Your favorite board games?

What are your favorite board games? Me and my friends love playing board games, but I get the feeling their tired of playing the same things. What do you guys usually play? My favorite board game of all time is HeroQuest. I never get tired of playing it. Also love Catan, Arkham Horror, Betrayal House on the Hill, Spyfall (great at parties)

Anon125,

Related question, but are there board games Lemmy servers, or topics on more general Lemmy servers? (Not sure what they're called. Probably not sublemmies.)

Limeade,

Communities are the equivalent to subreddits. I don't think I have seen a board gaming specific one yet, but I also haven't tried to look for one.

madception, (edited )

I mostly play solo right now, usually digital ported one. I occasionally enjoy Small World 2, Imperial Settlers Roll & Write, and Star Realms.

But my favorite for all time is social deduction of Blood on the Clocktower. It fixes Werewolf/Mafia problem by having Storyteller controlling the game + all roles have powers or altering the game significantly + roles in game limited to several possible ones thanks to script. And it also has layers from official script; the most beginner friendly script Trouble Brewing has so much depth, I think I still learning new things after 1 year of playing. Try it out for social deduction, online playable. This is as great as discovering Two Rooms and A Boom.

donio,

Do you play Imperial Settlers R&W in a group or solo? If solo do you tend to do the unique maps or the basic one? I like it a lot just wish it had the same variety or group play as it does for solo. The digital version is fun too.

madception,

I play solo as almost every modern boardgames are not sold in my area, and usually I play what's in the app.

I just discovered there is unique maps, it seems they haven't implemented that on app.

donio,

I mean the 48 "Adventure mode" sheets. Those are in the app, they can be unlocked gradually with the stars you get on previous sheets. It's a bit of a grind though unless you are very good at it (which I am not)

EvaUnit02,
EvaUnit02 avatar

My favorites in no particular order:

Dune (either the original AH edition or the 2019 GF9 edition)
Battletech
Descent (first edition)
Mage Wars Arena
Battlestar Galactica
Food Chain Magnate
Scythe
Blood Bowl
Twilight Imperium (fourth edition)
War of the Ring (second edition)
Millenium Blades
Exceed
BattleCON
Cosmic Encounter
Sidereal Confluence
Sekigahara
Triumph & Tragedy
Iron Ships & Wooden Men
Cloudspire
Forbidden Stars
Go

BentiGorlich,
@BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de avatar

Twilight Imperium, really? I only played it once and it was the longest, most boring experience. Each turn just takes an enormous time, almost as long as a Warhammer 40k turn and I played with 5 other players. When you were done with your turn you could go for a really long walk and when you came back you wondered how the hell they just finished 2 turns...

I really really enjoy boardgames, but not ones that take a weekend to play...

(this isn't meant to insult you, I am just seriously wondering if my experience with it is a lot different than yours or if you like boardgames that you play an entire weekend)

EvaUnit02,
EvaUnit02 avatar

My group can get a game of 4th edition finished in four to five hours. We are seasoned players, though. Twilight Imperium is both a strategically and tactically rich 4X game, which is why it's one of my favorites.

That said, I am not opposed to long games. I recently played Fire in the Sky, which took me and my opponent 4 four-hour sessions to complete.

I look at it as no different than a campaign game such as Gloomhaven. Gloomhaven took my group two years to finish.

BentiGorlich,
@BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de avatar

Well with gloomhaven its multiple clearly seperated missions though.
My limit is at about 4-5h with a game that I've never played before. If I played the game before the limit is at about 3h I'd say 🤔

AceLucario,

I have very little experience with board games so I'm using this thread for ideas to try out. But I did play Betrayal and liked it so I'll say that one is my favorite.

randomnick,
@randomnick@beehaw.org avatar

Is there any love for solo? I like games with quick and easy set up: Agropolis, Cartographers, Voyages, Aquamarine. Sometimes Spirit Island (still learning how to play). When I have time and I am in the mood, I play solo RPG, but that's a different subject.

hoyland,

Spirit Island is great, both solo and co-op.

randomnick,
@randomnick@beehaw.org avatar

I am still learning the basics. And it's time to make it a bit more difficult!

hoyland,

If you have Tabletop Simulator, there's an excellent Spirit Island mod. I believe people organize games there on the Discord (linked from the subreddit...) but I've never played with strangers.

randomnick,
@randomnick@beehaw.org avatar

I saw some messages about it, but the main reason I play solo boardgames and TTRPGs is to stay away from screens after spending the whole day at work 😅

hoyland,

Fair. :) What else do you find works well solo? I don't have many local friends, so I'm either solo or online.

It's a bit of a learning curve, but I find I like Spirit Island playing two spirits at once better than a single spirit.

randomnick,
@randomnick@beehaw.org avatar

For solo RPG? The standard suggestion nowadays is Ironsworn to be honest. And it's free! I wasn't a big fan at the beginning, so I started with Scarlet Heroes, it has everything you need to play pretty much any OSR game.

Then there are lots of specific games for solo, especially journaling games. Or using game master emulators you can play almost anything (Mythic GME is the most famous for a good reason).

What would you like to try? I'm quite new on this area but I might be able to suggest a couple of books. There are a lot of tools available to play anything available in the market.

hoyland,

I was thinking more solo board games -- I have roughly no TTRPG experience, though I'd be willing to try. (I last played D&D probably 20 years ago in high school. It was one of those things that I felt I was supposed to be into, but, when push came to shove, it wasn't my jam. Now, that was also true of computer games and I like some now.)

randomnick,
@randomnick@beehaw.org avatar

I started with no TTRPG experience at all around a year ago. There are some games (like D100 or Four Against Darkness) closer to a boardgame than an actual TTRPG. You throw dice and go with the results, no need to roleplay.

Regarding solo boardgames, I would say games where you play alone together, like each player doing it's own thing in the board with minimal interaction or minimal rules modifications. Spirit Island already mentioned is one great example, Cartographers, Sprawlopolis or Agropolis, Resist!, One deck dungeon... seriously, there is an amazing amount of options depending on your taste (deck building, throwing dice, etc.).

bownage,

I'm mostly into deck builders and I haven't seen these mentioned before so I'll drop two of my favourites Dune: Imperium and (TBOI:) Four Souls! Also an honorable mention to Dominion but I haven't played that in a while.

adthrawn,

There is a board game I played years ago at a comic shop, and I can never remember the name of it. I only played it once but it was super fun. Kind of like if Freelancer were a board game. You had a huge game board with a bunch of planets and you picked up missions. I dont remember what the win conditions were, but I remember I had a lot of fun with it.

shapesandstuff,

I vaguely remember totalbiscuit and the gang play some games that would fit the description. Maybe worth a shot digging through his old stuff

adthrawn,

Yeah, I'll have to go and check some of those out, thanks for the suggestion!

Sandra,

That could have been:

• Xia, legends of a drift system
• Star Wars, outer rim
• Firefly
• Merchant of Venus

Those are probably the most well-known games along that line 💁🏻‍♀️

adthrawn,

Maybe it's Xia or Merchant of Venus, those are activating something in my brain...

Manticore,
@Manticore@beehaw.org avatar

I like the ones that platform socialisation and banter - things like hidden role games, party games, etc. Less focus on the game's strategy and more on the people you're playing with.

Codenames (and Codenames Duel) is slower-paced but an engaging word-based game.

Just One is a simple word game that even drunk people can play (and likely have more fun in).

Detective Club is a bluffing hidden role game, where all of you are using weird art cards to match a prompt, but one of you didn't have the prompt and is spinning bullshit - guess who!

Concept is Pictionary for people who can't draw.

And my all time favourite:

Telestrations, a blend of 'the telephone game' and illustrations. If you're familiar with Gartic Phone, you already understand the gist. Every event that I've brought it out, it has been a good time.

Stormyfemme,

We love Villainous. Azul is awesome, I quite enjoy Quacks of Quedlinburg myself.

gingerrich,

My single favourite board game is the Game of Thrones. No dice. No luck. Pure tactics and the occasional alliance.

I have apparently terrible luck so games that involve dice, especially d6's do not interest me.

Icarus,

I have a huge shelf of shamepportunity (see what I did there? Now no one can correct me! 🤣) what I like vs what I get to play with my friends/SO vary greatly.

Some of my favorites

  • Undaunted Normandy
  • Trails (my SO and I play this one a lot at bars)
  • Tak, a lovely abstract strategy game
  • Spire's End and Spire's End Hildegard
  • March of the Ants
  • Cosmic Frog
crisisingot,

I really like board games that don't take that long to play. It's a lot easier to rope your friends into a game that takes 30-40 minutes to play and is easy to learn rather than a game that takes 4+ hours.

Some that I've found

  • Azul
  • Sheriff of Nottingham
  • Splendor
spoonful,

Azul is such a beautiful game too. That's usually my intro for people new to board games.

birdy,

I realise this doesn't really count (well, it does but you know), but chess. The rules are straightforward and it has infinite replayability. And you can play a game online any time you want in an instant.

Other boardgames I enjoy are Arkham Horror and Twilight Imperium, though I haven't played either in a while.

dalarist,

Jeez, when you play a board game you really decided it's an all day event. Both Arkham Horror and Twilight Imperium take forever every time I've played them

Sentenial,

Was into the tabletop simulator version of TI4 for a while. But even with automated set up and digital streamlining, the games are still 6-8 hours.

Love the game, but just don't have time to play anymore.

autumnplains,

Frosthaven! We’ve also really loved playing Quacks of Quedlinberg - it’s a great one for friends who are less into board games

noob_dragon,

My current favs are Wingspan, Dune Imperium, and Deep Rock Galactic (both a great video game and board game!).

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