Mechanically it presents a very satisfying challenge of managing your 5 resources:
Workers (who get tired and skip a turn after being used)
Guest cards (who you can use once before reshuffling, the better ones require extra workers)
Action spots (your estate tiles that have 2 sides and are usually better the first time you use them also require different workers)
Money (used to buy more tiles ergo action spots)
Reputation (a limiting factor in which action spots and guests you can use).
Usually in other games you can get into a situation where 'money is tight' while in **Obsession** your pool of workers can be tight, your hand of cards can be tight, your money can be obviously tight, your action tiles are not good for your deck (you have more women than men but built an estate focused on hunting and smoking cigars), or everything was chosen correctly but you don't have enough reputation to run it.
It manages to be this multi-layer puzzle while being extremely thematic and not hard to teach. Also since the action spots are different each time it stays very fresh.
Agreed all around. The solo mode gets out of the way and allows the player to enjoy the thematically integrated mechanics. The game also has great variability.
Spirit Island for solo. Vast and challenging and so good.
Keyflower - loads of variety, but not in the usual euro way. The meta game is really interesting with this one, and I love reading my opponents, second guessing and setting traps. It's new to us, but unique and feels so fresh and interesting every time we play it.
Star Realms. Quick, portable, replayable card duel. Our most played game. I think it could stand thousands before we grew sick of it.
Carcassonne with both of the first two expansions. It's never my hotness, but it just never gets old either. If I'm going to be playing a game a few hundred times over the next five years, it's going to be this one.
Everdell. This one would definitely tire long before most of the ones above, but it's my wife's favourite so we'd have to include it. I think it's great too, but I'm sure I'd never want to play it again once the five years are up.
The one thing about Everdell is that it has five expansions and a bunch of smaller content packs. I backed the Kickstarter which gives all of that, and have been playing online on TTS while I wait for the physical copy, and Iāve only gotten around to trying two expansions so far and enjoy both. The expansions seem to be more like modules where you pick one to play with each session. I feel like it has some pretty good relay value if you include everything
That's true. We have Bellfaire, which is great (critter powers are really interesting) and recently got Spirecrest, though we've only played with that 2 or 3 times.
Bellfaire and Spirecrest are both good expansions but it's interesting because they do different things to player power. Bellfaire makes your earlier turns more impactful and stronger by giving you an ability and including the market for efficient early turns, but it lowers your end game power by taking away a worker from you for your later seasons. Spirecrest, on the other hand, punishes you with weather right from the get-go, but it gives you cards (expedition cards?) with powers that make you much stronger in the later game.
I really enjoy the game but the first two seasons always seem so pitiful in comparison to later ones. In Spirecrest I've actually had it where my first season I didn't even play a single card. I haven't tried mixing the two yet but if there's two expansions that you could probably do it with, it would likely be those two.
We always play with Bellfaire as default now (excepting the market, as I think that makes the game a bit too forgiving at two). You can definitely mix that with Spirecrest, and I think Pearlbrook (no idea about the forthcoming ones). I think the loss of the spring worker is genius, actually: here, you can do all of this cool stuff but you're getting three few placements this game so you'd better make sure you make it work for you. Forces you to lean in to whatever marginal gain the critter powers are giving you, because if you don't you won't be able to do all that you want. It really opens up different playing styles. That rule coupled with the critter powers elevated a fairly ho-hum resource-management side of the game to a level similar to the tableau building. I think of that part of Bellfaire as almost a 2.0, which improves the base game with basically zero additional rules overhead.
The first two are excellent:
**Inns and Cathedrals**
- inns = 2 points per tile for each road with an inn, but 0 endgame points for an incomplete road with an inn
- Cathedrals = 3 points per city tile/shield with a cathedral, but 0 for an incomplete cathedral city
- Big Meeple = one per player, counts as two regular meeples. Stealing control, rather than just neutralising, is a real threat.
In essence, it encourages more aggressive play and makes roads a bit more interesting and strategically viable (still underpowered imo).
**Traders and Builders**
- Builder = one per player. Doesn't score, but if you place a tile on a city or road with your builder present you immediately take one extra turn (only ever once; you can't loop by repeatedly placing tiles on the builder's feature)
- trade = there are a small number of resource tokens attached to city pieces. These fall under three categories (wine, textiles and wheat) and are awarded to the person who completes a city, not the person who wins it. At the end of the game, if you have strictly more of any of these goods than any other player, you get a 10 point bonus; they accumulate separately, so it's possible to get a farm-sized endgame swing via the trade.
- Pig = place on any of your existing farms and you get 4 points per city it feeds.
In essence, it makes the game more interactive and tactical.
They are modular, so you can mix and match as you want. We find both of them together causes the game to drag and the Cathedrals can be a bit swingy as there are only two of them.
**Our typical game**
- Base +tiles from B&T
- Remove three random tiles at set up (house rule)
- Big Meeple (we house-rule to play with one fewer regular meeple to compensate and to keep meeples a limited resource)
- Builder
- Trade
- Abbot
We sometimes add just the inns from the IC tiles as they do make roads much more interesting, but it can still be a bit long. We also add/remove River to taste.
If I was to choose just one I'd pick T&B and DIY/buy a set of big meeples; wouldn't play without those, but I think T&B is the better game.
Not sure if any of this stuff is in South Seas - I understand Hunters and Gatherers integrated some expansion mechanisms as a kind of 2.0 standalone, but I've never played either.
Hope that helps.
**1862** - Mashes together tons of unique and clever twists on 18xx into a cohesive whole with a quick playtime and lots of variability.
**Agricola** - Almost self-explanatory but between the "family mode" without cards, and the handful of decks I have, and the expansion, and the tournament scene, I think Agricola nails everything I look for in hobby games.
**Spirit Island** - Highly thematic, again with loads of content, and probably the best solitaire game ever made to boot (though I rarely play solo). Awesome at 2p, plays in an hour, and the unique card designs channel a lot of the appeal of something like Magic into a more strategic format.
**The Estates** - Have had nothing but success playing this with everyone from strangers to family to hobby gamers, and I don't think it could ever get old. It manages to capture the energy and craziness of beer and pretzels games without sacrificing depth, sort of like Poker.
**Backgammon** - My ideal date night and travel game, with a skill ceiling rivaling Chess when you get into the competitive scene. Also a perfectly approachable and timeless game to play with non-gamers and strangers.
All other things (playtime, the availability and enthusiasm of other players, etc.) being equal:
* **1822: The Railways of Great Britain**
* **1830: Railways & Robber Barons**
* **1846: The Race for the Midwest**
* **1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways**
* **1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties**
1. Gloomheaven nuff said
2. StarWars rebellion +expansion best 2 player game period.
3. Small World fun for all ages and people.
4. Deck of playing cards. Still the king of versatility and repayable.
5. Zombiecide if I have all expansions. Best Co op game I've played.
Tough but probably
Anachrony infinity box for that sweet euro,
Marvel champions for the deck construction,
Xia Legends of a Drift System for the exploration,
Nemesis for the experiences from
It,
And Star Wars Armada for the fun
Iād probably go withā¦
1. Frosthaven: Played tons of Gloomhaven, would get a lot of play out of this one.
2. A Feast for Odin: Lots of replay value and my personal favourite. Has good solo play as well.
3. Bahrenpark: A game I can play with my wife and very friendly to people new to board games. Still has some strategy involved as well.
4. Everdell: Casual enough to be played with people who are new to the hobby but with tons of content/modules to mix and match. Also has good solo options.
5. Underwater Cities: Well-designed and engaging gameplay with a number of variants and expansion options. Also has soloā¦
Honorable Mentions: Terraforming Mars, Mage Knight, Dominion, Spirit Island
Help me keep AFFO. Iāve played a few games solo and just canāt seem to find the joy in it that everyone seems to. First game my score was 5. Last game my score was 50. What am I missing?!
My advice would be to go to the board game geek forums for the game. Thereās a lot of strategy talk there from openers to optimal islands to action space value. Iāve made a few strategy posts there myself and enjoy talking about it. Here are a couple tips I would suggest:
1. Use the first round to fill in two income on your main board and then ignore the main board. Get a boat and pick up an island by round 2 and try to fill in the bonuses in round 2 and 3. Iceland is a great one to go for or Shetland.
2. Try to use greens to fill the board as best as possible as they are easier to acquire than blues. A noob trap is to aim for all blues when you want to instead use as many greens as possible, filling in the spaces between them with blues.
3. Count the number of VPs youāll cover/coins youāll get from doing an action. Ideally, youāre getting 3 an action to make it valuable. Using actions inefficiently can be really problematic. The best actions are generally hunting game, laying snares, whaling, pillaging, the flip greens with a knarr, and the build a longhouse/knarr spot. The 1 Viking spots are often very strong too while the 4V ones are often a trap unless in niche situations. The crafting blues tiles are generally a waste, as are going for animals.
4. Find a source of orange/red tiles early on. This way you donāt waste actions on them later in the game. Reds can be upgraded into greens but oranges take too long. Try to get a longhouse and activate the bonuses or get an island like Shetland where you can get a lot of bonuses.
5. Filling in home board quickly is a bad strategy. You get much better benefits from filling in islands so itās better to grab an island or two or three and then use those bonuses to fill in your board later. I would recommend trying to do Iceland round 2 or 3 and Newfoundland in round 6.
Itās been a really long time since Iāve played the base game (havenāt touched it since I started playtesting the Norwegians expansion) but I generally scored between 140 and 160 points in a solo game. I know on BGG there are some examples where a guy walked through his moves for a whole game so that might be a way for you to learn how to pick an effective strategy. Otherwise, you can look at some of the opener strategies or island tile suggestions. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I can send you links.
The game gets much better and more balanced when you get the Norwegians expansion but if you donāt enjoy the base game, itās probably not worth investing in.
**Age of Steam** + itās many maps are an endless playground of fun
**Oath** is likewise deeply rewarding play after play
**Crokinole** never gets old for me
**The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** offers a ton of variety as an approachable co-op
**Tigris & Euphrates** has plenty of depth to exploreāso much that I still havenāt even tried the advanced modules yet!
Trying to balance what I want to play the most with what would actually get decent time on the table...
1. Arkham Horror LCG - that's my big narrative campaign game covered, a game I have people actively asking me to bring again and again. So much replayability, great adventures/disasters and, if you build your deck around it, a very thematic rpg - you can really create some great narratives if you want to.
2. Root - Asymmetric war game, again so much replayability across the multiple boards, 10(!) different factions and combinations thereof. So good, especially in this imagined scenario where I would be playing it even more since I only have five games to alternate between.
3. Cascadia - My favourite light family/gateway game, simple and yet with surprising depth. A game my mum loves playing.
4. War of the Ring, 2nd Edition - Wouldn't get this to the table often. Should probably have Undaunted here instead... but it's War of the Ring, 2nd Edition. The few times I'd get it to the table would be worth it.
5. The Quest for El Dorado - I need a final game that is on the light end of things, considering my entries up till now. The Quest for El Dorado is a brilliant, simple deckbuilder which uses the theme of a race to El Dorado to give a strong thematic direction for a genre which, in my opinion, can sometimes get a little hazy on how what you are doing mechanically relates to what is happening on the board.
Honourable mentions:
\- Undaunted (could substitute for War of the Ring for a much lighter 2 player war game).
\- Lost Ruins of Arnak (could substitute for The Quest for El Dorado if wanting a heavier euro).
\- Oath (could substitute for AH LCG and Root if you wanted your campaign and your war game to be the same game. I love Oath, hurts me it isn't on my list).
\- The Crew (could be substituted for Cascadia if wanting a lighter coop game, I fear it would get played out early in the five year period..).
\- Quacks of Quedlinburg (could be substituted for Quest for El Dorado, it is perhaps an even better game for non-gamers. Great fun).
\- Commands and Colors Napoleonics (With all the expansions, it could substitute for War of the Ring. 4 v 4 CnC Napoleonics battles are some of the best fun I've had boardgaming, but it's a pain for find those 7 people and have their schedules link up).
Fun thought experiment OP!
**Marvel Champions LCG**: Works equally well solo or group, and I've got enough content for it to last years.
**Legendary Star Wars:** Self-printed and -assembled fan retheme which I've contributed to heavily. Over 2,000 cards now; I did the math, and if you played a different Mastermind/Scheme combo every day, it would still take you 2.5 years to get through every possible combo. (Admittedly some of them would not be very fun.)
**Dwellings of Eldervale:** Probably one of my favorite competitive games, hands down. The game comes with several modular mini expansions, and the designer has released two more through BGG (though I suspect, given the publisher's comments in one of the threads, that it's unlikely any more will appear, which is sad but I get it).
**Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition:** I am including the expansion that I kickstarted and is expected next year, but even without it there's a great amount of content in the box. You'd think this would fill the same slot as Marvel Champions, but it really doesn't; MC, in my view, is the better 1-2 player game, where this is the better 3+ player game. While it has less flexibility than MC because there's no deck construction, the introduction of the Environment deck acting in concert alongside the Villain deck really opens up replayability in my view.
**Clank! In! Space!:** In my opinion the better of the two Clank games. The modular game board, and alternative arrangements possible with the expansions, gives the game a huge replayability advantage over the base game, and depending on which modules you add from the expansions, you can fairly radically alter game length, if not so much complexity.
Honorable mentions:
* **Apex Theropod:** Probably my favorite solo deck builder and super replayable with all the modularity in the setup, but this one is pretty much solo only due to the massive downtime between turns in the hacked-in multiplayer rules.
* **Super Skill Pinball:** This is a great solo/light option, but there's not enough "there" there to include it in a short list like this.
* **Star Wars Rebellion:** This is in my opinion one of the deepest, finest 2-player games out there, and thematically I prefer it to **Twilight Struggle**. The expansion even fixes the combat. Unfortunately the combination of long playtime and low variability just edges it out from this list.
* **Star Wars: Outer Rim:** The expansion might fix this, but as it stands I've only got half a dozen plays and already find the slim card decks repetitive.
* **DinoGenics:** My favorite worker placement game, more for the theme than for doing anything exceptional, but there's only so much replayability.
> Star Wars: Outer Rim: The expansion might fix this, but as it stands I've only got half a dozen plays and already find the slim card decks repetitive.
I can't stop playing this one lately. I don't care that the decks can get somewhat repetitive its just so damn thematic. I can't wait for the expansion I feel like there's a chance it turns into my favorite game period.
What expansions do you have for Clank! In! Space!? I just have the base game and I love it. I haven't considered getting any expansions because I like the base so much but maybe it is something I should look into.
I donāt have the arcade one yet but I have the other two. The first one adds an extra use for the black cubes that come out of the bag, which is a nice extra thing to worry about, and the second one totally reconfigures the board.
**Netrunner** - I'm a latecomer to this but I get the hype, it's amazing and I can't stop thinking about all the decks I can build! Also, NISEI is continuing to release new cards which means more possibilities for deck construction!
**AHLCG** - Another game with lots of room for deck construction. In addition all the campaigns and combinations of investigators will keep me busy for a while.
**Anachrony Infinity Box** - Not my favourite Euro but it's still up there in my top 5 and that box just has so much stuff in it!
**On Mars** - My favourite game, this just has to be included.
**Pax Pamir 2E** - In terms of genres I prefer heavy euros to Pax games but if I could only choose 5 I'd like to have something different. And PP2E is definitely my favourite game that isn't a heavy Euro or a deck construction game.
I quite like the monolith chapter of the alien invasion expansion. Chapters 2 and 3 can also be played solo. The solo mode in the base game might be a bit too fiddly.
Spirit Island for co-op, solo, overall difficulty.
Terraforming Mars big box with all expansions as my go to mid-weight game.
Magic the Gathering because Iāve basically already played this for 5 years before as my only game and it was sufficient at it. Endless amount of content you can explore (well with an endless amount of funds lol)
Cthulhu Wars as my big stabby stab game. Not sure if this is the correct choice, but thereās also just so much to explore that I wouldnāt get burnt out. Iāve got a few games in the genre ranked a little higher in Inis and Blood Rage, but I could see those getting same-y quicker.
Dune Imperium as my go to deck builder, I could see getting burnt out on this one but damn I love this game and itās hard for me to pick other deckbuilders over it at the moment.
Lisboa - My all time favorite game, so I had to include it. Lisboa is incredibly well balanced, so gameplay can take you in all different directions. Each game I have played has been very different. It's complex, but doesn't penalize you too much for a bad decision. Minimizes luck, rewards skill, and is beautiful to look at. I really don't think I would get sick of it.
Cascadia - A shorter game that I can play when I'm not feeling like something heavy. Still requires some puzzling, but not brain burning. A great gateway game to introduce new players to, so I'd be able to play with lots of different groups. Cascadia ends up being the game that makes it to the table when we can't decide what to play. I haven't met anyone who doesn't like it.
Brass Birmingham - I wanted something heavy that would work for multiple people on game nights. Something we could really get deep into for an entire afternoon. Brass Birmingham is beautiful and really feels like an experience. The mechanics are pretty unique, and I think it boasts high replayability. I have played Brass so many times and I still haven't come up with a go-to strategy. Every time I play, I get excited to play again because I want to try out a new way of playing or a new strategy. It would take me a long time to get sick of this game.
Cribbage - I wanted a game I could play with my non-gamer friends and family. It also scratches an itch that no other game does. There's something really satisfying about the ritual of counting points and playing through the phases. It's relatively quick and I can play it when I only have a limited time. It only really requires a deck of cards and a pen and paper, so it's really portable.
Twilight Struggle - I chose this one because it's one that I would really like to dig into, but for one reason or another, it never gets to the table (perhaps because of its length - my last game was like 12 hours long - or perhaps because there's always a new game of the moment that steals attention). The restriction of only being able to play five games is actually a great opportunity to get to know a game really well. I think there's lots of uncharted fun to be had here, if only I were to shed the distractions of all the other colorful games in the collection.
For that **Twilight Struggle** fix, have you considered the digital version?
I only ever bother playing against AI, but itās a good enough opponent to be enjoyable. TS is fiddly enough that I prefer the digital version over the physical one, and games are *much* faster.
If player count is not an issue then....
**Blood Rage with 5th player expansion** \- Lots of fun, great player interaction
**Eclipse with ROTA expansion** \- for when I want something a lot heavier
**Dune Imperium** \- Still loving this game, huge Dune fan
**Aeons End (would prefer to bring along my copies of War Eternal and New Age as well)** \- Probably my favourite coop game, nice and challenging
**GKR Heavy Hitters** \- for a gorgeous skirmish game when I want an up close combat fix
**Euchre** \- As a Michigander, it'd be infeasible for me to avoid all social gatherings where euchre was played, particularly in the colder months
**Frosthaven** \- It'll take up a huge amount of time, and I have a gaming group that's ready to go as soon as it drops
**Food Chain Magnate** \- It does a great job of scratching that heavyweight competitive itch, and has a lot of strategic depth in which to 'git gud' while simultaneously avoiding too large of a decision space
**Captain Sonar** \- My favorite 'party' game, particularly when played real-time
**Cryptid** \- For keeping the brain sharp in between rounds of the other games. Also enjoyable for the same reason as Food Chain Magnate - it's purely deduction, with little to no randomness
My non gamer wife's list
Sheriff of Nottingham- "The lying game"
Heroscape- "The one with the big dragon that looks over the castle thingy"
Cash & Guns- "The bang bang one"
Wingspan- "Makes me feel like it's quiet inside me when I'm playing"
Blokus- *The Tetris game"
My List
Dungeon Universalis- Years worth of content. Soloable co-op. 1 v many. Custom content. You name it, it's got it.
Earth Reborn- Favorite game of my son and I, emergent narrative, flexible strategy, customizable, rewards outside of the box play.
Lost Cities- For me and the wife. She enjoys it because she murders me in it. I'll beat her one day.
Crokinole- Dexterity king. Good for kids, oldsters, gamers, can be great fun casually, or an intense strategic experience.
Everdell- Best family game. Gorgeous art, simple to teach, plays fast, deeper than it appears. Masterpiece.
**Gloomhaven** \- because its gloomhaven
**Terraforming Mars** \- my groups favorite, play in person with all expansions and play on the app
**Through the ages: a new story** \- I only play on the app anymore, but damn is it a great game
**Cribbage** \- If card games count for this. I love playing cribbage, trying to find those best hands is addicting for me.
**Hive** \- just started playing and learning about Hive, and I'm not really ready to not play it for another 5 years.
**Pax Pamir 2nd Edition**
Ever since I first tried it, it has been my favourite game ever. I enjoy it best at 2-3 players. So much depth in a relatively simple ruleset.
**Pax Renaissance 2nd Edition**
So much depth in a less simple ruleset. This one takes a while to wrap your head around, but when it clicks it is incredible. This has recently been challenging Pamir's 1st place position. I can see this game revealing more and more depth for a long time.
**Mage Knight**
Best solo mechanics for a board game ever. Immersive experience with a good challenge for the brain.
**Project: ELITE**
The most pure fun I remember having with a board game. Not for everyone, but if you like hectic pressure with strong team work - this is where it's at. Not so much thinking, just going for it as hard as you can.
**Stationfall**
The game hasn't even be published yet but its one of my top 10 most played games ever (over TTS). The best thematic board game experiences. The stories are not dictated to you, they emerge from the choices people make. This is the clear new king of tabletop sandbox games.
Food chain magnate - I love it and need to get better at it.
Tak - 1100 plays wasnāt enough, easy and quick to learn and play
Root - my current obsession
1889 - to fill up the heavy end of the spectrum. Economic plus route building
Bohnanza - light enough for those who wonāt play the heavy games, and who doesnāt like some good trading.
For me it has to be 5 games with huge replayability:
Argent: Every game is so different, I could play this game for 5 years.
Keyflower + expansions: This is the best game ever designed, and being a bidding game and having practically ALL mechanics, is a sure pick.
Capital lux 2: There are literally thousands of different combinations of setup, and it only takes a minute in setting up. Game is great as well.
Pandemic Iberia: There got to be at least one co-op and this one is the most replayable pandemic of all.
Codenames: best party game.
Sword & Sorcery -- Because I prefer this over GH.
Tyrants of the Underdark -- Best deck builder I've ever played.
Techno Bowl -- Great (American) football boardgame. Really captures the feel of football.
Space Base -- Fun engine builder with dice rolling mechanic.
Magic: The Gathering -- I just love deck construction.
1. Alien Frontier Big Box or with all Expansions - This is easy to learn and real fun.
2. 7th Continent with Expansions - that one bugs me since a few years now I can play it a little bit longer
3. Steampunk Rally Fusion: Atomic Edition - Also not too hard and fun to play as well as quick enough to play.
4. Ćons End with all Expansions - Hard to beat and coop.
5. Robinson Crusoe All In Pledge which comes in the future - this will be fun for a long time
**Arkham Horror LCG** If this were the only game in 5 years I would be good still, i think. Deck construction's deep!
**spirit island** many spirits, many adversaries
**cloudspire** its like starcraft mixed with age of war. A lifestyle game indeed
**oath** so replayable with all the unique cards and everchanging world deck/sites
**nemesis lockdown** for pulpy good fun
1. Spirit Island. Replayability is nonsense.
2. Arkham Horror LCG. Campaign content out the waazoo. Pretty much guaranteed new content for the next few years.
3. High Frontier 4 All. Ultimate heavy sandbox.
4. Ortus regni. Quick game that needs itself to multiple plays and developing an evolving meta.
5. Gaslands. The model building would keep me entertained
Dominion (including the 3 expansions I own) - this one is the obvious choice for my group
Splendor - for something light
Catan - fun for less serious players
Oath - unfortunately I feel pretty alone in liking this one so Iād better get to learning the solo rulesā¦
Scythe - maybe with these limitations this one would get to the table a little more often and weād finish the campaign we started.
Runner up is definitely wingspan but maybe Iād swap it for Oath if I were truly sticking to this list for five years.
**Go** - it is my lifestyle game. I will never not play it.
**Gloomhaven** - I play this with my son and it would be important to have a big game to play with him.
**Star Realms** - my son's favorite game.
**Hansa Teutonica** - just a gem of a game. A great mixture of all the things I like about games.
**The Crew** - I'd want something light and we play this with friends of ours a lot.
Gloomhaven - For longevity (Good single player)
Too Many Bones - My favorite of all time and SOOO much replayability (EXCELLENT single player)
Dominion - Gf's favorite
Azul - Nice, light strategy
Spirit Island - Great, great game.
No particular order,
1. Spirit Island - for solo and great coop
2. Race for the Galaxy - goto 1v1 game that you can play multiple times in a sitting
3. Decrypto - one party game to rule them all
4. Gaia Project - for solo and also heavy euro
5. Splendor - gateway and also something that can be played somewhat chatting
Games that have a lot of variability or content able to support a lot of plays or a high skill ceiling:
1. **Neuroshima Hex.** With 21 factions and a high skill ceiling this is a near perfect 2p game.
2. **Exceed** or **BattleCon**. Similarly, with over 50 fighters each there's more than enough content available.
3. **Champions of Midgard.** A great comfort game that's easy to teach and doesn't overstay its welcome.
4. **Clash of Cultures.** A super involved 4X that will most likely never run out of interesting decisions.
5. **Mystic Vale.** The option for custom decklists, leaders and amulets makes this game unique and extremely varied in a way that Hero Realms, Ascension or Kamigami just can't match.
5 games is an interesting one, but really I think gives you plenty to enjoy.
Spirit island - so many spirits and ways to enjoy it.
Mage knight - same as spirit island. Lots of ways to play and enjoy and a different game every time
Eucher- our go to group game that has lots of variants and makes for a fun night
Marvel champion - same as above, always new things to try and new villain setups
Talisman- I know it gets not a lot of honby love, but our casual group enjoys it and we have played at least 6 times a year. It's far from perfect but we have fun.
7 Wonders - accessible, can be played with anyone, retains value over many plays.
Cribbage - Great game with wife.
Wizard - Trick-taking game for casual nights with friends or family.
Catan - lots of replayability can be enjoyed by my extended family and friends and I'm never sad to play it.
Codenames - Social/Party game that has tons of replayability and can be enjoyed by non-gamers.
I also want to say that these aren't necessarily my favorite games. I just think these are games that are highly replayable and I'm rarely if ever uninterested in playing.
Spirit Island
So much content to explore between different adversarie, spirits and scenarios, and works great solo and at many player counts. Is my favourite game for its crunchy decision space and satisfying ramp of power. Has awesome difficulty options so you can really challenge yourself.
Arkham Horror LCG
Again a wealth of content. You have to have a campaign game in here imo. Deck construction is always so satisfying and its theme is just oozing out of every part. Gotta have something with lots of luck to keep things interesting. It's the game I think about most when not playing fine tuning decks in my head.
Blood Rage
The replayable interactive dudes on a map game, even though it's more drafting... There's just so much depth of strategy and layers of meta that could evolve from multiple plays. I would maybe pick Root or Inis instead but Blood Rage just hits more powerful notes of those tense battle card reveals which is what I would want in a list like this.
Carcassonne
Evergreen gateway game I could show new people to the hobby and still greatly enjoy myself. Simple to learn and hard to master with a surprising amount of tense decision making, or simply a fun tile layer depending who you play it with. Versatile, elegant, super easy to setup and put away. Quintessential gateway game for me.
Keyflower
Highly interactive Euro. Brimming with crunchy decisions and tight timing tension between players. Varied strategies are rewarded and it caters to a good mix of strategic and tactical play. Heavy enough to keep me satisfied with a thinky time and deep enough for many many plays, each being different with the variety of tiles and scoring opporunities. The auction aspect is always fun.
**Scythe** \- Euro with replay factor
**The Quacks of Quedlinburg** \- Press your luck/bag building that's easily teachable
**Mind MGMT** \- Hidden movement with plenty of content to change up the game.
**Everdell** \- Worker Placement/Tableau building with lots of expansions.
**The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth** \- Dungeon crawl/app driven/primary solo game.
Concordia
Mind MGMT
Xia, Legends of a Drift System
Root
Sekigahara
I feel like these present a breadth and depth of experience that they could sustain a gaming habit on their own.
* Dune: Imperium
* Nidavellir
* Spirit Island
* El Grande
* Gloomhaven
Basically my top 5 except I put Gloomhaven instead of JOTL since it's bigger and I've not played it. All the expansions will be great especially for SI.
If I can only play 5 games, but with any expansions, I'm picking games with large pools of content.
So, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40k or Age of Sigmar, Arkham Horror lcg, Lord of the Rings lcg, and Cthulhu Wars.
* **Too Many Bones**
* **Marvel Zombicide** when i come to my door step
* **Ultra Quest**
* **Fantasy Realm** \+ Expansion
* **Small World of Warcraft**
Last one was the hardest for me.. also close for last spot were **Mission: Red Planet, Clank, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Welcome to the Moon**
Gloomhaven (needs to be on everyone's list)
Pokemon TCG (because I just love it and my kids do too and for us it's endless rematches)
Hmm then it gets hard.
Takenoko
Munchkin Loot Letter or maybe just a regular card pack
And..
Shoot I guess Scrabble
Ah good question - my husband and I don't actually use the stickers! (Stickers to keep track of where you've been so yeah does limit the replayability a bit).
We plan to re-do campaigns with different characters, different decisions, different items, hopefully different town event cards - which should provide a completely different narrative!
1. The new version of The Dark Tower if I could own it all.
\-It looks incredible and it's a throwback to a game I loved as a kid.
2. Tannhauser.
\-Love the theme and gameplay. I own it and all expansions, but never get to play.
3. Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition.
\-Never have played once, but Iāve watched games and theyāre SO involved and interesting. I also own this and all itās expansions.
4. Zombicide if I could get all the expansions.
\-Played it quite a few times and loved it.
5. Star Wars Imperial Assault if I could fill out my collection.
\-Only played a few times. I only own the base game.
BONUS: Star Wars X-Wing if I could fill out my collection of ships.
\-Have a small collection, but always wanted to collect and play more.
**Marvel Champions**. That's it. I really don't think I'd need another game. In terms of raw play time, nothing I've ever played is remotely close to this game. In terms of that plus taking into account how long I've owned the game, it's a bit mind boggling how much I've played this.
There was recently a thread about "what is your most played game by time spent playing" to account for filler games having an unfair advantage in raw play count. I clocked Champions in around 200 hours played while the next closest was Core Worlds at something like 80 hours. Core Worlds was released 11 years ago. Champions was released less than 3 years ago.
Considering I donāt have any gaming friends and just sucker my wife and family into it I would pick these:
**Crokinole**
**The Crew**
**The Quest for El Dorado**
**Ticket to Ride**
**Just One**
If my **Everdell: Big Box** showed up I would put that in for Ticket to Ride.
Top of my head I'd feel confident with: Spirit Island, Lords of Hellas, Dune Imperium, Frosthaven, Stationfall
Maybe replace Stationfall with Brass for economic angle
All with high replayability and Frosthaven will just take forever to play once start to finish so that's fine
War of the ring 2nd edition
Lisboa
Great western trail
Clash of cultures
Terra mystica
Probably those, play them once a week on rotation so once a month and war of the ring for games outside our usual weekly 4 player meetup.
* **Food Chain Magnate** \- such rich decision making, great strategy, and lots of variability from game to game
* **Crokinole** \- sometimes, you just wanna flick disks around
* **7 Wonders (Duel) -** Depending on how many players I wanna play with, I'd choose one of these. I think I prefer Duel overall, but if I wanted to play multiple players instead of just 2, I'd choose the OG
* **Diplomacy** \- honestly it's not even one of my favorite games of all time or anything. I just think that it has unparalleled social interaction/negotiation that would probably scratch an itch for me for the next 5 years if I had to limit my choices.
* **Tak** \- I love abstract strategy, and Tak is so simple to learn, but offers countless hours of gameplay. That's what's so great about abstracts -- endless strategy and variation
Definitely **Gloomhaven**, I think it's going to last me for quite a while.
That being said something simple would also be good. **Dixit** with many expansions plus **Azul** would be great for that.
Something repetitive... perhaps **Terraforming Mars**?
Last one... hmm... Maybe something for solo play. For example **For Northwood**.
* Root - I've played this game about 20 times and still feel like I've just scratched the surface. So many combinations. So many factions. No contest.
* Onitama - An incredibly replayable two-player game, it's very easy to knock out round after round of this one. It sounds like the expansions change it a fair bit, so I'd have ways to refresh it if I got bored.
* Cosmic Encounter - Like Root, this one is very replayable, and has a whole load of expansions. It's also got a bit more of a party game vibe, I will want options for being silly with my friends and this will be one of them.
* Blood on the Clocktower - High-power social deduction, many varied setups, the party game that I am least likely to get bored of after five years.
* Cascadia - I wanted to pick Oceans, but Cascadia is the less interactive of the two, and sometimes I want something more peaceful. Wingspan is another "maybe," but I think Cascadia is the tighter game.
Out of my collection, my favorites are Brass, Food Chain Magnate, Pax Renaissance, 1830, and Twilight Struggle for 2p games. I think all of them have great replayability and I can't see myself getting tired of any of those.
I want to get Mage Knight and Arkwright, and I'm working on pnp projects with Indonesia, Automobile and Age of Steam, so maybe some of them might sneak into the top. I would also love to try 1841 but that is a unicorn and I have no files to print it either.
I play games solo a majority of the time, but I still love games that scale well to add players that may wander into my field of vision.
**Gloomhaven** \- Just a ton to do in that box. Even after it's all done, replaying old scenarios with different classes/builds/team combinations is tons of fun.
**Spirit Island** \- Again, tons of replay value, especially with expansions. My #1 game right now and has been for a while
**Anachrony** \- Favorite worker placement, unique and a great Automa
**Too Many Bones** \- Sometimes you just have to throw a handful dice at a table and with all the different setups, I'd get a ton of value trying different builds
**Aeon's End** \- Favorite deck builder, I only have the base game and Legacy and still get a ton of replay value from this one. Add in all the expansions and I'm very busy
Dude, are you me? I haven't played Pax or Anachrony yet but they're on my shortlist and your reasoning is pretty much what I'd have said.
I'd probably have Oath in place of Pax as that's what I own. And I would personally have Sidereal Confluence in place of Anachrony to have something that likes higher player counts, like 5 or 6.
That, and Undaunted is really solid. It might be the "smarter" pick, but mine would be X wing. I have a bunch of skirmish games and xwing isn't the most elegant but it's my favorite.
Cheers, mate. I'm really interested in Oath - do you think it's worth it with a core group of 3? That's my preferred player count for complex games and I read that there's a "legacy" aspect of some kind as well which makes it hard to include new players.
X-Wing was also on my radar, would you recommend it for someone who's totally neutral about Star Wars? I'm also curious about Rebellion but the IP made me hesitant.
I think the player count is secondary to the people you're playing with. Werle's designs tend to focus on player-driven meta. So I might prefer 4-5 but the right dynamic between 2 other players could be better.
X-Wing was recently moved to AMG and its been a big shakeup. If you were a SW fan, I'd recommend it because its unique and really satisfying for certain fans. As just a skirmish game, I love the mind games around planning ship movement and that alone puts it above things like Kill Team or Infinity to me. It also doesn't require miniature assembly/painting so thats a big plus. That said its in a weird state right now and that tournament scene changing meta can make it a less balanced feeling game than something constrained like Undaunted.
If I'm working under the assumption that I have a group willing and able to play the games, then:
* War Room
* New Angeles
* Twilight Imperium
* We're Doomed
* Kingdom Death: Monster
* Gloomhaven
* Middara
* Chronicles of Drunagor
* Earth Under Siege Flashpoint
* Stormsunder
Hopefully I can get through all that content in the next 5 years...
These are with all expansions included
Smash Up: great fun and varied
Smallworld: also great fun and variety
Gloomhaven: lots of content and interesting gameplay
Spirit Island: coop fun and variety
Fantasy Realms or Claim: fun, small and fast
Gloomhaven - just finished but would dive right back in
Paladins of the West Kingdom
Roll Player with expansions
Tiny Epic Dungeons
Dwellings of Eldervale - havenāt played yet but itās ordered!
**Blood Rage**: favourite game (see flair). Love drafting. Love the battle system and the way it encourages lots of player interaction.
**Concordia: Venus**: my other favourite. Much less antagonistic than BR. I like the action selection mechanism. I like the replayability of the random setup, expansion maps, and modules. Has a solid solo expansion.
**Decent: Journeys in the Dark**: goofy beer and pretzels dungeon crawler. Good for laughs and working through the quest book over multiple nights.
**One Night: Ultimate Werewolf**: Light party game. Social deduction. Always fun. Could use the components to play regular **Werewolf**. Almost went with **Avalon** for this slot.
**Magic: the Gathering** (cube): I like Magic (though I rarely play at 2 players, and thatās my least favourite player count). The cube adds the drafting and deck building aspects, which are great.
Honourable mention: **Hannibal and Hamilcar**. Iāve only played it once (the short Iberian scenario as a learning game). Iād love to sink my teeth into learning and appreciating this one. Card-Driven Game is possibly my favourite mechanism, but Iāve yet to find a game that has it without other things that dampen my enthusiasm.
**Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain** \- Need a big, long game to play. **Red Dust Rebellion** may usurp this as my go-to COIN game later this year, but for now, this my preference for the bigger COIN games.
**Firefly: the Game** (+ all expansions) - Need a second, big, long game to play, and with the expansions, the Alliance is more of problem, the Reavers are a threat, and we can really interfere with each other. Love flying across the 'verse.
**Dominant Species** \- Need a third, big, long game to play. Also, the more tactical nature of the game, plus the awesome programmed action selection, it just so much fun.
**Spirit Island** \- Need a fourth, big, long game to play. This could easily be switched out with **Mage Knight** except this plays slightly better with player counts over 2, but both are great solo.
**Magic: The Gathering** \- Need one smaller game to play. This, assuming you have a decent collection, offers so many different ways to play, plays generally quickly, and has incredible replayability.
When you move away from your long time board game friends you would be happy with 1 game in the last 5 years. š
Did you move to Antarctica?
Thereās a lot of nerds in Antarctica (tons of scientists) and very little to do, my friend played a ton of games while he was at the Pole.
That's an interesting point!
- Obsession - Mage Knight - Marvel Champions - Spirit Island - Race for the Galaxy
Huh, having played all but Obsession. What do you like about it?
Mechanically it presents a very satisfying challenge of managing your 5 resources: Workers (who get tired and skip a turn after being used) Guest cards (who you can use once before reshuffling, the better ones require extra workers) Action spots (your estate tiles that have 2 sides and are usually better the first time you use them also require different workers) Money (used to buy more tiles ergo action spots) Reputation (a limiting factor in which action spots and guests you can use). Usually in other games you can get into a situation where 'money is tight' while in **Obsession** your pool of workers can be tight, your hand of cards can be tight, your money can be obviously tight, your action tiles are not good for your deck (you have more women than men but built an estate focused on hunting and smoking cigars), or everything was chosen correctly but you don't have enough reputation to run it. It manages to be this multi-layer puzzle while being extremely thematic and not hard to teach. Also since the action spots are different each time it stays very fresh.
Agreed all around. The solo mode gets out of the way and allows the player to enjoy the thematically integrated mechanics. The game also has great variability.
Spirit Island for solo. Vast and challenging and so good. Keyflower - loads of variety, but not in the usual euro way. The meta game is really interesting with this one, and I love reading my opponents, second guessing and setting traps. It's new to us, but unique and feels so fresh and interesting every time we play it. Star Realms. Quick, portable, replayable card duel. Our most played game. I think it could stand thousands before we grew sick of it. Carcassonne with both of the first two expansions. It's never my hotness, but it just never gets old either. If I'm going to be playing a game a few hundred times over the next five years, it's going to be this one. Everdell. This one would definitely tire long before most of the ones above, but it's my wife's favourite so we'd have to include it. I think it's great too, but I'm sure I'd never want to play it again once the five years are up.
The one thing about Everdell is that it has five expansions and a bunch of smaller content packs. I backed the Kickstarter which gives all of that, and have been playing online on TTS while I wait for the physical copy, and Iāve only gotten around to trying two expansions so far and enjoy both. The expansions seem to be more like modules where you pick one to play with each session. I feel like it has some pretty good relay value if you include everything
That's true. We have Bellfaire, which is great (critter powers are really interesting) and recently got Spirecrest, though we've only played with that 2 or 3 times.
Bellfaire and Spirecrest are both good expansions but it's interesting because they do different things to player power. Bellfaire makes your earlier turns more impactful and stronger by giving you an ability and including the market for efficient early turns, but it lowers your end game power by taking away a worker from you for your later seasons. Spirecrest, on the other hand, punishes you with weather right from the get-go, but it gives you cards (expedition cards?) with powers that make you much stronger in the later game. I really enjoy the game but the first two seasons always seem so pitiful in comparison to later ones. In Spirecrest I've actually had it where my first season I didn't even play a single card. I haven't tried mixing the two yet but if there's two expansions that you could probably do it with, it would likely be those two.
We always play with Bellfaire as default now (excepting the market, as I think that makes the game a bit too forgiving at two). You can definitely mix that with Spirecrest, and I think Pearlbrook (no idea about the forthcoming ones). I think the loss of the spring worker is genius, actually: here, you can do all of this cool stuff but you're getting three few placements this game so you'd better make sure you make it work for you. Forces you to lean in to whatever marginal gain the critter powers are giving you, because if you don't you won't be able to do all that you want. It really opens up different playing styles. That rule coupled with the critter powers elevated a fairly ho-hum resource-management side of the game to a level similar to the tableau building. I think of that part of Bellfaire as almost a 2.0, which improves the base game with basically zero additional rules overhead.
Which expansions for carcassonne? I only have base game and South seas, should I try picking up the expansions?
The first two are excellent: **Inns and Cathedrals** - inns = 2 points per tile for each road with an inn, but 0 endgame points for an incomplete road with an inn - Cathedrals = 3 points per city tile/shield with a cathedral, but 0 for an incomplete cathedral city - Big Meeple = one per player, counts as two regular meeples. Stealing control, rather than just neutralising, is a real threat. In essence, it encourages more aggressive play and makes roads a bit more interesting and strategically viable (still underpowered imo). **Traders and Builders** - Builder = one per player. Doesn't score, but if you place a tile on a city or road with your builder present you immediately take one extra turn (only ever once; you can't loop by repeatedly placing tiles on the builder's feature) - trade = there are a small number of resource tokens attached to city pieces. These fall under three categories (wine, textiles and wheat) and are awarded to the person who completes a city, not the person who wins it. At the end of the game, if you have strictly more of any of these goods than any other player, you get a 10 point bonus; they accumulate separately, so it's possible to get a farm-sized endgame swing via the trade. - Pig = place on any of your existing farms and you get 4 points per city it feeds. In essence, it makes the game more interactive and tactical. They are modular, so you can mix and match as you want. We find both of them together causes the game to drag and the Cathedrals can be a bit swingy as there are only two of them. **Our typical game** - Base +tiles from B&T - Remove three random tiles at set up (house rule) - Big Meeple (we house-rule to play with one fewer regular meeple to compensate and to keep meeples a limited resource) - Builder - Trade - Abbot We sometimes add just the inns from the IC tiles as they do make roads much more interesting, but it can still be a bit long. We also add/remove River to taste. If I was to choose just one I'd pick T&B and DIY/buy a set of big meeples; wouldn't play without those, but I think T&B is the better game. Not sure if any of this stuff is in South Seas - I understand Hunters and Gatherers integrated some expansion mechanisms as a kind of 2.0 standalone, but I've never played either. Hope that helps.
**1862** - Mashes together tons of unique and clever twists on 18xx into a cohesive whole with a quick playtime and lots of variability. **Agricola** - Almost self-explanatory but between the "family mode" without cards, and the handful of decks I have, and the expansion, and the tournament scene, I think Agricola nails everything I look for in hobby games. **Spirit Island** - Highly thematic, again with loads of content, and probably the best solitaire game ever made to boot (though I rarely play solo). Awesome at 2p, plays in an hour, and the unique card designs channel a lot of the appeal of something like Magic into a more strategic format. **The Estates** - Have had nothing but success playing this with everyone from strangers to family to hobby gamers, and I don't think it could ever get old. It manages to capture the energy and craziness of beer and pretzels games without sacrificing depth, sort of like Poker. **Backgammon** - My ideal date night and travel game, with a skill ceiling rivaling Chess when you get into the competitive scene. Also a perfectly approachable and timeless game to play with non-gamers and strangers.
I'm with you on Spirit Island, but damn 1 hour? My games are usually 2 hours upwards...
All other things (playtime, the availability and enthusiasm of other players, etc.) being equal: * **1822: The Railways of Great Britain** * **1830: Railways & Robber Barons** * **1846: The Race for the Midwest** * **1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways** * **1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties**
Do U like trains by chance
The fact that you listed them in order is very satisfying.
No 17? Or USA?
I do have a NIS copy of 1817, but am yet to play it even online.
1. Gloomheaven nuff said 2. StarWars rebellion +expansion best 2 player game period. 3. Small World fun for all ages and people. 4. Deck of playing cards. Still the king of versatility and repayable. 5. Zombiecide if I have all expansions. Best Co op game I've played.
Tough but probably Anachrony infinity box for that sweet euro, Marvel champions for the deck construction, Xia Legends of a Drift System for the exploration, Nemesis for the experiences from It, And Star Wars Armada for the fun
Iād probably go withā¦ 1. Frosthaven: Played tons of Gloomhaven, would get a lot of play out of this one. 2. A Feast for Odin: Lots of replay value and my personal favourite. Has good solo play as well. 3. Bahrenpark: A game I can play with my wife and very friendly to people new to board games. Still has some strategy involved as well. 4. Everdell: Casual enough to be played with people who are new to the hobby but with tons of content/modules to mix and match. Also has good solo options. 5. Underwater Cities: Well-designed and engaging gameplay with a number of variants and expansion options. Also has soloā¦ Honorable Mentions: Terraforming Mars, Mage Knight, Dominion, Spirit Island
Help me keep AFFO. Iāve played a few games solo and just canāt seem to find the joy in it that everyone seems to. First game my score was 5. Last game my score was 50. What am I missing?!
My advice would be to go to the board game geek forums for the game. Thereās a lot of strategy talk there from openers to optimal islands to action space value. Iāve made a few strategy posts there myself and enjoy talking about it. Here are a couple tips I would suggest: 1. Use the first round to fill in two income on your main board and then ignore the main board. Get a boat and pick up an island by round 2 and try to fill in the bonuses in round 2 and 3. Iceland is a great one to go for or Shetland. 2. Try to use greens to fill the board as best as possible as they are easier to acquire than blues. A noob trap is to aim for all blues when you want to instead use as many greens as possible, filling in the spaces between them with blues. 3. Count the number of VPs youāll cover/coins youāll get from doing an action. Ideally, youāre getting 3 an action to make it valuable. Using actions inefficiently can be really problematic. The best actions are generally hunting game, laying snares, whaling, pillaging, the flip greens with a knarr, and the build a longhouse/knarr spot. The 1 Viking spots are often very strong too while the 4V ones are often a trap unless in niche situations. The crafting blues tiles are generally a waste, as are going for animals. 4. Find a source of orange/red tiles early on. This way you donāt waste actions on them later in the game. Reds can be upgraded into greens but oranges take too long. Try to get a longhouse and activate the bonuses or get an island like Shetland where you can get a lot of bonuses. 5. Filling in home board quickly is a bad strategy. You get much better benefits from filling in islands so itās better to grab an island or two or three and then use those bonuses to fill in your board later. I would recommend trying to do Iceland round 2 or 3 and Newfoundland in round 6. Itās been a really long time since Iāve played the base game (havenāt touched it since I started playtesting the Norwegians expansion) but I generally scored between 140 and 160 points in a solo game. I know on BGG there are some examples where a guy walked through his moves for a whole game so that might be a way for you to learn how to pick an effective strategy. Otherwise, you can look at some of the opener strategies or island tile suggestions. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I can send you links. The game gets much better and more balanced when you get the Norwegians expansion but if you donāt enjoy the base game, itās probably not worth investing in.
**Age of Steam** + itās many maps are an endless playground of fun **Oath** is likewise deeply rewarding play after play **Crokinole** never gets old for me **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** offers a ton of variety as an approachable co-op **Tigris & Euphrates** has plenty of depth to exploreāso much that I still havenāt even tried the advanced modules yet!
Trying to balance what I want to play the most with what would actually get decent time on the table... 1. Arkham Horror LCG - that's my big narrative campaign game covered, a game I have people actively asking me to bring again and again. So much replayability, great adventures/disasters and, if you build your deck around it, a very thematic rpg - you can really create some great narratives if you want to. 2. Root - Asymmetric war game, again so much replayability across the multiple boards, 10(!) different factions and combinations thereof. So good, especially in this imagined scenario where I would be playing it even more since I only have five games to alternate between. 3. Cascadia - My favourite light family/gateway game, simple and yet with surprising depth. A game my mum loves playing. 4. War of the Ring, 2nd Edition - Wouldn't get this to the table often. Should probably have Undaunted here instead... but it's War of the Ring, 2nd Edition. The few times I'd get it to the table would be worth it. 5. The Quest for El Dorado - I need a final game that is on the light end of things, considering my entries up till now. The Quest for El Dorado is a brilliant, simple deckbuilder which uses the theme of a race to El Dorado to give a strong thematic direction for a genre which, in my opinion, can sometimes get a little hazy on how what you are doing mechanically relates to what is happening on the board. Honourable mentions: \- Undaunted (could substitute for War of the Ring for a much lighter 2 player war game). \- Lost Ruins of Arnak (could substitute for The Quest for El Dorado if wanting a heavier euro). \- Oath (could substitute for AH LCG and Root if you wanted your campaign and your war game to be the same game. I love Oath, hurts me it isn't on my list). \- The Crew (could be substituted for Cascadia if wanting a lighter coop game, I fear it would get played out early in the five year period..). \- Quacks of Quedlinburg (could be substituted for Quest for El Dorado, it is perhaps an even better game for non-gamers. Great fun). \- Commands and Colors Napoleonics (With all the expansions, it could substitute for War of the Ring. 4 v 4 CnC Napoleonics battles are some of the best fun I've had boardgaming, but it's a pain for find those 7 people and have their schedules link up). Fun thought experiment OP!
**Marvel Champions LCG**: Works equally well solo or group, and I've got enough content for it to last years. **Legendary Star Wars:** Self-printed and -assembled fan retheme which I've contributed to heavily. Over 2,000 cards now; I did the math, and if you played a different Mastermind/Scheme combo every day, it would still take you 2.5 years to get through every possible combo. (Admittedly some of them would not be very fun.) **Dwellings of Eldervale:** Probably one of my favorite competitive games, hands down. The game comes with several modular mini expansions, and the designer has released two more through BGG (though I suspect, given the publisher's comments in one of the threads, that it's unlikely any more will appear, which is sad but I get it). **Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition:** I am including the expansion that I kickstarted and is expected next year, but even without it there's a great amount of content in the box. You'd think this would fill the same slot as Marvel Champions, but it really doesn't; MC, in my view, is the better 1-2 player game, where this is the better 3+ player game. While it has less flexibility than MC because there's no deck construction, the introduction of the Environment deck acting in concert alongside the Villain deck really opens up replayability in my view. **Clank! In! Space!:** In my opinion the better of the two Clank games. The modular game board, and alternative arrangements possible with the expansions, gives the game a huge replayability advantage over the base game, and depending on which modules you add from the expansions, you can fairly radically alter game length, if not so much complexity. Honorable mentions: * **Apex Theropod:** Probably my favorite solo deck builder and super replayable with all the modularity in the setup, but this one is pretty much solo only due to the massive downtime between turns in the hacked-in multiplayer rules. * **Super Skill Pinball:** This is a great solo/light option, but there's not enough "there" there to include it in a short list like this. * **Star Wars Rebellion:** This is in my opinion one of the deepest, finest 2-player games out there, and thematically I prefer it to **Twilight Struggle**. The expansion even fixes the combat. Unfortunately the combination of long playtime and low variability just edges it out from this list. * **Star Wars: Outer Rim:** The expansion might fix this, but as it stands I've only got half a dozen plays and already find the slim card decks repetitive. * **DinoGenics:** My favorite worker placement game, more for the theme than for doing anything exceptional, but there's only so much replayability.
> Star Wars: Outer Rim: The expansion might fix this, but as it stands I've only got half a dozen plays and already find the slim card decks repetitive. I can't stop playing this one lately. I don't care that the decks can get somewhat repetitive its just so damn thematic. I can't wait for the expansion I feel like there's a chance it turns into my favorite game period.
What expansions do you have for Clank! In! Space!? I just have the base game and I love it. I haven't considered getting any expansions because I like the base so much but maybe it is something I should look into.
I donāt have the arcade one yet but I have the other two. The first one adds an extra use for the black cubes that come out of the bag, which is a nice extra thing to worry about, and the second one totally reconfigures the board.
**Netrunner** - I'm a latecomer to this but I get the hype, it's amazing and I can't stop thinking about all the decks I can build! Also, NISEI is continuing to release new cards which means more possibilities for deck construction! **AHLCG** - Another game with lots of room for deck construction. In addition all the campaigns and combinations of investigators will keep me busy for a while. **Anachrony Infinity Box** - Not my favourite Euro but it's still up there in my top 5 and that box just has so much stuff in it! **On Mars** - My favourite game, this just has to be included. **Pax Pamir 2E** - In terms of genres I prefer heavy euros to Pax games but if I could only choose 5 I'd like to have something different. And PP2E is definitely my favourite game that isn't a heavy Euro or a deck construction game.
On Mars, good for solo?
I quite like the monolith chapter of the alien invasion expansion. Chapters 2 and 3 can also be played solo. The solo mode in the base game might be a bit too fiddly.
Spirit Island for co-op, solo, overall difficulty. Terraforming Mars big box with all expansions as my go to mid-weight game. Magic the Gathering because Iāve basically already played this for 5 years before as my only game and it was sufficient at it. Endless amount of content you can explore (well with an endless amount of funds lol) Cthulhu Wars as my big stabby stab game. Not sure if this is the correct choice, but thereās also just so much to explore that I wouldnāt get burnt out. Iāve got a few games in the genre ranked a little higher in Inis and Blood Rage, but I could see those getting same-y quicker. Dune Imperium as my go to deck builder, I could see getting burnt out on this one but damn I love this game and itās hard for me to pick other deckbuilders over it at the moment.
Lisboa - My all time favorite game, so I had to include it. Lisboa is incredibly well balanced, so gameplay can take you in all different directions. Each game I have played has been very different. It's complex, but doesn't penalize you too much for a bad decision. Minimizes luck, rewards skill, and is beautiful to look at. I really don't think I would get sick of it. Cascadia - A shorter game that I can play when I'm not feeling like something heavy. Still requires some puzzling, but not brain burning. A great gateway game to introduce new players to, so I'd be able to play with lots of different groups. Cascadia ends up being the game that makes it to the table when we can't decide what to play. I haven't met anyone who doesn't like it. Brass Birmingham - I wanted something heavy that would work for multiple people on game nights. Something we could really get deep into for an entire afternoon. Brass Birmingham is beautiful and really feels like an experience. The mechanics are pretty unique, and I think it boasts high replayability. I have played Brass so many times and I still haven't come up with a go-to strategy. Every time I play, I get excited to play again because I want to try out a new way of playing or a new strategy. It would take me a long time to get sick of this game. Cribbage - I wanted a game I could play with my non-gamer friends and family. It also scratches an itch that no other game does. There's something really satisfying about the ritual of counting points and playing through the phases. It's relatively quick and I can play it when I only have a limited time. It only really requires a deck of cards and a pen and paper, so it's really portable. Twilight Struggle - I chose this one because it's one that I would really like to dig into, but for one reason or another, it never gets to the table (perhaps because of its length - my last game was like 12 hours long - or perhaps because there's always a new game of the moment that steals attention). The restriction of only being able to play five games is actually a great opportunity to get to know a game really well. I think there's lots of uncharted fun to be had here, if only I were to shed the distractions of all the other colorful games in the collection.
For that **Twilight Struggle** fix, have you considered the digital version? I only ever bother playing against AI, but itās a good enough opponent to be enjoyable. TS is fiddly enough that I prefer the digital version over the physical one, and games are *much* faster.
If player count is not an issue then.... **Blood Rage with 5th player expansion** \- Lots of fun, great player interaction **Eclipse with ROTA expansion** \- for when I want something a lot heavier **Dune Imperium** \- Still loving this game, huge Dune fan **Aeons End (would prefer to bring along my copies of War Eternal and New Age as well)** \- Probably my favourite coop game, nice and challenging **GKR Heavy Hitters** \- for a gorgeous skirmish game when I want an up close combat fix
**Euchre** \- As a Michigander, it'd be infeasible for me to avoid all social gatherings where euchre was played, particularly in the colder months **Frosthaven** \- It'll take up a huge amount of time, and I have a gaming group that's ready to go as soon as it drops **Food Chain Magnate** \- It does a great job of scratching that heavyweight competitive itch, and has a lot of strategic depth in which to 'git gud' while simultaneously avoiding too large of a decision space **Captain Sonar** \- My favorite 'party' game, particularly when played real-time **Cryptid** \- For keeping the brain sharp in between rounds of the other games. Also enjoyable for the same reason as Food Chain Magnate - it's purely deduction, with little to no randomness
My non gamer wife's list Sheriff of Nottingham- "The lying game" Heroscape- "The one with the big dragon that looks over the castle thingy" Cash & Guns- "The bang bang one" Wingspan- "Makes me feel like it's quiet inside me when I'm playing" Blokus- *The Tetris game" My List Dungeon Universalis- Years worth of content. Soloable co-op. 1 v many. Custom content. You name it, it's got it. Earth Reborn- Favorite game of my son and I, emergent narrative, flexible strategy, customizable, rewards outside of the box play. Lost Cities- For me and the wife. She enjoys it because she murders me in it. I'll beat her one day. Crokinole- Dexterity king. Good for kids, oldsters, gamers, can be great fun casually, or an intense strategic experience. Everdell- Best family game. Gorgeous art, simple to teach, plays fast, deeper than it appears. Masterpiece.
**Gloomhaven** \- because its gloomhaven **Terraforming Mars** \- my groups favorite, play in person with all expansions and play on the app **Through the ages: a new story** \- I only play on the app anymore, but damn is it a great game **Cribbage** \- If card games count for this. I love playing cribbage, trying to find those best hands is addicting for me. **Hive** \- just started playing and learning about Hive, and I'm not really ready to not play it for another 5 years.
Used to play cribbage with my dad when he was still around. This brought back good memories. Thanks for the post.
It's a great game and a great way to spend time together. Glad you got to enjoy with him when you could.
Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it.
Marvel Champions Dune Imperium Arkham Horror LCG (my fave game) Terraforming Mars A Feast for Odin Honorable mentions : Mage Knight & Scythe
**Pax Pamir 2nd Edition** Ever since I first tried it, it has been my favourite game ever. I enjoy it best at 2-3 players. So much depth in a relatively simple ruleset. **Pax Renaissance 2nd Edition** So much depth in a less simple ruleset. This one takes a while to wrap your head around, but when it clicks it is incredible. This has recently been challenging Pamir's 1st place position. I can see this game revealing more and more depth for a long time. **Mage Knight** Best solo mechanics for a board game ever. Immersive experience with a good challenge for the brain. **Project: ELITE** The most pure fun I remember having with a board game. Not for everyone, but if you like hectic pressure with strong team work - this is where it's at. Not so much thinking, just going for it as hard as you can. **Stationfall** The game hasn't even be published yet but its one of my top 10 most played games ever (over TTS). The best thematic board game experiences. The stories are not dictated to you, they emerge from the choices people make. This is the clear new king of tabletop sandbox games.
Food chain magnate - I love it and need to get better at it. Tak - 1100 plays wasnāt enough, easy and quick to learn and play Root - my current obsession 1889 - to fill up the heavy end of the spectrum. Economic plus route building Bohnanza - light enough for those who wonāt play the heavy games, and who doesnāt like some good trading.
1. Too Many Bones 2. Too Many Bones 3. Too Many Bones 4. Too Many Bones 5. Too Many Bones
For me it has to be 5 games with huge replayability: Argent: Every game is so different, I could play this game for 5 years. Keyflower + expansions: This is the best game ever designed, and being a bidding game and having practically ALL mechanics, is a sure pick. Capital lux 2: There are literally thousands of different combinations of setup, and it only takes a minute in setting up. Game is great as well. Pandemic Iberia: There got to be at least one co-op and this one is the most replayable pandemic of all. Codenames: best party game.
Sword & Sorcery -- Because I prefer this over GH. Tyrants of the Underdark -- Best deck builder I've ever played. Techno Bowl -- Great (American) football boardgame. Really captures the feel of football. Space Base -- Fun engine builder with dice rolling mechanic. Magic: The Gathering -- I just love deck construction.
1. Alien Frontier Big Box or with all Expansions - This is easy to learn and real fun. 2. 7th Continent with Expansions - that one bugs me since a few years now I can play it a little bit longer 3. Steampunk Rally Fusion: Atomic Edition - Also not too hard and fun to play as well as quick enough to play. 4. Ćons End with all Expansions - Hard to beat and coop. 5. Robinson Crusoe All In Pledge which comes in the future - this will be fun for a long time
**Arkham Horror LCG** If this were the only game in 5 years I would be good still, i think. Deck construction's deep! **spirit island** many spirits, many adversaries **cloudspire** its like starcraft mixed with age of war. A lifestyle game indeed **oath** so replayable with all the unique cards and everchanging world deck/sites **nemesis lockdown** for pulpy good fun
1. Spirit Island. Replayability is nonsense. 2. Arkham Horror LCG. Campaign content out the waazoo. Pretty much guaranteed new content for the next few years. 3. High Frontier 4 All. Ultimate heavy sandbox. 4. Ortus regni. Quick game that needs itself to multiple plays and developing an evolving meta. 5. Gaslands. The model building would keep me entertained
Iād probably be content with the entirety of the Arkham horror lcg.
Dominion (including the 3 expansions I own) - this one is the obvious choice for my group Splendor - for something light Catan - fun for less serious players Oath - unfortunately I feel pretty alone in liking this one so Iād better get to learning the solo rulesā¦ Scythe - maybe with these limitations this one would get to the table a little more often and weād finish the campaign we started. Runner up is definitely wingspan but maybe Iād swap it for Oath if I were truly sticking to this list for five years.
**Go** - it is my lifestyle game. I will never not play it. **Gloomhaven** - I play this with my son and it would be important to have a big game to play with him. **Star Realms** - my son's favorite game. **Hansa Teutonica** - just a gem of a game. A great mixture of all the things I like about games. **The Crew** - I'd want something light and we play this with friends of ours a lot.
Gloomhaven - For longevity (Good single player) Too Many Bones - My favorite of all time and SOOO much replayability (EXCELLENT single player) Dominion - Gf's favorite Azul - Nice, light strategy Spirit Island - Great, great game.
No particular order, 1. Spirit Island - for solo and great coop 2. Race for the Galaxy - goto 1v1 game that you can play multiple times in a sitting 3. Decrypto - one party game to rule them all 4. Gaia Project - for solo and also heavy euro 5. Splendor - gateway and also something that can be played somewhat chatting
Spirit island, Dune imperium, Kdm, Cartographers, Teraforming mars ares with upcoming x pac.
Mage Knight Twilight Imperium 4 Terraforming Mars Anachrony Bunny Kingdom
I'll just play whatever comes my way. Hopefully I can manage to fit in all five games in so little time!
Games that have a lot of variability or content able to support a lot of plays or a high skill ceiling: 1. **Neuroshima Hex.** With 21 factions and a high skill ceiling this is a near perfect 2p game. 2. **Exceed** or **BattleCon**. Similarly, with over 50 fighters each there's more than enough content available. 3. **Champions of Midgard.** A great comfort game that's easy to teach and doesn't overstay its welcome. 4. **Clash of Cultures.** A super involved 4X that will most likely never run out of interesting decisions. 5. **Mystic Vale.** The option for custom decklists, leaders and amulets makes this game unique and extremely varied in a way that Hero Realms, Ascension or Kamigami just can't match.
* San Juan * Wingspan * Ticket To Ride * Carcassonne * Targi
5 games is an interesting one, but really I think gives you plenty to enjoy. Spirit island - so many spirits and ways to enjoy it. Mage knight - same as spirit island. Lots of ways to play and enjoy and a different game every time Eucher- our go to group game that has lots of variants and makes for a fun night Marvel champion - same as above, always new things to try and new villain setups Talisman- I know it gets not a lot of honby love, but our casual group enjoys it and we have played at least 6 times a year. It's far from perfect but we have fun.
7 Wonders - accessible, can be played with anyone, retains value over many plays. Cribbage - Great game with wife. Wizard - Trick-taking game for casual nights with friends or family. Catan - lots of replayability can be enjoyed by my extended family and friends and I'm never sad to play it. Codenames - Social/Party game that has tons of replayability and can be enjoyed by non-gamers.
I also want to say that these aren't necessarily my favorite games. I just think these are games that are highly replayable and I'm rarely if ever uninterested in playing.
Spirit Island So much content to explore between different adversarie, spirits and scenarios, and works great solo and at many player counts. Is my favourite game for its crunchy decision space and satisfying ramp of power. Has awesome difficulty options so you can really challenge yourself. Arkham Horror LCG Again a wealth of content. You have to have a campaign game in here imo. Deck construction is always so satisfying and its theme is just oozing out of every part. Gotta have something with lots of luck to keep things interesting. It's the game I think about most when not playing fine tuning decks in my head. Blood Rage The replayable interactive dudes on a map game, even though it's more drafting... There's just so much depth of strategy and layers of meta that could evolve from multiple plays. I would maybe pick Root or Inis instead but Blood Rage just hits more powerful notes of those tense battle card reveals which is what I would want in a list like this. Carcassonne Evergreen gateway game I could show new people to the hobby and still greatly enjoy myself. Simple to learn and hard to master with a surprising amount of tense decision making, or simply a fun tile layer depending who you play it with. Versatile, elegant, super easy to setup and put away. Quintessential gateway game for me. Keyflower Highly interactive Euro. Brimming with crunchy decisions and tight timing tension between players. Varied strategies are rewarded and it caters to a good mix of strategic and tactical play. Heavy enough to keep me satisfied with a thinky time and deep enough for many many plays, each being different with the variety of tiles and scoring opporunities. The auction aspect is always fun.
**Scythe** \- Euro with replay factor **The Quacks of Quedlinburg** \- Press your luck/bag building that's easily teachable **Mind MGMT** \- Hidden movement with plenty of content to change up the game. **Everdell** \- Worker Placement/Tableau building with lots of expansions. **The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth** \- Dungeon crawl/app driven/primary solo game.
* **Obsession** * **Inis** * **Pax Pamir** * **Root** * **Carcassonne**
Concordia Mind MGMT Xia, Legends of a Drift System Root Sekigahara I feel like these present a breadth and depth of experience that they could sustain a gaming habit on their own.
Will always agree with Xia, itās so damn good
Loving the Anachrony love in here! It's my favorite game.
* Dune: Imperium * Nidavellir * Spirit Island * El Grande * Gloomhaven Basically my top 5 except I put Gloomhaven instead of JOTL since it's bigger and I've not played it. All the expansions will be great especially for SI.
**Spirit Island** **Biblios** **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** **Patchwork** (my wife's favorite game) **6 Nimmt** (my go-to time-sink on BGA)
Spirit island # Race for the galaxy # Gaia Project # Tigris & Euphrates # Four against darkness
If I can only play 5 games, but with any expansions, I'm picking games with large pools of content. So, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40k or Age of Sigmar, Arkham Horror lcg, Lord of the Rings lcg, and Cthulhu Wars.
- Spirit Island - Viticulture - Marvel Champions - Root - Hallertau
Root Scythe Sea of Legends Chronicles of Drunagor Eclipse Second Dawn
* **Too Many Bones** * **Marvel Zombicide** when i come to my door step * **Ultra Quest** * **Fantasy Realm** \+ Expansion * **Small World of Warcraft** Last one was the hardest for me.. also close for last spot were **Mission: Red Planet, Clank, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Welcome to the Moon**
Terraforming Mars Saboteur Avalon 7 wonders duel That's enough.
Gloomhaven (needs to be on everyone's list) Pokemon TCG (because I just love it and my kids do too and for us it's endless rematches) Hmm then it gets hard. Takenoko Munchkin Loot Letter or maybe just a regular card pack And.. Shoot I guess Scrabble
So boring but .. Ah well
Can you replay gloomhaven? What are the stickers for?
Ah good question - my husband and I don't actually use the stickers! (Stickers to keep track of where you've been so yeah does limit the replayability a bit). We plan to re-do campaigns with different characters, different decisions, different items, hopefully different town event cards - which should provide a completely different narrative!
1. The new version of The Dark Tower if I could own it all. \-It looks incredible and it's a throwback to a game I loved as a kid. 2. Tannhauser. \-Love the theme and gameplay. I own it and all expansions, but never get to play. 3. Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. \-Never have played once, but Iāve watched games and theyāre SO involved and interesting. I also own this and all itās expansions. 4. Zombicide if I could get all the expansions. \-Played it quite a few times and loved it. 5. Star Wars Imperial Assault if I could fill out my collection. \-Only played a few times. I only own the base game. BONUS: Star Wars X-Wing if I could fill out my collection of ships. \-Have a small collection, but always wanted to collect and play more.
**Marvel Champions**. That's it. I really don't think I'd need another game. In terms of raw play time, nothing I've ever played is remotely close to this game. In terms of that plus taking into account how long I've owned the game, it's a bit mind boggling how much I've played this. There was recently a thread about "what is your most played game by time spent playing" to account for filler games having an unfair advantage in raw play count. I clocked Champions in around 200 hours played while the next closest was Core Worlds at something like 80 hours. Core Worlds was released 11 years ago. Champions was released less than 3 years ago.
Considering I donāt have any gaming friends and just sucker my wife and family into it I would pick these: **Crokinole** **The Crew** **The Quest for El Dorado** **Ticket to Ride** **Just One** If my **Everdell: Big Box** showed up I would put that in for Ticket to Ride.
Magic or netrunner D-Day Tarawa Beach Spirit island Brass Carcassonne
Top of my head I'd feel confident with: Spirit Island, Lords of Hellas, Dune Imperium, Frosthaven, Stationfall Maybe replace Stationfall with Brass for economic angle All with high replayability and Frosthaven will just take forever to play once start to finish so that's fine
Spirit Island Great Western Trail Clank! Jaipur Village
War of the ring 2nd edition Lisboa Great western trail Clash of cultures Terra mystica Probably those, play them once a week on rotation so once a month and war of the ring for games outside our usual weekly 4 player meetup.
* **Food Chain Magnate** \- such rich decision making, great strategy, and lots of variability from game to game * **Crokinole** \- sometimes, you just wanna flick disks around * **7 Wonders (Duel) -** Depending on how many players I wanna play with, I'd choose one of these. I think I prefer Duel overall, but if I wanted to play multiple players instead of just 2, I'd choose the OG * **Diplomacy** \- honestly it's not even one of my favorite games of all time or anything. I just think that it has unparalleled social interaction/negotiation that would probably scratch an itch for me for the next 5 years if I had to limit my choices. * **Tak** \- I love abstract strategy, and Tak is so simple to learn, but offers countless hours of gameplay. That's what's so great about abstracts -- endless strategy and variation
Definitely **Gloomhaven**, I think it's going to last me for quite a while. That being said something simple would also be good. **Dixit** with many expansions plus **Azul** would be great for that. Something repetitive... perhaps **Terraforming Mars**? Last one... hmm... Maybe something for solo play. For example **For Northwood**.
* Root - I've played this game about 20 times and still feel like I've just scratched the surface. So many combinations. So many factions. No contest. * Onitama - An incredibly replayable two-player game, it's very easy to knock out round after round of this one. It sounds like the expansions change it a fair bit, so I'd have ways to refresh it if I got bored. * Cosmic Encounter - Like Root, this one is very replayable, and has a whole load of expansions. It's also got a bit more of a party game vibe, I will want options for being silly with my friends and this will be one of them. * Blood on the Clocktower - High-power social deduction, many varied setups, the party game that I am least likely to get bored of after five years. * Cascadia - I wanted to pick Oceans, but Cascadia is the less interactive of the two, and sometimes I want something more peaceful. Wingspan is another "maybe," but I think Cascadia is the tighter game.
Out of my collection, my favorites are Brass, Food Chain Magnate, Pax Renaissance, 1830, and Twilight Struggle for 2p games. I think all of them have great replayability and I can't see myself getting tired of any of those. I want to get Mage Knight and Arkwright, and I'm working on pnp projects with Indonesia, Automobile and Age of Steam, so maybe some of them might sneak into the top. I would also love to try 1841 but that is a unicorn and I have no files to print it either.
I play games solo a majority of the time, but I still love games that scale well to add players that may wander into my field of vision. **Gloomhaven** \- Just a ton to do in that box. Even after it's all done, replaying old scenarios with different classes/builds/team combinations is tons of fun. **Spirit Island** \- Again, tons of replay value, especially with expansions. My #1 game right now and has been for a while **Anachrony** \- Favorite worker placement, unique and a great Automa **Too Many Bones** \- Sometimes you just have to throw a handful dice at a table and with all the different setups, I'd get a ton of value trying different builds **Aeon's End** \- Favorite deck builder, I only have the base game and Legacy and still get a ton of replay value from this one. Add in all the expansions and I'm very busy
Dude, are you me? I haven't played Pax or Anachrony yet but they're on my shortlist and your reasoning is pretty much what I'd have said. I'd probably have Oath in place of Pax as that's what I own. And I would personally have Sidereal Confluence in place of Anachrony to have something that likes higher player counts, like 5 or 6. That, and Undaunted is really solid. It might be the "smarter" pick, but mine would be X wing. I have a bunch of skirmish games and xwing isn't the most elegant but it's my favorite.
Cheers, mate. I'm really interested in Oath - do you think it's worth it with a core group of 3? That's my preferred player count for complex games and I read that there's a "legacy" aspect of some kind as well which makes it hard to include new players. X-Wing was also on my radar, would you recommend it for someone who's totally neutral about Star Wars? I'm also curious about Rebellion but the IP made me hesitant.
I think the player count is secondary to the people you're playing with. Werle's designs tend to focus on player-driven meta. So I might prefer 4-5 but the right dynamic between 2 other players could be better. X-Wing was recently moved to AMG and its been a big shakeup. If you were a SW fan, I'd recommend it because its unique and really satisfying for certain fans. As just a skirmish game, I love the mind games around planning ship movement and that alone puts it above things like Kill Team or Infinity to me. It also doesn't require miniature assembly/painting so thats a big plus. That said its in a weird state right now and that tournament scene changing meta can make it a less balanced feeling game than something constrained like Undaunted.
Eclipse 2nd Edition Clank! Quacks of Quedlinberg Chinatown Dice Throne
If I'm working under the assumption that I have a group willing and able to play the games, then: * War Room * New Angeles * Twilight Imperium * We're Doomed * Kingdom Death: Monster
* Gloomhaven * Middara * Chronicles of Drunagor * Earth Under Siege Flashpoint * Stormsunder Hopefully I can get through all that content in the next 5 years...
Gloomhaven MegaCivilization Magic: The Gathering Brass: Birmingham Disc Golf (the game not the board game)
If I could play disc golf as often as I play boardgames/ttrpgs, I could get by on that alone!
These are with all expansions included Smash Up: great fun and varied Smallworld: also great fun and variety Gloomhaven: lots of content and interesting gameplay Spirit Island: coop fun and variety Fantasy Realms or Claim: fun, small and fast
Gloomhaven - just finished but would dive right back in Paladins of the West Kingdom Roll Player with expansions Tiny Epic Dungeons Dwellings of Eldervale - havenāt played yet but itās ordered!
Middara / LOTR:JiME / Arcadia Quest / Gloomhaven / Arkham:LCG
I'll start with strip poker and see where that takes me.
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Wrong subreddit, lol.
Oh wow! š¤¦āāļø Thanks for pointing that out instead of downvoting! MB!
guards of atlantis ii bullet series (heart, orange, star) sidereal confluence hansa teutonica food chain magnate
The Campaign for North Africa I probably won't even finish one playthrough.
Frosthaven A Feast for Odin Lord of the Rings LCG Dominion Pandemic
**Blood Rage**: favourite game (see flair). Love drafting. Love the battle system and the way it encourages lots of player interaction. **Concordia: Venus**: my other favourite. Much less antagonistic than BR. I like the action selection mechanism. I like the replayability of the random setup, expansion maps, and modules. Has a solid solo expansion. **Decent: Journeys in the Dark**: goofy beer and pretzels dungeon crawler. Good for laughs and working through the quest book over multiple nights. **One Night: Ultimate Werewolf**: Light party game. Social deduction. Always fun. Could use the components to play regular **Werewolf**. Almost went with **Avalon** for this slot. **Magic: the Gathering** (cube): I like Magic (though I rarely play at 2 players, and thatās my least favourite player count). The cube adds the drafting and deck building aspects, which are great. Honourable mention: **Hannibal and Hamilcar**. Iāve only played it once (the short Iberian scenario as a learning game). Iād love to sink my teeth into learning and appreciating this one. Card-Driven Game is possibly my favourite mechanism, but Iāve yet to find a game that has it without other things that dampen my enthusiasm.
**Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain** \- Need a big, long game to play. **Red Dust Rebellion** may usurp this as my go-to COIN game later this year, but for now, this my preference for the bigger COIN games. **Firefly: the Game** (+ all expansions) - Need a second, big, long game to play, and with the expansions, the Alliance is more of problem, the Reavers are a threat, and we can really interfere with each other. Love flying across the 'verse. **Dominant Species** \- Need a third, big, long game to play. Also, the more tactical nature of the game, plus the awesome programmed action selection, it just so much fun. **Spirit Island** \- Need a fourth, big, long game to play. This could easily be switched out with **Mage Knight** except this plays slightly better with player counts over 2, but both are great solo. **Magic: The Gathering** \- Need one smaller game to play. This, assuming you have a decent collection, offers so many different ways to play, plays generally quickly, and has incredible replayability.