What's the last board game you played?

[Windseeker]

This summer the wind has betrayed me and left me stranded on the beach with a gun in my hand, staring at the sea, starting at the sand. J/K about the gun part. Needless to say it's been horrible. 

 

So it got me looking for a new hobbie. Since my hobbies have up till now have been too extreme for my kids, I've been searching for a way to spend more time doing something a little more engaging and interactive. 

 

Enter board gaming. 

 

I've never been a fan of board games (Monopoly, Sorry, etc..). But these new games are allot of fun and can be deeply satisfying. 

 

I also have a theory that with the overwhelming increase in online social activity and online gaming we seem to missing the face to face interaction as well as opportunities to engage senses other than sight and sound. This is one of the reasons I believe that board gaming has had such a dramatic increase this year.  Plus it engages your brain in ways that online gaming doesn't. It's much more strategic and requires more engaging interaction. 

 

Look at the rise in attendees at board game conventions, they actually went down in the early 90-2000 (which I believe can be attributed to the rise in online gaming) but then all the sudden it just took off around 2005. (GenCon)

 

 

Anyway I started my collection and here it is so far listed from light to heavy board/card games. 

 

Dixit

Love Letter - Hobbit

Hanabi

Ticket to Ride 

Summoner Wars

King of Tokyo

Resistance Avalon

Coup

Hive Pocket Edition

Splendor

Mysterium 

Sheriff of Nottingham

7 Wonders

Dominion

Lords of Waterdeep (w/Skullport Expansion)

Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Five Tribes

Dead of Winter

Castles of Burgundy

Roll for the Galaxy

Agricola

 

I'm pretty happy with most of them. I don't honestly know how to play them all well...I went a little crazy in starting my collection. But I have played most of them. 

 

My family loves Resistance Avalon which is bluffing game and handles a large group really well. My 12 year old loves playing King of Tokyo. I've been trying to wrap my brain around Agricola and have played a couple solo plays and think I'm ready to introduce it to my wife.

 

So what are your favorite board games and what was the last game you played?

[Vort]

But these new games are allot of fun

 

[mordorbund]

I like the word game Bananagrams (you can play with Scrabble tiles if you already have that).

 

A game I'd like to have if my kids were older is Sentinels of the Multiverse. It's a co-op game, meaning that either everyone wins together or everyone loses together.

 

If you like Dixit, another creativity game is Story War. Players start the round with a random character and spin a narrative out of air (inspired by other cards in their hands) where their character defeats all others. They have to convince a judge (who changes at the start of each round for fairness).

[classylady]

Probably the last board game I played was CandyLand with my two young granddaughters.

 

Windseeker, I haven't heard of a single one of those board games you listed.  I must really be out-of-the-loop.

 

Mordorbund, I enjoy playing both Bananagrams and Scrabble.  Maybe, because I always win? 

[Palerider]

It may have been Sorry

[Palerider]

It was checkers .....

[kapikui]

Chess?

[hagoth]

The only board game our family occasionally plays is Life.

 

Years back, my wife and I used to have dinner with other couples and play Settlers of Catan.

 

Decades back, my buddies and I would put two Risk boards end to end (linking from Kamchatka to Alaska) to double the playing field, and play late into the night.

[mirkwood]

Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon

 

I also recently played Sequence.

 

One of my favorites is Carcasonne.

[mirkwood]

Lords of Waterdeep (w/Skullport Expansion)

 

 

 

Tell me about this game.

[Laniston]

just got 5 tribes and have played it about ...lol 5 times.  I like it a lot.  My favourite board game has got to be Smallworld in any of its varieties.

[Backroads]

I've a buddy who collects board games and once a month has board game open house night. Good times.

Not a board game persay, but I last played Telestrations. Lots of fun.

[Josiah]

Of the games you have listed I have played Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Dominion, and Agricola. All fantastic games. If you enjoy them, some of my other favorites in the same category are Stone Age, Saint Petersburg, and Alhambra. I've played them all again in the last month or so, and I'm never disappointed. They're more than worth a shot if you get the chance.

 

Tichu is an interesting trick-taking card game played in two teams of 2. It's a blast if you happen to have exactly 4 people interested, but otherwise you have to leave people out/you can't play, so it can be inconvenient at times.

 

Pandemic is pretty good as far as cooperative games go. There's a lot of depth to the strategy, and it requires quite a bit of teamwork. You can also adjust the difficulty to make it harder as your family/group gets better at the game, which is great.

 

As for the more mainstream games, Apples to Apples is my first pick for those rare occasions when I don't want a game that makes me think very hard. I also enjoy Boggle and Scrabble, and I'm a chess nerd too. 

Edited August 8, 2015 by Josiah

[char713]

The last board game I played was probably Citadels. (Look it up, it's so fun.. though it may not count here because it is actually a card game.)

 

Actual board games I have played recently, because my job is taking care of a two year old child:

Candy Land

some kind of Doc McStuffins shape-matching game

Chutes and Ladders

 

Our family is really in to board games, we hardly had any video games growing up (and none that weren't educational) so that might be partly why.

 

We love:

Risk (for days and days)

Acquire (I am the only person to have ever beat my father at this game, his entire life.)

Rail Baron

Imaginiff 

Loaded Questions (Some of our greatest family inside jokes were created while playing this game. And we have many.)

Resistance

The Great Dalmuti

Scattergories

Set (my sister isn't allowed to play most of the time because she wins so quickly)

Axis and Allies, Pacific Ed. 

Stratego

Bang! 

 

And of course the classics, we can go entire weeks just playing these over and over if we're in the right mood:

Clue

Monopoly

Pit

Chess

Uno Hearts

[Josiah]

How could I forget Bang! 

 

Risk is awesome too, but sadly my family thinks it takes too long.

[prisonchaplain]

I want my children to grow up becoming Republicans, so, of course, we play Monopoly!     My middle child hates the game--thinks it's mean.  Ah well...she's an artist.  There are GOP artists, aren't there? 

[Maureen]

When visiting my niece, we tend to play Apples to Apples, but she recently showed us a card game called Dutch Blitz. I recommend both.

 

M.

[Palerider]

Of all the games we played as a family ... The one we played the most was Uno. We use to have some intense games. Lol

[Laniston]

I want my children to grow up becoming Republicans, so, of course, we play Monopoly!     My middle child hates the game--thinks it's mean.  Ah well...she's an artist.  There are GOP artists, aren't there? 

Isn't it great how Monopoly brings out the worst in people?

[mordorbund]

Isn't it great how Monopoly brings out the worst in people?

 

And then there's Doctor Who Monopoly where someone gets to play as the sonic screwdriver. It's like they sat down in a board meeting and said, "For a game famous for the fighting and hurt feelings, is there any way we can ruin friendships and destroy family ties before the game begins?!"

[mordorbund]

I'll just leave this here.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/BeingAGeek531/photos/a.105443159616.81520.103137454616/10153142078009617/?type=1

[Palerider]

Nice

[Windseeker]

Tell me about this game.

 

Hi Mirkwood. 

 

Lords of Waterdeep is a fairly light to medium worker placement game. Essentially you use your workers to go to different locations in Waterdeep to recruit Rogues, Clerics, Mages and Fighters to complete quests. When they complete these quests it give you money and victory points. It's currently rated number 28 on boardgamegeek so I think it's a safe one to pick up.  It's theme is a little loose but compared to other games I have the mechanics fit it well. For the size and components I think the game is a great value.

 

If you want to view any of these games you can watch playthru's on youtube. 

 

I think it's pretty fun but have yet to play a serious game with the family. I've learned that I need to test play these game several times before I introduce them to my 

[Windseeker]

 

Of the games you have listed I have played Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Dominion, and Agricola. All fantastic games. If you enjoy them, some of my other favorites in the same category are Stone Age, Saint Petersburg, and Alhambra. I've played them all again in the last month or so, and I'm never disappointed. They're more than worth a shot if you get the chance.

 

Tichu is an interesting trick-taking card game played in two teams of 2. It's a blast if you happen to have exactly 4 people interested, but otherwise you have to leave people out/you can't play, so it can be inconvenient at times.

 

Pandemic is pretty good as far as cooperative games go. There's a lot of depth to the strategy, and it requires quite a bit of teamwork. You can also adjust the difficulty to make it harder as your family/group gets better at the game, which is great.

 

As for the more mainstream games, Apples to Apples is my first pick for those rare occasions when I don't want a game that makes me think very hard. I also enjoy Boggle and Scrabble, and I'm a chess nerd too. 

 

 

I have Pandemic on my wishlist. I have heard good things about it. 

[Guest]

Uhm, I don't know most of those board games. 

 

Board games in my house tend to end up in World War X.  We are all very competitive and for some reason, the inner devil of the loser always come out to resort to cheating.  Ugh.

 

But these are the ones we play:

Mahjong - when my mom joins us in this game, sparks fly because she would sacrifice her win just to make my husband lose.  My husband is very competitive and would get so mad.  Hah hah.

Chess (my 2 kids play this like it's a game of life and death and somebody ends up crying in the end - we had a glass set that they got from some cousin for Christmas and that got smashed at the end of the inaugural game when one kid smashed his king on the board.  Hah!)

Monopoly (we have several kinds, our favorite is the Star Wars version.  And somebody always end up getting ganged on)

Pictionary (we like playing this with two teams with a team composed of a kid and an adult.  When the kid is drawing, he is allowed to use google).

 

These are our go-to board games when cousins visit.

Taboo

Guesstures