect for the creative geeky type, for the easily bored type, check it out!
Looney Labs has lots of other neat games too, Fluxx, Aquarius, many more.
Shae Erisson - ScannedInAvian.com
mod me down to hell if you will, but might I suggest you try an old and established game: the game of go
http://igs.joyjoy.net/
simple rules, yet computers have no chance against any decent human. addictive.
If you like Settlers (and who doesn't?), you should pick up the expansions: Seafarers of Catan adds ships, a new resource type and a bunch of different board layout options. Cities & Knights of Catan ads so much it's like a whole different game. Also, check out the game Puerto Rico. Lots of Catan players migrated to it when it was released a few years ago.
That game was introduced to me about 3 years ago and my now fiance and I play it whenever we have friends over. Since I live in lovely Florida, we had about a month off of work for all the hurricanes. I showed my folks how to play, now my family has been hooked.
Try getting one of the expansion, Knights of Cattan or Seafarers of Cattan.
Another good strategy game thats fairly quick is Sequence.
For quick games, Modern Art is exellent. A game takes about 20 minutes, IIRC (it's been a few years). It may not be what you want for your centerpiece game, but it is really good. You're basically buy and selling art pieces (cards) via different auctions. At the end of each round you total the value of the pieces in your collection plus whatever cash you have left over from the buying and selling part of the round. There's more to it than I make out, though, as the value of the work of each artist is based on the average value of all of the artist's pieces sold during the first half of the round. It's a subtle, well-balanced game, and unlike most of the big games, it is quick to play.
Rome wasn't bilked in a day.
Fun Again Games is a great site to buy this stuff.
Recommended games: Loco, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Tigris and Euphrates, and RoboRally.
because you know you want to believe that the Goldfish Fanciers are secretly controlling the Robot Sea Monsters that are actually behind the Republicans :-) fantastic game...
I don't know if you can still get them, but they were among the best, and very portable too; I don't know how many lunch breaks I spent playing those at school. Ah, memories...
-chris
San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
My son and I invent our own. The inventing process is at least 50% of the fun - and just occasionally, we come up with a really good one. For something totally off-the-wall, try 'Kniggits':
n ig gits
http://www.sjbaker.org/paper_and_pencil_games/k
(The URL is poorly chosen - it's not actually a paper and pencil game).
Gotta agree with the earlier post about the old Avalon Hill games - there were hundreds of them and 95% of them were really good. You should be able to find a zillion of them on eBay.
For something fairly simple, we've had a lot of fun with 'HeroScape' (from Milton Bradley) - but complexifying the game no end by adding our own rules. Also 'Pirates of the Spanish Main' from Wizkids (buy at least 10 packs to maximise the fun).
No list would be complete without mentioning Dungeons and Dragons - which is as much fun as the people you play it with - and is quite compatible with large quantities of alcohol.
www.sjbaker.org
Go is the most intense, addicting game I've ever played. Japanese rules are the rule-set we play by and it is amazing. If you have Mac OS X, check out Goban. For Linux, check out GNU Go. It is THE game.
.. Totally different games in style and theme, but both are tons of fun.
And, TTR won the 2004 Spiel Des Jahres!
Age of Renaissance is even better. Its like a improved version of Civilisation.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/26
http://www.ticket2ridegame.com, by Days of Wonder. We've been playing it at least once a day for the past month. Haven't worn it out from overuse yet.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
can;t be beat..
t .html
http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Fluxx/Defaul
it's only a simple card game, but then it rapidly becomes a complex card game...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Why not look at the highest user-rated board games in existence, many or which are new, and then read the comments about the games in order to determine what sounds appealing to you? Board Game Geek.com has all of this information readily available right here: game rankings
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
But don't play it by yourself. That's depressing. And a little creepy.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Looney Labs (and their weekly blog) make some excellent games that might fit your audience. They are perhaps best known for their card game Fluxx (my personal favorite), but also have a number of other games which are more board-game like.
The one that sounds most similar to what you're looking for is Chrononauts, the card game of time travel, which involves a time line that you build and control on the table. It also has an "Early American" version.
As already noted, they make the Icehouse pyramids which are most noted for games like Zendo and Ice Towers, but are also used for quite a few others.
Enjoy!
In Scotland Yard, one player takes the role of "Mr X" and attempts to evade the detectives. The playing area is a map of London, with routes marked in taxi, bus, underground, and ferry routes. Each player has a set of tickets they can use for each type of route. There are x of taxi tickets, y of bus tickets, and z of underground. Mr X is less limited. Mr X moves in secret, but every few turns, he must show himself.
I always liked this game, when I played it as a kid. As an adult, I found a copy of it in the game store. I told Chris, the owner, that I had played it as a kid, but forgotten about it. When I saw it on the shelf, I had to have it. It didn't matter that it cost around $30 at the time.
Chris informed me that this was a standard story. The game was rarely, if ever, advertised. Everyone who bought it did so because they had played it somewhere else, and found it hard to balk at the price. He said they had trouble keeping the game on the shelves. I believe it.
The beauty of the game is that every person who plays Mr X will do so differently. Inspectors are individuals. Every game is different, though the map stays the same.
Another favorite of mine is Empire Builder, but we're heading out to the truck stop for breakfast, so you'll have to do your own research on that one.
Visit Lockjaw's Lair. He won't bite.
I've written on these guys before, but let me do so again in a more straightforward manner:
Buy everything you see here. I assure that you will NOT be disappointed.
Days of Wonder is a great company who takes brilliant designs the world over and shares them with a geek-like audience. Me and my wife love Mystery of the Abbey. Think of it like a really interesting, deep version of Clue. No candlesticks, no ridiculous characters, and it actually has -strategy- incorporated, and everyone who has played it loves it immediately.
And no, I'm not even getting paid to say that (though of course, it would be nice).
You can also read some (tabletop) gaming blogs:
- BoardGamePlayer.com
- BoardGames-To-Go
- Chris Farrell's Gaming Blog
- Jeffro @ Mindsay
Lastly, I'd like to say that me and my wife's favorite non-boardgame is Bang!, an easy-to-learn great mechanic-filled game that anyone over the age of 7 will adore.
Oh, and of course, get all the recommendations you can handle over at the always fantastic BoardGameGeek.com.
Have fun!
Evan
CCGBlog.com - CCG Design, Theory, and Commentary
Of multi-player (>2) games Puerto Rico and Settlers are the best IMHO. Elfenland, another Game of the Year winner from Germany, like Settlers, is OK but not up on the other two. For two-player, I recommend The Castle --- a two-player version of Carcassone.
"Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get" - Jerry Avins
MWDA is a streamlined version of Battletech. The minatures contain the record sheets. The game plays pretty quickly and you can pick up second hand minatures on eBay cheap. An expensive game to play at the tournament competitive level - but cheap if you are just looking for something with your friends.
Of course you can play Classic BattleTech - though this requires a longer investment of time. Things are quite detailed and it can take quite some time to resolve rounds.
I play more MWDA now because although I miss the detail of classic BattleTech, being able to fight a company vs company level engagement in 2-3 hours (versus 2-3 days) is a big plus.
There is a new edition of Twilight Imperium out. Highly complex and takes a while to play - but a deep and rewarding experience.
The "future" version of Risk is quite fun as well.
If you're into the tile based games, Zombies is kind of interesting, although IMHO it's a little overly random, and not nearly as interesting as the other games you listed. Still, it's fun.
A game we've been playing lately is Filty Rich, a "3D" board game by Richard Garfield (creator of, amongst other things, Magic: The Gathering). The idea is you open shops, and then collect income from them, with the objective being to be the first one to buy three luxuries (trophy spouse, patent of nobility, private jet, etc...). The "game board" is a binder with four 3x3 plastic card-protector sheets inside. When you open a shop you place it's "sign" into the card-pockets on the sheet (a sign could span multiple pockets), then you roll some dice to see which pockets get visited, and collect income, and then there's a 50% chance you'll move to a new random page.
The game is "3d" since on a given page you can "see through" to pages underneath. It's quite a clever and fun little game. You can see the rule-book at the link above, if you're curious.
First, some suggestions on places to find info on what games are good:
The newsgroup rec.games.board is a great source of info on enthusiasts' opinions on board games. Someone maintains a database of ratings of games, as rated (mostly, or originally) by readers of the newsgroup. Search for "INTERNET TOP 100 GAMES LIST" (posted to the newsgroup every 2 weeks). Here's the current top 10, along with rating (1-10 scale) -- here's the link: http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Top100
1 8.494 Puerto Rico
2 7.865 Euphrat & Tigris
3 7.756 Die Siedler von Catan
4 7.742 Die Fursten von Florenz
5 7.504 Modern Art
6 7.503 El Grande
7 7.451 Carcassonne
8 7.409 Ohne Furcht und Adel
9 7.399 Goa
10 7.387 Vinci
You'll see two of the games you mentioned on the list - Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan (note that the bulk of the best boardgames are German in origin -- the original German names are used in the list). I would guess that if you liked Carc and Settlers, that you match the taste profile of the contributors to the list fairly well, so you'd probably like many of the games on the list.
I've played maybe half the games on the top 10. Personally, I like Settlers, Euphrat & Tigris, and Modern Art particularly well.
One important question is: how many players do you have? 4 seems to be considered to be the optimal number for multi-player games (which are the most fun). If you have a different number, then there are specialized lists you should refer to. However, from your post, it sounds like you have several players, so the above list should be suitable.
Another question is: what type of games do you like? There are economics-style (e.g. Settlers), bidding-style (e.g. Modern Art), deal-making (e.g. Chinatown), path-connection style (e.g. Streetcar), war games (e.g. Axis & Allies), race games (e.g. Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix), etc. etc. I guess you'd call this the genre.
Another thing to look for is the game designer. If you like a book by a certain author, you're likely to like other books by the same author. It's the same with games. Settlers was designed by Klaus Teuber -- a prolific game designer. So, you might look for other Teuber games. Many of the top-rated games were designed by Reiner Knizia -- I like just about every game of his which I've tried.
Another consideration is the complication of the game. You've mentioned Axis&Allies, which is relatively simple, and Settlers & Carc, which are moderately complex. Some of the games on the Top 100 list are fairly complex -- generally, at least as complex as Settlers and Carc.
Then there's game duration. If you like Axis & Allies, then you're probably not turned off by long-playing games. I'd think most games on the list would be OK.
There's a great website for boardgame enthusiasts, which you'd probably find useful in looking for new games: Boardgame Geek -- http://www.boardgamegeek.com
Finally, bearing all the above in mind, and considering the little scraps of information I have about you and your group, my tenuous suggestions:
I think you have maybe 4-6 people in your group. You have a taste for long games, and war and deal-making are appealing themes for you. Two classic games stand out in this category: Civilization (the board game which inspired the computer game), and Diplomacy. These are games which I would _most_ love to play, if I had a large enuf group of like-minded people available, and an unlimited amount of time. If you try Civilization, I recommend Advanced Civ over Civ.
I envy you, just starting to really delve into boardgames, with a group of enthusiastic players. You have some really great gaming to look forward to!
Good luck!
Risk 2210 is actually a lot of fun. I was sceptical when all the new variants of Risk started coming out, one for everyone and their uncle, but having played this one extensively I must say that it's very satisfying, and going back to the original on the occassions that, for whatever reason, we had to go back to the original, was met with a lot of grumbling.
It's way more complicated than the original Risk so it takes a while to get into, but some of the complexity goes a long way to alleviating the problems that made the original such a pain in the ass to play some times, like exponentially increasing army sizes and the potential for the game to never end. The rest of it is just fun.
If you haven't played this version but played the original, here are some highlights of what's new/different:
Having said all that, there's nothing preventing people from being very very bad losers, throwing pieces, getting whiny... I hope the next version comes with a tazer.
Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
A while back we had a 2004 Board Game Gift Guide that linked to some good resources. You might try those folks.
Here are some other games that I have played and enjoyed -
Tikal: One of a set of three board games published by Rio Grande Games, the other two being Mexica and Java. Having played all three, Tikal is probably my favorite. In it you play an archeological team unearning mayan-esque ruins for the win. Lots of fun, 2-4 players and about an hour and a half or so needed. Family Friendly.
Cosmic Encounter: Definately a more "hardcore" title, the best way to think of this is like Pax Imperia or Galactic Civilization in boardgame format. Requires a large table and has *lots* of little pieces, but it's incredibly fun if you have the time and patience. 2-4 players and about 3 hours (or more, depending).
Dos Rios: An incredibly fun game about diverting a pair of rivers such that you have the most plentiful harvest, while avoiding the bandits and your fellow players. Family friendly fun, 2-4 players and about an hour and a half or so.
221-B Baker Street: An oldey, but a good game nonetheless. Each time you play you're solving a different case. You travel from location to location finding clues and trying to stop your fellow players from doing the same. Family Friendly, 2-4 players, 60 minutes or less.
I haven't seen it mentioned yet, so i'll toss one into the ring: Shogun, aka Samurai Swords, is an excellent wargame. If you at all enjoy risk or A&A style games, give this one a shot (assuming you can find it because I don't think anyone makes it still). I remember having SO much fun playing it... its an absolute riot with the right people. I really loved the for being strategic, yet simple to follow. The majority of the action will always involve one of your three Daymo's (armies), rather than being a complete mess of independant units (ala risk). Every turn was a surprise too, because all players had to secretly distribute their resources (koku) and then reveal their 'plans' simultaneously (seeing who won the ninja/assassin was always exciting). Then you got to draw swords to determine that rounds playing order. Like I said though, people make a difference too. When we weren't moving stuff around on the board, someone was always whispering behind someone else's back... forging temporary alliances, playing all sides, plotting to stab your friends in the back. I think that was the part I liked the most - screwwing with other players heads as a part of the game. You were constantly plotting to double team the most powerful player, and then at the same time ruin your ally to come out on top yourself... only to be drug back down by the heads you stepped on to get to the top. Some games would last for days in a seemingly endless cycle of alliances, betrayals, feints, and strategic wizardry. :)
Many a sunrise-too-early crept over the blood stained fields of feudal japan when we dug out that game. Good times!
This company makes a ton of wierd, fun, -cheap- games. Prices range from free (on their website) all the way up to $7.50 or so (with most being being 5 bucks or less). They should be in stock at ayour local game store, if you have one. http://www.cheapass.com/
http://www.cranium.com/
Diplomoacy is a game of negotiation, with up to seven players controlling the seven empires in Europe in 1870. None are powerful enough to survive if others turn against them, so alliances are necessary. The game rules are relatively simple, so the game is all about intrigue: it's about the deals you make with the other players, and whether they believe they can trust you. In each round, players go off into corners or other rooms, negotiate, refuse to negotiate, make public gestures, make agreements (verbal or written, open or secret), keep or betray confidences, gether information, sound out rivals, and perform joint military planning. Then they hand the written orders (for their troops) to the adjudicator. All players moves (including any betrayals) are all revealed simultanously, and the outcomes of all movements or conflicts are resolved. No dice are used. Easily the best group board game I've ever played, because of its cleverly psychological nature. It inspired a Chess variant I once designed along similar lines.
Doom: The Boardgame
Anything with 3 Cyberdemon figurines has to be good.
See here. To save you the time, here's a list of stuff I found from that story, games that sounded interesting or worth checking out.
.
First, I decided I should really get into Go. Some links from that Slashdot story: here, The Second Book of Go here, here, here, here, and here.
Other games:
Apples to Apples - got this for my cousin, they liked it.
Settlers of Catan - got this for myself, very nice game, try a local hobby shop or here or try Amazon.com
Others: Puerto Rico (Similar to Settlers of Catan), Lord of the Rings board game was mentioned, Kill Dr. Lucky, Deadwood, Give me the Brain, Lightspeed Games, Fluxx is fun, very random and quirky.
There's more! Mind Trap
Munchkin , Heroscape, Ticket to Ride, Mystery of the Abbey, Memoir '44, Queen's Necklace at Days of Wonder, Bang!, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Articulate
Killer Bunnies (and Quest for the Magic Carrot), Illuminati , Acquire
Some other reviews/top game lists here:
here
here
here
Happy gaming!
Without the game's 36 page FAQ, IMO the game is forribly unplayable. It seems that NOBODY playtested most of the scenarios, and it shows.
I've played that game a dozen times, but I can't really recommend it. It's 20-40 minutes of almost random movement, followed by 5 minutes of reading incomplete special scenario rules, and then 1 or 2 turns of completely imbalanced gaming. There are two 'sides' and by the time everyone read the part of the rules that they are allowed to read, It's pretty clear who is winning that one. I was pretty much 'forced' into playing after the 3rd time. The game can be balanced and fun, but that only happens 1 out of 8 games, because of horribly balanced rules. To me, that's not worth playing, but YMMV.
For a horror boardgame, I'd just wait and see if the new release of Arkham Horror is any good.
I cant believe with all the conspiracy/monopoly nuts we have around here that they missed out on the chance to BASH Hasbro Inc.
Hasbro spent the 80s and 90s buying up everything. They were even smart enough to buy The Avalon Hill Game Company. AH held the copyrights to a huge stack of games. I mean hundreds and hundreds of games. AH had in the early 80s bought the rights to all the old SPI games. James Dunnigan had created and edited hundreds of games and simulations for SPI.
Yet Hasbro has not rereleased ANY of these games in their original forms. And apparently plans not to.
They Live, We Sleep
If you want REAL political intrigue, double-crossing and some strategy, try Junta! from West end Games.
You are the ruling families of a banana republic (it sounds so eighties!) and the aim of the game is diverting the most foreign aid funds possible in your swiss account.
Hours of fun, for people with a sense of humour!
You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
My family and I used to play a game called Acquire, which was centered on the idea of hotel chains growing and merging, and trading in stock on them. (Sadly, there were only mergers, no spinoffs or going out of business allowed.)
Still, it was great fun, far better than Monopoly, and we would play it maybe twice a month for years.
One I used to see folks having a great deal of fun with at a coffee shop I used to frequent is Cults Across America. (For reference, these same folks loved to play the stuff put out by Cheapass Games.)
- The Diplomatic Pouch
- The Stabbed
- diplomacy-archive.com
I've played with people all over the world at Diplomacy 2000, and I've never even owned a board. There are quite a few open source boards/adjucators (they do the logic behind the moves to determine movement success/failure). Of those, I recommend jDip, a feature-rich cross-platform java version.The game can get a bit involved, and there's a slight learning curve (very slight, especially if you've done Axis & Allies). Not for everyone, but it's worth a try if you like Risk.
However,
Attack takes everything I like about Axis and Allies (different units with offensive/defensive capabilities, an economic system, naval combat) with everything I like about Risk (picking your own territory and more or less random unit placement for a less predictable tactics and strategy) and manages to avoid most of the bad stuff from both. It can be found at Toys R Us currently for about $20, or you can order it from http://eaglegames.net/ for $30.
Best of all, if you like the basic game, which contains all the economic cards, land units, cards representing naval units, and a board representing the western hemisphere of the world, you can buy an expansion. The expansion contains plastic naval units with more complex combat rules, a political system (your governments can be fascists, communist, monarcy, or democracy, with different bonuses and strengths for each), and a board representing the other half of the world. The basic game is good for six players and three to six hours of play, the full game can support 10-12 for some all-day sessions.
The games rules are fairly easy to learn in one go, although the implications as far as tactics go take a while to sink in. The units and board look great, and are large and detailed. The game single handedly reawakened my group's interest in the genre, bridging the gap between beer and pretzels and more serious wargaming. (I don't want to mislead the grognards, its still pretty beer and pretzels, but if all you've played is Risk and A&A, it can stretch you a bit.)
Speaking of Risk, I also like the new Risk 2210. Its classic Risk, but with "hero" units that can roll eight sided die against the standard six, sea and moon bases to conquer, some battle and diplomacy cards (somewhat similar to Castle Risk), and nuclear devastation tokens that can completely alter the board from game to game. Its a pretty fun diversion for Risk fans.
Like my comments? Try my podcast: http://www.baldmove.com
Even before you buy the game if you manage to find it, the above site will give you an idea about it and help out with expansions and rule changes for the better of the game. They have done a HECK of a lot of work on continuing the development of the game, adding comodities, calamities, technologies, expanding the board, adding more players, rule changes, etc., which all create an even more interesting game.
I will say this, if you can not get the Advanced Civilization expansion set, the game is not NEARLY as good. But this is what makes it so hard to find. The regular Civilization game shows up on Ebay about 1-2 times a week and usually goes for around $80 depending on condition. However, Advanced Civ only shows up 1-2 times a month and goes for between $100-200 depending on condition. That is a lot of money to spend on a game if you are not sure you like it. I was lucky enough to play it about a year after it stopped being in production and absolutly loved the game. I was also lucky enough to actually find a store which still had it in stock (I called up every game store I could find, and found a place 80 miles away which still had it, they held it for me and I bought them, if I recall for their retail price of between $35-40 each, which is an absolute bargain now).
Another GREAT game is Republic of Rome also by Avalon Hill. Again, this is also no longer being made and is fairly rare to find. I didn't want to pay more then $150 for it and it took me 7 months to win an auction on Ebay for that price. Yes, there were several that went for less then that, but those were games that the sellers did not know if all the pieces existed anymore.
I would also check out other great Avalon Hill games like "Merchants of Venus" and "Blackbeard". Not everyone likes Blackbeard, but we do. We made some rules changes to add another player, it also seems to balance the game better (basically you do not really go in "turns", the person who's current turn it is pulls a card at the end of the turn to find out who goes next (the cards have a place on them for the number of players in the game and either a "blank", "player 1", "player 2", "player 3", or "player 4"). The game was designed for 4 people max, and if the blank come up, it remains that person's turn OR if it come up with your number (say player 3), it is also your turn. The blanks are there for the single player version of the game... Anyway, we changed the rules so you use the line for the number of players that you have minus 1 (i.e. if you have 4 players you use the 3 player game line), and if a blank shows up, it remains your turn, but if a certain player shows up, it is the player who is that many from the left of the person who drew the card (i.e. if player 2 is shown on the card, the person 2 people to the left of the current player now has a turn). I really helps balance the game more as well as give all the people at the table more turns instead of it being the same players turn 3 or 4 times in a row while everyone else does nothing but sit there...
Again, civilization is probably one of the greated board games ever created, especially if you have a large number of people (8-19 or more with the civproject.net expanded rules). Now it will take some time for you to get/make the board, pieces, cards, etc., if you use the civproject.net's expanded board and rules, but it is worth it to do. The regular Advanced Civ game is for 2-8 players and is really good as well (we play this the most, we only use the extra board/rules when we have more players).
I know I didn't talk much about Republic of Rome. It is too hard to describe. Basically I will give you this paraphrased quote from the rule book "The complexity of this game will make games such as 'Diplomacy' seem like 'Shoots and Ladders'". And to give you a hint, "Diplomacy" is a complex game.... You will proba
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Fun game, with scrabble-like wordplay, but with cards.
I don't care about your karma, I don't care about what's hip. --Weird Al
While I've seen a few mentions of Sid's works here (Most notably Acquire), there are other works by him which are worth looking into. Specifically, I look at this statement:
We have worked through the gamut of games...
And wonder if you are aware of Sid's wonderful book, A Gamut of Games which contains protoypical versions of many of his best games, including Focus and Solitaire Dice, as well as some great discussions on gaming from a gamers POV, from a collector's POV, and from a designer's POV. The book is sadly out of print, but used copies can be found in all the old familiar places.
Next, you'll likely want to pick up a copy of Sid's answer to Clue, that being Sleuth. I find it superior to even Mystery of the Abbey (Which I would probably like better if I could figure out a way to keep track of where stuff is after mass), and it only costs $15 retail.
Another really interesting game by Sid (and currently being published by Face2Face games, who publishes the current versions of Sleuth and Buyword as well) is I'm the Boss, which is purely a dealmaking game, with plenty of cutthroat action.
I'd recommend Buyword too, except I've never played it.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
I really like Abalone. http://uk.abalonegames.com/
Diplomacy is a game of pure neogtiating skill and strategy. It's really a unique game because your success is entirely based on your effectiveness at manipulating your friends :).
I remember a game I played where one of the people involved was completely honest and open with everybody. However, when he talked to them, he always sounded like he was just about to stab them in the back. So of course people would betray him before he got the chance.
Of the tabletop style games, this is the only game that my wife will actually play. She can't stand Axis and Allies, etc, but with this game she has had quite a bit of fun.
One word of caution: NEVER EVER DRINK WHILE PLAYING DIPLOMACY. A game that is primarily based on back stabbing can get people really cranky when they've had a few.
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Carcasonne, Settlers, Puerto Rico, Tikal, ... each of these is a representative of a refreshing trend that has held on for at least a decade now: The decade of a new generation of german boardgames. It's the first time we actually see leasure products being translated en masse from german into english. I can say that any of these games are good for perfect passtime.
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/ is a website that has many official web/internet variants of these types of games with english versions aswell. It's main gaming client runs with java and gives a chance to test games that you might want to purchase as hardcopy. If you find a game that you like I can strongly recommend getting the german version and a seperate translation of the rules, as german boradgames, especially the new generation, are of an impressive quality.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
YMMV
But the two times I've tried this game, it's been a complete failure. The tasks are too easy, and lack any depth. It's like an american version of a cool foreign film.
JMHO
http://www.princeton.edu/~mafia/rules.htm Very noisy game!
-ubuntu others as you would have others ubuntu you.
Everyone must own this game of construction and destruction. It's somewhat like jenga, except someone wins.
Game of the year for Germany in 2002.
More info via wikipedia.
Calling Pente a "Go variant" is like calling checkers a chess variant. The play equipment is sort of similar but that is as far as it, er, goes.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
The rules to go are very clean if stated cleanly; see http://homepages.cwi.nl/~tromp/go.html
Sometimes people who have played only a game or two think that ko is an exception, but this is a misconception; in advanced strategy it is a fundamental rule that is considered in almost every important move.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.