General

Well, maybe Catan isn't as technical as I thought, the age range says 10+. I'm strongly considering getting this for one of my kids as a Christmas gift. Is this a good version?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&lo...

Catan is pretty easy
Ticket to Ride is also good and easy

King of Tokyo
Potion Explosion
Sheriff of Nottingham
Space Base
Sushi Go Party
Tiny Towns

Those are my suggestions based on your criteria of "lower learning criteria" but more advanced than your typical Hasbro, old school board games.

For Catan, if you ever want to play more than 4 players, I would get the original version. The 5-6 player extension is a separate purchase however. And you can expand it with other expansions that add complexity to the game.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I'll start looking into those!

Sun wrote:

So I would need to buy this version:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&lo...

AND the 5-6 player Extension?

Catan and Risk are classics. Azul is also pretty good. If you're looking to have some simple fun, Quelf is something I recommend. You might also consider getting into some card games as well like Exploding Kittens and Fluxx

SwiftJAB wrote:
Came here to say Settlers of Catan. But Azul is good fun too. Very low learning curve for Azul. It's strategic, but easy to learn.

Quacks of Quedlinburg is fun, imo, but there is some learning involved. But once you get the hang of it, it's fairly fast paced and fun.

Ticket to Ride and King of Tokyo are excellent next level choices. Ticket to Ride works well for varying player counts, King of Tokyo really only shines with 4 or more.

I would say Potion Explosion is just a small step in complexity above those two.

Small World fits in that small step category too, and it scales really well from 2 to 5 players.

Carcassonne is another oldie but also a goodie, and I strongly prefer it to Catan. Technically plays up to 5 I believe, but feels pretty random with that many. Better with 2 or 3.

For a level slightly beyond those, Concordia is one of my favorites (if you can get past dat box art), and it plays pretty well at all player counts.

Check out Mexican Train Dominoes. It may not be "advanced" enough, but it is fun!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&lo...

There are a LOT of options these days. This is the hobby that I have been engrossed in for going on 9 years now.

For Catan...it's not *that* complicated but ultimately, I think it's a bit overrated in present day. Still a classic, still earned it's place as a well known game. However for me: the game is almost determined as soon as everyone places their pieces and becomes all about gaming the trade aspect of it. I could go on and on about it, but ultimately: there are better games out there.

Board games, like video games have come a LONG way in improvements. Now, there are different games for whatever it is that you want to accomplish. From the very simple to the very complex. From racing games, to efficiency engines, to negotiation, to Risk like 'dudes on a map' fighting games, card dueling games, cooperative games (where it is you against the game itself), social deduction and many more.

Sun has some great suggestions there. Let me add some and msg me if you want any questions answered. I could seriously talk about board games non stop so I'd be enjoying any conversation about it!

Stone Age (a very entry level euro style game that is STILL one of my favorites of all time)

Quacks of Quedlinberg (push your luck game where you have ingredients that you add to a bag and pull into your cauldron board. If you pull out too many white cherry bomb tokens, your pot explodes and you can only get points OR buy more ingredients for the next round rather than both. Has a good catchup mechanic so if someone falls behind; they get a big advantage to keep them in the game. You play over 8 rounds)

Ticket to Ride. Instead of Catan, THIS game is the one that is the must own. I've never had anyone play this and not LOVE it. Very simple but a blast to play.

Carcassonne: this is the other 'famous' game that is about laying tiles. It's good, but some people really love it. Start out by NOT playing the farmers if you get this.

No Thanks: a simple card game where you either take a card or play a chip. The cards are from 3-35. You remove 9 cards from the deck and flip the top one over. The first player either takes it or plays one of their chips that lets them skip. The chips are -1 points, which is good because you want the lowest score in this game. You play until the deck is out...then add up the value of the cards and subtract the number of chips you have for your score. The twist is that runs ONLY count the LOWEST card. So if you have the 30, 31, 32 and 34: you are only going to have 30 points. You can use this against someone to make them pay more chips and then you take it with a pile of chips on top! Simple but fun.

For Sale: in the same catagory as "No Thanks". You start with some money and are bidding for properties with the value of 1-30. The "1" is a cardboard box...and the "30" is a space station. You put 4 cards out and then auction. The first person out, gets half their money back and takes the LOWEST numbered card. The one who wins will get the highest card out of the 4, but pays their full bid. Once you have auctioned off all the properties; the 2nd half of the game starts where you use THOSE same properties to blind bid for 4 random checks that come out...valued ZERO to $15k. The lowest property offered in the blind bid takes the smallest check and so forth. Another simple and short one, but a blast to play!

There are a ton more, but I'll mention one more: Clank! A Deck Building Adventure. This one has one of my favorite mechanics in it: deck building. This is where you get some starter cards and buy more in a 'market' to add to your deck. Once you run out of cards, you shuffle the old cards and new together...and draw back up. But in Clank, you are going into a dungeon to get treasure. You use your cards to move and for added powers. If you make too much noise (or "clank") from using some of the cards: you add your color cubes to a bag. The dragon in the dungeon can be awakened and you will get dealt damage by drawing out of the bag the cubes you put in. So if you make a bunch of noise, you COULD take a lot of damage until the dragon goes back to sleep. It's an awesome game and not too complicated.

One last thing: YouTube has a TON of stuff. If you want help learning the games, "Watch It Played" is one of the best teachers online. "The Dice Tower" is also great for information on gaming when you are looking for new things.

Do they like card games? A deck of cards is cheap and doesn't take up space. We used to play Michigan Rummy for m&ms or pennies (supplied by the parent). Kids also liked Chase the Ace (again quarters supplied by parents) and Spoons.

Aside from that... these were some favorites growing up that are still fun today:

Uno
Mille Bornes
Pit
Yahtzee
Sequence
Scategories

How big is your family and what age range? They might help with more suggestions

There are 4 of us, kids are 11 and 12, going on 12 and 13 soon.

Thanks for all of the input so far everyone.

More suggestions then:

Blokus
Century Spice Road (or Golem Edition, whichever theme suits your fancy)
Lords of Waterdeep
Dice City
Flamecraft
Wingspan
Castles of Burgundy

Also, some places I order from that generally have pretty good pricing:

Miniaturemarket.com
Cardhaus.com
Gamenerdz.com

Used to order quite a bit from CoolStuffInc.com but they are often out of stock on the games I want when I think about buying them.

https://slickdeals.net/f/16200877-starts-nov-20-ta...

Target is having half off select board games tomorrow. Catan is one of them.

Yes, that’s the right version of Catan.

Quacks is a good family game as well and easy to teach and learn.

Flamecraft is new but also great.

@Scott

Board games on sale at Amazon

https://m.gametz.com/Hot_Deals/amazon-cyber-deals-...

Lots of stuff mentioned in this thread are in the sale, and some of them are also on the 3 for 2 sale so you could potentially save a ridiculous amount off retail for some of these

Is it worth getting Ticket to Ride: First Journey if two of the players will be 8 years old? Or better to just go for the full Ticket to Ride? Kind of want something that's fun but doesn't take 45-60 mins. 20-30 mins would be great due to attention spans.

You could try that or one of the new small ones like Ticket to Ride San Francisco that is supposed to be 15 minutes.

My family and I have a decent collection of board games, but I wouldn't call myself an expert. My wife and I have a 13, 9, and 7 year old. We enjoy the games where you work cooperatively to beat the game, or work at your own pace. Like:

Zombie Kidz Evolution - take turns moving into rooms of a school building to eliminate Zombies that spawn each turn. The cool part of this game is the achievement/growth system. Each time you play you can complete different challenges to progress your "level". After you reach the next level you open up numbered envelopes that add an additional piece to the game board the next time you play. So the gameplay evolves the more you play it.

Wingspan - this is the most peaceful game I've ever played. It's almost therapeutic. Take turns collecting birds / food / eggs to expand your own bird habitat. There aren't many options to ruin your opponent's builds. Points are tallied based on a combination of items in your habitat. The fun part is trying new ways to build, not seeing who the winner is at the end. It's worth mentioning that my youngest wants nothing to do with Wingspan, too much sitting and quiet thinking involved.

Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunter - you play as a team to venture into rooms in a mansion and collect the treasure there. Each turn ghosts are randomly placed on the board and need to be cleared out in order to collect the treasure in a specific room. If too many ghosts are placed in the mansion it becomes haunted and your team loses. Light strategy, highly cooperative.

Codenames (Disney) - teams of two cooperate to give clues on what names/characters belong to their network of spies. Generally played on a 5x5 grid with one character/name in each space. Some of the squares belong to your team, some to the other team, some to no one's team, and one space is the you lose space. We play the Disney version a lot to cater to our youngest.

King/Queendomino - a cool take on classic dominoes. Each player takes turn drawing tiles to place on their kingdom. Your kingdom is played on a 5x5 grid. You can't break these boundaries. The more land tiles of the same type (water, grass, forest, etc.) you link in your grid, the higher the points you score.

---
We also enjoy simple games that make us laugh:
Kids Against maturity - think Cards Against Humanity, but slightly less adult themed.

Avacado Smash - fast paced war-style card game

Sushi Go Party - fast-paced pass the deck around card game, you pull one card at a time and add it to your food pool. Points are tallied based on how many of the same types of food you have + bonus cards, etc. at the end

---
My kids are just barely getting to the point where long, fantastical board games are starting to interest them. Something I am very excited for. My wife and I try our best to enjoy 2 player mode on some of these, but they're always better with more players. We don't have a dedicated play group, so the times we play some of my favorite board are few and far between:

The explanation on these would be huge! I highly recommend reading up on them if your family would be interested in this type of game.
Mage Knight
Legends of Andor
Heroscape


Almost all the games I listed have alternate versions or expansions, something I'm a huge sucker for.

incubus421 wrote:
Codenames is a lot of fun. But I've only played the original and the picture version. I didn't know there was a Disney version.

I went ahead and got Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride since they were on sale. Ended up giving it to the kids over the weekend as an "early Christmas present" since we were all itching for a new board game to play. We all love it, we've played it 4 times already! Settlers of Catan will have to wait until Christmas though.

I've made a note of every game that's been suggested here. Of the suggestions, these are at the top of my want list:

The Quacks of Quedlinburg
Tiny Towns
Carcassonne
Azul
Pit
No Thanks!
Exploding Kittens
Blokus
Flamecraft
King of Tokyo
Sequence
Small World
Stone Age
Clank! A Deck Building Adventure!

Scott wrote:

Quacks is available from Target right now and they have Buy 2, Get 1 Free. If you order 3 copies but then immediately cancel 2 of them, they prorate the discount so you would get it for 33% off which would be $26.66 + tax, and it would still ship for free in case you didn't have a redcard.

A lot of good suggestions so far. I'll add Splendor to the list. Glux is also pretty fun.

Thank you! I love Glux and everyone acts like it's boring. Theme wise? Definitely. But the game is a really great design

I'm sad I missed this thread earlier. You got some great games to look into so far Scott!

Throwing out a shameless plug for a sort of local FLGS with a good online store. Check out Boardlandia. They are typically 20% off MSRP and for the rest of the month they are an additional 15% off. Can't beat their service and prices IMHO.

rayzor6 wrote:

Glad someone else has actually played it! I misinterpreted the rules and accidentally created a variant. I just went with whoever has the most pieces (rather than the highest points) in a zone wins it. Ended up making corner 1s overpowered, but we got so used to that way that we just kept playing it with the wrong rules.

We ended up getting the following board/card games:

Ticket to Ride
We all enjoy this one. It's probably my wife's second favorite. I loved it the first couple times we played, but the more we've played it, the less I've enjoyed it. It's become really easy for me to complete all 3 of my destinations and rack up a huge score every single time we play. To make it more challenging, I've also been trying to break my personal record for longest continuous route. I got 44 the last time we played, and was very close to getting 45 (the max) but my daughter took the route I needed just to screw with me lol

Settlers of Catan
This one...has not been a hit so far. I don't know if we're playing it wrong or something, but this game is incredibly slow. The first time we played, we didn't know what we were doing and made very poor choices when placing our starter settlements, which resulted in a resource drought the entire game (we didn't even finish that one). The next time we played, we were much smarter with our starter settlements, but it still took FOREVER to get enough resources to actually do anything. It feels like this game could take hundreds of turns to actually complete. We even tried modifying the rules a bit to speed things up. Basically, we got rid of the rule where every time the robber is activated, if you have more than 7 resources in hand, you discard half rounded down. That rule is just brutal, and makes it too hard to actually collect what you need. Getting rid of it helped a little, but the game is still so slow. We barely ever buy cards, because we're so desperately trying to get enough resources just to do the basic things. Trading doesn't help much. We always either need the same resources, or, we're just too low on resources to be able to afford to trade anything.

Quacks of Quedlinburg
This one is probably the family favorite so far. We've played it a ton of times and nobody seems tired of it yet. It's definitely my wife's favorite, and probably both kids' as well. We're really enjoying how there's so many different ways to play. We started using the backside of the pot boards, so that we can use both of the droplets. We went through each "set" of chip boards, playing each one a couple times. Now, whenever we play, we pick a random set of chip boards, which makes for a unique game every time. The randomness can sometimes be frustrating, but overall, this is an extremely fun game!

Tiny Towns
We've only played this one a couple times, but we like it so far. The first time we played, we did the beginner recommendations. We didn't use monuments, and we were allowed to skip up to 2 resources cubes. The second time we played, we added the monuments, but kept the 2 skips. Honestly, I don't know that I'll ever want to play without that rule, lol. It's already challenging enough as it is to build a decent town on that tiny board. Getting stuck with unusable resources can be devastating. As for the monuments, we really liked them, but some of them seem way more powerful than others. I'm considering adding a house rule that we deal out 3 or 4 to each player for them to choose from, instead of just 2, to increase the chances of each player getting a very powerful monument. idk though, I don't like changing the games too much, in case any of us ever play with other people who are already familiar with the games and don't play that way.

King of Tokyo
This is my favorite so far. It feels like just the right mix of skill/strategy and luck. The kids both like it a lot too. My wife was mixed at first, but she's starting to enjoy it more. She said a lot of the concepts were more foreign to her because she doesn't play a lot of video games like we do (health, taking/dealing damage, etc), but she's catching on. I'd love to play this with 5-6 players, it seems like it would be way more fun if there were 2 cities that could be controlled. My only complaint about this game is the power cards. While I really enjoy the power cards and think they add a ton to the game variance, I feel like they weren't balanced well enough. There are some really crappy cards, like gain 1/2 victory points, that cost 3/4 energy, while some very powerful keep cards (e.g. poison) cost around the same. Then there are some cards that are just straight up too powerful to even be in the game IMO. I can't remember the name of it, but there's one card that lets you yield the city without taking any damage any time you would take damage, that's insane! IIRC, it only costs 4/5 energy too. Another card lets you always deal damage to everyone, even if you don't control the city. How did these cards get through play-testing? I'm thinking about just removing them, because they're almost an instant win as soon as somebody gets them. Another minor gripe is that a lot of power cards aren't clear on how they interact with or change the existing rules of the game. There have been several instances so far where I had to Google certain cards to try to find the answer.

Exploding Kittens
This one has also been a big hit. It's just good, easy fun, and the cards are hilarious.

Sushi Go
We're also loving this one. Every round goes so differently depending on the cards that are in the rotation. We just got the basic version. Is Sushi Go Party worth the upgrade? How is it different?

I still have a list of all of the games that were recommended so far. But, I'd be curious to hear which of those games stand out to any of you that you think we would like most, based on my reviews of the games above!

Scott wrote:

Sushi Go Party is just more variety. You can pick from loads of different kinds of cards to make up the deck, and it also goes up to 8 players.

Personally I think the base game is 100% fine. Picking and choosing different cards sounds great, but in practice, Sushi Go is a quick and simple game ‐ adding several minutes of setup and takedown time (to create the deck and separate it back out at the end) kind of makes it a little too much for what you get out of the game.

I am a huge fan of sushi Go, and I bought the party edition too... yet I consistently pull out the original almost every time.

Thanks for the feedback! I think we'll pass on the Party version then. We do love the base version though.

I meant to ask this in my write-ups above, but what is the point of having to say "sushi go!" whenever you use the chopsticks to keep 2 cards? It seems completely pointless to us, and we've just stopped doing it.

Also if you are wanting a bit more out of King of Tokyo, I highly recommend the Power Up expansion. It gives a unique deck of "evolution" powers to every monster, and you get an evolution on any turn where you have 3 or more heart dice (making heart dice no longer completely useless when you are in Tokyo).

We actually had a 6 player session of King of Tokyo yesterday. Honestly it's a little clunky with two monsters able to be in Tokyo. For me, it plays best at 4.

Scott wrote:

Forced silliness? I'm typically not a fan of rules that make you say or do something outside the scope of the game.

The only thing I can think of is that people might want to know you're dumping the chopsticks so that's why you are taking 2 instead of 1 card.

Awesome update! I was hoping Quacks would be a hit! King of Tokyo is really good. I just recently played in on Board Game Arena after many years and I'm like "Yeah....it's still very fun!"

I'll be upfront: I hate Catan. Like really hate it. Not in a hipster way but after playing so much of it: I see it's flaws big time and the 'good' parts are NOT strong at all. I am big in games with negotiation and the thought of trading resources (like the idea of trading properties in Monopoly) REALLY appealed to me.

However, I find that most of the time: you are either destined to win or lose by where you put your towns and roads. I have played many games where I didn't really do anything special and crushed the same seasoned opponents. To me, it kind of reminds me of Euchre. People in the midwest love Euchre, but there really isn't too much strategy. There is only knowledgeable players and those that don't really know the cards combos and probability.

Trading can also be very fragile with those that wheel and deal with reckless abandon and those that overanalyze every trade and view almost all as something NOT to do.

For Ticket to Ride....you GOTTA draw more destination tickets! That is one of the three things you can do on your turn. Part of the brilliance and simplicity of that game is making those routes for your initial cards and THEN trying to get other cards to complete easy ones (or the best: a ticket that you've already completed). Yes, there is a risk that you'll get three tickets and you HAVE to take one (which if incomplete is negative points) but no risk, no reward. And while I don't like the game that cutthroat: blocking paths and playing to avoid detection of WHERE you are going are key! If you find yourself enjoying it, I highly recommend the 1910 expansion. Get get bigger train cards AND there are (IMO) better routes available in those cards than in the base game. It makes the game better while changing really nothing.

On Tiny Towns: yes on all the house rule stuff. For the monuments: you can even deal out 4 and EVERYONE has access to building ANY of those that they want. The two skips are great. Are you guys calling the resources or using the cards?

Catan was incredibly important when it was released, but that was more than 25 years ago. If you haven't played any non-Hasbro/Milton Bradley board games, I can see that it might still be eye opening, but for people who have played other modern hobby games, it's kind of rough to go back to Catan. It's long for the amount of game that's in there, so it can feel like a chore to get through sometimes (especially with the robber).

Nowadays I get a lot more enjoyment out of a game like Concordia.

A few games I've found have been fun for my family (kids are 7 & 9):

1) Camel Up - someone here actually suggested it in the forum post linked to the Target deals. It's a simple to learn game that anyone can play. Betting on the camel race which is led by the dice. There's more to it, but you can learn it quickly.

2) Santorini (we have the NYC version) - build up your city and be the first to make it tall!

3) Dice Forge - you have dice, but you get to modify the faces. Manage different aspects while coming out on top with the most gold.

All have been easy enough to learn, I've found it's best if I go through first and learn the pieces/rules. We also have Marvel United which was a little too complicated for them - the idea is similar to King of Tokyo (I believe) with Marvel characters.

benstylus wrote:

That sounds pretty cool, I added it to the list!

rayzor6 wrote:

Trading doesn't appeal to me very much. I'm ok with a little bit, but I don't think I'll typically like games that require a ton of it.


Yeah, that doesn't sound great. Maybe if we played more and all got better at it, this would begin to stand out to me. But so far, all that stands out is how slow and tedious it is.


I was going to mention drawing more destination tickets, guess I forgot. So, two things on that. 1) I really haven't needed to. Like I said, I've been racking up huge scores without extra tickets. I typically complete all 3 of the random tickets I get in the beginning of the game and easily score 110+ points every round. I think my highest was 139. 2) Usually, by the time I've completed all 3 of the tickets I was dealt, I'm fairly low on train pieces, so there's a good chance I just won't have enough pieces to complete additional destinations, unless they're extremely close to the ones I've already completed. I guess I could just go for it, and occasionally take the point loss.


We do a little bit of that, but not too much.


This looks pretty good, I added it to the list. I didn't think to mention it earlier, but I hate how small the cards are. They're so hard to shuffle! This expansion seems worth it for the bigger cards alone.


I like the idea of everyone having access to build any of the 4 selected monuments

We're calling out resources. I think the cards are only for solo play.

Here are some games we played over the holidays that were enjoyable and good family games:

7 Wonders (been years since we've played this and brought it out at the request of a friend...played just the base game and forgot how simple the game is, but lots of trade-off decision making...it's a card drafting game and a step-up from Sushi Go)
Cubitos (dice pool building game where you're racing around a board...a lot of people compare it to Quacks)
Flamecraft (resource gathering / combo-ing game)
Just One (simple word game but scales nicely and good for the non-board game crowd)
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
Marvel Remix (very fast game and easy to teach)

Excellent.

On Tiny Towns: you are playing as it was intended. The cards can be used for multiplayer, it's just frustrating when NO one needs any of the random cards. Tiny Towns is one of the few games that I do like to play solo on occasion because the game is really fast to play and has some good tactile feel mixed with great brainburn for the small amount of time spent. If you have a table: you can even leave it up and come back to it (with proper cat precautions of course...some reason, my cat LOVED to jump onto the game table and bat a SINGLE CUBE off the table and under something...heh heh)

There is a group that they do a solo challenge and have for a few months. It is a high score challenge and MAN are they hard to get some of those score. They have them for base game and then some with expansions (again: I don't think you need the expansions other than more building types, but the base game is just LOADED).

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2980830/tiny-town...
(this is for Dec, but has links to all the other ones)

My family really likes Barenpark: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/219513/barenpa...

It's essentially like Tetris played on a flat board, trying to get pieces you can fit together to fill up your boards the fastest and get extra points.

If you're looking for a chill option with relatively little competitive angle, you can check out Super Mega Lucky Box: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/341530/super-m...

Super easy to learn and plays really fast so good when you're just trying to kill a little time and don't want to get into a heated match of something.

One of my favorite cooperative games I didn’t see mentioned is Shadows Over Camelot. The game is biased toward losing, which makes working together that much more important. While you get used to the game (and to make it less complex for now), you could leave out the traitor mechanic.

I also enjoy Arkham Horror, just know that game can be a time sink. There was a time when I was with some people that had ALL the expansions- that was a day (and table space) killer. Setup alone on that monstrosity took about an hour… Even the base game can take a couple hours depending on how things are going.

dunno001 wrote:

Shadows Over Camelot is one of my favorite games. I only omitted it because it's WAY out of print right now and too expensive. And at 4...it's meh because the traitor (IMO) is the best part of the game and it's not as fun when there are only 3 people to observe. There was rumors that it was going to get re-released as some kind of modern theme like "Shadows Over Brooklyn" or something like that. But at 5-8: this game is so freaking great.

I just checked and I'm really sad: I have not played that game since Dec 21, 2019.

SublimeFan wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions! I added all of these to my list. I'm most intrigued by Marvel United. Obviously because of Marvel, but I also like that it's cooperative. It says 14+ which makes me a bit nervous, but Tiny Towns said the same and it's pretty easy.

Just a heads up, the 14+ you see on a lot of board games is a catchall for companies who don't want to do the (very expensive) testing of their products to ensure they are physically safe for children before they can put a lower age on it. As long as your kids are old enough to not eat or lick game components you are probably ok.

It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the complexity of the game (though it could mean that as well).

Marvel United is very easy. And there is a TON of expansion material if you want to mix things up.

Sun wrote:

These all look pretty good. I'm especially excited about Just One, Marvel Remix, and Libertalia!

rayzor6 wrote:

That's pretty cool! Those are indeed some high scores. I think my highest so far is 36 or 39, but we've only played like 3 rounds. I may have to try out the solo challenge in the future.

EB wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions! I typically prefer games where you can use as much strategy/skill as possible to gain an edge, but I think my family would enjoy SMLB, so I put it on the list.

dunno001 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be honest, I watched a video for Shadows Over Camelot and it just did not appeal to me. Arkham Horror looks fun, but the 2-3 hour playtime (according to the video I watched) kills it for me. About an hour is probably our max, maybe an hour and a half.

benstylus wrote:

That's good to know, thanks!

Now that I have a bit more experience with these types of board games, I decided to again look up each one that's been recommended to me to see what stands out. These are the games I'm currently most interested in getting, roughly in order:

Marvel United
King of Tokyo: Power Up expansion
Tiny Towns: Fortune expansion
Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 expansion
No Thanks!
Just One
Marvel: Remix
Blokus
Fluxx
Clank! A Deck Building Adventure!
Carcassonne
Glux
Azul
Potion Explosion
Santorini
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
Space Base
Stone Age
Sequence
Small World
Cubitos
Mille Bornes

I'm considering the following:

Barenpark
7 Wonders
Dice Forge
Dice City
Century Spice Road
Sheriff of Nottingham
Flamecraft
Camel Up
Splendor
Wingspan
Lords of Waterdeep
Concordia
Castles of Burgundy
Viticulture
Super Mega Lucky Box
For Sale
Pit
Sushi Go Party!

Based on the "Weight" index on BGG, our sweet spot right now seems to be anywhere from 1.0-2.3. Most of the games I've seen that go much above that look either too long or too complex for us to enjoy, at least right now. I'm sure this will change as my kids get older. They're both very smart and could learn any game, I just don't think they'd enjoy the longer or more complex ones very much right now.

Check out Horrified, it's a lot of fun.

sa330206 wrote:

Will do

Am I missing something about Splendor? It has a pretty high rating on BGG, and I just watched a video of top 20 family games and the guy ranked it number 2. But based on the videos I've watched of how it plays, it looks incredibly basic and boring to me. Is it more fun than it looks?

I'm noticing there are a TON of games that are very similar to each other. Gain resources (often by rolling dice), use those resources to purchase and/or build things, get special powers from cards or whatever matches the theme of the game, whoever gets the most points/money by the end wins. I looked at so many games today that were basically this, and it's very difficult to tell them apart enough from the outside to know which ones we would like the most. I really don't know how much I even want to own multiple copies of basically the same game. I kind of just want the 1 or 2 best games like this and call it good. I'm finding the games that stand out the most to me are more unique. The people of BGG seem to love these games, they're almost always rated very highly.

Scott wrote:

Splendor is very good. It is pure engine builder. You are racing to get 15 points with the bonus "noble" tiles and the cards. You can reserve up to 3 cards and get a wild color chip in the process. Once you get a card of a color; that card now acts as a permanent 'blue' for example towards paying for other cards in the higher rows.

It is a balance of efficiency on how you will get to the 15 points. This is my wife's favorite game.

There have been MANY games that have come out in the 10 years now that this has been around. They always label it as the "Splendor Killer", but even the good ones don't ever 'kill' it. It's a pure engine builder and there is many games with more bells and whistles, but it's elegance is what keeps it around.

Scott wrote:

I understand where you are coming from, but it is VERY rare that two games of the same genre feel identical. To compare, this is like saying that every superhero movie is basically the same.

While there are some exceptions to this...there is fewer than you'd imagine. And for the ones in the same genre...if you enjoy it...the differences ARE similar to a movie genre rather than being almost the same movie.

As always, I'll be happy to offer my two cents on any games that you are considering. :)

sa330206 wrote:

I can second this. Replayability is great. Each monster has a different method of being defeated, and your play group plays to beat three monsters each game, so gameplay is varied each time.

Sorry, I missed this topic for so long. Board games and pinball are my major hobbies. I also have twins around the age of your kids. A lot of the games I would suggest have already been mentioned. Two of my suggestions that you already picked up are Ticket To Ride and Sushi Party...you absolutely do NOT need to upgrade Sushi Party Go. It adds to the game, but sometimes that just creates a longer learning curve and setup.

7 Wonders / 7 Wonders Duel - It's perhaps just a tad more complicated then Sushi Go with a similar card passing mechanic. If you're enjoying this game I'd highly suggest trying out 7 Wonder. The duel version is for two player and is one my wife's favorite games.

Pandemic - A bit like Ticket to Ride at this point, where it's becoming mainstream. I do know that several people don't like it right away, but I often find they are screwing up some rule or not putting in enough Epidemic cards.

Sheriff of Nottingham - I think you're kids will really enjoy this one. It's a game where each player tries to smuggle items into town and the sheriff has gets to guess if they are lying or telling the truth. Much more luck then skill, but still fun.

One Night Warewolf - This is another party game that my kids absolutely love. It's best with around 6-8 players, though. I do prefer the One Night variation, since everyone can play. Maybe my kids just like lying. That seems to be a theme with the games they like.

I'm just going to rapid fire though your list...

Marvel United - Own it haven't played it yet.
King of Tokyo: Power Up expansion - Own it haven't played it yet. I don't like the original quite a much as you seem to. We play it, but it's rarely our go to game.
Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 expansion - Own it almost never use it.
No Thanks! - It's okay. Zero theme is probably the biggest detractor.
Blokus - It's okay. Same as No Thanks! the lack of a theme keep us from playing it more.
Fluxx - Not a fan.
Carcassonne - It an older game, but it's still a lot of fun.
Azul - I'd put it way above Blokus if you are looking for an abstract game.
Potion Explosion - I need to check this one out.
Santorini - I own it and like it, but don't play it a lot. I think it's three players max.
Sequence - You can probably find it at a Goodwill. It's okay.
Small World - Probably an upgrade to risk, but my family isn't a fan.
7 Wonders - One of my favorites, but I like card drafting games a lot.
Sheriff of Nottingham - Decent party game for the family.
Camel Up - Pretty fun. The few games I played were predictable, but I hear that's not always the case.
Splendor - Pretty fun.
Wingspan - I hear good things.
For Sale - At one point I built my own version using Simpson's assets from an app. It okay.
Pit - In the right group. Pit is a lot of fun. If your group is quiet the effect of the stock market is totally lost.
Sushi Go Party! - If you have the original, you don't need it.

Yeah...this last post reminded me:

Fluxx is horrible. I remember when I bought it, I thought the idea was very clever. However, it's just not a fun game. The only notion is that the only rule at the start is 'play a card, draw a card' and then the rules change during the game depending what is played. It ends up being this random blob of cards played that keep changing the rules and not in a fun way.

NOW you have to have FIVE keepers to WIN!

NOW you have to have the cookies and milk to WIN!

Or OH LOOK! I drew the one card out of the 10 possible winning criteria needed! I win!

After the initial game, you realize that it's not strategic and it's completely random. The themed ones are even worse. I played a Monty Python one and the dude wouldn't stop putting crap out because he thought it was funny. That was in 2014 and I still remember the hell! :D

For a great random card game: get 6 Nimmit instead :)

My family and I have been enjoying Scrabble and the family edition of Cards Against Humanity.

Here are 3 card games that my friends often came back to (easy to pick up yet fun to play).

Bohnanza - Collect and trade with each other for sets of matching bean cards, The trading aspect of this game made it fun.

Set - Very simple game where you put cards out then whoever sees a set first calls it and scores. Certain people are very good at it (often not the people who are good at other games).

Family Business - Mafia game where the goal is to wipe out all the other gang's people. The edginess of attacking each other made it brutal fun.

Bohnanza is a great negotiation game. Great for families.

rayzor6 wrote:

Ok, I watched a different video and it looks much better than I originally thought. Since I had SO many games I was researching yesterday, I was mostly using the quick 3-4 minute overview videos. But I guess the 3-minute video for Splendor didn't do it justice. After watching a more in-depth explanation, I'm much more interested in this one. It's near the top of my want list now.

rayzor6 wrote:

I'm sure they're different enough. I just don't think I'm a big enough fan of that type of game to want to play a ton of them. Using your superhero movie analogy, I would be the casual fan who just wants to see the biggest/best ones, not every single one like the diehard fans. But, I'm having trouble deciding which ones those would be, and these games aren't cheap so it's not like I can just try every one!

incubus421 wrote:

I checked this one out and it looks pretty good. I especially like that it's co-op. I put it on the list!

lpeters82 wrote:

I'm warming up to this one a bit more, but I'm still unsure. I do like the card-passing mechanic, but it's way more complicated than Sushi Go. I'm definitely open to getting this one some day, but there are a lot of other games ahead of it right now. I like the sound of 7 Wonders Duel. I'm keeping an eye out for good 2-player games that just my wife and I can play.


This looks good, especially since it's co-op. I added it to my list.


My kids would probably enjoy these two, but yeah, the lying aspect doesn't really appeal to me. Not because I don't want to lie, it's just a game. I'm just not a fan of bluffing in games (I hate Poker!).



Thanks for the feedback! I know several of those are pretty basic/simple. Now that we have a few more advanced games, picking up some more simple ones is sounding more appealing to me. We don't always have 60-120 minutes to sit down for a long board game, but could squeeze in a quick card game or something. Also, more simple games would be good for when we have company.

rayzor6 wrote:

Hmm...I'm still somewhat interested in this, but I moved it further down my list. I typically hate randomness, and prefer games that are more skill/strategy based. But, this just seemed like a fun little party game to not be taken seriously.

citizen_zane wrote:

I haven't tried Scrabble with them because I hated it when I was a kid lol. Maybe they would enjoy it though, I'll give it a shot.

I totally forgot we played Cards against Humanity a while back and they liked it. It was some kids version or something that they for released for free, I think during covid lockdown. You just printed the cards out yourself.

bill wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions! Set looks pretty hard, I'm pretty sure I would suck at that game lol.

Scott wrote:

Some of my favorite 2 player games that should still be relatively available


Summoner Wars (2nd Edition) - a decade old classic revamped just a year or so ago. It's a dueling game with various factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And they don't all conform to the standard generic fantasy tropes! Comes in a Master Set to get 6 factions at once for the best value, or try a starter set for 2 factions. Individual factions (completely different from the ones in the sets) are also available to expand the game more if you like it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ESi7bZ2xcM0


Onitama - kind of like chess, except you have 5 cards in the game with the moves you can do. You have two, your opponent has two, and there is one in the middle. When you play a card, you swap it with the one in the middle, so your opponent will get that card at the end of their next turn.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IFRewjcngwU


Carcassonne - plays up to 5 but the more players, the less you can plan and strategize so i prefer it at 2.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1qh-lhxy9s


Patchwork - it's a puzzly game about using Tetris-like pieces to create the best quilt. There have been a number of themes too, so pick the one you like best.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hvBGjKLhbAU


Battlecon: Trials of Indines - its a 2d fighting game in card form. There are several Battlecon sets, all of them are good. Trials is a good jumping in point due to the $40 price tag and a good spread of simple and complex characters. If you like it, you can look into getting some of the other sets like Devastation of Indines (with 30+ characters!) or Wanderers of Indines. Note that the series got a new "4.0" edition a couple years ago with some balance tweaks, more streamlined rules, and a better board, so that's the one you would want. I don't believe two of the sets (Fate of Indines or War of Indines) have been reprinted with the 4.0 improvements yet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jTFY_NjIQzc
(Video is for Devastation but it's the same rule set)

I totally get that you don't want to jump into a HUGE collection. Board Game Arena is a great way to play the game online and see if you like it. Splendor is on there. I'm rayzor6 there too and I'm a premium member. It's free to join and play, but you can't create any games with the gold meeple on them...someone else has to. I could do that with Splendor and we could play by turn so you can see how it plays. I would gladly just play so you can see the game, ask questions, etc. as I loathe the "here...let me show you how to play and then barely explain and grind you into the dirt". I'm not that good at Splendor anyway! :D

7 Wonders Duel keeps surprising me honestly. I know it's good, then time goes past, then I play it again and I'm like "holy carp, this game is fantastic!". It's not complicated and IS two player only, but it's just a great system with multiple fronts that keep you on your toes.

Ben mentioned some good ones above. Onitama is a great one. You might not be a fan of abstracts. I know many people will play an abstract (like chess, othello, etc) ONE time and be done. And that's ok. But the real strength of modern abstracts is that you get some REALLY great decisions in a short amount of time and with low rules overhead.

Battlecon is one of my favorite games and I have nearly everything for it. That said: it's too much and I was dumb for doing that. Any one of those 4.0 sets would give you TONS of play. It emulates a fighting video game and does so very well. It uses cards and tokens and there is no luck or randomness. The system is pretty easy but all the fighters feel different with just 3 stats, their tokens that they can use and their special cards. You basically pick a blue base card (same as all other players except one special one)and a red style card (unique to you) face down, then compare. You see who goes first in a round and then move and hit if possible. It's open information so you KNOW exactly what your opponent can do and can react accordingly.

The beauty...the real stuff is exactly how different the fighters are. There is one that is a brother and sister pair of werewolves and you are the human sister and your werewolf sibling is on the board. You are trying to get your opponent between you to execute powerful moves. There is an iron man like woman that has these powerful armor attachments, but if she gets hit: they break and you lose a little bit of your powers until you repair them. There is a woman that brings stinging insects to the board that when you go past them: you get hit. There is a guy with traps that lays them out and once you trigger one, they get revealed and you get damaged. There are almost 100 different fighters. But you can play the same one 10 times and STILL learn about how to play them effectively (which is why just one set is good. I always say that Devastation is the best investment with 30, but Trials is good!)

Ben, did you get the big box kickstarter? That is where they redid the ones from Fate and War.

I did, but that was just the cards and it was only ever available through the KS. They still had quite a bit of stock of the older boxes at that time so they didn't want to reprint them. I think War is sold out now, but no idea if it will get a 4.0 reprint or not.

Yeah..that whole KS was my first foray into disappointment with Lvl 99...who really went above and beyond for quality before that. I was REALLY upset that they didn't send new counters/tokens with the ones that had name changes and were content at just tell you to use the old ones. Or even like Adjenna (I think) is missing a petrification token and they are like "well if you need that one, that means it the end of the game, so we didn't print it"

rayzor6 wrote:

Part of the issue was they completely changed the scope of the project. Instead of just printing tweaked/balanced cards, they revamped the entire system (a much more time consuming/expensive process) and then reprinted every card (Also much more expensive).

So I think they were really struggling financially with this KS (and they had mentioned previously they underpriced some of their previous KS stuff as well). They shed a number of employees shortly after this was (mostly) fulfilled. I just got the Grand Chronicle (the last remaining bit from the KS) a week or two ago.

Yeah...and I think I differ from many people on this front (and I know it's a slippery slope) but in these times of shipping woes and supply chain issues: I think there needs to be more give and take between the creator and the backers. I know this is often said but not really meant...but I mean it: I would have offered more money AFTER the KS was completed to get the same quality I was used to. I would honestly pay NOW to get that still! But for me and this saddens me: I don't trust any Lvl 99 KS to really be good. I think that Brad Talton does a great job and I trust in the fact that if you don't like something: he WILL give you a full refund. But I'm a big fan of their games: Battlecon, Agent the Consortium and Millennium Blades especially. Argent was the last KS that didn't disappoint.

Scott wrote:


I had printed those same cards during the Covid lockdowns. I eventually bought the set when it was physically released, as well as the additional box of cards that they later released. I asked for Scrabble for Christmas and we played a game. I'm not sure how much they enjoyed it because I mopped the floor with them, so I don't know how many more times they will be willing to sit down and play it with me again before they get sick and tired of being slaughtered. That's what happened with Boggle. I think we played that maybe half a dozen times before they lost interest in it. At least they still enjoy playing Cards Against Humanity.