Bend me over your tabletop and give it to me (your board game suggestions)

[Hlarge4]

Look at me, on a forum. I'm finally 2000s cool, and it only took me 20 years.
Anyway, I'm amassing some board games during quarantine and I'm looking for suggestions. Everything from push your luck to dexterity to engine builder to Euros.
3 of your favorites, preferably. With a good sales pitch.

 

[bong264]

Dungeonquest where 4 players hate each other and attempt to steal treasure from a castle that kills everyone inside if they dont make it in and out within the day cycle. You can die in the first tile

 

[Hlarge4]

That sounds amazing! Does it work well with fewer player?

 

[TheBlondeBass]

I'm a simple lad. I've enjoyed my fair share of Ticket to Ride, Splendor and 7 Wonders. They're pretty popular so there's a chance my sales pitch is unnecessary, but still:

- Ever wanted to play a game that's extremely vicious without a single battle? Try Ticket to Ride! You and your friends are railroad planners who'll learn to distrust and eventually hate each other as you discover your objectives converge into the same general location! Collect resources and build roads between cities in a game that'll get tenser and tenser until someone reveals out of nowhere that the game is over. I recommend the German edition, since it encourages building early on instead of hoarding.

- Like board games, but hate learning them? Splendor is the most simple board game I know that doesn't devolve into roll of the die shenanigans. Just grab gems, or cards with your gems, until a player gets to 15 points! Easy to set-up, easy to explain, easy to have fun with.

- 7 Wonders is like drafting Magic the Gathering, except without the annoying "playing a card game" part after you draft the cards. Grab a card, pass the rest to your neighbors. Rinse and repeat until you all have built a civilization that can stand the test of time! Maybe.

 

[Vadicta]

Blood Rage (Norse warriors killing and pillaging to build glory during the end of the world)
Escape the Dark Castle (super straight forward but really fun with pulpy writing and neat art)
Dungeon Degenerates (JUST LOOK AT THE ART! It's an awesome game, and you can play solo)
Summit (with the Yeti expansion, because it adds a fucking YETI)
Hardback (about getting hard and riding bareback and definitely not about writing Victorian novels at all)
5-Minute Dungeon (A kiddie-ass game that is somehow also an adrenaline rush)
Broom Service (You're witches delivering potions to magic towers, and it's also a huge dick measuring contest of a game that will have you and your friends/family screaming at each other guaranteed!)

 

[bong264]

That sounds amazing! Does it work well with fewer player?

Minimum is two players I think but maybe some solitaire rules can also be cooked up? I got the 87 version and its 2 expansions. If you are on the lookout get the newer revised edition with everything in one box.

 

[Hlarge4]

I'm a simple lad. I've enjoyed my fair share of Ticket to Ride, Splendor and 7 Wonders. They're pretty popular so there's a chance my sales pitch is unnecessary, but still:

- Ever wanted to play a game that's extremely vicious without a single battle? Try Ticket to Ride! You and your friends are railroad planners who'll learn to distrust and eventually hate each other as you discover your objectives converge into the same general location! Collect resources and build roads between cities in a game that'll get tenser and tenser until someone reveals out of nowhere that the game is over. I recommend the German edition, since it encourages building early on instead of hoarding.

- Like board games, but hate learning them? Splendor is the most simple board game I know that doesn't devolve into roll of the die shenanigans. Just grab gems, or cards with your gems, until a player gets to 15 points! Easy to set-up, easy to explain, easy to have fun with.

- 7 Wonders is like drafting Magic the Gathering, except without the annoying "playing a card game" part after you draft the cards. Grab a card, pass the rest to your neighbors. Rinse and repeat until you all have built a civilization that can stand the test of time! Maybe.

Great pitches! I love ticket to ride.

 

[Boxman214]

On of my all time favorites is Tsuro. It's 3-8 players. Takes like 30 seconds to explain. A whole game takes 10 minutes, including set up and tear down. Great for a first game of the night, or as a palate cleanser between 2 bigger games.

 

[Hlarge4]

On of my all time favorites is Tsuro. It's 3-8 players. Takes like 30 seconds to explain. A whole game takes 10 minutes, including set up and tear down. Great for a first game of the night, or as a palate cleanser between 2 bigger games.

Amazing game. I ordered the new, blue box edition. Should be here next week!

 

[Xeo]

I play so much shit, man. I barely know where to start.

Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition. It's no secret, I'm a Lovecraftian/cosmic horror nut. This game is damned near perfect in this regard. There's combat, puzzle solving, investigation, and the art is gorgeous for it. It's a difficult game that demands teamwork. A favorite of my group, we have the original first edition of the game as well, but the second edition improves so greatly upon it that if I can stress one thing about picking this game up, it's that you should REALLY go for the 2nd edition. The biggest difference is that the scenarios run themselves via an app. This way everyone playing gets to cooperate, whereas in the first edition someone had to run the scenario and "DM" the monsters. It also makes combat, puzzle solving and investigating MUCH easier and more positively streamlined.

A new favorite of mine and my regular group is Cthulhu: Death Must Die. It's hard as hell, and we love that. Similar to Mansions of Madness in more than a few ways, but absolutely it's own beast and different enough to warrant playing both. This is a MUCH more combat focused game than MoM, for starters. It's also a faster paced game in general. It forgoes the investigation and puzzle solving for balls to the wall, hard as nails combat. Where MoM has a building sense of dread and foreboding that is built through a narrative and NPCs you'll encounter during the game, this game instead opts for a more B-rated action/horror movie vibe. These characters aren't worried about losing their minds and dying, they're there to kick some serious ass.

Gloomhaven. To be honest I doubt this game needs much introduction if you're already into board games. But if you're unfamiliar, or on the fence about it, let me just tell you this. You could purchase this game and honestly never need to even consider buying another board game for at least a year or more and be completely content. Gloomhaven has it all. Resource management, complex combat mechanics, interesting world building and lore, unlockable classes, even achievements! This is a BIG game. And not just in scope, it's box is absolutely massive and weighs about 22 pounds, no exaggeration! It's a bit pricey, but I promise you it's well worth your money. Not just is it one of the best board games I've ever played period, but the amount of value you get for content and components included in insane.

 

[Hlarge4]

Mansions of Madness has been on the edge for me and I think you pushed me over! We love Gloomhaven over here. Cant wait to play through Frosthaven

 

[RolanberryPrins]

Fog of Love is great if you've ever wanted to play a visual novel versus someone. It's also hilarious to watch from the sidelines.

Catacombs is a great flick game that's fun even when you're terrible at it.

 

[Xeo]

Mansions of Madness has been on the edge for me and I think you pushed me over! We love Gloomhaven over here. Cant wait to play through Frosthaven

Glad to help! I hope you like it as much as my group does!

 

[Xeo]

Blood Rage (Norse warriors killing and pillaging to build glory during the end of the world)
Escape the Dark Castle (super straight forward but really fun with pulpy writing and neat art)
Dungeon Degenerates (JUST LOOK AT THE ART! It's an awesome game, and you can play solo)
Summit (with the Yeti expansion, because it adds a fucking YETI)
Hardback (about getting hard and riding bareback and definitely not about writing Victorian novels at all)
5-Minute Dungeon (A kiddie-ass game that is somehow also an adrenaline rush)
Broom Service (You're witches delivering potions to magic towers, and it's also a huge dick measuring contest of a game that will have you and your friends/family screaming at each other guaranteed!)

I've been wanting to sink my teeth into Blood Rage. At the time I got Cthulhu: Death Must Die, that was a possibility on the table. But the group liked the idea more or that one than Blood Rage. Both are Eric Lang games, though.

 

[✨ Matt ✨]

As someone who really enjoys narrative board games, I really recommend Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games and Fallout: The Board Game from Fantast Flight.

Dead of Winter is a co-op, psychological narrative horror board game set during the zombie apocalypse where you have to work together to manage a small colony of survivors holed up in an abandoned warehouse. Each player controls their own party of survivors and has to take care of their needs, supply them, send them out to scavenge for goods, and clear an ever-growing presence of the undead. Where it really shines is the "Crossroads" system, where at the beginning of each players turn one player secretly draws a card, and if the conditions on the card are met it triggers a story beat, and the player whose turn it is will either have to make a decision that heavily impacts the game, or the colony will have to vote on it as a group. There's also a mechanic where one player's group of survivors can be secretly working against the colony to further their own nefarious goals, and the rest of the players have to track them down in a closed space a la The Thing. Makes for some fantastic moments.

Fallout: The Board Game is a really unique board game in that it's a simplified, explorational turn-based RPG that acts as a super-faithful love letter to the series. You start with a unique character with limited supplies, and over the course of the game you complete quests, level up, fight mutants and bandits, make narrative decisions, roll for dialogue and skill checks, complete storylines, gather money, equipment, and weapons, and try to complete enough challenges to beat the game by the time the scenario's ticking clock runs out. The nice thing about it is that since every person can win or lose the game independence of one another, you're free to either work against the other players or with them, forming groups to clear dens of mutants and bandits or even luring them towards your opponents. While the game is littered with references to the modern video game series (and even the original two games if you have the relatively cheap New California expansion), I've played it with friends who've never played the series and they enjoyed it just as much because it's really well put together.

 

[RolanberryPrins]

Ooh, Matt reminds me if you like Fallout you can jump into mini-painting-hell with Wasteland Warfare.

 

[✨ Matt ✨]

Ooh, Matt reminds me if you like Fallout you can jump into mini-painting-hell with Wasteland Warfare.

I haven't tried Wasteland Warfare because of the high up-front cost, but the people I know who've played it says it's really well done. Shame it hasn't seemed to take off, at least in the wargaming communities near where I live. It's mostly all Warhammer 40K (because of course it is) and Bolt Action.

 

[RolanberryPrins]

I haven't tried Wasteland Warfare because of the high up-front cost, but the people I know who've played it says it's really well done. Shame it hasn't seemed to take off, at least in the wargaming communities near where I live. It's mostly all Warhammer 40K (because of course it is) and Bolt Action.

Yeah, we have a box of it that needs to get painted. It's the same here but with X-wing and Infinity taking a chunk of the attention too. GW really has FLGS' over a barrel though, so it's only natural that's what they'd prioritize. Though I will be the first to admit I mostly got the figs to run a Wasteland RPG but uh, quarantine.

 

[DeScruff]

Can I recommend a card game?

Someone has Died (3-6 players)
"We are gathered here today because SOMEONE HAS DIED-- and YOU want their stuff."

One player plays the estate keeper, and comes up with a person who has died, how they died and what is up for grabs.
Everyone else draws an Identity card, a Relationship card, and two backstory cards, and they each come up with a story incorporating these cards and why they deserve the goods. Next round they can question eachothers stories. Then in the final round they are given one last backstory card and make a final plea.

All the cards will make sure whatever story people come up with are weird.
Like... How does someone make a plea why they deserve a tulip garden with Hulk hands? (actual card)
I dunno but when I played it I said "If you don't give it to me I'll smash it with my Hulk Hands!"

 

[Hlarge4]

As someone who really enjoys narrative board games, I really recommend Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games and Fallout: The Board Game from Fantast Flight.

Dead of Winter is a co-op, psychological narrative horror board game set during the zombie apocalypse where you have to work together to manage a small colony of survivors holed up in an abandoned warehouse. Each player controls their own party of survivors and has to take care of their needs, supply them, send them out to scavenge for goods, and clear an ever-growing presence of the undead. Where it really shines is the "Crossroads" system, where at the beginning of each players turn one player secretly draws a card, and if the conditions on the card are met it triggers a story beat, and the player whose turn it is will either have to make a decision that heavily impacts the game, or the colony will have to vote on it as a group. There's also a mechanic where one player's group of survivors can be secretly working against the colony to further their own nefarious goals, and the rest of the players have to track them down in a closed space a la The Thing. Makes for some fantastic moments.
View attachment 59

Fallout: The Board Game is a really unique board game in that it's a simplified, explorational turn-based RPG that acts as a super-faithful love letter to the series. You start with a unique character with limited supplies, and over the course of the game you complete quests, level up, fight mutants and bandits, make narrative decisions, roll for dialogue and skill checks, complete storylines, gather money, equipment, and weapons, and try to complete enough challenges to beat the game by the time the scenario's ticking clock runs out. The nice thing about it is that since every person can win or lose the game independence of one another, you're free to either work against the other players or with them, forming groups to clear dens of mutants and bandits or even luring them towards your opponents. While the game is littered with references to the modern video game series (and even the original two games if you have the relatively cheap New California expansion), I've played it with friends who've never played the series and they enjoyed it just as much because it's really well put together.
View attachment 60

I've heard alot about Dead of Winter. Is it a Legacy style game? I'm all in if it's not. Fallout looks fun. Man, my wife is going to kill me but ive had a good run, so it's ok.