The Thread Where We Are Board Game Geeks

To expound on my "dumb" friends, I think the thing those friends sometimes don't like about Ticket or Settlers is that the complexity of the rules and actions is overwhelming for them. Sometimes they start getting antsy even as I explain the rules. I mean, fair enough, some people just aren't into those kinds of games, and as far as board games go they're not that complicated. But then, the same friends will enjoy stuff like Carcassonne because there's less rules information to explain and remember, even though the number of tricky decisions might be about the same. You can play Carcassonne with almost no thought (of course, you probably won't win), whereas with Ticket and Settlers there's more knowledge you need to know about legal moves and possible actions. I've found Carcassonne to be more universally appealing.

It's also very placid and has lovely imagery on the tiles.

xpost

Vinnie's exactly right, it has less to do with the age of the people playing and more to do with how comfortable they are with internalizing a set of rules that can be a bit more finicky than an old school board game.

Even with Carcassonne, the rules are pretty easy but it has a scoring system that can cause some confusion at first, and if you don't internalize that scoring system you will lose.

Yeah, the farm scoring alone makes it so most newbies get creamed.

My point being that I would rather play a game with beginners where there is chance they would grasp the concept/mechanics/tactics early on instead of mindlessly playing to just play. TTR always seems to work well for that. I played it with my parents and they are not the brightest bulbs, but did well and enjoyed it.

apples to apples is the easiest game for people who arent good at games

I much prefer Dixit and Wits and Wagers to Apples to Apples but party games are another animal altogether.

conflicted feelings about calling those 'party' games but yeah, i only mention it because more people seem to enjoy them than even super basic stuff like 'king of tokyo' or 'epic spell wars' or w/e

Bizarrely, my parents (who are good with rules and card games in particular) struggled to get to grips with TtR in a way I would never have expected.

Kill Doctor Lucky is actually a pretty good entry game, it encourages thinking/planning ahead and the idea of forcing someone else to use a resource so they then can't stop you. Forbidden Island is a nice little co-op rather than jump straight into Pandemic.

My fave Ticket to Ride is still Märklin, mainly b/c I like sending the little boater-capped dudes on their adventures thru Germany.

For entry/gateway games, tho, I do recommend Carcassonne and Catan. There are even free online versions to muck with.

carcs is soooo much better than dumb catan

Acquire is a good entry level game as well, though if you get behind early it's pretty miserable.

I really dislike the trading aspect of Catan. I like the Catan card game much better.

Trading is my fave part of Catan, I like that it keeps everyone active even when it's not your turn.

7 wonders is hella fun

also played forbidden desert once and we all got creamed, it was depressing

I've had very good luck playing 7 Wonders with non-gamers.

once you get over the small learning curve it's the easiest thing in the world but people still get really O_O when you try to teach them everything at once

thinking about rebalancing it so that war victories are worth 1 or 2 points more, ime so far it's been too weak a factor.

Haven't played Forbidden Desert but I don't think it's any harder than Forbidden Island - but I kind of stand by what I said, both of these are entry level co-ops with a greater chance of winning than Pandemic/Twelve Ghosts/Witch of Salem (that's probably in ascending order of likelihood of getting absolutely smashed to bits in).

Love 7 Wonders. Love it. One of my favorite games ever. I find science (green cards) are too weak a factor, rather than military, but of course it depends a lot on what cards your playgroup value.

ya wonders looks impenetrably cryptic at first but its actually easy as pie

Haven't played Forbidden Desert but I don't think it's any harder than Forbidden Island - but I kind of stand by what I said, both of these are entry level co-ops with a greater chance of winning than Pandemic/Twelve Ghosts/Witch of Salem (that's probably in ascending order of likelihood of getting absolutely smashed to bits in).

― Ian Glasper's trapped in a scone (aldo), Thursday, January 30, 2014 4:48 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would really like to play any of the SUPER COMPLEX and time-consuming co-op games but my friends are not that nerdy and way too competitive

what i really want in my life right now is betrayal at house on the hill, which somehow hasn't been mentioned itt? it's wonderful fun co-op until it's not, easy to learn, and every copy in the world costs THREE HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS BECAUSE FUCKING WIL WHEATON

If other players undervalue science it is not hard to obtain a full double or even triple set of the cards which will normally be enough points to win you the game.

To be fair to him, what happened to Betrayal wasn't a Wheatoning. It was already pretty rare before he featured it, I got my copy a couple of months before it was on Tabletop and it was being described as 'one of the last copies available' then.

I haven't managed to get a game of it together yet. :-/

I like the idea of so-called 'party' games like Dixit quite a lot because they appear to require a spot of imaginative thinking as well as strategic. How's that one?

I just really don't fancy Dixit at all, and/or wouldn't find anyone to play if with.

Dixit isn't really strategic at all - in fact, it goes over well with my friends who dislike strategy games. The fun of the game varies wildly on how imaginative people want to be; I've had really good games and really boring games. Also I rarely play more than once in a row, because it's difficult to come up with fun/interesting descriptions. It's a cool game even with those caveats, would recommend.

Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity, Wits and Wagers, and Time's Up (aka Celebrities) are also good party games you might like, dl.

played wits and wagers for the first time last night with a group of friends, pretty fun. i hate cards against humanity, it ruins whatever is fun about apples to apples by forcing "edgy" humor into it.

I know where you're coming from - my first reaction to Cards Against Humanity was that it robbed the fun out of AtA by making everything edgy. But after I played a few games, I started liking the questions more than the adjectives in AtA. Especially the ones with two blanks, which add a different angle for creativity.

i hate cards against humanity, it ruins whatever is fun about apples to apples by forcing "edgy" humor into it.

if you've ever harbored suspicions that certain acquaintances are deeply unfunny play 'cards against humanity' with them, it will be horribly obvious w/in about 10 min, then you will get to keep playing for another two hours

playing CAH with people who are like politically into it is just the worst. and play with too many people and it gets tremendously boring. by the dozenth card announced you don't even remember what the question was and then the person has to chooooooose ugh

best party-ish game i've played lately is anomia

Went for Carcassonne in the end, erring on the side of caution

Cards Against Humanity is the worst - "mixer" game for freshman drama students who like showing off how 'edgy' and 'over the top' they're willing to go, but need the crutch of cards coming pre-loaded with "hilarious" "off-color" phrases. It also loses the actual humor in Apples to Apples, which emerges from an appreciation for your friends' moments of offbeat logic and surprising combinations of ideas.

eh i think Cards still retains the offbeat logic thing sometimes. imo its major downfall is that because it trades in shock value it has super low replay value. like if "firing a shotgun while balls deep in a hog" is trying too hard the first time someone plays it, it is so incredibly tedious the second time.

there aren't really THAT many major shock value cards -- a lot of it is just slightly more adult/varied A2A. i read every one (of the initial set) on christmas cause my sister was thinking about playing with the family and i was determined to locate and remove every single card i wouldn't want to explain to my mom. still sounds like a horrible idea not sure why anyone would want to play with their parents

but yeah the cards like "firing a shotgun while balls deep in a hog" or "the taint; the grundle; the fleshy fun-bridge" are barely meant to be played, they're just meant to be read and laughed at in their own context. they'd never actually win. one thing that sort of annoys me about it.

I played it with my bro & my mom over the holidays; it was weird

So I guess I'm amassing a bit of a collection.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f223/joegood/DSC01021_zpsc030813c.jpg

Where to next? I kind of want another one that's easy to learn and can be played in under an hour. And maybe that's good with only two players.

So I received Carcassonne last week and have played it three times with different people and they all love it. Nice one!

chap, what's Cosmic Encounter like?

Settlers of Catan is worth getting, it's 3+ people though.

chap, what's Cosmic Encounter like?

― Spaghetti Sauce Shampoo (Moodles), Monday, February 10, 2014 3:12 PM (8 minutes ago)

I'll repost something I wrote about it upthread:

it's a silly and crazy imbalanced game but can be very fun.

This is pretty OTM. Like you can be building a tactic and reserving some kick arse attacks for a big push, then some bonkers card comes up which completely disrupts the status quo and you're back to square one. There's still skill involved, but it's more reacting to the situations that arise rather than trying to build a coherent strategy, which will almost inevitably end in frustration.

It's a good laugh though, and pretty easy for anyone to pick up. I like the slight pokerish/psycological element of selecting your encounter cards.

Settlers of Catan is worth getting, it's 3+ people though.

― Kim Wrong-un (Neil S)

I've played Catan a few times and always enjoyed it.

cosmic is fun

played a huge twilight imperium game this weekend, it was pretty fun too.

It looks a bit more strategic/less wacky than Cosmic, true?

oh god yes. it's like a super complex game that takes 8 hours and feels like multiple strategic games on top of each other. i'm not even sure i like it, but it's fun to hang out with some of my buddies for 8 hours and do something ridiculous.

A+, s1ocki
we need to start collaborating :)

it's like a super complex game that takes 8 hours and feels like multiple strategic games on top of each other. i'm not even sure i like it, but it's fun to hang out with some of my buddies for 8 hours and do something ridiculous.

― socki (s1ocki)

Game of Thrones looks like it might be like that. Haven't played it yet, it only arrived three days ago.

we need to start collaborating :)

― sean gramophone, Monday, February 10, 2014 12:06 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

let's do it this week or weekend!

lol i got an email from amazon that betrayal at house on the hill was available for $50 so i went SHIT SHIT SHIT and ordered it immediately