Uh which board games have a battle pass?
Good for you 16-25 year olds. You've cracked the code.
Some solid games for starting out.
2 Players ----
Jaipur
Targi
Innovation
Star Realms
More Players
It's a Wonderful World
Inis (more complex)
Hero Realms
Port Royal
Dixit
Azul
Anyone have a recommendation for something new that's fun for both beginners and experienced boardgamers? I think I picked up Escape from the Dark Castle most recently, which got a little stale after just a couple runs. Open to all genres, thanks!
Wingspan - resource manipulation
Ascension -deck builder
DOMINION - deck building
King Of Tokyo - a little bit resource management, little bit battle simulation.
Incan Gold. It's a press-your-luck style of game. It's one of go-to gateway games for new players. Explanation takes about 15 mins, easy to understand, and has always been a hit at parties.
Castles of Burgundy
Patchwork
Galaxy Truckers
Spirit Island
Arkham Horror
Blood on the Clocktower
Once Upon A Time
Afternova is a good one. Light trading/bartering, fun theme, hidden objectives so it's hard to see a clear winner. Small box and easy to set up!
If you haven't played it, Carcassonne is the GOAT here. Hard to beat. Lots of planning, indirect conflict and vying for points, expansions later if you want. Very very good game you will not regret.
For something more serious, but still not too complex, you could try one of the "span" games - Wingspan is my pick. It does seem complex to set up and there are a lot of bits. It's not a very social game, though. Kind of like playing solitaire and then comparing afterwards.
Honorary mention to Inis which is my favourite game. Also reasonably easy to play but some of the rules can be hard to wrap your head around (the rulebook isn't super well written).
In another thread I recommended Quacks. It's a push your luck game where you play as a quack doctor. It's a good game for all levels of experience, at least imo. It's not complicated to explain to new players, yet with all the permutations of rulesets there's a lot of emergent complexity for more experienced players. I think the push your luck aspect also adds to this, as I've had first timers beat me just cause I drew poorly. Some people may really hate that though, but I think it's more fun for newer players to have a chance even at my expense. It's also really fun to peer pressure your friends into drawing too much.
Abstract strategy games like Pente, Go, and Pai Sho tend to be pretty easy to learn and have high skill ceilings. That's most of what i play so i don't have other recommendations.
Good. Hopefully subscriptions to various entities are dropping like flies. Fuck the subscription way of life!
What is that? Subscription board games you say?
You know some dickhead is out there trying to figure them out... ๐
Love seeing board games get their due respect! Anyone here checked out Eternal Decks?
I think I have only two regular subscriptions, one of which is for board game arena!
In a better world I think something like Redbox for board games might've been pretty cool, but luckily a couple of places let you go in and try them out. I haven't seen Eternal Decks before but it looks fun. My friends and I have been playing Cosmic Encounter and Quacks lately.
I love that my local library loans out board games!
I've been interested in Cosmic Encounter, it's gotten a lot of positive attention in my hunt for games to dive into...
Heard of Quacks but haven't checked it out myself...
Which board games have resonated most for your group?
Quacks is one of my favorites for a few reasons:
Cosmic Encounter is a little harder for people to get in to, but once they do it's also got a lot of variety of strategies with the different aliens you can get, so it doesn't get stale
Another easy to table game is Betrayal, but we've played it enough to the point where we know most of the haunts and are kind of fatigued with it.
Most often, however, we end up playing Blood on the Clocktower. It's not quite a board game, more like Werewolf except it doesn't suck. I highly recommend it if you've ever been frustrated with Werewolf/Mafia, or if you've played (or watched) Gnosia. You can buy the game or DIY your own set as you can find the instructions online.
For my circle that's more board game enthusiasts, we like Wingspan, Nemesis, and Libertalia. Some older games that we don't really touch anymore are Terraforming Mars and Root. They're not bad but for our specific group we take forever to finish them and end up strategizing in ways that discourage player interaction.
I was completely surprised by how much different flgs have become. I went to a charity tournament for a game and the 20 tables we took up weren't even a tenth of what was available and it was about 75% full with a diverse crowd throughout the weekend. You could order food and drink from the attached restaurant. There were inclusive conduct rules too large to miss on the walls. It was downright pleasant. I've been missing out.
Hi, I hope this is the right place but can someone suggest me a board game for a family that goes five years old up? For example we play with Exploding kittens. Edit: to everyone whom replied thank you so much! I'll look your suggestions and see what could work. I must say that this is an awesome community!
Carcassonne. When you start, it may be easier to exclude playing farmers, which is pretty common and totally fine. There are lots of expansions you could get in the future that change the gameplay a bit to make it a bit more strategic and offer different paths to victory. The base game is still great though.
You can start small.
Town66 has simple, sudoku-like placement rules, which little kids have no problems with.
Have you considered TTRPGs? I've started my 4 year old on a game called Hero Kids and he loves it!
Depending on your child, this one might be good. It says 8+ They may not strategize for high score, but it is as easy as matching ends of dominos. So can be fun for young ones if you don't play competitively.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204583/kingdomino
There is a similar game, Dragomino, for 5+ but we haven't tried it
I got Catan Junior for my little brother, who was 5 at the time and I believe my step dad said he grasped it pretty well
My first Castle panic was fun.
How's their attention span? Stuffed fables is an awesome game, as is cora quest.
Concept kids is a blast, makes everyone think
Zombie kids is a legacy co-op game that was fun
Piggy back brigade is easy fun
Big groups enjoy green team wins
It really depends on the kid though, age ranges are sometimes really hit or miss
Our kid is train centric, so if you want a list of train games, ask and I'll spend a bit sorting through what we have.
Edit: Magical Athlete is amazing.
Train centric? So ticket to ride is in their future, yeah?
We have almost all of the ticket to ride, including legends of the West (legacy)
Before that: engine engine number nine, rail wreck, rail pass
And Lego trains, ho and o scale trains...
Eventually they'll want to play empyreal, but it's a lot.
On Kickstarter recently: spirit train
I'm sure I'm missing some, but that feels close to complete.
(Not trains, but they've played some spirit Island recently and it's gone well, so harder train games are likely in my future)
Edit: also railroad ink (all), railroad tiles (all)
Shout out to the little plastic train company for extra minis. https://littleplastictrain.com/
The same company that makes Exploding Kittens makes a couple other fun party games that a 5 year old would probably eat up. Throw Throw Burrito (alternatively, Throw Throw Avocado), Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, Poetry for Neanderthals, On a Scale of One to T-Rex, Hand-to-Hand Wombat, Bears vs Babies.
Some of these might be a taaaad too complex for a 5 year old, but I think they could learn most of the concepts or you could slightly trim the rules to make them easier for a 5 year old. They are all fun and hugely silly, which a 5 year old should love.
My First Castle Panic is going to be fun for kids as is almost any game made by the HABA company
If you want something adults will also be able to enjoy past the first playthrough, Coconuts is also a spectacular choice!
Here's an interesting game, Tak.
It's an interesting game, and part of the rules are helping your opponent to not lose.
Tsuro is great for kids, most kids know how to follow a line.
I could go bankrupt on Gamefound.
I went to Spiel two times now, that really hurts my wallet...
Catan rules!
It's ok as a gateway drug, but I'm in the camp that always vetos it and cards against humanity in favor of one of the hundreds of more interesting games.
I played again recently for the first time in a few years. What a drag. It's as bad as Monopoly IMO, pure chance and no strategy after the first placement. I want to influence the game and make decisions and plan ahead - Catan does none of that especially well, if at all. Give me Dune or Inis!
Lmao did you really downvote me for enjoying Catan and then go on a rant about how much cooler you are than me because you like more niche games?
Votes mean nothing here so have fun but that's fucking hilarious lmao, "oh you like Nirvana? I bet you've never even heard of Tad or Gruntruck, loser" but even nerdier hahaha. Get a grip kid.
The smug put downs really aren't giving you the high road in this one.
Reap what you sow, and such.
I didn't downvote you, you ass.
Let's Play a Game! A place to discuss all things board game, regardless of genre. Everything from Scrabble and Catan to Ark Nova, 1830 and beyond is fair game! That means we have blackjack. Bring your own hookers, sorry.
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