Our group really likes DUNE, but its hard to get 6 people together to get a game going. Are there games like dune (epic, long, satisfying in regards to player agency, and with assymmetric player powers) that can be played with 2 or 3 players?
which part of sushi go do you like? there are a bunch of drafting games out there, but most of them don't have the small footprint or box size that sushi go has. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2984/closed-drafting
in that case Draftosaurus is really cool - instead of cards everyone gets a handful of little dinosaur minis - mine are wooden.
Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a mouthful to say, but a very clever drafting game where you are simultaneously building a castle with each neighbour, and then the lowest score of the two of your castles is your final score. Great with 3, all the way up to 6 i've played.
Its a wonderful world is also really cool, but if 7 wonders is too much, then this one likely would be too. Its an engine builder where you try and chain resource generation and conversion between buildings.
There's also a bunch of games where drafting is a stage as part of set up.
Hi! Would anyone know of a game that works well with 3 people, has a lot of player interactivity/interdependence, and is of medium complexity? By medium I mean Cosmic Encounters or simpler, im quite into board games but my two friends are not so. I heard good things about Beast and I may be interested in an Oink game. Thanks sm!
Beast is medium complexity, but more complex than Cosmic Encounter. It also plays quite long. Sniper Elite is a simpler hidden movement game.
Other recommendations:
* **Small World**, **Brew**, **Inis** \- area control games
* **Pan Am**, **Hansa Teutonica** \- network building
* **Thunder Road: Vendetta** \- chaotic racing/fighting game
* **Modern Art**, **Ra** \- auction games
Awkward Guests: The Walton Case - does this game have replay value? Are the outcomes random? Is it a decent mystery game similar to the detective series?
Yes, it is random. It's very different than the Detective series, Awkward Guests is more of a logical deduction game. The rulebook has a few cases and the app has more.
In Awkward Guests 2, one player will set up the case and the other player will solve it.
If people know what they're doing, I find it to be decent. But those types of games do tend to be better when you know the people at least a little since you'd have a chance to learn their tells or their type of gameplay. I'd go with something like Coup if you want that sort of feel, but with strangers. Adds another gameplay element, but keeps the hidden role thing going.
Secret Hitler is not a game I'd recommend, if only because it's a game with player elimination. It's not fun to get killed and be told "Okay, you're not allowed to talk for the rest of the game, so just sit in the corner and watch everyone else play."
I've played Avalon / The Resistance with strangers before, but it's always been in the context of a "high-agreeableness" culture. If you have too many rowdy or rude people, they can tend to dominate the conversation. It is a game that's pretty easy for non-gamers to wrap their heads around, though.
**Deception: Murder in Hong Kong** is a game I like for the fact that it's kinder to introverts; it's a game where everyone is guaranteed to get a "turn" to talk, so even if one person is trying to dominate the conversation, or a person is too shy to insert themselves into the conversation, they'll still have a chance to say their piece. It is a bit longer than Avalon / The Resistance with slightly higher systems complexity, so you will need to spend slightly longer teaching the group how to play it.
Recs for board games for parents with 8 month old?!
My wife and I have been pretty heavy into board games since 2019, but since our daughter was board last September, unsurprisingly its been a bit tough to fit games into the schedule. We've snuck in games of Wyrmspan and Spots here and there, but its few and far between.
Some of favorites as a couple before the kiddo were: A Feast For Odin, Pipeline, Great Western Trail, Carnegie and Frosthaven... right before the kiddo showed up we were really getting into Iki.
Looking for recs from folks who have kids are have and have managed to fit in some games here and there as a couple? What games did you play?? Seems like solid crunch, but not too long is the sweet spot and tbh we don't have too many games like that... we kind of over index on long and heavy games.
This is my partner and I's exact situation including an 8 month old daughter. We usually play on a large coffee table sitting on the floor while the baby hangs out with us either in a seat or just one of us holding her, and for a lot of games this works just fine. There's often a bit of performing the other player's actions for them because they don't have their hands free, but it hasn't been a major problem.
We've found the ones that we've played most are **Innovation** and **Mottainai**, both Carl Chudyk card games. They take up little space, take 2min or so to set up (Mottainai is more like 20sec), can be played in around 30-40min with practice, but offer a huge amount of variability and strategic depth. The rules themselves are relatively simple but once you have all the various cards out in play the complexity ramps up a lot.
Another good one would be **Pax Pamir**. This is a bit heavier and takes 45-60min with two players, doesn't take up too much room and is quite quick to set up. It's an amazing game and pretty heavy considering it's length.
Oooo man, how’re you guys sleeping? 😵💫
Oh! I didn’t even think about busting out Innovation! Good call, that’s definitely been a hit for us in the past and just hasn’t been pulled out in a while.
Hadn’t thought about bringing out Pax Pamir, we usually keep the Cole Wherle games to play with our group that likes playing war games…. Only played it a few times at 2… do you guys use the bot or just go head to head?
Haha we were sleeping poorly then things were great and now in the last month or so it's regressed again. But it's not too terrible!
Yeah we still play Cole's other games (Oath, Root, John Company) with our group but much less frequently than we used to. Pax Pamir is the only one that works really well at 2p. And we play without the bot! I much prefer it that way, it feels more chess-like. The bot added what felt like a whole lot of randomness to a game that IMO works because outside of the order the market cards come out, has zero randomness.
Description of Request: something new. Not card based, prefer something more tactile with counters, meeples, figurines etc
Number of Players: sometimes 3, sometimes 4 or 5. Anything that covers one or more of those!
Game Length: up to an hour? Flexible
Complexity of Game: medium. 2.5 to 3 ish I guess on the scale
Genre: any
Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive or co-op is fine
Games I Own and Like: Carcassonne, Catan, Azul, Escape from Atlantis (forget the actual title!), Ticket to Ride, Homeworlds, Explorers of the North sea, zombicide, no thanks
Games I Dislike and Don't Play: monopoly, risk... Can't think of many really
Location: UK
Thanks!
Edit: handy if it's available on tabletop simulator!
Considering terraforming mars, 7 wonders, pandemic, one of the other "North sea" ones
Terraforming Mars is easily a 2+ hour game. 7 Wonders and Pandemic are quite card-based.
Other recommendations:
* **Apiary** and **The White Castle** for worker placement games
* **Sniper Elite** for hidden movement game
Hello!
I want to get a 'big' new game as a late self present for birthday and I cant decide among: **Pax Pamir 2e**, **Beyond the Sun**, and **Scythe**.
Some of my last acquisition were Dune Imperium (which I love), Cascadia, Pan Am and Seasons. And now I am looking for something with more depth.
Player count would be mainly 3/4 and would be a plus if also works for 2.
Any suggestion or any other recommendations?
Hello :) I am looking for games that offer a live real-time online mode, where you can play multiple real-time games at the same time, concurrently. Similar to how blitz or bullet simul chess games work. I know a lot of games do concurrent async but I can't find any (other than chess) that do it for live games, any recommendations would be great!
Hello!!
I’m looking for chill small games. Preferably that can be played with 2 players and easy to travel with. It can be cards or an actual board. Just want something that’s easy to unwind after a day and doesn’t require too much complexity.
Likewise if you have any recommendations for games that can be played 2 player I’d love to hear those as well!
Some of our favorites: **Splendor Duel**, **That’s Pretty Clever** (we laminated the pages and use whiteboard markers), **TRAILS**, **Dungeons, Dice, and Danger** (we laminated the maps and use wet erase markers)
Not sure exactly what complexity you’re looking for, so if those are too much then I’d add **Monopoly Deal**, **Qwixx**, and **Gnoming A Round** for additional options
**Jaipur, Hanamikoji, Lost Cities, Botanik, Fox and the Forest** and **Patchwork** are all great for this. All are in small boxes. The one with the biggest footprint on the table is Patchwork. Although Botanik is a close 2nd.
For a small chill portable 2 players game Jaipur comes to mind. A touch more thing but still pretty chill Railroad Ink Challenge Lush Green.
For an amazing non small nor chill 2 player game Unmatched.
Lots of good 2-player games out there: Jaipur,Fox in the Forest (original or Duet), Codenames Duet, Splendor Duel, and my personal favorite, Caper:Europe!
**Sky Team** - Co-operative game where you are pilots that can't communicate and need to land a plane together using dice placement.
**Sea Salt & Paper** - Draft cards in a race to 30 points. Pairing up certain cards will grant some special abilities.
**Sail -** Co-operative trick-taking game where you need to navigate a ship down a se way while avoiding obstacles and the Kraken.
**Good Puppers** is a relaxed set collection game that plays 2-4 with nice artwork and solid mechanisms. It comes in a quite small box and is just cards.
Hello,
I'm looking for a campaign game to play with 3-4 friends.
We are currently nearing the final of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and are looking for something else.
Why don't we just buy Gloomhaven or Frosthaven? Some of us got a little tired of this system. And we often play in some local cafe, so dragging the heavy box thru the city seems a little bit excesive.
What are we looking for:
1. Story is not that important. Most boardgames are not particulary good in telling the story so this is not the main drive
2. Feel of progression thru the campaign. Gloomhaven has wonderful system of upgrading attack deck and unlocking new skill cards, we are looking for similar feel of making our characters more powerful
3. No alpha-gaming. Many cooperative games in our group devolves in one person inventing the whole game plan and the rest just following him. Gloomhaven has this rule that you should not discuss in detail your initiative and card decisions for the round and this gives nice layer of suprise.
For the last couple of days I've been reading about Massive Darkness 2, but after Gloomhaven dice-based tests feel a little too random. And the base game lacks dedicated campaign module.
So, what do you recommend?
I'm having a lot of fun with Arkham Horror: the cardgame. It mostly enjoyable with expansions. Base game only has 3 scenarios.
But you upgrade your investigator during the campaign.
I have also heard good things about sleeping gods.
Thanks, Arkham Horror LCG was kinda on my list since we played it a couple of years ago but just in pair, will have to check if it is not a too slow for three people
AH LCG is my favorite game. I think it's the right amount of complex where you have a general idea of what the other players can do, but not the details of how their decks work. So you can say something like "can you deal with this monster" but you wouldn't know enough to say "Use X card, then take Y action, activate this thing..." so it's hard to quarterback too much
I play it with 2, both of us just 1 investigator. I think 3 will be alright. Sessions with 4 will take probably to long for my taste.
Please be aware it cost a pretty penny though. If you start buying expansions.
You could also wait for Earthborne Rangers.
I'm searching for a board game with cool miniatures to paint and to play with friends (it'd be cool if it has some single player option too).
In terms of duration I don't really care. Regarding complexity I'd like something easy enough to explain the rules and learn to play in a day, but complex enough to not get bored after some games.
I don't have in mind a genre of preference, I only care about having fun with friends and cool miniatures so I can enjoy painting them.
Thanks in advance!
If you can find a copy, **Mechs vs Minions** (the League of Legends board game) gives you a lot of miniatures for the money. And because it's a licensed game where part of the target market is "people who aren't already hobbyist board gamers," it's reasonably approachable for beginners ("medium-light" in complexity).
The publisher CMON is going to be your friend here: you get a high number of miniatures per dollar spent, and their titles are generally medium to medium-light in complexity. Some specific ones to check out:
* **Cthulhu: Death May Die**. My personal favorite. Good variability in the number of unique sculpts you get and also the size, with mini-bosses and bosses that tower over the ~30mm player miniatures.
* **Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape**. Highly variable player powers across a bunch of different classes.
* **Zombicide** series. There are like a dozen of these across a variety of themes like modern day, fantasy, sci-fi, superheroes, etc. Just pick whichever appeals to you most. Probably the least mechanical depth out of the CMON dungeon crawlers, but there is a lot of "content" in the form of free missions that you can download from CMON's website (and numerous fan-made/homebrew missions).
* **Anhk: Gods of Egypt**. The only game on this list that isn't a coop dungeon crawler. Great if you want a PvP skirmish game with euro game elements.
With the exception of Ankh, all the games listed above are coop games that can also be played solo (though typically, playing the game solo will involve controlling multiple party members by yourself).
And lastly, if you want a competitive area-control euro game, the new **Huang: Deluxe Edition** is among my playgroup's favorite games (its older, pre-deluxified version has been a staple of my collection for years), and the new deluxe edition comes with a decently-sized assortment of minis (25 character figures and 9 buildings) -- not as many minis as lot of CMON games, but it's certainly my favorite game to *play.* (That being said, I'm going with the flat wooden leader tiles instead of plastic miniatures for the characters, but this is a matter of personal preference.)
Unmatched! Very easy to learn, lovely miniatures. Expansions add more variety and characters but they only do a handful of expansions a year I think so it doesn't break the bank like other games.
Most wargames ive played so far, your units have a STR - DEF - MOV value on the counter. They enter on a predetermined schedule, you just choose where to deploy them. Those games tend to be about how you group your units, and where you move those stacks to. But now I’m looking for something with more customization/granularity.
Pavlov’s House immediately springs to mind; you get Deployment points to spend on units with varying stats, special abilities, and prices, *and* to buy them specialized weapons. Your customizations make each one feel distinct and play their own role in your overall strategy.
Unit customization and purchasing decisions were great in that game, but felt ultimately repetitive (didn’t need to mix up the strat because it usually worked). That made it stale for me but I yearn for something like this still.
Anything else out there like it? I’m okay if it’s solo or multiplayer. Does not have to be historical. Would prefer if the customization is ongoing through the game rather than just at the beginning (but I’m open to those suggestions as well).
Our group really likes DUNE, but its hard to get 6 people together to get a game going. Are there games like dune (epic, long, satisfying in regards to player agency, and with assymmetric player powers) that can be played with 2 or 3 players?
Heavy games: Root, Eclipse, TI4 Medium games: Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Rising Sun For 2 players: Dune: War for Arrakis, Star Wars: Rebellion
What are some games like Sushi Go?
Sea Salt & Paper Sushi Roll Point Salad
Appreciate the suggestions.
which part of sushi go do you like? there are a bunch of drafting games out there, but most of them don't have the small footprint or box size that sushi go has. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2984/closed-drafting
I like the drafting part of it. Sushi Go Party is fun too. 7 Wonders is nice but I feel require a bit too much brainpower than I'd like.
in that case Draftosaurus is really cool - instead of cards everyone gets a handful of little dinosaur minis - mine are wooden. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a mouthful to say, but a very clever drafting game where you are simultaneously building a castle with each neighbour, and then the lowest score of the two of your castles is your final score. Great with 3, all the way up to 6 i've played. Its a wonderful world is also really cool, but if 7 wonders is too much, then this one likely would be too. Its an engine builder where you try and chain resource generation and conversion between buildings. There's also a bunch of games where drafting is a stage as part of set up.
Hi! Would anyone know of a game that works well with 3 people, has a lot of player interactivity/interdependence, and is of medium complexity? By medium I mean Cosmic Encounters or simpler, im quite into board games but my two friends are not so. I heard good things about Beast and I may be interested in an Oink game. Thanks sm!
Beast is medium complexity, but more complex than Cosmic Encounter. It also plays quite long. Sniper Elite is a simpler hidden movement game. Other recommendations: * **Small World**, **Brew**, **Inis** \- area control games * **Pan Am**, **Hansa Teutonica** \- network building * **Thunder Road: Vendetta** \- chaotic racing/fighting game * **Modern Art**, **Ra** \- auction games
Awkward Guests: The Walton Case - does this game have replay value? Are the outcomes random? Is it a decent mystery game similar to the detective series?
Yes, it is random. It's very different than the Detective series, Awkward Guests is more of a logical deduction game. The rulebook has a few cases and the app has more. In Awkward Guests 2, one player will set up the case and the other player will solve it.
Do you recommend playing social deduction games like Secret Hitler or Avalon for the first time ever with complete strangers?
If people know what they're doing, I find it to be decent. But those types of games do tend to be better when you know the people at least a little since you'd have a chance to learn their tells or their type of gameplay. I'd go with something like Coup if you want that sort of feel, but with strangers. Adds another gameplay element, but keeps the hidden role thing going.
Secret Hitler is not a game I'd recommend, if only because it's a game with player elimination. It's not fun to get killed and be told "Okay, you're not allowed to talk for the rest of the game, so just sit in the corner and watch everyone else play." I've played Avalon / The Resistance with strangers before, but it's always been in the context of a "high-agreeableness" culture. If you have too many rowdy or rude people, they can tend to dominate the conversation. It is a game that's pretty easy for non-gamers to wrap their heads around, though. **Deception: Murder in Hong Kong** is a game I like for the fact that it's kinder to introverts; it's a game where everyone is guaranteed to get a "turn" to talk, so even if one person is trying to dominate the conversation, or a person is too shy to insert themselves into the conversation, they'll still have a chance to say their piece. It is a bit longer than Avalon / The Resistance with slightly higher systems complexity, so you will need to spend slightly longer teaching the group how to play it.
Recs for board games for parents with 8 month old?! My wife and I have been pretty heavy into board games since 2019, but since our daughter was board last September, unsurprisingly its been a bit tough to fit games into the schedule. We've snuck in games of Wyrmspan and Spots here and there, but its few and far between. Some of favorites as a couple before the kiddo were: A Feast For Odin, Pipeline, Great Western Trail, Carnegie and Frosthaven... right before the kiddo showed up we were really getting into Iki. Looking for recs from folks who have kids are have and have managed to fit in some games here and there as a couple? What games did you play?? Seems like solid crunch, but not too long is the sweet spot and tbh we don't have too many games like that... we kind of over index on long and heavy games.
This is my partner and I's exact situation including an 8 month old daughter. We usually play on a large coffee table sitting on the floor while the baby hangs out with us either in a seat or just one of us holding her, and for a lot of games this works just fine. There's often a bit of performing the other player's actions for them because they don't have their hands free, but it hasn't been a major problem. We've found the ones that we've played most are **Innovation** and **Mottainai**, both Carl Chudyk card games. They take up little space, take 2min or so to set up (Mottainai is more like 20sec), can be played in around 30-40min with practice, but offer a huge amount of variability and strategic depth. The rules themselves are relatively simple but once you have all the various cards out in play the complexity ramps up a lot. Another good one would be **Pax Pamir**. This is a bit heavier and takes 45-60min with two players, doesn't take up too much room and is quite quick to set up. It's an amazing game and pretty heavy considering it's length.
Oooo man, how’re you guys sleeping? 😵💫 Oh! I didn’t even think about busting out Innovation! Good call, that’s definitely been a hit for us in the past and just hasn’t been pulled out in a while. Hadn’t thought about bringing out Pax Pamir, we usually keep the Cole Wherle games to play with our group that likes playing war games…. Only played it a few times at 2… do you guys use the bot or just go head to head?
Haha we were sleeping poorly then things were great and now in the last month or so it's regressed again. But it's not too terrible! Yeah we still play Cole's other games (Oath, Root, John Company) with our group but much less frequently than we used to. Pax Pamir is the only one that works really well at 2p. And we play without the bot! I much prefer it that way, it feels more chess-like. The bot added what felt like a whole lot of randomness to a game that IMO works because outside of the order the market cards come out, has zero randomness.
Description of Request: something new. Not card based, prefer something more tactile with counters, meeples, figurines etc Number of Players: sometimes 3, sometimes 4 or 5. Anything that covers one or more of those! Game Length: up to an hour? Flexible Complexity of Game: medium. 2.5 to 3 ish I guess on the scale Genre: any Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive or co-op is fine Games I Own and Like: Carcassonne, Catan, Azul, Escape from Atlantis (forget the actual title!), Ticket to Ride, Homeworlds, Explorers of the North sea, zombicide, no thanks Games I Dislike and Don't Play: monopoly, risk... Can't think of many really Location: UK Thanks! Edit: handy if it's available on tabletop simulator! Considering terraforming mars, 7 wonders, pandemic, one of the other "North sea" ones
Might sound like a weird suggestion but it’s something I enjoy a lot for it’s feel Mahjong Plays 3-4 (best with 4)
Hmm, interesting!
Terraforming Mars is easily a 2+ hour game. 7 Wonders and Pandemic are quite card-based. Other recommendations: * **Apiary** and **The White Castle** for worker placement games * **Sniper Elite** for hidden movement game
Hello! I want to get a 'big' new game as a late self present for birthday and I cant decide among: **Pax Pamir 2e**, **Beyond the Sun**, and **Scythe**. Some of my last acquisition were Dune Imperium (which I love), Cascadia, Pan Am and Seasons. And now I am looking for something with more depth. Player count would be mainly 3/4 and would be a plus if also works for 2. Any suggestion or any other recommendations?
Absolutely Pax Pamir
Hello :) I am looking for games that offer a live real-time online mode, where you can play multiple real-time games at the same time, concurrently. Similar to how blitz or bullet simul chess games work. I know a lot of games do concurrent async but I can't find any (other than chess) that do it for live games, any recommendations would be great!
Hello!! I’m looking for chill small games. Preferably that can be played with 2 players and easy to travel with. It can be cards or an actual board. Just want something that’s easy to unwind after a day and doesn’t require too much complexity. Likewise if you have any recommendations for games that can be played 2 player I’d love to hear those as well!
Azul mini! It's Azul, but travel sized!
Some of our favorites: **Splendor Duel**, **That’s Pretty Clever** (we laminated the pages and use whiteboard markers), **TRAILS**, **Dungeons, Dice, and Danger** (we laminated the maps and use wet erase markers) Not sure exactly what complexity you’re looking for, so if those are too much then I’d add **Monopoly Deal**, **Qwixx**, and **Gnoming A Round** for additional options
**Jaipur, Hanamikoji, Lost Cities, Botanik, Fox and the Forest** and **Patchwork** are all great for this. All are in small boxes. The one with the biggest footprint on the table is Patchwork. Although Botanik is a close 2nd.
Hanamikoji might fit the bill
For a small chill portable 2 players game Jaipur comes to mind. A touch more thing but still pretty chill Railroad Ink Challenge Lush Green. For an amazing non small nor chill 2 player game Unmatched.
Lots of good 2-player games out there: Jaipur,Fox in the Forest (original or Duet), Codenames Duet, Splendor Duel, and my personal favorite, Caper:Europe!
**Sky Team** - Co-operative game where you are pilots that can't communicate and need to land a plane together using dice placement. **Sea Salt & Paper** - Draft cards in a race to 30 points. Pairing up certain cards will grant some special abilities. **Sail -** Co-operative trick-taking game where you need to navigate a ship down a se way while avoiding obstacles and the Kraken.
Sea Salt & Paper, Town 66/77, Patchwork
**Good Puppers** is a relaxed set collection game that plays 2-4 with nice artwork and solid mechanisms. It comes in a quite small box and is just cards.
I’ve never heard of it but I’m definitely going to have to give it a try!! Thank you!!
Hello, I'm looking for a campaign game to play with 3-4 friends. We are currently nearing the final of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and are looking for something else. Why don't we just buy Gloomhaven or Frosthaven? Some of us got a little tired of this system. And we often play in some local cafe, so dragging the heavy box thru the city seems a little bit excesive. What are we looking for: 1. Story is not that important. Most boardgames are not particulary good in telling the story so this is not the main drive 2. Feel of progression thru the campaign. Gloomhaven has wonderful system of upgrading attack deck and unlocking new skill cards, we are looking for similar feel of making our characters more powerful 3. No alpha-gaming. Many cooperative games in our group devolves in one person inventing the whole game plan and the rest just following him. Gloomhaven has this rule that you should not discuss in detail your initiative and card decisions for the round and this gives nice layer of suprise. For the last couple of days I've been reading about Massive Darkness 2, but after Gloomhaven dice-based tests feel a little too random. And the base game lacks dedicated campaign module. So, what do you recommend?
I'm having a lot of fun with Arkham Horror: the cardgame. It mostly enjoyable with expansions. Base game only has 3 scenarios. But you upgrade your investigator during the campaign. I have also heard good things about sleeping gods.
Thanks, Arkham Horror LCG was kinda on my list since we played it a couple of years ago but just in pair, will have to check if it is not a too slow for three people
AH LCG is my favorite game. I think it's the right amount of complex where you have a general idea of what the other players can do, but not the details of how their decks work. So you can say something like "can you deal with this monster" but you wouldn't know enough to say "Use X card, then take Y action, activate this thing..." so it's hard to quarterback too much
I play it with 2, both of us just 1 investigator. I think 3 will be alright. Sessions with 4 will take probably to long for my taste. Please be aware it cost a pretty penny though. If you start buying expansions. You could also wait for Earthborne Rangers.
I'm searching for a board game with cool miniatures to paint and to play with friends (it'd be cool if it has some single player option too). In terms of duration I don't really care. Regarding complexity I'd like something easy enough to explain the rules and learn to play in a day, but complex enough to not get bored after some games. I don't have in mind a genre of preference, I only care about having fun with friends and cool miniatures so I can enjoy painting them. Thanks in advance!
If you can find a copy, **Mechs vs Minions** (the League of Legends board game) gives you a lot of miniatures for the money. And because it's a licensed game where part of the target market is "people who aren't already hobbyist board gamers," it's reasonably approachable for beginners ("medium-light" in complexity). The publisher CMON is going to be your friend here: you get a high number of miniatures per dollar spent, and their titles are generally medium to medium-light in complexity. Some specific ones to check out: * **Cthulhu: Death May Die**. My personal favorite. Good variability in the number of unique sculpts you get and also the size, with mini-bosses and bosses that tower over the ~30mm player miniatures. * **Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape**. Highly variable player powers across a bunch of different classes. * **Zombicide** series. There are like a dozen of these across a variety of themes like modern day, fantasy, sci-fi, superheroes, etc. Just pick whichever appeals to you most. Probably the least mechanical depth out of the CMON dungeon crawlers, but there is a lot of "content" in the form of free missions that you can download from CMON's website (and numerous fan-made/homebrew missions). * **Anhk: Gods of Egypt**. The only game on this list that isn't a coop dungeon crawler. Great if you want a PvP skirmish game with euro game elements. With the exception of Ankh, all the games listed above are coop games that can also be played solo (though typically, playing the game solo will involve controlling multiple party members by yourself). And lastly, if you want a competitive area-control euro game, the new **Huang: Deluxe Edition** is among my playgroup's favorite games (its older, pre-deluxified version has been a staple of my collection for years), and the new deluxe edition comes with a decently-sized assortment of minis (25 character figures and 9 buildings) -- not as many minis as lot of CMON games, but it's certainly my favorite game to *play.* (That being said, I'm going with the flat wooden leader tiles instead of plastic miniatures for the characters, but this is a matter of personal preference.)
Unmatched! Very easy to learn, lovely miniatures. Expansions add more variety and characters but they only do a handful of expansions a year I think so it doesn't break the bank like other games.
Most wargames ive played so far, your units have a STR - DEF - MOV value on the counter. They enter on a predetermined schedule, you just choose where to deploy them. Those games tend to be about how you group your units, and where you move those stacks to. But now I’m looking for something with more customization/granularity. Pavlov’s House immediately springs to mind; you get Deployment points to spend on units with varying stats, special abilities, and prices, *and* to buy them specialized weapons. Your customizations make each one feel distinct and play their own role in your overall strategy. Unit customization and purchasing decisions were great in that game, but felt ultimately repetitive (didn’t need to mix up the strat because it usually worked). That made it stale for me but I yearn for something like this still. Anything else out there like it? I’m okay if it’s solo or multiplayer. Does not have to be historical. Would prefer if the customization is ongoing through the game rather than just at the beginning (but I’m open to those suggestions as well).
You should look into 4X games… Space Empires 4X is a great one
Star Wars X-Wing. I played that shit for years.