I hadn't played games in years but I read an article a few years back and been buying games for the children - first a highly rated co-op game for younger kids (Outfoxed!) and then junior versions of modern board games: Catan Junior, Ticket to Ride First Journery and My First Carcasonne. I've now bought Catan full version and have played it but the junior one are very well designed and have fast play which helps a lot.
Recently the family and I have been enjoying the Disney Villainous game. Bit of an odd learning curve for the kids who had never played anything like it before. It is quite fun to play as a bad guy.
If you've not tried them, Legends of Andor or Robinson Crusoe: Adventures of the Cursed Island would both be worth having a look at. They're both really good adventure style board games where you've got to work together to survive and win. You've already said you've got The 7th Continent to try as well, which is essentially a co-operative 'build your own adventure' book in the form of a board game, it has the added benefit of being able to save your progress and return to it for a longer running campaign.
Bruh there are waaaay more adult/all-ages board games than I realised. Where should a newbie start? We tried Settlers of Catan twice and found it pretty good. But the dicerolls and starting positions seemed to have too much sway on who won and lost, a common issue in board games I reckon.
Yeah, there's a lot of choice out there. Loved going to gaming conventions pre-covid to see all the new games and try a bunch out... really hope this is the last year of no major gatherings... For someone who's fairly new to the massive selection out there, I'd probably start off with something fairly cheap and quick to learn like Forbidden Island. Carcassonne is another popular and quick to learn one for people new to the hobby. Then if Catan was interesting to you, I'd maybe look at something like Viticulture or Power Grid. Always worth looking at let's play or first look videos on YouTube as well, most of the popular games have had a video done by someone.
I've watched a fair few of the TableTop videos and enjoyed most of them. Did you win? If yes it counts, if no then we forget it ever happened
Check out the Shut Up & Sit Down YouTube channel. They have loads of approachable reviews. If you see something you like the look of, boardgamegeek is available for a quick summary https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame but also further info on their forums https://boardgamegeek.com/forums/region/1/bgg
I will create a proper post at some point, but just to pick up on this: It depends on what sort of game you're into really, but I'd definitely echo Carcassonne and Forbidden Island. If you enjoy Forbidden Island it's worth getting Pandemic, because it shares some of the same core mechanics (same designer). Ticket to Ride Europe is another game that's easy to get started with. Like many games the rules seem complex, but the basics are quite simple. If you're not sure whether you'll like something then see if you can get a Tabletop Simulator mod for that particular game to try it out first - assuming, of course, that you own Tabletop Simulator... It can often be found on sale for a fiver or so - Steam has it at £15 at the moment. There's always YouTube videos if you don't have, or don't want to pay for, Tabletop Simulator...
Spoke to my board game buddy who said 'You can borrow FT if you like, it's a gateway to Pandemic...' ^ What he said!! SWMBO wasn't that keen on coop games. We have 'The Game' which is a simple looking coop card game, but we're absolutely crepe at it. So much angst when we unintentionally block each other's best laid plans...
Me and my other half used to play board games quite often along with a group of friends. We've largely packed it in at the moment because not many of us have copies of Tabletop Simulator, and not all of us even have the means to play TTS... But we used to meet up every couple of months, and we'd often go to events being held for International Tabletop Day... I've lost count of the number of board games I've played! But I spotted a few in this thread which I have played and don't own however... Elder Signs - Really like this game, it's sort of a cut-down version of Arkham Horror. The iOS & Android apps are a very good implementation also! King of Tokyo - I really liked this game! Zombicide - I know I've played this, but I don't really remember much about it! Lords of Waterdeep - I definitely enjoyed this, but I was rubbish at it! Firefly - I mean... come on... it's Firefly...! And as for the games that I do actually own...! Each one should be linked to BoardGameGeek Card games: Hanabi: Co-operative game... but: you're not allowed to see your hand and have to rely on limited hints from others. Great fun in a group of people but can be really hard! Fluxx - Star Fluxx, Firefly Fluxx, and Star Trek TNG Fluxx: The Fluxx games all have the same basic premise, and the same basic rules, but there are lots of different themed versions out there. Munchkin: Dungeon crawling card game - Didn't get on with this because it feels too much like taking a maths test, and much of the humour falls very flat Astronauts: Haven't played this in a while, but it's an astronomically-themed deck-building card game - I seem to recall that it's good fun... Port Royal: Nautical-themed deck-building card game - another one we haven't played in a while, but still enjoyable Masquerade: Hidden traitor card game. Needs a minimum of 3 players, but it really plays best with 5 or 6. I'll be honest, I've played hidden traitor games I enjoyed more than this... Android: Netrunner: Cyberpunk-themed living card game. Done by the same people as Magic: The Gathering but card decks are released in sets/packs, rather than random booster packs. This means that if two people own the same sets then they both have the same cards to choose from, you don't get one player with cards the other one doesn't have like you do with Magic: The Gathering. Don't play it very often, but I do quite like this game. Board games: Pandemic: Try to stop diseases from wiping out the world's population. This is already quite challenging on the easiest 'difficulty', and you can make it much much more brutal if you want to! Forbidden Island: Same designer as Pandemic, so shares the same base mechanics. A lot easier to get into than Pandemic, and a lot easier to win. You can also make this a lot more difficult if you want. Carcassonne: Nice and relaxed classic. Build farms and settlements with tiles and score points. We only have one expansion, The River, but there are many expansions... Twilight Struggle: Quite 'hardcore' this one. Set during the cold war pitting the US against the USSR and for two players only. We've only ever played it once, the rule book is a thicc boi... Star Wars X-Wing: Tabletop miniatures game - still not played this yet, but it's right up my alley (so to speak) Azul: I quite like this; it's really well made, the pieces it comes with are done really well. Ticket To Ride Europe & UK Expansion: TTR is a great game, it's really easy for all ages to pick up; the UK expansion brings some great additions to the basic game. And leaving my favourite to last.... Eclipse, plus expansions Rise of the Ancients and Shadow of the Rift: I absolutely love this game, I think it's brilliant. It's a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) strategy game set in space. Do yourself a favour: don't try the PC or iOS adaptation, they are terrible. It's quite a pricey game if you want all the expansions and to be honest you really do want the expansions, they add so much balance to the base game. If you're going to get this game now, I would highly recommend getting the Second Edition: it's much more than just a reprint or revamped graphics, there have been loads of very welcome rule and balance changes. 2nd Ed. is also quite price unfortunately at £120+, but I easily spent more than that on the original base game and expansions. I paid ~£70 for the base game originally and the expansions were around £40 each. If anyone wants a game of anything (even if it's not in this list!) via Tabletop Simulator then by all means hit me up. I'm also quite happy to demo/explain any these games via Tabletop Simulator - with the possible exception of Twilight Struggle, because I don't know it, and Munchkin, because I don't like it!
Reason I bought my nieces forbidden island was to get them, my nieces and their parents, used to some of the mechanics for when we play pandemic which I own. Definitely worked as they all play Pandemic now Any reasons why SWMBO wasn't keen on coop? Is it the fear of stepping on each others toes in it like The Game? Zombies in it, making noise attracts zombies using noise markers, there's a character on rollerskates which is amusing when you give them a chainsaw. Big tiles make up the game world, depending on scenario, think it's up to 9. Characters can level. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head. When we've played I always feel like I'm doing ok, not good, but not terrible. Then it gets to the end I start falling behind, then everything gets tallied and I'm miles behind! Same as you, still enjoy it. Oh good. I just though we sucked. I think we've won once playing it on the standard card amount, maybe twice. I think more often than not we run through the deck.
Now that's a heck of an infodump Byron, tyvm. I shall be referring back to it regularly as I go. None of my friends have TTS and many don't even have gaming PCs so I'll be starting with whatever the Mrs and I can play with our support bubble of 1 other person. COVID really blows, doesn't it
When we do eventually get out of this epidemic, highly recommend checking out the UK Games Expo in Birmingham. It's a great annual event over a long weekend for checking out tons of games, meeting lots of likeminded people and burning a hole in your wallet. Or if you want to travel abroad... Spiel in Essen, Germany. Another good fun board game/card game that's a good first game to get (for people who like a bit of story telling) is Once Upon a Time. It's a fun little game of competitive storytelling, where each player has an ending on a card that they are trying to lead towards. As a player is telling their part of the story, if they say a keyword that relates to a card which is in your hand, you can interrupt and take over the story to try and guide it to your ending but first you need to play all of the cards in your hand to shape the story.
I think it's her competitive side, and she'd rather be against opponents round the table! Yes absolutely, my friend who has all the games and curates the board game nights would go with the family to the UK Games Expo at the NEC and stay for the weekend. Quite an experience and a great weekend break by all accounts. I know he joined in a couple of tournaments, 7 Wonders and Pandemic IIRC.
If its competitive you want I can recommend; Selfish, keep your astronaught alive while screwing over the others in a race to the only spaceship. Chrononaughts, mess with time to create the future you come from (also has the added fun of being able to kill Hitler).
Forgot to mention! Ticket to Ride has apps for Android and iOS as well as a Windows version. They're great implementations of the game!
Love a proper board game. Catan is a regular here, and for something a bit more in depth, we love Viticulture (I would highly recommend this). Twilight Struggle is a personal favourite of mine - it gets immeasurably better as you learn the decks a bit. So many layers of depth. I really want to try Twilight Imperium but a) no way to get hold of it I think? and b) need a suitable group to play it with. I guess this sort of game is best deployed through a club?
