Another Board Game Thread

[madcow]

Heya y'all, I started by reading through the other board game thread here but decided to go with a new thread rather than necroing that one.

Basically, I was wondering about a good board game recommendation for three players. The catch is something that can be done in 1 hour is ideal, 2 hours is about the absolute max limit. The other thing is it's for non-gamers, so nothing too complex, which pairs in with the 1 hour as the ideal time and not too competitive.

The other thing is nothing like settlers of catan, I've played that one a few times and it just bores the heck out of me. I know it's considered a great board game, but meh.

Some stuff I had already thought of were, though I'm open to suggestions:

Saboteur: It sounds simple and quite fun, though I worry about it not working so well with three players as it seems ideal for more.

Betrayal At the House on the Hill: This one also looks varied and like great fun, but I again worry about three not really being enough players for it.

Agricola: I've had this suggested before as it's apparently a great game, but looking through the manual it seems a bit complex.

Space Alert: I would have loved to go with this, but the whole cd and non-sequencial turn aspect really turned off somebody who outright refused to play. It looks quite fun though.

Thanks for any tips here!

[zespri]

If you and your friends like co-op, I would definitely recommend Pandemic http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic
It has simple rules and plays fast and (subjectively) a lot of fun.

Agricola is a fine game and it is indeed a bit more complex than a newbie level. I can easily see many people enjoying it, but for me personally all these victory points resource management games (another great example is Puerto Rico) feel a bit the same to me. And I'm saying that after actually trying them a couple of times, rather then just reading the rules.

Betrayal at house on the heal I played once only, it was ok, but I was put off by "secret scenarios" (the rulebook says don't read them unless you are playing this scenario now) that mean to me that the game designed with low replayability in mind.

Other casual games I enjoyed were:
- Traders of Genoa (this one is also on of the VP games and at that it's quite cutthroat, don't play with your wife =)
- Carcassonne - this is a timeless classic like a settlers of catan (although gameplay has nothing to do with settlers of catan)
- Pirate's Cove - this also one of the "casual" games that I'd recommend for new-comers.

[tigersfan]

Seconded on Pandemic. If you want to see it being played, you can do that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytK1zDPPDhw&feature=g-user-u .

[LaughingThesaurus]

I really like heroquest but it's approximately a million years old so you'll not likely ever find it.
It's a very simplified almost DnD-esque game. Each quest can last maybe up to a bit more than an hour, with persistent characters and such between quests. Disadvantages: It's ancient, and I don't know enough about board games to make serious recommendations.

[Oralordos]

Hey, I've actually got a copy of hero's quest around here somewhere. Odd that.

I've found myself liking Dominion recently. It's more of a card game though.

[madcow]

Heh, I actually have Hero Quest from approximately a million years ago gathering dust somewhere (no clue where). Though it's missing a few of the spell cards and character pieces. Also I think the manual is gone, though I know I have the GM booklet.

Dominion looked like an interesting choice, but I don't think the deck building aspect of it will appeal to people.  I'll watch the pandemic video a little later and see how that goes.

[LaughingThesaurus]

You can actually find the cards and manual online somewhere to print them. I can consult with my friend who's the illustrious Zargon in control of the fates of our heroes for where that stuff is in case you're interested in replacing the stuff that's missing. Till then, I'm keeping an eye on this thread because board games can be pretty cool.

[Bossman]

Betrayal at house on the heal I played once only, it was ok, but I was put off by "secret scenarios" (the rulebook says don't read them unless you are playing this scenario now) that mean to me that the game designed with low replayability in mind.

There's 50 different scenarios, and the first half of the game determines which scenario you get, so it is quite replayable. The reason you shouldn't read up on the scenarios beforehand is because the traitor gets a different set of rules based on the scenario, and knowing them when playing as a hero breaks the mystery of the game.

[zespri]

The reason you shouldn't read up on the scenarios beforehand is because the traitor gets a different set of rules based on the scenario, and knowing them when playing as a hero breaks the mystery of the game.

Yep, so after a certain number of replays you will know that before hand, right? I mean after you've played a specific scenario.

[Echo35]

I play way more board games than is reasonable, but as far as popular games here that are short (2 hours and under) goes, we've been getting a lot of mileage out of Core Worlds, Thunderstone Advance, Nexus Ops (The new one), and 7 Wonders lately. Though Thunderstone Advance can stretch to the upper end of that time limit depending on how well/poorly you do.

[madcow]

Thanks for the tips guys, I think Pandemic is going to be the way to go. I had concerns that it would be too much like a puzzle rather than a game, and might not be so fun. But looking into it more, seems like the way to go. But I'm open to any other suggestions that might pop up!

[zespri]

Thanks for the tips guys, I think Pandemic is going to be the way to go. I had concerns that it would be too much like a puzzle rather than a game, and might not be so fun. But looking into it more, seems like the way to go. But I'm open to any other suggestions that might pop up!

Lately there started to appear a lot of co-op games. I really like this trend. It seems that the designers finaly figure out ways to design a co-op game that would not fill like puzzle / multi-player solitaire.

Some of the other co-op games I'm referring to are (in no particular order):

• Elder Sign - This is the only game from this list that I played personally. I bought it for my iPhone because I liked the description but the gameplay disappointed me. I don't see getting the physical copy of this game myself - too much of randomness to my taste, but others especially fans of cutulthu theme might enjoy it.
• Zombicide This one I've been following for quite a while, several months before they got on kickstarter. The have funded, developed and published since. I haven't got this one yet, but I'm planning to, I have not read any reviews of the finished game though, so will make sure to that before buying to check that this not a flop (unlikely).
  
• Mage Knight Board Game Judging by description it's insanely difficult game, so I would not recommend it for your purposes, but personally I'm planning on getting it. The complexity part as I understand is kind of expected from the designer Vlaada Chvátil.
• Space Alert Another Vlaada Chvátil's game. I don't know anything else about it.
• Forbidden Island This is a kids game. I almost bought one to play with my kids as mechanics looked interesting, but changed my mind in the store as I did not like the components. If I was going to buy it online I would have  had it  - that's the risk of holding something in your hands before buying
• The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Have not played this one, but a friend whose opinion I trust, recommended it as a very well designed game.
• Arkham Horror This one actually from 2005, so unlike the rest in the list not just a couple of years old. Still many players seem to have been enjoying it still
• Shadows over Camelot Same as above
• Defenders of the Realm
• Red November
• Yggdrasil

[Echo35]

Thanks for the tips guys, I think Pandemic is going to be the way to go. I had concerns that it would be too much like a puzzle rather than a game, and might not be so fun. But looking into it more, seems like the way to go. But I'm open to any other suggestions that might pop up!

Lately there started to appear a lot of co-op games. I really like this trend. It seems that the designers finaly figure out ways to design a co-op game that would not fill like puzzle / multi-player solitaire.

Some of the other co-op games I'm referring to are (in no particular order):

• Elder Sign - This is the only game from this list that I played personally. I bought it for my iPhone because I liked the description but the gameplay disappointed me. I don't see getting the physical copy of this game myself - too much of randomness to my taste, but others especially fans of cutulthu theme might enjoy it.
• Zombicide This one I've been following for quite a while, several months before they got on kickstarter. The have funded, developed and published since. I haven't got this one yet, but I'm planning to, I have not read any reviews of the finished game though, so will make sure to that before buying to check that this not a flop (unlikely).
  
• Mage Knight Board Game Judging by description it's insanely difficult game, so I would not recommend it for your purposes, but personally I'm planning on getting it. The complexity part as I understand is kind of expected from the designer Vlaada Chvátil.
• Space Alert Another Vlaada Chvátil's game. I don't know anything else about it.
• Forbidden Island This is a kids game. I almost bought one to play with my kids as mechanics looked interesting, but changed my mind in the store as I did not like the components. If I was going to buy it online I would have  had it  - that's the risk of holding something in your hands before buying
• The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Have not played this one, but a friend whose opinion I trust, recommended it as a very well designed game.
• Arkham Horror This one actually from 2005, so unlike the rest in the list not just a couple of years old. Still many players seem to have been enjoying it still
• Shadows over Camelot Same as above
• Defenders of the Realm
• Red November
• Yggdrasil

Lots of people here play Elder Sign and love it. Arkham I would recommend playing first, as it's very much a love it/hate it game. Shadows Over Camelot is decent, but Battlestar Galactica is way better. Defenders of the Realm is long, but well liked by my group, I have yet to play it myself. Mage Knight is... yeah, nowhere close to a beginner game. I love it to death, but man it's crunchy. Red November has very little replayability, good for a game or two but that's it. If you want a good co-op silverline game, go for Death Angel instead (I own all of it and it gets a lot of play, great game). Haven't played the rest on this list.

[zespri]

Red November has very little replayability, good for a game or two but that's it.

Why?

[KDR_11k]

Catan is a pretty boring game IMO, it's good enough for getting people away from the mindless "classic" games and into more complex fare but it fills more of a missing link role there, a useful step but nothing you'll return to once you've advanced past it.

I just got Kingdom Builder, that's GOTY 2012 so it'll probably be good but I hadn't had a chance to play it yet.

VP-based games have the advantage of a very definite game end, unlike e.g. Monopoly there's usually irreversible progress towards the game end condition and thus the game time is pretty predictable and "undead" (already decided but hasn't met a victory condition) games don't last long. E.g. Agricola will ALWAYS last 14 turns, that's the game end condition.

Biggest downside to Agricola is how many tokens you need to shuffle around between turns, a digital version would be a big advantage here. The familiar subject matter keeps the game quite accessible, it's very logical how operating your farm works in the game if you know that milk comes out of cows, not just out of the bottle and since you only get the jobs and improvements you drew at the start there's not too much buyable stuff to concern yourself with (I liken that mechanic to bonus ships). Puerto Rico is a bit easier to handle since there's fewer things to do between turns. Both can work with casuals since they aren't very adversarial and people don't feel too pressured while learning them.

Forbidden Island seems a bit too simple in what you can do, many turns consist of sitting around and keeping tiles afloat while waiting for the artifacts to be drawn. The flood progress reminds me a bit of AIP but there's too few actions available to players in most turns. I picked it up instead of Space Alert because I was worried that I wouldn't get anyone to play Space Alert with me (and in the end FTL probably fills the same role for videogamers).