2006 Board Games Gift Guide

SlantyBard writes "As per previous years, the Morning News has published their annual guide to Good Gift Games. You can also always check out BoardGameGeek's gift guide to boardgames or Funagain's all time top bestseller list for great gifts for your family and friends." From the Morning news post: "Occasionally I'll play a new game so elegant in design that I'll come away amazed that it hadn't been thought of before. Hey! That's My Fish! is the most recent example. Sixty small hexagons (each showing one, two, or three fish) are assembled into an ice floe. Players then place their penguins onto the board, and play begins. On a turn, a player moves one of his penguins and then claims the hex the penguin just vacated, scoring points for the fish shown thereon. The ice floe slowly melts as more and more hexes are taken. Eventually there will be no more legal moves, and the person with the most fish wins. It's extremely simple and remarkably strategic."

Comments

Cartagena

[Roy van Rijn]

I usually don't like boardgames that take hours to read the rules. I just want to sit down and play it once in a while.
When I was at some friends house this weekend we played Cartagena, a very simple but intresting game!
Has anybody else played it?

Buy Board Games That Encourage Cooperation

[DeepCerulean]

There's enough crap out there that encourages everyone to "go for the win". If you're buying board games, especially for kids, I'd suggest looking into some cooperative games (check out Family Pastimes). I've been trying to get into these for a while, but unfortunately my friends have never been into them (they refer to "Our Town" as "Communist Monopoly"). But whatever, it's worth a look.

Blast from the past

[silentounce]

I didn't even know they still made that Scotland Yard game. I had a lot of fun with that when I was a kid. I'd also recommend CAG. Plus if you love strategy and have some hours to kill I'd highly recommend Advanced Civilization or Diplomacy. In my opinion Diplomacy surpasses Risk because the only element of chance involved is your opponent.

Apples to Apples

[wuie]

I've played the game Apples to Apples many times, and what I love the most about it is that you have enough cards for practically everyone at the party to play, especially if you have all the special sets combined into one large set. There have been times where we've had 10+ people in a circle, all playing the most absurd things that they have in their hand. Plus, I love how if you are the judge, you can choose *any* criteria you want for voting the best one.

There's one house rule that we always use, and this always makes for more entertainment: we play two descriptor cards instead of just one. Trying to match one thing is ho-hum, but trying to match two adjectives makes the game much more interesting.

Re:monopoly

[meringuoid]

A favorite for a few of us is Monopoly. However, I've been in search of a game similar to this but more complex. The most important thing I'm looking for is the outcome of the game depending more on strategy and less on chance. Anyone know of any such board games?

Monopoly-by-the-book.

First and foremost, this means no money gets put in the middle for Free Parking, ever; it goes to the bank where it belongs. You CAN buy on your first time round. If you choose not to buy unowned property when you have the chance, the property goes up for auction, and you can bid for it even if you turned it down at the list price. There is no double salary for landing exactly on Go. If there are no houses left in the box and somebody wants to build, too bad, they can wait till some houses get freed up, and if some bastard hogs all the houses by refusing to upgrade to hotels, that's his right and he deserves everything he gets if he gets the Make General Repairs card.

Nobody plays Monopoly by the rules, but the Free Parking Jackpot kills the game stone dead, and auctions (a) get all the properties owned much more quickly and cheaply, and (b) raise the backstabbing factor by about a billion.

Re:Fluxx

[Shadow Wrought]

I guess I just don't have the time to be too snobby about gaming. I've played everything from SFB to Silent Death to Dragon Dice to various versions of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. Most of which require a large investment of time. So Fluxx is nice because it lets you play with people who wouldn't otherwise be doing any type of game and its relatively fast. And, I am still curious as to what games you like and enjoy, especially since you're an admitted snob;-) Not trolling, but genuinely curious because I'm heading down to visit a gaming friend next week. We were going to be playing several of the above, but if there's another one out there that you like and play, then I'd check it out.

Re:Fluxx

[Byteme]

As of late... Age of Steam, Twilight Struggle (IGA winner 2006), Traders of Genoa, 1830, Power Grid, Friedrich, War of the Ring... mostly interested in economic / stock market simulations and war games (GMT Games, MMP Games). I do play chess, poker and some other lighter fare...

If I was suggesting a gift / newbie games in the ease to teach / pick-up realm that you place Fluxx then I'd suggest For Sale, Bonhanza, Bang!, Coloretto, That's Life. Though I've had success converting people with much deeper games... the ones I list are fun, quick to play, high replay value and easy to teach / learn. You can look them up here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/