Board Games – what’re you currently playing?

Port Royal atm.
Well, a card game really, but what a cracker. 🙂

Really well balanced, easy to play and learn, cheaper than a round of drinks and quite a bit of depth to it.

Pirate themed, so bad acting obligatory.
Great with slightly older kids too.
I can see why it’s so well rated.

Very highly recommended for just over a tenner.

You lot?

Not a board game, but my daughter has Posing Pandas which she beats me at on a regular basis. It’s the same idea as Yahtzee but with pandas.

Not got it to the table yet, but Isle of Cats turned up the other day (via Kickstarter). It’s a thing of beauty.

Played Just One last night. I really rate this, it’s a dead simple game which works well with a high player count and perfect for getting non-gamers gaming. Everyone gets a rack a bit like a Scabble tile rack, and a whiteboard marker. You also draw a deck of 13 cards from a big stack (the rest aren’t used). You take it in turn to be the ‘guesser,’ the guesser draws a card and puts it on their rack so that everyone else bar them can see it. On it is five words, they pick one of 1-5 (blind) and then everyone else writes a one-word clue on their rack. The kicker is that the guesser then closes their eyes, everyone else compares racks (quiet at the back) and duplicate clues are wiped out. The guesser then opens their eyes and has to guess the word from the clue. A correct guess means the card goes into a “winnings” pile, a pass means that card is discarded, an incorrect guess means it’s discarded along with another one. When the draw deck is done, the number of winnings points is your score for that round.

Though, I do have a bit of a choice.

https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/UKCougar

😀

Excellent!

I shall be picking your brains as to the next purchase later…….

Sure, happy to.

Kingdominos most recently, which is fairly fun. Our old staples are Jaipur (trading game), Azul (collecting things of a particular colour game), and Patchwork (2-person making shapes fit a board game) – all of them really recommended.

This is what that lot looks like:

Shelfie

Our old staples are Jaipur (trading game)

I hated the sound of Jaipur. I bought it on a whim because loads of people recommended it. Opened the box, didn’t like the artwork, didn’t like the theme. Read the rules, thought it sounded awful.

Finally played it, reluctantly, and… it turns out it’s absolutely brilliant.

Azul

If you like Azul, check out Sagrada.

Ok – what board game for a family to play (means d, boy of 9 and boy of 5).

Thanks!

TS.

My sister in law and her missus got Jaipur for their Christmas, my daughter seems to be quite good at it! Tried to get a set but the local shop didn’t have any, walked out with Carcassonne instead. Good game, with another set or two you could end up with an epic full dining table size world. There was another one we were recommended who’s name eludes me right now, more of a lo-fi PC world builder.

Must register and get a profile on there, cheers Cougar!

Ok – what board game for a family to play (means d, boy of 9 and boy of 5).

Never played (the junior version) myself but maybe:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ticket-to-Ride-First-Journey/dp/B0773YDWL3

walked out with Carcassonne instead.

Yeah, Carcassonne is a great game. Simple to learn and fun.

Good game, with another set or two you could end up with an epic full dining table size world.

There’s oodles of expansions, many of which are diminishing returns. I’d recommend Inns & Cathedrals to start with, it gives you a bunch of new tiles, adds a couple of new rules but doesn’t change the gameplay significantly (unlike some).

Oh, and if you like tile layers and Sim City-a-like gameplay, I’ve been enjoying Quadropolis lately.

If you like Azul, check out Sagrada.

I wondered about that, but between Azul and Cottage Garden and Patchwork, I wondered if we have too many “collect things, make them fit your board” type games.

I can also really recommend The Mind. It’s ruffled a few feathers for being “barely a game”, and it definitely takes a few rounds to get into, but once you do it’s surprisingly gripping!

I’ve referred to this quite thorough board game guide at times: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/12/ars-technicas-ultimate-board-game-gift-guide-2019-edition/

Marvel Champions

King domino

Terraforming Mars

Bloodrage

Barenpark

Photosynthesis

D&D 5e

King of Tokyo

Goto game at our works lunchtime gaming session is Exploding Kittens (with most of the expansion packs). Unstable Unicorns is good too. Coup is a new arrival that seems popular. I’ll update on Monday when i can ask the Games Master what the others are. Kittens is by far the best though

not technically board games, but I always liked Warhammer 40k and D&D.

Tartanscarf Ticket to Ride First Journey is a fantastic game, less of a dumbed down version of the big game, more of a simpler version that’s faster to play. We (adults) play it ourselves for a quick play.

Mini Squirrel has My Little Pony Monopoly which is much the same, smaller board and mandatory buying makes it quicker and easier.

Chess.

and..

Currently designing a Pirate themed game. It’s been on the back burner for some time and this thread has now inspired me to dust of designs so far and get it finished.

The hardest part so far has been the ship fighting mechanics.

Trying to avoid the elements of chance via dice and this has been quite difficult.

Good fun trying to design a game.

Hnefatafl

Ludus latrunculorum
(trying to tweek this with differing moves, but not wanting it become chess all over again.)

Thanks for the suggestions Cougar. Just ordered Ticket to Ride.

TS.

Ps can’t believe you’ve got so many games.

Ticket to Ride First Journey is a fantastic game, less of a dumbed down version of the big game, more of a simpler version that’s faster to play.

Ticket to Ride London scratches that itch for me. It’s the same as the big box game but plays in about 10 minutes.

We play a lot of 5 Minute dungeon (hard to find in English – quite often available from US), its fast paced, and works with quite young children (you can change the times or number of gates to get through).

Firm favourites in recent years…
Carcassonne
King Domino
Queen Domino
Azul
Ticket to Ride
Settlers of Catan

Ok – what board game for a family to play (means d, boy of 9 and boy of 5).

While the evenings are dark –

Waldschattenspiel (Shadows in the Woods) – a board game

The hardest part so far has been the ship fighting mechanics.

Trying to avoid the elements of chance via dice and this has been quite difficult.

As kids we made our own paper and pencil version of space invaders / asteroids – drew a board on paper littered with obstacles – asteroids, planets, black holes etc – then a base at each side of the paper –  starting at your base we then took turns to try and navigate through the asteroids  by placing a pencil tip down and holding it at the top with your finger tip – pushing down made the pencil skid off and draw line – you then drew your ship where the line ended (assuming you didn’t crash into anything) . The aim was to try and get to a position where you had a line of sight to either your opponent or their base and take shots at it in the same way.

On a possibly more grown up basis though…. if you can track down a copy of Cheapass Games ‘Vegas’ it’s sort of an alternative version of Monopoly where you move through casinos rather than London streets – rather than pay rent where you land you place bets of the value of the square you land on. Each casino has a game of chance that mirrors the house advantage in a real casino so through the game each casino tends to accumalate a pot that you play for later on.

Its ages since I played it.. but those games of chance either involved dice or playing cards – something very simply like just cutting the pack and win or lose being based on the value of the suit – so you might be able to find inspiration from there for your mechanism for chance by using a deck of cards.

By the same designer/author is Kill Doctor Lucky theres the idea of luck – each player holding a finite amount of luck cards and the game play is about trying to flush out other people’s luck cards – so your element of chance might not be about the person taking the shot but the luck of the person being aimed at.

then took turns to try and navigate through the asteroids by placing a pencil tip down and holding it at the top with your finger tip – pushing down made the pencil skid off and draw line

Blimey, that takes me back! At junior school back in the late 60’s we used to draw a race track with a start/finish line and use that method to get round it.

Happened across this just now as a nice variant of rules you can play with an existing game

Dunsanys Chess

Dungeon Mayhem is the game we also play a LOT, with Zombie Dice as a filler while we set up a “full game”

Space Team is a bit shouty. Rick & Morty’s Total Rickall is ok but require a fair bit of table space

Currently being played and that I’m enjoying include:
– Burgle Bros
– Terraforming Mars
– Forbidden Island
– Mage Knight
– 7th Continent

Spirit Island has just turned up this week as a birthday pressie 🙂

Hey @tartanscarf, how did TtR go down?

Really enjoyed it thanks Cougar. My youngest lad (5) can pretty much play it himself against the rest of the family so it keeps him occupied too. He also won the first time we played it which caused a fight with my older lad 🙂

Thinking about getting Shadow in the Woods soon.

TS.

👍 awesome, glad to hear it.

Thinking about getting Shadow in the Woods soon.

Huh, that’s a coincidence. I’ve never heard of that (BGG suggests it’s from 1985!) but earlier today I saw something elsewhere on the Internet about a game played in darkness save for a tea light. I kinda skimmed past it, wonder what it was now?

Cougar – I think the old version of SITW used a tea light. It’s a wee LED torch they use now.

Elf and safety gorn mayd I tell you.

Not a board game but Flip Slide is addictive

https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/games-puzzles-and-books/board-games/childrens-board-games/flipslide-game/p/159748

I recently bought War of Whispers and managed a couple of games of it. It’s a really tight, crunchy, devious game. Deceptively simple to learn with a really nice set of puzzles, and bagloads of passive-aggression.

Not a board game, but a game that the family enjoyed recently was Drawful2.

You do your best to draw picture of a word and then guess what words your other contestants have drawn.

Does need a phone per person and a pc/screen. (looks like you can get it on the firestick as well)

As a combined result of this thread, half term, knee surgery and wet weather we have been playing boardgames everyday for a week.

My wife got 221b Baker Street (cryptic crosswords meets Cludo) unopened from a charity shop for a fiver, and that has been a hit. We’ve also dug out some of the games that we had as kids: Sorry (Ludo for bastards) and Cludo were already played a lot, but Ulcers and Da Vinci Code (another charity shop find) are new to us.

My son is desperate to play Risk and Escape from Colditz, but wife and daughter are resisting.

I bought Port Royal off eBay and it arrived yesterday. We’ll tackle that on Sunday.

We got Bank Attack at christmas. thats a lot of fun but limited to 4 players… play with my 9yr old

Also i really enjoy Ravensburger Labyrinth Game!

My wife got 221b Baker Street

221B is ancient, but still a decent little game. I’ve fond memories of playing it back in my student days.