Lots of great ones mentioned; I’ve always wanted to play Pandemic and I’ve played computer versions of Diplomacy. Chess is hard to beat when it comes to simple but “as complex as you want it to be” strategy games.
Off the top of my head I want to add
Axis & Allies
Firefly: The Game
________ A game I played in school years ago where you track down Moriarty(?) via the subway, taxi, or bus line. He only shows up every few turns and the other players have to close in on him on a map of London. It took teamwork and knowing your opponent to catch them. I can’t remember what it was called . . .
Last Night on Earth is a game that seems to be popular with most of my friends, even the ones that claim to not like board games that much. It has a mechanic that I don’t see in many other games: all against one. In this game there is one player who controls the zombies, and all other players control a hero. They have to cooperate to win.
Munchkin is always hilarious, although things tend to drag on if you play with too many people. Three or four is enough.
Pandemic. A great cooperative game with brilliant mechanics.
Shadows over Camelot. Another cooperative game, but this time with a possible traitor.
My wife, sister-in-law, and I love Settlers of Catan. We tried the Seafarers expansion, and didn’t really like it - are any of the expansions worth playing?
We also like Dominion. We’ve tried Munchkin, but it’s never our first choice.
My 7 y.o. likes Coup. Fast and easy to teach people. We often play that at restaurants waiting for food to be served.
He really likes Fortune and Glory which is an “Ameritrash” game that comes in an aircraft carrier sized box with a Raiders of the Lost Ark’ish theme. I enjoy playing it with him but if he can’t find anyone else to play it He’ll have the huge thing spread out on the floor playing it solo for hours.
I like Pandemic but while it’s technically cooperative it really is the poster child for co-op games that suffer from having one person QB the game and tell everyone what to do. I counter that by simply playing it solo, controlling 3 or 4 “players” myself.
King of Tokyo is easy to teach to new groups and is enjoyable for most age ranges. I think King of Tokyo benefits a lot from repeat play and is actually deeper than people give it credit for. Usually when I see complaints about it someone is saying, “Oh, everyone just ends up using strategy A,” and I think, “Yeah, we had people start to do that but then we started countering with strategy B.”
Dead of Winter is the current most-played game. I’m a fan of hidden traitor mechanics, and that won out over my apprehension of anything zombie. In the right group, I’ll still probably pick Battlestar Galactica, but for general play, DoW is much faster to learn and takes half as long to play.
Legendary is a superhero deckbuilder that my wife and I play a lot. It’s my favorite deck builder by a long shot due to mechanics, and the superhero theme is gravy.
I played **Euphoria **recently at a game session and really enjoyed it. Everything about it clicked for me. It felt light and fast, but it’s really a midweight. I can’t wait to play it again.
Finally, I’ve been enjoying a lot of minimalist games recently. Coup has already been mentioned, which I enjoy. I’m also a fan of **Resistance **(another hidden traitor game), especially the **Avalon **flavor. Finally, for a fast filler and easy to learn game, there’s Love Letter. It’s not a heavyweight by any stretch, but there’s a surprising amount of strategy and deduction in the 15 card game.
After Googling, that was indeed the game! Thank you. Thinking back we also played a lot of Axis and Allies and my friends and I even tried our hand at designing our own board game but it never really went far.
If you like Viticulture, you might take a look at Brew Crafters, another game with a brewing theme but with more depth. The rules make you think it’s an Agricola clone when you’re learning them, but it’s a lot more fun than Misery Farm, at least in my opinion.
The game I’ve played the most in the past month is probably Paperback, but I also quite enjoy Splendor and Ora et Labora. I want to like T’zolkin, but I suck at it so badly that I think I’m no fun to play with.
We just got Kingmaker out off the cupboard a couple of months ago and played it. There’s nothing so fun as chasing down some heirs and killing them!
We play so many games that I don’t think I can call any of them favorites. Lately it’s been Coup, Dead of Winter, Deep Sea Adventure, Resistance, and a single round of Kings and Things, which is a sort of marriage of Titan and Settlers.
Sentinels of the Multiverse is a big favorite in my group. Great co-op superhero card game, with each hero and villain having a unique deck of cards and their own mechanic that matches the character’s flavor really well.
Lord of Waterdeep is a first rate worker-placement game set in the Forgotten Realms D&D world. No D&D experience is required, though. The expansion is a must-own for this one.
Ascension is a really good fantasy-themed deck builder. Really simple rules that provide a framework for some very complicated strategies.
Race for the Galaxy was my favorite table top game for a long, long time. Space-themed card game with a neat mechanic where the cards in your hand are also the “money” you use to play cards. They recently released a dice-based version called Roll for the Galaxy that’s also pretty sweet.
7 Wonders is great for groups of more than four or five. Each player controls a different ancient civilization, and competes through three eras to build up their empire and complete their unique Great Wonder. First two expansions really improve the game, but the third, Tower of Babel is trying to hang too much on a framework that can’t quite support it.
Imperial Assault is an asymmetric, partially co-operative Star Wars wargame. One player controls the Empire, and up to four other control various Rebel characters through a series of scenarios. Characters gain skills and equipment that they can carry from one scenario to another, and which scenario you play next is dictated by who one the previous scenario. Lots of fun, but requires a big time investment.
Stone Age is another worker placement game, this one set in (dur) the stone age. Compete with other players to harvest resources and build the fanciest huts.
And lastly, Qwirkle is a really good all-ages board game based on matching symbols. Sort of like Scrabble, but using colors and shapes instead of words. The designer is a good friend of mine, and an all-around awesome person. You should all go out and buy this game so she gets all of the money.
I just finished a game of Pie Factory with my 11-year-old. I’m so glad she has decided that she likes board games, just as her father has pretty much stopped playing them with me. And I won for a change! I definitely have a losing record in that game with her (and I only won by 4 points, so it was close enough for her not to be pouty about it).
We’re also in to co-op games, so I’d say Shadows over Camelot, *Pandemic *and Castle Panic were our top three. After that, Ticket to Ride and Avalon. Haven’t seen *Avalon *listed yet. It’s a two team deception game, The Resistance with an Arthurian theme.
A lot of the games I immediately thought of have been mentioned. To add a few:
I really like Dixit a lot. It’s a really good game, and has been one of the few I’ve found that pretty much everybody (My mom, wife, dad, in-laws, children…) all agree on.
Also- for those of you that enjoy the social bluffing games (The amazing Avalon, Resistence, etc) do yourself a favor and get Sheriff of Nottingham.
How is “Fortune and Glory?” I saw it in the dealer hall at Gen Con, but I was reluctant to actually buy it. I’m intrigued by the concept and the pulp adventure milieu, but it looks insanely complicated. I note that in the episode of “Tabletop” where Wil Wheaton and his buddies played it, they ended up playing it wrong because they couldn’t understand the rules.
I don’t think I’ve seen “Ticket to Ride” mentioned so far in the thread; that’s a game my friends and I can spend a lot of time playing. I like the European version rather than the American-set one. There’s just something much more romantic about taking the Orient Express to Constantinople, versus a freight train to Duluth.
Correction: On closer inspection, I see that psuedograph did mention “Ticket to Ride” just a couple posts above. Sorry about that!
