Favorite board games!

[coolerifyoudid]

Not sure if the OP is a chess player, but four person chess is pretty fun.

View attachment 53602

Set up four boards, each person sets up on a side, and it's every player for themselves.

Just played this last weekend. Solo play is fun, but I really liked playing as a team. We played it where you had to knock out both opposing kings to win, but all other pieces were still in play until both kings were taken.

The strategy of playing freely without having to protect your own king was pretty fun. My queen became a ruthless assassin after her husband was killed.

 

[FerShizzle]

Sequence is a good one that can be played with any number of players and by people of all ages. Plus games are relatively quick depending on House Rules (usually 15-20 minutes per game).

 

[Gonzo]

Just played this last weekend. Solo play is fun, but I really liked playing as a team. We played it where you had to knock out both opposing kings to win, but all other pieces were still in play until both kings were taken.

The strategy of playing freely without having to protect your own king was pretty fun. My queen became a ruthless assassin after her husband was killed.

I've never played it as teams, sounds like fun and would add all kinds of different strategy elements.

 

[ISC]

King of Tokyo - take command of a giant monster and defeat others rolling dice

Sheriff of Nottingham - bluff your way past the sheriff to smuggle goods into town

Pandemic - you and your friends are a team of scientists trying save the world from diseases

Agree on all of the ones listed above. My now 9 year old daughter had been playing sheriff since it came out and still loves it

I've been loving 7 Wonders. Really fun game with a lot of different elements to it...each game is very different

Very true..

Settlers of Catan

I know I'll get destroyed for this, but Settlers has to be one of the most overrated games ever IMO. Takes too long, and all the game play really is is bartering. Boring IMO.

settlers is best played with some expansions and house ruled.. to make the games go faster. I can list or our house rules if anyone is interested

Other games we play a lot:

* Castles of burghandy
* Lords of water deep
* small world
* Stone age
* Fluxx
* Firefly
* Legendary marvel

 

[laminak]

I have played many many games over the years and here would be my recommendations for gateway games good for a family. These are both board and card games (which I don't think you should discount.)

Read reviews on Amazon or BoardGameGeek.com. Buy on Amazon or if you have a $100 minimum order, Miniaturemarket.com or coolstuffinc.com.

Alhambra
Between Two Cities
Bonanza
Carcassonne
Camel Up
Can't Stop
Catan
Citadels
Codenames
Coloretto
Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Evolution
For Sale
Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert
Hanabi
Hey, That's My Fish
Imhotep
King of Tokyo
Kingdomino
Liar's Dice
Love Letter
Machi Koro
Mysterium
Not Alone
Pandemic
Qwirkle
The Resistance
Sheriff of Nottingham
Splendor
Stockpile
Stone Age
Survive: Escape from Atlantis
Sushi Go
Ticket to Ride
Time's Up
Tsuro
Wits and Wagers

 

[bsaltyman]

We played Secret Hitler at a recent family gathering, and it was a lot of fun. We had age ranges from about 12 y/o to adults. Everyone gets a secret identity (nazi or a liberal, plus one of the nazis is hitler). It’s a tad complicated to explain, but everyone caught on quickly as we played. There is strategy (people may or may not be lying about their identities). Also the game doesn’t stretch on forever like some board games do. We were able to play multiple rounds of this game, so people were able to experience it from different secret identities.

 

[cyclones500]

This is a good one. There's a family friendly version as well.

Like Pictionary, but when you are done you pass it to the person next to you. They guess, and the next person after them has to draw what they guessed, etc. When it gets back around to you you get to see how well everyone guessed and drew and if you're even close to the original word/phrase. Bonus points for when the word is particularly filthy.

We've played the regular version of this, I wasn't aware there's an 'adult' version.

 

[cyclones500]

Wits and Wagers

I was going to mention that, it's a fun one. Good for many ages, simple rules, and it's less about how much you know, but how much you can convince other players you know (and guessing well yourself).

 

[TykeClone]

Not sure if the OP is a chess player, but four person chess is pretty fun.

View attachment 53602

Set up four boards, each person sets up on a side, and it's every player for themselves.

Holy smokes batman

 

[mj4cy]

Hard to beat classic Clue.
Risk is fun, but also a good way to end a friendship.

If you like Clue, check out Clue Discover the Secrets. An improved version that has more weapons, action cards (for example once per game you may look at a card someone just showed someone else) and each character has a special ability (like asking two guesses in one turn once a game ect). Basically just adds more layers to the game.

 

[Cyclophile1]

Agree on all of the ones listed above. My now 9 year old daughter had been playing sheriff since it came out and still loves it



Very true..





settlers is best played with some expansions and house ruled.. to make the games go faster. I can list or our house rules if anyone is interested

Other games we play a lot:

* Castles of burghandy
* Lords of water deep
* small world
* Stone age
* Fluxx
* Firefly
* Legendary marvel

We play Lords of Waterdeep quite a bit and the kids love Legendary Marvel. We've been on a binge of Shadowrun:Crossfire the last couple months.

 

[Cyclophile1]

I know I'll get destroyed for this, but Settlers has to be one of the most overrated games ever IMO. Takes too long, and all the game play really is is bartering. Boring IMO.

I know what you mean. You know, it's weird. Tens years ago Settlers was an eye opener, because it was so different from what we think about as a "board game." I know back then I was like, "Wow, that's much more fun than Monopoly or Sorry."

It's odd to think that in an era dominated by video and video game entertainment, we're now effectively living in a renaissance era of board games, maybe even a kind of golden age with so many excellent games that have come out in the past 10-15 years, especially the past 6-8 years. It's really just amazing now.

Settlers suffers by comparison to these new designs, but it was still a great game back then.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I'm still stuck in the same situation as I was when I was a kid- no one to play them with. My wife actually likes board games, but she doesn't enjoy complexity and I do, so we don't play very much at all.

 

[NorthCyd]

I'm still stuck in the same situation as I was when I was a kid- no one to play them with. My wife actually likes board games, but she doesn't enjoy complexity and I do, so we don't play very much at all.

I have the same problem.

 

[Farnsworth]

Has anyone played Concept, Love Letter, or Coup? These are all games we have thought about picking up.

We don't have many friends who are into board games so it's hard to get into a lot of them as most require 3+ to be fun.

 

[Farnsworth]

I know I'll get destroyed for this, but Settlers has to be one of the most overrated games ever IMO. Takes too long, and all the game play really is is bartering. Boring IMO.

Not really a bartering game, but made me think of the game Pit. I guess it's technically a card game but pretty fun for all ages. Younger ones love it.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Last game I bought was Middle Earth Quest. I spent a couple hours reading and rereading the instructions so that I could flawlessly recite the rules and explain the game to my wife and son. When we sat down to play, I went through and explained the basics of it as I set up the board. When I looked up at them, they were looking at me like I had just explained quantum physics. We did not play

 

[oldman]

I love Monopoly. Not too long ago there was an article on MSN about how most people are not aware of one key rule in Monopoly (myself included). When you land on a property you obviously have the option to buy it. If you don't buy it, it goes up for immediate auction and anyone can purchase it for any price.

I got into a fight with my girlfriend over that rule. She was out of money, and I was buying properties on the cheap. She got so mad she slapped my leg and pulled my hair. Good times.

 

[cyclones500]

Chronology: Players take turns trying to guess where an event on a card will fall in the timeline they have established with previous answers (ie: between 1573 and 1989). Dates range across 2000 years. If a player misses, the next player has the opportunity to steal the card, and it progresses until someone gets it right or it goes all the way around.

Excellent suggestion. We have this game, might be my favorite in our collection.

 

[oldman]

Good list! I own all but 3 of these. Some others I would add for entry level board games are Splendor, Kingdomino, and Photosynthesis. Tokaido is solid too.

Splendor is a great game and goes pretty quickly.