Gaming

My favorite, and most played game is absolutely Arboretum.

It plays quick, it's small enough to stash in a bag, it's easy to teach, and it feels like it has endless play and variation. The game also lets me do one of my favorite things in a board game, which is let me go for high risk high reward "shoot the moon" strategies. Absolutely lovely bit of tension and backstabbing fun, but concentrated all into the reveals right at the end so it doesn't drag the entire experience. Great at every player count, especially at 2 players which is important given that most of my board gaming is just with my wife.

Plus you get to look at lovely art of trees while you playing (with the original edition at least, the newer one has worse art IMHO).

The Red Dragon Inn is fun, especially when you drink real alcohol when you "drink" in game

Lately our group has been playing a lot of Betrayal at House on the Hill, wish I would have got a copy of Betrayal Legacy when it was in print. Other ones in the current rotation are Root (which I adore), and Call to Adventure. I really want to give Twilight Imperium a go, but I haven't convinced enough friends yet haha.

Me and my SO plays Caracassone alot 😄 and me and my brother plays War of the ring when we manage to find time.

Both are really fun in diffrent ways

I really like BattleCon, a fighting game-inspired card/board game that did a really good job translating the mindgames and oki into a turn-based format. They had an online version of it but sadly halted development because they couldn't figure out how to monetize it.

I also love me some good ol' Riichi Mahjong. There's a group that brings tiles to fighting game tournaments since these are becoming cons in disguise, I got some nice hands at Combo Breaker this year.

My SO is much more into boards games than I do, but I really like Kingsdomino. It's quick, requires a little bit of strategy, but not too much as I don't like thinking when playing, so that suits me. I also love Unlock, but that's the same genre :p

I really like Lords of Waterdeep and Xenoshyft:Onslaught.

Magic Maze is a collaborative game that’s always fun. Everything is done in “silence” because you’re unable to consult with each other to escape the maze. Warning is that it could get quite chaotic

My best friend and I used to play SubTerra when we hung out every weekend. Company that originally made it is sketchy for a number of reasons, but they're also gone now and another company owns the games. It's a tile based game where you are trying to escape a cave system with monsters in it and you create the board as you play. Each character has abilities to help this and there's a turn limit you have to escape in. It can be really addicting.

I also really enjoy Campy Creatures and Space Park - they're pretty simple games (same creators) that a great for a group of 3-5. Campy Creatures is a little bit like War, where each player gets a hand of monsters and the highest number wins. There are "people" cards laid out and winning lets you pick who you take, with the people having point values assigned (which is what ultimately determines the winner). Hopefully I explained it okay. Space Park is very different - the goal is to get 20 victory points, which are mostly earned by completing tasks. There are 6 "locations" you travel to which give you various resources to help you complete the tasks.

I also love playing Quiddler - it's a fun word game, nothing super complex about it unless you play with people who make up words (we have a rule that half the table has to agree that it's a word).

These come out a lot at my game nights, hopefully I did them justice with my descriptions.

For several years we regularly played my roommates Battlestar Galactica Game. Sadly now I don't have the group for board games anymore.

Secret Hitler if that counts as a board game. Otherwise it’s an obscure game called Ankh-Morpork. Really good asymmetrical game whether you are a Discworld fan or not.

Some of our favorites are Catan, power grid, ticket to ride, azul, and bananagrams.

For consistent fun: Codenames, The Resistance, Secret Hitler

Recent board game which I really enjoyed: Takenoko. I loved the change in game phases.

Most chaotic fun I had years ago: Captain Sonar!

I mainly play abstracts nowadays for their quick setup/cleanup time - Yinsh, Hive, Blokus Duo are some of my favorites.

Really enjoying Glass Road at the moment, want to check out more Rosenberg, but they're all out of stock and the big boxes seem extortionate on UK eBay. Have pre-ordered Nusfjord, reprint hopefully arriving in September :/

Never been much for boardgames, but the one I've always loved is Atmosfear. We had the old DVD version when I was a kid and it was just great.

It never takes too long due to the timer. No playtrough is the same due to the randomisation. And the way you need to work together against the evil guy on the DVD or everyone looses, while having work against each other to win over other players is just so well done. It's also complex enough to stay interesting, but not too complex to make it hard to play for non-die hard boardgame players.

My favorite long game (as in over a couple of hours) is Merchant of Venus. For shorter games I like Azul, Splendor, 7 Wonders Duel, That's Pretty Clever, Lost Cities R&W, Star Realms, and more.

My group doesn't have much time for board games, so we like 5 Minute Dungeon. The 5 minutes is a limit using a timer, and it's co-op so it's everyone against the clock.

I've fallen in love with Arkham Horror The Card Game. It's difficult and can be played solo if I really feel the need.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game/

For a newer board game I like Ticket To Ride, especially the Rails and Sails edition but I'm most partial to the old Avalon Hill games like Titan and Merchant of Venus.

My city is an astoundingly good game. My wife and I are playing it basically every weekend at the moment. Super easy to learn, tactically rich, the art is lovely and you make your own city story to some extent. It's just wonderful.

I'm mostly into deck builders and I haven't seen these mentioned before so I'll drop two of my favourites Dune: Imperium and (TBOI:) Four Souls! Also an honorable mention to Dominion but I haven't played that in a while.

Carcassonne and Rummikub.

I have very little experience with board games so I'm using this thread for ideas to try out. But I did play Betrayal and liked it so I'll say that one is my favorite.