Good morning all! I figured we could start a thread, listing different fun board and card games for each other. While I love the games I play with my friends, I think it's about time to branch out and try some new ones out :D. Try to summarize the game as best you can so everyone else has a good idea what they'd be in for. Munchkin - card game This game is all about killing things, taking their stuff and backstabbing your friends. The goal is to reach level 10 before anyone else does. The original version makes fun of Dungeons and Dragons, with very fun references and inside jokes, but they have since made other versions, including sci fi, super-heroes, kung-fu, etc. While you don't attack other players directly, you can back-stab them by beefing up the monsters they are fighting, cursing them, or just adding a completely new monster to the fight for a 2 on 1 extravaganza! Zombies - board/tile game In this game you have one of two objectives: Kill 25 zombies or reach the helipad first. The game starts with a small amount of tiles on the table, but each turn someone can place an additional tile with more zombies, making for what would be a pretty accurate representation on how a zombie infestation works. Soon the board is over-run with zombies. While you can't attack your friends directly, at the end of your turn you can move a certain amount of zombies any direction you want, potentially leading them to your fellow human. More backstabbing and BANG! - card game It's been a while since I've played this one. There are three teams in this game. There's the sherriff and deputies, the bandits, and the lone renegade. The sherriff and deputies are to kill all the bandits and renegade. The bandits are to kill the sherriff and deputies, and the renegade is supposed to kill EVERYONE. Here's where things get fun, everyone's alignment is kept hidden from everyone else, save for the sherriff. You hurt each other by playing BANG! cards towards one another, which can be countered if the person being shot plays a MISS! card. Settlers of Katan - board/tile game I've noticed that despite the violence in the previous three games, this non-violent game has led to plenty more arguments and resentments. Never-the-less, it's a fun game that centers around the development of villages in a "randomly" generated land. Each tile laid out at the beginning of the game represents different resources that the player can obtain (sheep, wood, ore, brick, wheat). Only players with settlements adjacent to these tiles can get the resources of that tile. The object of the game is to get 10 development points before the other players, obtained through different ways. Each player buys different things with the resources they obtain, including roads and towns. There's a lot of trading involved between the players each turn, so if someone that's about to win needs a particular resource, usually nobody will trade with them, seeing as how they'll get that much closer to winning.

Quote: Original post by DavidNeal
Zombies - board/tile game
In this game you have one of two objectives: Kill 25 zombies or reach the helipad first. The game starts with a small amount of tiles on the table, but each turn someone can place an additional tile with more zombies, making for what would be a pretty accurate representation on how a zombie infestation works. Soon the board is over-run with zombies. While you can't attack your friends directly, at the end of your turn you can move a certain amount of zombies any direction you want, potentially leading them to your fellow human. More backstabbing and

Yeah, a friend of mine has that. It's a good laugh but I find it goes on too long.

As for me, I'm into plain-old Texas Hold'Em. Not very exciting, I know, but I don't like card games as a general rule so it's a red letter day when I find one I genuinely enjoy.

I play Magic : the Gathering a lot (especially Limited games). I also like Texas Hold'em.

Race to the Galaxy: you choose one action (draw cards, research a development, settle a planet, sell stuff, or produce stuff), every player performs that action and you get a bonus (draw more cards, cheaper development, cheaper settling, more sales, more production). Be the first to sell a certain amount or settle/develop a certain amount.

Caylus: you get six peons. You pay them to work at various buildings that get you money and resources. Every so often, you send some resources to the king to help build his castle, or use resources to build more buildings. You get victory points when you build, when you help the kind build, or when people use your buildings. Most victory points wins.

Imperial: you are an investor. You invest in several of the six warring countries from 1910 Europe. When you are a majority stakeholder, you control the country (but people may steal control from you by investing more). When the country raises taxes, its score increases. The score of each country, multiplied by the player's stake in that country, is added to determine each player's score.

I'll have to check out Zombies having loved the rest on your list. To it I'm adding;

Citadels - Card game - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478 -
Each turn players choose one of several roles, assassin, king, merchant, architect, etc. Each role has certain advantages and disadvantages. Players then use their roles to build their citadel or counter other players. The first player to reach a citadel worth 8 points wins.

Carcassonne - Tile game - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822 -
Players chose tiles randomly and place them to adjacent tiles already in play. Tiles contain roads and city sections that must align with the tiles already in play. Players place markers on unclaimed roads, fields, and cities. When a road or city is complete players get those markers back. Markers on fields however are not returned. The balance is in completing your marked roads and cities while not completing your opponents as well as not tying up your markers in fields which are counted and scored at the end of the game.

We have so many board games here at work that we play, I can't even begin to list them all. Every day at lunch a few groups form and play different games. At the moment Dominion is the hot game around the office, followed very closely by Agricola. But my all time favorite is Tigris & Euphrates. I've never seen so many strategic possibilities in a single board game. The rules are straightforward, but the way things play out mean there will never be two even remotely similar games. Antike comes in a very close second.

I've heard of Munchkin / Epic Munchkin, but never played them myself. From what I hear those games can take upwards of 6 hours depending on the people you play with, and I really don't have that kind of stamina for a board game!

A few artists were playing Zombies the other day, and while it looked like a lot of fun they seemed to have gotten stuck in a rut and had to call the game. Basically, the spawn point was too far from the helipad and the 3 bullets and 3 health you start with wasn't enough for them to get through all the zombies in the way. Of course, they kept spawning more on the path to screw over the other players, but in the end a 45 minute game went on for almost 4 hours (across multiple days of course). Like ukdeveloper said it seems like this game can go on way too long.

Imperial is also a great game, and once you figure out some good strategies it's a ton of fun. It's from the designer of Antike so a lot of elements are similar (land/water combat, the roundel), but otherwise it's very distinct. A bit difficult to wrap your head around at first since all six nations are being played regardless of how many people you have, but it's always fun to watch someone steal control of a country... only to have someone else land on Invest and bankrupt the country/player!

I would head over to BoardGameGeek and check our their rankings. We have about 30 games in the top 100 (and plenty more below that) but for the most part I agree with the rankings. Some more I recommend from the list are Puerto Rico, Power Grid, El Grande, Pandemic, Railroad Tycoon, and Stone Age.

I loved M:TG back in middle/high school, but I've only occasionally got out my cards since then. I was playing actively until about... Tempest, I guess. Most of my cards are Ice Age and earlier.

I play a variation on Rummy a lot with my wife. We allow drawing multiple cards from the discard pile (starting at the top and drawing all consecutive cards until the one you desire), but you're obligated to use the deepest card you draw immediately if you draw more than one. Aces are high or low in straights, but you can't go around the bend (K-A-2 is not allowed), and aces are worth 15 points. If it is not your turn, and there is a card (or cards) in the discard pile that could immediately be played, you call out "rummy" and pull those cards out of the discard pile and play them immediately, without having to draw the rest of the cards leading up to them. There is no bonus for "going rummy" all in one turn.

My wife and I both like Monopoly, but only in theory. In practice, we hate each other afterwards, so we've kind of tapered off on that front :-D

Othello was a big hit with us, but I developed better strategy and started winning every game, so we haven't played in a while.

My siblings are very much into Killer Bunnies, and showed me the game over Christmas. It was pretty fun, but is is no way cerebral like M:TG or more traditional card games.

I play Risk and Chess.
I also play "Spit" which is basically 2 player solitaire (5*2 columns intead of 7) and you have to get as many cards stacked as you can before the other player. After that its quite complex and can only be explained in person.

Quote: Original post by DavidNeal
Settlers of Katan - board/tile game
I've noticed that despite the violence in the previous three games, this non-violent game has led to plenty more arguments and resentments. Never-the-less, it's a fun game that centers around the development of villages in a "randomly" generated land. Each tile laid out at the beginning of the game represents different resources that the player can obtain (sheep, wood, ore, brick, wheat). Only players with settlements adjacent to these tiles can get the resources of that tile. The object of the game is to get 10 development points before the other players, obtained through different ways. Each player buys different things with the resources they obtain, including roads and towns. There's a lot of trading involved between the players each turn, so if someone that's about to win needs a particular resource, usually nobody will trade with them, seeing as how they'll get that much closer to winning.

I love that game, but I find the fighting between players is mostly caused by there being no violence in the game itself! How often has someone ploped a town or road down where YOU needed one, and you wish for a way to blow it up.

Sadly we are stuck with only being able to throw things at our friends.

Settlers of Catan is excellent. It is fairly short and there is strategy involved, however a little too much is left to chance in my opinion. Regardless, it is fun. Power Grid is a fantastic game. It is much longer than Catan (upwards of 2 hours usually) but there is less luck involved. Lots of budgeting too if you're okay with that. Arkham Horror is an interesting cooperation boardgame based on the Cthulhu mythos. It is fairly long and there is more luck than strategy but it can be fun to actually win. Zombies can be fun, however I've never been able to find the perfect balance of tweaked rules.

As far as card games, I've played Flux, Munchkin and Magic. They all have their advantages, however Magic is simply too expensive these days. I usually just prefer to get a large group of people together and play something like Apples to Apples, which is an absolutely amazingly fun game with a group of halfway intelligent individuals.

Quote: Original post by Talroth
How often has someone ploped a town or road down where YOU needed one, and you wish for a way to blow it up.

That's because you don't have one of these bad boys:



Most sets come with a blank card or two that you can use to manufacture one just for small thrills. Whenever i cackle with childish glee, everyone knows what card i picked up. "Oooh, shiney."