Board Games

Sports & Other Games
1

Looks like we need a thread for these too.

Some of my personal favorites off the top of my head:

2 players
Jaipur
Lost Cities
7 Wonders Duel

3 players
Suburbia
Terraforming Mars
Macao

4 players
Great Western Trail
Puerto Rico
Tzolk’in

5 players
Airlines Europe
Colt Express
Smartphone Inc.

6 players
Power Grid
For Sale
7 Wonders

I’m probably forgetting some favorites, and some of these games work just fine with more/fewer players. But just wanted to get the discussion going if this new sports/games category is going to be a thing.

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2

Co-sign on 7 Wonders Duel, a friend of mine loaned me her copy years ago and I’ve never given it back :smile:

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3

I’ll take all of them.

I’ve gotten more than a little tired of playing (and getting owned at) Yahtzee.

4

No love for Code Words here?

5

I love board games and would play them every night if I could but my wife doesn’t care for them, so my plan is to get my daughter in early so that my wife will be forced to play them. She’s only 2 right now but I gotta have some games ready to go when she turns about 4. Probably start with Ticket to Ride and go from there.

@eyebooger do you read Keith Law at all? He was my main source for board game info and I know he liked a number of these, I got Lost Cities based on his recommendation.

6

Anybody played Gloomhaven? I’ve been unable to pull the trigger on it even though it sounds amazing - the setup and storage just sounds too daunting.

7

I never have.

I just looked at his top 100 board games list and it’s not too bad.

Not having Suburbia on there is a travesty though, given his appeal for accessible games that are reasonably popular. Surprised to see Colt Express and For Sale missing too.

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8

Ticket to ride with a 4 year old sounds like a nightmare

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9

That was just a simple one off the top of my head, if you’ve got better suggestions I’m listening.

10

Nothing constructive, sorry. That was more a commentary on playing with my group of board game nerds. Without a good attention span to keep the rounds moving or develop strategies beyond build and block it just turns into a long game with lots of pieces and decisions that take way too long given relative impact. YMMV.

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11

Carcassone might be a good one. No reading involved. Easy to understand your two options of playing a tile to help yourself or to try to mess up your opponents. Simple scoring.

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12

This was another one I was thinking and one that the aforementioned Keith Law mentions as a good starting point for children as well.

13

I picked up a little game called Kodama about a year ago that would also fit the bill. Similar style of “play a card to build on this picture and score points” but with cool trees and bugs and shit. It’s great for something casual when you want to kill 45 minutes or whatever.

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14

4 sounds a little young, but Kingdomino probably would work as a starter board game.

15

My daughter is about to turn 12 and my multi-year plan to turn her into a gamer completed awhile ago and she’ll play anything now.

She started off with Enchanted Forest and Sleeping Queens and a nurtured love of competition.

We skipped over Monopoly and those type of games so she wouldn’t get stuck there and instead jumped to some easy to play real games like Patchwork and Splendor and For Sale and that card game where you take the card or place a chip. Then she got into Smash Up and we did a little Dominion. Then Sushi Go and Castle Dice for some drafting action that also has engine building and resource management. We also played Castle Panic for a co-op.

Then she moved on to actual real games like Power Grid and Yokohama and Dominant Species and Scythe pretty quickly.

I think the key was introducing the key gaming concepts with simpler games that focus on the one concept, making it easier to grasp how they intertwine in more complex games.

Splendor for engine building is great to introduce to non-gamers and is a pretty pure engine builder.

Sushi Go for the drafting also appeals to non-gamers.

Dominion for Deck Building

For Sale or Modern Art for auction

Ticket to Ride for contract fulfillment and route building.

Settlers of Catan for resource management and hopefully instilling in them a desire to control your destiny more than just dice rolls.

Then get them into a worker placement/action selection game or two, since those are the core mechanics of so many games. Which ones to start with would depend on what other mechanics they tend to like plus theming etc.

I think Istanbul is a good one for early on as you select actions, but have some limitations, and are doing resource gathering and engine building and have multiple paths so can focus on the strategy they are drawn to and even a game where you win by a lot of turns still looks close since it’s “5 gems to 3” rather than a score of 200-85 like some games.

And once they get Istanbul and like it, they can go straight to Yokohama :smile:

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16

I’ve been playing chess with only pawns with my four year old. It’s kinda working.

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17

Does anyone fancy a games night? Always been meaning to figure out Tabletop Simulator on Steam basically every game ever made for free. Could do a game tonight if people are up for it.

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18

Is there like a steam workshop where people upload the cards/pieces/etc for various games for free or what?

I’d be in I think, depending on the game and day.

19

Coloretto is a card game that could easily work for a young child.

20

My 10yo son on the other hand isn’t as much into board games and lacks attention span. I think board games are great for ADD if you are into them as you can focus on what you like, but if not into them then you lose focus and patience quickly. And they are tactile, which is nice.

So for him it’s more Sushi Go and Oceanos: both drafting where everyone plays at the same time so no waiting for your turn. He also plays Uno and recently I got him into Bites, a new game where you move ants along a path and take food. He wins a lot when he plays, but it’s hard finding ones he wants to play so my timeline with him is a lot longer than with my daughter. I think he’ll get there when he’s older, but I have to be more selective about games so I don’t turn him off of them.

I think the main thing is to just tailor it to the other person and don’t push them towards themes or mechanics they don’t like, but also take shots at higher levels every once in awhile as some people will do fine with a more complex game and then they really take off.

For some adult family members, I can get a 6 person game of Sushi Go going during any family get together. Others stop at phase 10. Others show more interest and will play a Scythe and whatever other board game. So I tailor the game to who is around that day.

My wife just plays cards. I got her into Dominion and Settlers 10 years ago but now she’s basically just canasta etc. My dad and my brother-in-law and one nephew will play any game so we can do 3 players when one of them is around, but otherwise it’s 2 players until my son hopefully gets more into it.