Your favorite board game?

[pezpunk]

Mine favorites would be

Baulderdash - Played with the right people I laugh so hard I can't see straight.

I've also recently taken a fancy to Chinese checkers. I'm starting to understand the strategy plus I like playing with marbles

So what are your favorites?

[atypicalcarl]

Risk™ is my favorite. I find the political alliances and treacheries to be endlessly amusing. Nothing is more satisfying than annihilating an ally in the endgame.

[lno]

Diplomacy.

[MrVisible]

It's gotta be Talisman. An old favorite of gamers everywhere, it's put out by Games Workshop occasionally, whenever they get around to it, if the phases of the moon is right.

It's a board game that changes every time you play it; you play using different characters each time, who have different special abilities. So, kinda like a role-playing/board game cross. Tons of fun.

And, as I've recently discovered, there are expansion packs all over the net for this game.

[Mahaloth]

Monopoly

[Anamorphic]

Settlers of Cataan.

A great German board game. The board is different every time you play; it's REALLY simple to learn, yet plenty of strategy is involved in winning; and there are rule variations and expansion packs (the latest one, "Cities and Knights of Cataan", rocks) to keep it always interesting.

"um... anyone got any brick they wanna trade?"

[bup]

Scrabble

[illuminati]

My favourite is Cranium

its taken the best bits of so many other games and combined then into one 'hypa'game

if you get the chance play it you wont regret it

[ShibbOleth]

I like a trivia game we have, IIRC it's called Connect II, where you answer six trivia questions on a card, but then you have to figure hout how they are all related to each other.

[Agrippina]

Monopoly and Checkers

[lenin]

Yes! Another person who has heard of Cataan! I love that game. Especially when you get those expansions..

[Little Nemo]

I'll second MrVisible's vote for Talisman. A very fun game. We use to play our own variant, were you built the board out of individual tiles as you played the game. Post any sites you've seen that have variants.

atypicalcarl, have you seen the new version of Risk; Risk 2210 AD? It's an expanded version of the classic Risk with opportunites to invade the moon, capture underwater colonies, launch nuclear wars, etc.

Ino, here's two sites you should check: http://www.diplom.org/Online/variants1.html or http://www.variantbank.com/alphabet/variantsa.htm

I also enjoy Axis & Allies and its Europe and Pacific sequels. Dealer's Choice and Amoeba are too out of print board games I've bought used copies of; both are excellent. And Fluxx is a card game not a board game, but it's fun and unique.

[Fionn]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Trivial Persuit yet. I love this game, and I keep planning to get a set of my own.

I also love Scrabble, but I can't find that many people willing to play.

[ShibbOleth]

Does anyone else remember playing a game called Fictionary, which was essentially the same as Balderdash? Many years before Balderdash came out, we would just take a large dictionary, flip through it, and choose a difficult or exotic word. Whoever guessed it got to do the next search. If no one guessed it then you got to go again. Even then my family bought the game

[The Man Who]

Originally posted by ShibbOleth
I like a trivia game we have, IIRC it's called Connect II, where you answer six trivia questions on a card, but then you have to figure hout how they are all related to each other.

That would be Stage II, be I not mistaken. Good hard questions in that one.

The wife and I have been palying quite a bit of Trumpet lately. It's a trick-taking Card Game crossed with Cribbage. Very tricky.

-Myron

[ShibbOleth]

Originally posted by The Man Who


That would be Stage II, be I not mistaken. Good hard questions in that one.

Yeah, that's right. I knew the name I had in my head didn't sound correct.

[Francesca]

Trivial pursuit. My partner and I can take on anyone and win. We'll take you all on and still win. Awwwww yeah.

[Sylkyn]

I'm partial to the Silver Screen edition of Trivial Pursuit. I like Scrabble, too, but haven't played in ages.

[Mauvaise]

Originally posted by pezpunk
I'm starting to understand the strategy plus I like playing with marbles

If you like strategy & marbles, may I recommend my favourite game: Abalone. I discovered this game when I was working a Christmas job in a game store and I love it.

To quote the rules from the website:

In Abalone, each player of the game has 14 balls.

The aim is to oust 6 of the opponent's balls.

Both players can displace 1, 2 or 3 balls at the most, on every turn, in a single stroke, in any direction.

To be able to push your opponent's balls, you need to have a numerical superiority : with 3 balls you can push 1 or 2 balls; and with 2 balls you can push 1.

If the number of balls is the same on each side (1 ball against 1 ball, 2 balls against 2 and 3 balls against 3), it is impossble to push.

(thanks go out to Joey who found me a link)

[DPWhite]

I prefer risk to diplomacy because diplomacy takes forever. Risk amplifies the emotional intensity by its speed, and takes a little of the sting out of it because there is more front stabbing than back stabbing.

[lenin]

Axis and Allies is good.. But it takes around two hours to set up for each game. Hence the computer version is better, but it doesn't qualify for "Board Game" status...

[Podkayne]

Another hurrah for Die Siedler von Catan. Everyone likes sheep. Sheep say baa.

Anybody played Starfarers (Sternfahrer)? I've seen it but not played yet. I'm afraid it's a bit like the Cities and Knights expansion--gilding the lily, adding needless detail to a game whose chief virtue is elegant simplicity.

Another great game, which can accommodate 2 to infinty players, which is perfect if people are wandering in and out, is Ricochet Robot, a.k.a. The Brainhurt Game.

[FisherQueen]

I loved Scrabble, until a few friends taught me a variation called Speed Scrabble. Now I'm hooked on that. Problem is, it's hard finding people who will play with me.

Love Balderdash, but never get to play it.

[sandpiper]

Scrabble is my all time favorite board game. Balderdash is also a lot of fun but I always win. (What does this say about me?.....) I also enjoy the version called Beyond Balderdash -- more ways to lie! (er.. bluff, I meant bluff.)

[flodnak]

Trivial Pursuit when I can round up at least three players. Very often we have just two, and then I love a simple strategy game called Pente.

[Bad News Baboon]

Originally posted by pezpunk

I've also recently taken a fancy to Chinese checkers. I'm starting to understand the strategy plus I like playing with marbles

see why I like you so?

I adore chinese checkers.

and scrabble,too.

[The Controvert]

Another great game, which can accommodate 2 to infinty players, which is perfect if people are wandering in and out, is Ricochet Robot, a.k.a. The Brainhurt Game.

If you enjoy Ricochet Robot, you might enjoy these online puzzles:

http://www.thegamesjournal.com/puzzles/Robot1.shtml
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/puzzles/Robot2.shtml
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/puzzles/Robot3.shtml
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/puzzles/Robot4.shtml

Have fun and don't peek at the answers too fast, it will completely SPOIL the puzzle.

[blur]

RISK - I actually have Axis & Allies, but no one wants to take the time to learn it and play. I've never played Diplomacy, but it sounds cool from what I've heard. Still, a good game of RISK will take 2-3 hours with my friends.

[Home of the Braves]

Monopoly

Matter of fact, I haven't played it in a while... may be time to dig it out.

[Drastic]

Anybody played Starfarers (Sternfahrer)? I've seen it but not played yet. I'm afraid it's a bit like the Cities and Knights expansion--gilding the lily, adding needless detail to a game whose chief virtue is elegant simplicity.

"Starfarers..." is neat; rather than needless detail, however, I got the personal impression that they dumbed it down a little bit. Also, each player has this prototypically-phallic rocket ship, onto which snap "fame rings", booster thingies representing the speed of fleets, and cannons representing general combat ability. The rocket also acts as dice--there's a few colored balls rattling around inside it, and the bottom bit is clear, shake it and a couple fall down into it, the different colors being numbers. That kind of thing makes it a great game to play with bright kids, I think. My gaming friend's little nephew really thought it kicked butt, by all reports.

"Ricochet Robots" is great; even when you lack partners to share the brainhurt with, it's entertaining to tackle it solitaire. While many games don't preclude chatter throughout them, RR is best played in intense, often grim, silence. Also, it can be used as a really beautiful demonstration of how even light boozing affects mental powers.

Not mentioned so far: "Cosmic Encounter." The older version by Mayfair, and emphatically not the current bastardization of it by Avalon Hill. The game really shines with five to six players.

[SpoilerVirgin]

Scrabble.

For all of the other Scrabble fans, the book Word Freak, by a reporter who took a leave of absence to play competitive Scrabble, is highly recommended. Of course, it makes you want to memorize all of the seven-letter bingos, but it's a great read.

[Crunchy Frog]

Another Trivial Pursuit vote. Especially if you get at least 3 other players. 2 players is kinda boring, 3 is ok, but 4 people or more is best I think.

[Mudshark]

Clue is the best game ever! I don't think that was mentioned yet.

[Little Nemo]

"Cosmic Encounter." The older version by Mayfair, and emphatically not the current bastardization of it by Avalon Hill. The game really shines with five to six players.

The Mayfair version? Back in my day, we used the original Eon version.

[Psi Cop]

Another vote for Axis and Allies... but not in the pure form. When we got into about the third hour of playing and Germany would have red chip stacks of heavy bombers, we thought something was screwed up. Germany usually won about two turns after attacking with those heavy bombers -- 20 of them with 3 attack dice each means an easy win.

So we found a new board online with better subdivisions of countries and regions and more accurate point values, as well as introducing better rules for neutral countries. Than we changed unit prices, made a whole new tech tree, and introducted other special units. By using a good printout of the new board (it is almost exactly the same size of the 'real' game board, and taped together very well) and the new prices and rules, it's an amazing game. It lasts six hours easily.

-Psi Cop

[Bluesman]

DIPLOMACY!!! And if you disagree with that, I'll be over your border before you can say, "I thought we had a deal!"

Anything "Catanish". I am somewhat obsessed about that series: called the local "Wizards of the Coast" store for three months until "Starfarers" came in, and bought it the same day it shipped. Even got a discount, prolly because of the "pity factor" from the manager, one gamer to another.

As far as wargames go, I like "Wooden Ships and Iron Men", "Quebec: 1759", "The War of 1812", and "A House Divided".

Cheapass Games make some cool products, too: "Kill Dr. Lucky" is GREAT.

And finally, a nomination that isn't tecnically a board game: the "Nuclar War" series, with all the expansions. Sick fun.

[PigBoy]

I'll vote for Trivial Pursuit, even though I can't get many of the sports questions.

[Limerick]

My fondest dream is that someone will one day gift the world with on-line versions of Monopoly, Scrabble, and Chinese checkers, so that I can play with you all.

[atypicalcarl]

try games.com or playsite. I play Scrabble there often.

[panzermanpanzerman]

Well, gee...nobody's mentioned chess????

[detop]

Originally posted by panzermanpanzerman
Well, gee...nobody's mentioned chess????

I prefer go myself.

My favorite ones ? Wargames, most especially, anything from the old GDW Europa serie or ADG's World in Flames.

[Limerick]

Originally posted by atypicalcarl
try games.com or playsite. I play Scrabble there often.

ooooohhhh.....you are my new best friend, and the new reason I'm gonna flunk out of grad school.

[atypicalcarl]

Online Scabble is highly addictive. I play under the screen name carl37. The only other doper on the site that I know of is sandpiper. She plays as sandpipersue.

[The Mad Hermit]

I used to play Risk often but the limited activity in the game became boring.
So my friends and I started playing Axis & Allies, until we could predict each move and new players were discouraged from making the "wrong" moves.
Then we found Supremacy- a Risk-like game that added money and tech, plus new forces, and we played on and on...
I've played some Talisman but the guy who owned the board would cheat and become a real unpleasant guy; he would play in a very insulting and unsportsman-like manner.

My friends and I play D&D as a board game, in a way- we rely heavily on miniatures combat, and play some games without a plot just to have "monsters" fight each other to practice.

[clairobscur]

Difficult question. I really like boardgames and I played plenty of them...

Anyway my preferred is sold here under the name "Res Publica Romana". I believe that the english name is simply "Roma" and that it has originally been published by Avallon Hill. It's unfortunately not very well known apart amongst the hard-core gamer, and the games are quite long (say 5-6 hours).

Each gamer plays a senatorial "party" (with several members) during the republican roman period. The players must recruit members, earn, manage and spend money, make sure to become popular, attract clients and votes, use his senators, etc...So, there's a basis of management of limited ressources. But more important, it's an extremely intereactive game, with a lot of negociations, along the line : "If you help me organizing my circus games, I'll vote for your senator Y as Qaestor, providing he don't notice I stole all that money when I was governor of Egyptia". And there are official postions (like consul, governor, etc...) to fill, which gives specific powers (like deciding what issue will be debatted or not at the senate, for instance) and add a lot to the fun.

And the really interesting feature of the game is that either one player wins by becoming consul for life (like Caesar historically did, putting an end to the Republic), with various means to achieve that (becoming overwhelmingly popular, organizing a coup, etc...) *either* Rome collapse (ruin, revolt of the plebs, military defeat) and *all* players loose.

So, the gamers *must* cooperate to protect and fortify Rome against "the game" at the same time they play against each other. Which gives some heartbreaking choices to make (Rome is menaced by the powerful armies of Hannibal, the only very good general we have is X, but he's already very popular, if we don't send him Carthage could take Rome, if we send him and he wins the battle, perhaps *he* will win the game...and anyway, who want to give so much legions to a single player? and who wants to pay to raise these legions?). This feature is probably the one which put this game above any others, IMO.

I know...I wrote long explanations, but I really love this game.

And I would concord with the posters who like Cataan. It's a totally different game, but a really good one.

[TheThill]

Another vote for Catan here! I didn't even know it has become so popular outside of Germany.

I am also partial to Scrabble. But what exactly is "Speed Scrabble" -- just Scrabble with a chess clock?

Which leads me directly to chess, game of games.

[Jus' lookin' Round]

The Farming Game (invented on the seat of a tractor) If you don't like it, it has a moneyback guarantee!

[Eonwe]

As far as more "classic" games go, I'll say chess is definitely my favorite. I enjoy it especially when the game takes a long time, and you sit in relative silence with a cup of tea or whatever, just looking at the board, thinking, sitting in a comfortable chair. Yeah.

I'll also second Risk and Axis and Allies, although I haven't played the latter in years as the only person I know who ownes the game is at school in California.

Another game (alas, owned by the same friend on the West coast) which is a blast is Eurorails, the game upon which Railroad Tycoon was based. A lot of fun, and you get to draw on the board with crayons.

[MrVisible]

Bluesman nailed it, by the way; Cheapass Games makes some of the most all-out fun games in existence. Devil Bunny Needs a Ham and Devil Bunny Hates the Earth are both great. Deadwood is hysterically funny, and an interesting game to boot. They're really worth checking out.

[gonzoron]

Good thing we got some real gamers on the SDMB. When I saw the subject, I thought I'd have do some preaching for Catan, but you've beaten me to it.

To those that don't know what we're talking about:

If you THINK you like Risk, Monopoly, or Clue (like I once did) please do yourself a favor and play some of these and see what you've been missing:

Settlers of Catan (This with the Cities and Knights Expansion is my personal fave. (German version is prettier, by the way.))
Samurai
Robo Rally
Diplomacy
Carcassone

And for card games of a similar nature:
Bohnanza
Ohne Furcht Und Adel
Guillotine

you can find all of these, and many other fine games at
http://www.funagain.com
and
http://www.bouldergames.com

and as MrVisible and Bluesman said, Cheapass is good for zany fun.

(Podkayne: I personally love Cities & Knights, and think it makes the wonderful "intro game" of Settlers into a "real game." But I HATE, HATE, HATE Starfarers. I think it adds WAY too much luck into a game already (successfully) flirting with the balance between luck and skill.)

Of course, Party Games are a different category altogether. For those:
Apples to Apples
Taboo
Balderdash (although you don't really neeed the game to play, just a good dictionary)