Any board game fans?

[neuroticdog]

I'm not sure why, but I got the hankering to play a board game. I haven't played board games since Stratego and Avalon Hill games in my youth. So, anyway, I wanted to find somthing that my and my wife can play, nothing to difficult to learn, but left room for numerous plays and a healthy dose of strategy and tactics.

I finally decided on "Ticket to Ride". A game about building train lines between cities in early 1900 North America. Does anyone have any thoughts on this game and also...if there ARE any board gamers out there, would love to hear comments and recommendations!

best
Michael

[Scott Bails]

I enjoy a good board game. I played them when I was a kid, and now my daughter loves to play them.

Used to love Trivial Pursuit, and now play Othello, checkers, Sorry, Life, and several others.

Never heard of "Ticket to Ride," but my ex and I used to have marathon sessions of Othello.

[polmico]

There are a lot of great, great indie board games out there. When we lived in Texas, we had friends that were really in to them, but we sort of haven't followed through.

The best game we've tried lately has been Qwirkle. All the strategy of chess or Scrabble but . . . well, there's no drop off. It's immediately accessible and immediately fun.

So, yes, I recommend Qwirkle.

[spellbound]

I've been getting back into them because my daughter likes to play them. She even wants me to teach her Chess and Backgammon.

[ronmac]

The best game we've tried lately has been Qwirkle.

Great game. There are others from the same company. Dizzios is another which is pretty fun. And another called Cirkus.

For me, it all begins and ends with Scrabble. I only wish I could find someone to play with. :( My family hates getting crushed every time we play.

[polmico]

For me, it all begins and ends with Scrabble. I only wish I could find someone to play with. :( My family hates getting crushed every time we play.

My problem, too. Qwirkle seems to level that. I'm also a bit of a dick when I play Scrabble.

[trurl]

We have the Family Game Night games for the PS3 with classic games like Mousetrap, Clue, Battleship and Life and we play those with our kids. The grumpy old man in me views that as a clear sign or societal decay, but that's how we roll in the 21st century... Life is actually great in video form but I refuse to play Mousetrap. We have an actual, old school Mousetrap game. It might be worth getting a platform version of Monopoly as well, so much to keep up with in that game.

I've been trying to get my wife to play Scrabble for months. She likes Boggle because she's better at it... they have versions of both in the Family Game Night package, and they're asinine, as you can imagine...

[Lopez]

We're big on Settlers of Catan. This is a strategy and amassing-of-territory game that has a medieval atmosphere about it. It changes every time you play it, because the board is never the same for each game. It's made of hexagonal pieces that are randomly assembled for each new game. http://www.catan.com/game/settlers-catan

[Supersonic Scientist]

My ALL-TIME favorite board game (from the Book-Shelf gaming series) Feudal....a cross between: Chess & Statego set in mideval times.

I would love to find others to play this with. Years back, I searched the internet for some maybe "on-line" clubs but nothing....maybe a new search is in order.

[spellbound]

For me, it all begins and ends with Scrabble. I only wish I could find someone to play with. My family hates getting crushed every time we play.

Same here. I learned the game as a child from two masters, my father and my grandfather. My father is a great game strategist with a decent vocabulary, and my grandfather had an exceptionally strong vocabulary from doing crosswords every day. Me, I now have more education than either one of them, and I like to do crosswords.

[wideopenears]

I like to play Go, though I suck at it. My son beats me every time. Still, I really enjoy it. More complex than Chess, in my opinion.

Any players?

[Scott Bails]

I've always wanted to learn how to play Go.

One of these days...

[Garden Dreamer]

I'm an intermediate-level tournament Scrabble player although I stopped tournaments because of the cost; I still go to a local club once or twice a week and have marathon sessions with club friends on the weekend. I also have a side business making customized boards. If not for this ongoing Scrabble obsession I'd probably be playing other boardgames. I also have a cards/dice hockey game I play solitaire.

[wideopenears]

I've always wanted to learn how to play Go.

One of these days...

Fairly easy to learn....easier in most ways than Chess, actually.....

[wideopenears]

http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/

This walks you through the basics of Go....have fun!

[Vic2012]

Loved playing Life, Mousetrap, Chutes n Ladders. Really loved Mousetrap.

[JKL2000]

The most recent board game I've played is Candy Land. I would totally do Queen Frostine.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101208223204/candy-land/images/4/47/Frostine_new.png

[Progmatic]

I love Chess, Chinese Chess, Backgammon...best part you do not have to have even anyone to play against...your personal device can step in...:D

[Vic2012]

:lol at JKL. I played Candy Land a lot with my stepkids. Ah, innocence lost..:lol

[Jay G]

My favorites have always been Monopoly, Life, Water Works and Mille Bornes. I finally was able to track down an up to date re-issue version of Mille Bornes a couple of years ago. Original version were very hard to come by and very expensive at the time I was looking.

[Rangershockey7]

I also LOVED the Avalon Hill games. I always loved any board game, but when I discovered the Avalon Hill military/strategy games in High School, I fell in love with them.

I love to play ASL, but rarely get to.

Our Family Game is "25 Words or Less". We have been playing it for years. When my sons were traveling for hockey tournements, we would bring the game and the parents would end up in the hotel lobby or in some hallway, playing for hours.

During Hurricane Sandy, we played during the day while we had no electricity. My oldest son (age 25), who belongs to Prog Ears and loves Prog, was my teammate. I had to have him say the word "kaleidoscope" My hint was "word Stolt can't say" and my son got it right away which pissed my wife off immensely.

Roine always pronounces it "Kal E doscope" rather than "Kal I doscope". It always made us laugh and then helped us win a game.

[neuroticdog]

Avalon Hill games were amazing...I had D Day, Blitzkreig, Jutland, Gettysburg, Kriegspiel and others that I cant remember. For the life of me...I cant find them now, and I've been looking for days.

best
Michael

[jazzcat]

Ticket To Ride is alot of fun. Mille Bournes card game is a fun one too

[neuroticdog]

I'm waiting patiently for my copy of Ticket To Ride to arrive. It was a cross between that, Settler of Catan or Carcassone. Those 3 are supposedly the holy trinity of "gateway" games that are out there now for newbies.

best
Michael

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Ticket to Ride is good. But the best game out there right now is a card game called "Dominion." Check it out!

[Trane]

My ALL-TIME favorite board game (from the Book-Shelf gaming series) Feudal....a cross between: Chess & Statego set in mideval times.

I would love to find others to play this with. Years back, I searched the internet for some maybe "on-line" clubs but nothing....maybe a new search is in order.

Absofuckinglutely!!! Feudal has easily the best board game I've played ... I'm even planning to develop some better wooden boards (these plastic grey things are too cheap for such a classy game)... I'm thinking of using nine boards, with rivers

OK, let's be honest: it's been on my backburner for almost three decades, and not likely to be finished soon.





I'm definitely not in games involving dice, though (except for Risk)... Pure strategy for me....That's why I also love Diplomacy .... 1st WW in Europe

[Trane]

Chess, checkers and Abalon were also cool in my early teens

Avalon Hill games were amazing...I had D Day, Blitzkreig, Jutland, Gettysburg, Kriegspiel and others that I cant remember. For the life of me...I cant find them now, and I've been looking for days.

best
Michael

I could never get too much in those type of games... too complicated... the rule books were simply too much...

The only one I did somehow master a bit was Firefight, because it had detailed landscapes and illustrated tokens (instead of bizarre esoteric squares and other shit of the genre. But I'll be honest I )played maximum 10 times and haven't in almost three decades.


My favorites have always been Monopoly, Life, Water Works and Mille Bornes. I finally was able to track down an up to date re-issue version of Mille Bornes a couple of years ago. Original version were very hard to come by and very expensive at the time I was looking.
Is it any different to the original??

(is it remastered with bonus tracks and a revised booklet with liner notes >> JK;) )

[willyswing]

Faves include Milles Borne, Cosmic Encounter (the ABSOLUTE best!), Risk, & Trival Pursuit. Ditto on Feudal, great game! I've also got a couple of others by the maker of Feudal, Ploy being one of them (can't remember the others right now).

[Dave the Brave]

Trivial Pursuit
Scrabble
That's about it.

DtB

[Trane]

Played a lot of Trivial pursuit, but for some reasons, I never really considered it as a full-fleged board games... as with all these general or specific knowledge games


Ditto on Feudal, great game! I've also got a couple of others by the maker of Feudal, Ploy being one of them (can't remember the others right now).
:O
Got details??? ;)

[willyswing]

Ploy is sorta like chess, except with little disks with ridges on them that can only move in the direction the ridges are pointing (played on a grid), the number of ridges being different on each piece (up to 4). Hard to explain!
http://www.amazon.com/PLOY-Strategic-Maneuver-Capture-Bookcase/dp/B00AFZ0OBK/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1370365429&sr=1-2&keywords=ploy

[Paulie]

Cribbage all the way

[spellbound]

I love cribbage. Used to like trivial pursuit but I have a good memory and eventually learned all the answers.

[Tangram]

Cribbage all the way

Agreed! Still play the board game, but use the computer version when nobody is around. Play good old fashion board games, Monopoly, chutes and Ladders, battleship etc with the kids.

[bmooncd]

Lord of the Rings LCG is definitely my fave. Hoping to get into Arkham Horror, if I ever get through the rulebook...

[Trane]

Cribbage all the way

I played this a lot in the mid-80's in Canada (love it still but find nobody in Europe that knows of the game).... but like most cardgames, I don't think of it as a boardgame. I mean, you can play it without the board and the pins... just writing your score down on paper

[Andy Ives]

It's a bit difficult nowadys to find people who are interested but games I've played over the last couple of years are Go (the collecting souveniers one), Totopoly, Cluedo, Careers, Buccaneer, Mine a Million (now renamed The Business Game) and Formula One. I've also got Scoop, Risk, Railroader and Spy Ring but haven't played them recently.

[Lopez]

Cribbage all the way

Hi Paul,

I didn't know you were a cribbage player. If you come down to ProgDay this year, I'll play you a few rounds.

[Paulie]

Lou! Challenge accepted! But we don't need to meet up in NC to play. You're just over the Zakim for crying out loud! :lol One of these weekends we should plan to play a few rounds.

[Scott Bails]

Not a board game, per se, but I always liked Pinochle, too.

[ronmac]

Not a board game, per se, but I always liked Pinochle, too.

I was going to post the same thing! Haven't played it in like 20 years.

[neuroticdog]

Not a board game, but a CCG (or TCG...the gaming community has more acronyms then the prog ghetto for petes sake). Regardless if you want to call it a Collectable Card Game or a Trading Card Game...Jaipur is really fun. My wife and I spent about 2 hours yesterday playing it. The object is to trade for and sell valuable goods set in a Middle East/India theme setting. So, the more jewels, gold, silver, silk, spice's and leather you trade for the better, but you need to get rid of it quick to get the best prices...oh...an dont forget about the camels. The object is to become the Maharaja's favorite trader. Great game!

best
Michael

[Garden Dreamer]

I could never get too much in those type of games... too complicated... the rule books were simply too much...

The only one I did somehow master a bit was Firefight, because it had detailed landscapes and illustrated tokens (instead of bizarre esoteric squares and other shit of the genre. But I'll be honest I )played maximum 10 times and haven't in almost three decades.





When I was a teen I had a group of friends I played sports board games with, like Strat-o-matic Baseball and Football. I had another group of friends who were heavily into wargames and I so wanted to be part of that clique because the games were so complex and fascinating to watch, but I just couldn't wrap my head around some of the games. Plus these guys were big into reading books about war and history which helped their understanding of the games. I would buy the games, set up the pieces, read the instructions and it seemed overwhelming. When I played against my friends, I just didn't have the intuitive grasp of what the right strategies were in a given scenario. One wargame I did enjoy was the Ace of Aces booklet series of airplane battles. Those were a lot of fun and while it helped to have knowledge of historical planes, you could still play it strictly on trying to outmaneuvre and outthink your opponent.

[Lopez]

Lou! Challenge accepted! But we don't need to meet up in NC to play. You're just over the Zakim for crying out loud! :lol One of these weekends we should plan to play a few rounds.

Very true, Paul. I was thinking the same thing after hitting reply. Heck, I'm only about 5 miles away. Let me practice up with wifey, who's pretty good, and I'll get in touch.

[BobM]

Did the usual board games with the kids when they were young. Also got them involved in role playing games (RPG's) like Star Trek and D&D. They both still love that and have GM'ed their own games for friends.

Of course that branched out into card games. We played Magic for a while, but that got old and way too complex. Our favorite card games now are Apples to Apples (highly recommended) and a few varieties of Flux (also highly recommended).

[Klonk]

Apples to Apples is fun, but for me at least, gets a little dull after a while. Especially if it's played while drinking. For that, I always need to have Pictionary, Scattegories, Taboo, Guesstures etc. close at hand! X)

Stop Thief was a favorite board game of mine growing up.

[oilersfan]

Apples to Apples is fun, but for me at least, gets a little dull after a while. Especially if it's played while drinking. For that, I always need to have Pictionary, Scattegories, Taboo, Guesstures etc. close at hand! X)

Stop Thief was a favorite board game of mine growing up.

If you like Apples to Apples but prefer a game more conducive to drinking, I highly recommend Cards Against Humanity.

http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/

[Paul]

Ticket to Ride is good. But the best game out there right now is a card game called "Dominion." Check it out!

Dominion is a fantastic game. I belong to a gaming group at work and we play once a week at lunchtime - Dominion is a favourite, along with Acquire, Carcassone, TransEuropa and Condotierre.

[Klonk]

If you like Apples to Apples but prefer a game more conducive to drinking, I highly recommend Cards Against Humanity.

http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/

:lol I have indeed played this game, Brian. A friend of mine bought it as a goof. It's gloriously un-pc!