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?
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.
Diplomacy.
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.
Monopoly
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?”
Scrabble
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
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.
Monopoly and Checkers
Yes! Another person who has heard of Cataan! I love that game. Especially when you get those expansions…
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.
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.
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 :rolleyes:
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
Yeah, that’s right. I knew the name I had in my head didn’t sound correct.
Trivial pursuit. My partner and I can take on anyone and win. We’ll take you all on and still win. Awwwww yeah.
I’m partial to the Silver Screen edition of Trivial Pursuit. I like Scrabble, too, but haven’t played in ages.
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:
(thanks go out to Joey who found me a link)
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.