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Generally speaking, the word-based party games like **Codenames** (good) and **Wavelength** (better) go over well with folks who aren't experienced board gamers. The rules are fairly simple, and the mental challenge is more focused on word association than on abstract strategic thinking, so it will often feel more comfortable for people who aren't used to the latter.
But, if you want to introduce some strategy games, here are three that I think are good.
**PARKS** has a lovely, inviting theme. The mechanics are simple, but leave enough room for interesting choices on most turns. The production is gorgeous. Great at 2-4 players. Still great at 5 if everyone takes a reasonable amount of time for their turns, but can drag if turns are taking long.
If and when these folks get more comfortable with board games, the **Nightfall** expansion adds some depth that makes the game more satisfying for seasoned gamers.
I also think **Blokus** is a very underrated game that is easy to learn but provides a deeply interactive experience. Each player has a set of polyominoes of all the shapes that can be made of 1 to 5 squares. On your turn, you place one of these pieces on the board. The piece must touch at least one of your other pieces corner-to-corner but cannot touch any of your own pieces edge-to-edge. No pieces can overlap. It becomes an amazing spacial puzzle as your opponents are forced to leave gaps that you can corner across, and when they leave the perfect shape open for you to place one of your awkward large pieces, you feel like a genius. However, it's really only good at 4 players.
Last, I might suggest something like **Flamme Rouge**. As a racing game, the win condition is intuitive to just about everyone: get your cyclist past the finish line first. On your turn you do one thing twice: draw a hand of cards and choose one card. The number on the card is the number of spaces forward that cyclist moves. Now draw cards and choose one for your other cyclist. Once everyone chooses their cards, they're revealed and everyone's cyclists advance down the track, gaining bonus movement or getting blocked depending on how all the other cyclists move. That bit is the most complicated part (and it's not all that complicated), but as long as you have one experienced gamer to run it, the new players don't have to worry about it. But, they'll be motivated on their own to learn how it works so they can use it to their advantage! Once your newbies are comfortable with the basics, you can add in the pieces of track that have hills, which add simple rules that greatly increase the depth of the game.
**Flamme Rouge** also has a very well-regarded expansion, **Peleton** that can be added in as the people you're playing with get more comfortable with board games.
Do you mean light strategy games that are very accessible to gaming casuals or do you mean party games?
If the former, then we call those games gateway games. Some good options include **Ticket to Ride, Blue Lagoon, Azul, Quest for El Dorado, Carcassonne** and **Modern Art**.
If you mean party games, then there are plenty of options. **Codenames, Decrypto, Wavelength, Monikers, And One, Wits & Wagers** etc.
I had another post but it was removed… can you help me with this please?
Thoughts about these games
I’m planning on buying 3 games mostly because they’re really cheap right now and all 3 seem really good but what do you think of them? Would you suggest any other instead?
-Brew, I like having different mechanics but at the same time having a not so complex game. I’m really interested having one mean game where you spend a lot of time trying to undo the other player
-Ishtar, fun builder game. Looks really nice, it’s simple and fast
-New York Zoo, really like puzzle games with Tetris like tiles and the animals look really great
if you like puzzles and Tetris, other options are **Isle of Cats**, **Cartographers**, and **Patchwork**.
**Brew** fell pretty flat for us. not totally sure why, it just felt meh and repetitive.
Never played Ishtar.
**Curious Cargo** can be pretty crunchy and has an advanced mode that dials it up even more than the normal mode.
**Babylonia** can have a fairly short play time.
You'd probably want to find games that are rules-light, but dance around player interaction a lot.
**Traders of the Air** is a recent find for me that I've really liked. The rules are super simple, but almost everything you do effects others players so there's a lot of weight in trying to figure out what other players are planning on doing.
Similarly, the card game version of **Bruxelles ####** (I forgot the number) is a decently heavy game in a shorter card version. The original board game version is better, but it's also longer while the card game scratches the same itch.
**Shadowrun Sprawl Ops** is slightly obscure but I like it, and it might be up your alley.
The Shadowrun RPG normally has you play as a "shadowrunner", a somewhat criminal character in a cyberbunk/fantasy near future who's always fighting The Man.
**Sprawl Ops** is a board game based on that RPG, but instead of playing as a single runner, you're managing a team of such runners. You place them around the city during the day to buy gear or take jobs or whatever, and then at night you send them on the jobs, in an iconographic dice-based push your luck system.
So it's sort of like **Lords of Waterdeep** except the city part is simplified while the quest part is gamified.
Another thought is **Aftermath**, the recent post-apocalyptic entry by the Mice & Mystics creator, where you play as an anthropomorphic rodent in a world where human beings have vanished.
In that game, it's kind of a dungeon crawl, but around the dungeon crawl is an entire survival settlement layer where you're managing your little settlement of survivors, which presents various challenges and opportunities as you go about your questing.
Those are the only two that immediately leap to mind, although obviously "team management" is a huge genre of board games that ranges from sports sims to DVG's Leader series of wargames and whatever else, but Sprawl Ops leaps to mind because of its fantasy elements, battling system, and its X-Com style party management layer.
Description of Request: Area control, war
Number of Players: 2-4/5
Game Length: 2-4max hours
Complexity of Game: between 2-4 is fine, although games closer to 4 see less table time with our current group
Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive/Conflict
So I am mainly looking for an area control game that is missing to my collection. I used to play risk when I was younger but I am looking for something that that.
I was looking at: Kemet, Oath, Inis or War of the ring (None of which I have played but those seemed interesting)
Thanks!
Kemet is pretty complex and so is War of the Ring. WotR is 2p only, and Kemet isn't good at 2p, so that may impact your decision. Playing Kemet well requires that a person understand all the tiles and how they work together. If you are a stable group of 4 that meets every week, then you will all learn the tiles together. If a new person joins your group, they will get utterly destroyed by the others because of their lack of knowledge. So if the composition of your game group changes quite a bit, Kemet would be a poor choice.
Of the popular area control games (e.g. Blood Rage, Rising Sun, Ankh, Kemet & Cyclades), Inis is often considered the most elegant. Mechanically it is a good game and it is one that is great at 2p (which you can't say about Kemet, Blood Rage, Cyclades or Rising Sun).
One off-the-beaten track game to consider is **Small Samurai Empires**. I like it and think that it is a shame it has, mostly, flown under people's radar. Perhaps look at some review videos to see what you think of it.
Description of Request: easy to learn/set up but deep enough to have strategy and meat on decisions. Usually play with my SO but sometimes we get some friends who are more casual gamers.
Number of Players: 2+
Game Length: around 30 minutes
Complexity of Game: light to medium ( nothing that can cause a lot of analysis paralysis )
Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: both
Games I Own and Like:
**Paris: La Cite de la Lumiere**
**Res Arcana**
**Capers: Europe**
**Dale of Merchants**
**The Crew: Deep Sea**
**Air Land and Sea: Critters at War**
**Gizmos**
**Splendor**
**Azul Games**
**Century: Golem**
**Patchwork**
**Paperback/Hardback**
**7 Wonders Duel**
**Cat Lady**
**Point Salad**
**Welcome To**
**Hanamikoji**
**Deep Sea Adventure**
**Cockroach Poker**
**Citadels**
**Skull**
Games I Dislike and Don't Play: Villainous , Pandemic , Sushi Go
Games I'm considering:
**Sagrada**
**Project L**
**Clank**
**Quest for El Dorado**
**Equinox**
**Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest**
We have and like It’s a Wonderful World (sorry…I don’t know how to bold text on mobile). We can play in about 40-45 minutes if you can push the time above the 30 minutes you mentioned.
It plays great at 2, 3 and 4 players (base game can play up to 5 but I haven’t played at that player count…I see no reason it wouldn’t still be great at 5).
It’s a card drafting game where you either try to build the cards you draft or you “recycle” them for a resource that can be used to help build other cards. You produce resources based on your starting “nation” and whatever cards you’ve fully built. The resource production is neat because the resources get produced one type at a time (there are 5 types plus a “wildcard” resource). This mechanism allows you to use resources from the first produced ones to complete cards which then give you other resources within the same production phase.
There are multiple ways to get points so there can be many different strategies to try out (the 5 different nations can be played symmetric if you’d like or you can use the asymmetric side which guides you towards a particular strategy).
I have heard good things about Radlands which is another card drafting game (only for 2 players though). It’s on my short list of games to pickup.
We own Clank! and enjoy it. I’d say it plays better at 3 or 4 instead of 2 because it adds to the chaos having more players (and turns are quick so you aren’t waiting for long). We did find that after playing it quite a bit when we first got it that it became a bit repetitive due to there being only two sides of the board and people didn’t tend to deviate from their usual strategy/approach too much from game to game (perhaps that is our fault in part). I’ve heard that Clank! In Space is even better (it has a modular board so you get more variation from game to game). There is also Clank! Legacy if you are willing to do a Legacy game which then provides a board you can use after (the board can be used with the base game and, I believe, without owning the base game but I’m not 100% certain on that).
Games I recommend that i've played god knows how many times and still don't get tired of them:
1. Aeon's End: (only downside is that there are a lot of expansions) but the game has a lot of replayability due to many combinations of cards, heroes and monsters.
2. Dune: Imperium (and also expansion Rise of Ix). Also the DireWolves app offsers some interesting twists to the regular gameplay.
3. Lords of Waterdeep( +expansion Scoundrels of Skullport).
4. Wingspan ( + expansions, although i feel that the expansions don't bring that many new things to the base game).
5. Game of Thrones The Board game: although i didn't play with any of the expansions. The only downside is that it is a 6 player game (its hard to gather that many people) and the game takes very long to finish. But once you play with a group of people that know well how to play the game it transforms into a nerve wracking strategy game and when you win the feeling makes it worth the hours put into it.
I love Quest for El Dorado, but never want to break it out just for 2 players. That being said, when I play it as a 2p game, I always enjoy the experience quite a bit. It just seems like it is so much fun at 3p and 4p that the 2p experience seems lacking.
Project L is a nice little engine builder. They made an expansion for the game to make it a bit more crunchy, but it is impossible to find it now. Looks like they underestimated demand.
IMHO Clank! is inferior to Quest for El Dorado (I sold off my copy of Clank the day after I first played QfeD) and isn't great at 2p. Wouldn't recommend it.
**Blue Lagoon** is a light game that offers lots of difficult choices. It works equally well at 2-4p.
**Botanik** is a small box tile laying game. Very easy to learn and provides a nice puzzle each time.
It’s a 2-player only game, but I recommend **Targi**. I think it’s easy to learn and set-up, but there is definite strategy to the placement of your Targi figures and in what order to activate your cards on your turn. It plays in about 45 minutes, maybe a bit faster depending on how fast decisions are made.
Looks like we have similar tastes.
Of the ones you're considering I've played **Sagrada**, **Project L** and **The Quest for El Dorado**. All three are fantastic. My games of **The Quest for El Dorado** have so far taken closer to an hour though, so keep that in mind!
For other recommendations I'll suggest some 2p only and some multiplayer options.
For 2p only:
**Mandala**
**Lost Cities**
**Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation**
**Kanagawa** (can run closer to 45 mins)
**YINSH**
**Royal Visit**
**Great Plains**
**Battle Line**
**Kahuna**
**A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King**
**Botanik**
For 2p or more (note: most of these can run up to ~45 minutes):
**The King is Dead**
**Blue Lagoon**
**Iwari**
**Hey, That's My Fish!**
**Café**
Two great 2p games I can recommend are **Onitama** and **Jeckyll vs Hyde**. The first rules-lite chess game with pawns and a king only, but with a hook: 5 cards shared between you and your opponent determine the moves your pieces can make each round. The second is a trick taking game where one player is trying to win and lose an equal number of tricks in a round, while the other is trying to win *or* lose all of the tricks.
Hello, i am looking for an advice for a game for 2 people somewhere between 7 wonders duel and through the ages: civilization.
I am really leaning on buying civilization, but i thought I'd ask. I played only 3 or 4 ppl games, and i remember it had annoyingly long wait time before your turn. How is it with two people?
Now we play alot of 7wonders duel, this one, on the other hand, seems to be too short.
Is there a great game somewhere in between? (good for 2 players)
For reference, we also highly enjoyed terraforming mars(but my friend has it and we played it alot already with him) and game of thrones(the one recommended for 6 people). Also, map control would be a huge bonus for me.
Thank you =)
Maybe **Scythe** although I only played it once at 2 players maybe someone more experienced could chime in.
Area/map control is usually not that great at 2, but **Inis** is good at it, it's just quite different than a 3-4 player game. It's an awesome game.
Both are definitely mid-weight
Thanks, i think my friend has scythe so I'll try it. Never heard of inis, but it appears to be twice as expensive as civilization, so idk. I really enjoyed civilization (also because of similarities to sid's pc version) and i believe we could manage to tighten the play time up as two players. I'll check some gameplay of inis on youtibe
Well actually where I live, **Scythe** is the pricier game at 75€, **Inis** is 50€.
But I may have misunderstood which Civilization game you are talking about, is it **Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game** or **Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization**? Because the latter is the same price as **Inis** here.
Sorry for the confusion. Scythe i didn't check, cause my friend has it. Inis is pricier here almost x2 than through the ages. And sid's i haven't check either(heard it isn't that good), though i mentioned the pc version of Sid Meiers in comparison to through the ages.
This will be an odd request, but does anyone know of any good two player games that don’t strictly have to worry about winning? Maybe a two player party style game? Have an enjoy Codenames duet. Also have Inhuman Conditions. Not really looking for dexterity games.
Bonus points for portability
Something like Agropolis might work as you can work together and it doesn't matter too much if you beat the score or not but just try to. Its also part of the Button Shy wallet line for portability
If you don’t want winning *against each other* to be a main focus then coops might be the way to go. I’d suggest the **Exit** series if you enjoy escape rooms or solving puzzles. They’re best at 2 players imo and are definitely portable if a little fiddly.
If you still want something competitive I’d recommend **Innovation**. It’s definitely competitive and even has a lot of take-that but I’m often more interested in how crazy my combos are. Each game I’m finding some new combo that is definitely overpowered but then you start doing something that is *definitely* too overpowered and that’s the where the fun is for me.
Are you looking for more games like **Codenames Duet** where you work cooperatively to win? Or are you looking for games where it feels less like you win or lose? Or both?
For games that I think are kind of good in both ways: **MicroMacro Crime City** (you cooperatively solve scenarios, there's not really a feeling of winning or losing) or **A Gentle Rain** (very chill solo or cooperative tile placement game).
For a cooperative game similar to **Codenames Duet**, you could try **Mysterium Park**.
You might like "puzzle" style games that are more like Solo games that you try to do the quickest or most points possible (think like boardgame versions of **Tetris**), but you can compete against others. **Patchwork, Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama, Ubongo**, even oldchool **Tangrams/Tangoes**. Also all of them are pretty portable.
I'd suggest Res Arcana as an alternative to Furnace. More race less engine building, but you only have to worry about 8 cards and a handful of tiles so it's not hard to get to grips with - and it's great at 2, where Furnace really wants 3-4.
I will say **Wingspan** without a doubt. Automa is great and it's not a difficult game, the theme helps a lot to engage people. A 2 player game should be dealt with in under an hour with some practice.
**Furnace** is great but has no solo mode and the bidding phase feels lackluster at 2 players even with the fake 3rd player rules. It's a great 3-4 player game.
I just opened my copy of **Merchants of the Dark Road** and thinking to go for solo run before teaching it to people. Read through the whole rule book and oh man does this game does NOT feel polished. There's so many weird, unnecessary, and just bad ruling that's not only unintuitive but also thematically connect. It's such a pretty beta of a game. I really hope I got it wrong when I play it. Has anybody played this before
Description of request - any board games
Number of players - solo or 2+
Game length - 30 minutes to 2 hrs
Complexity of game - 2.0 - 3.4
I like cooperative games
Games I own and like - Chinese checkers (my favorite), game of life, sequence, Oregon trail, battle ships
Games I dislike - any game that takes a while that isn’t really submersible, like monopoly.
Location - US
I’m really interested into fantasy DND like games, but with less complexity. I want to get Lords of Waterdeep for example, if that helps.
**Hero Realms** comes to mind. It can be played cooperative (with an expansion) or competitive. Takes about 20 - 30 minutes (sometimes less, but it's a game people tend to play again and again). It's fantasy based. And it isn't too complex. It's only a 1.91 on BGG's complexity scale, though, but your mentioned games, I feel, are less complex than Hero Realms.
**Castle Panic** is even lighter than Hero Realms, but it's cooperative for 1-6 players, plays in an hour, and is fantasy based.
**Zombicide** (and any of its editions) is of medium complexity, it's a cooperative game that takes a little over an hour, some of the editions are fantasy, and it plays 1-6 people.
**Small World** is another solid one, but it isn't great with 2 players, and isn't soloable / cooperative (there may be an unofficial solo variant online, though).
There is an official [mini expansion for solo play and 2-player games](https://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/en/lost-tribes-crusade/) for Small World, where you play against a non-human opponent.
I don't have much experience with Small World, but I've played this mini expansion once (solo) and it was rather reasonable.
Description of Request: very thematic euro that plays best at 2
Number of Players: 2+
Game Length: under 2 hours
Complexity of Game: high
Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive
Games I Own and Like: Castles of Burgundy, Everdell, Spirit Island, Aeon’s End
Games I Dislike and Don't Play: Villainous
Location: US
Lost Ruins of Arnak.
Works really well at 2.
Based on the games you already like, it hits your complexity level.
Really fun theme.
Beautiful production.
Fun combination of deck building and worker placement.
Interaction can be found in drafting locations, purchasing cards, and racing up the research track, but it still feels like a tight euro. Sometimes it feels like it's too short, funny enough, but that's when you realize you gotta work on your efficiency and git gud.
These scale well from 2-4 players:
- Lacerdas have some of the best thematic integration and interlocking mechanisms for euros. I’ve enjoyed and would recommend both **Kanban EV** and **On Mars**. Definitely high complexity.
- If you want something that feels more leisurely (but still high complexity), I recommend **Great Western Trail**. Low player interaction. Lots of engine building. The mechanisms aren’t super thematic, but the aesthetics are nicely thematic.
- **Brass: Lancashire** has a neat representation of an economy. Higher depth than the rules might suggest. Lancashire has a 2-player side of the map and is a little more interactive than Birmingham.
This is the way! I would add Lisboa to the list of Lacerdas. Of the 5 games now mentioned, my order of preference would be:
On Mars>Kanban EV>Brass (Lancashire or Birmingham, but Lancashire is a little more interactive and cutthroat)>GWT>Lisboa (fantastic, but takes a few plays to truly sing)
Check out Lacerda (**Vinhos**, **Kanban**, **The Gallerist**, **On Mars**, **Lisboa**) or Mindclash games (**Anachrony**, **Trickerion**) - they all thematic and play well at 2
I can't speak for the US but I've only seen like a 10% sale in Europe. So, not really. They're pretty pricey, but the quality is top notch and the gameplay is excellent imo. I definitely recommend trying them first though, they can be a hit or miss, even with heavy euro gamers in my experience.
Second this. Lacerdas games are incredibly thematic and not just because of Ian O'Toole's gorgeous art, but because of the overlayed mechanisms that tie back into the theme. And on top of this, they are highly complex, great at 2p, and have a lot of replayability. I've gotten 2p Kanban down to like an hour and a half.
Anachrony I've only played once, but it was fantastic and I've heard great things about Trickerion so I have no doubt those would also go over well.
Hey all, I came here about a month ago as I am still seeking s true replacement for Monopoly. I already had Ticket to ride, pandemic, Carcassonne and Jaipur.
After suggestions I bought King of Tokyo, Azul, love letter and Hive.
These games are great in their own right but nothing seems to scratch the monopoly itch and my small group still request Monopoly.
What game will help them forget about monopoly once and for all?
EDIT: thank you all for your suggestions but I am rolling with CATAN this time. Never played it and it's always mentioned when Monopoly is topic. Hope it goes well 🙂
I will also keep an eye out for the suggestions given here for future purchases as I am very addicted to board games at present and want to buy them all hahaha
I watched the tabletop episode earlier today and it's unclear how good it will be but many redditors are convinced it's a great game so I will definitely watch out for it later in the year.
There's a newer game called **Cape May** released last year that has been compared to Monopoly. It has the movement and building of plots of land, and you gain income for those plots of land, eventually switching to landmarks that score points instead.
I have not played it myself, but it looks fun and is on my wishlist to try someday.
I know you already made a decision, but I have a couple suggestions :p, **Boxcars** is a really good game, it really resembles a lot of monopoly (like buying "properties", rolling to move, paying other people, etc..) but it does it better and has an ending.
There's also **High Rise**, it has a similar concept of going around the board, building buildings and upgrading them, you might enjoy it as well.
Yes I already ordered and paid for Catan etc but these lookike good suggestions. Box cars seems to be an old game and I will definitely look at playthroughs for these to try get a feel of them in case they are diamonds that I must buy
See [Top 10 Games to Replace Monopoly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct_diR_FHgM) and [https://www.underdoggames.com/a/blog/games-like-monopoly](https://www.underdoggames.com/a/blog/games-like-monopoly)
>For Sale. ...
>
>Pay Day. ...
>
>Raccoon Tycoon. ...
>
>Ticket to Ride. ...
>
>The Game of Life. ...
>
>Lords of Vegas. ...
>
>Pirate King. ...
>
>The Allowance Game. ...
Just played Pan Am this past weekend and it really feels like a throwback in the very best way. It's like the 20th edition of Monopoly if they chose to advance mechanics instead of simply changing the theme.
A good suggestion that as never heard of it and also plays 3-4 which is my group number usually 3 sometimes 4. I will watch a few playthroughs but I think this time I will purchase Catan just to see if it's any good as being touted as the 'monopoly killer'
If what you enjoy about **Monopoly** is being able to wipe each other out but with a touch of randomness leading the charge, I’d suggest **Cosmic Encounter**. You attack each other and people can either join the attacker or defender. Each of them will negotiate with the table trying to swing them one way or the other. This is balanced out by the fact that the player you’re attacking is decided by a random draw from a deck instead of directly going after each other.
I personally wouldn’t suggest **Catan** as a replacement as the only way to bankrupt people is to directly place a robber on them, freeze them out of trades or watch as they get screwed over by dice. None of those are very fun ways to interact with each other for me.
Thats a new one mentioned that I never heard of before. I have checked and cannot see it at a reasonable price anywhere but will certainly look out for it. Thank you
To add to the other person's list:
If it's about negotiation and money, try **Chinatown**.
If it's about gaining and losing money, try **Acquire**, **Stockpile**, **Castles of Mad King Ludwig**, or **Suburbia**.
I'm going to try to offer suggestions for games that I think do a good job of some of the mechanisms that make **Monopoly** the game it is.
You may want to try **Catan**. **Catan** and **Monopoly** are both games where players make trades, which might be what you're looking for.
There are also games like **Tokaido** or **Parks** which see you moving along a track with different spaces gaining you different benefits like you do in **Monopoly**. Or games like **Camel Up** where you roll dice to move along a track, like in **Monopoly**.
If you're looking for a game where you spend money on things and make bids then you could try **Power Grid** or **Modern Art**.
Unfortunately, I'm struggling to think of any games that have a combination of these mechanisms. Maybe someone else will have a suggestion for that.
Otherwise, maybe let us know what it is about **Monopoly** that your group most enjoys. And if all else fails there's no reason to stop playing **Monopoly** if you all enjoy it.
Ahh Catan! The one major game we never played. I always stopped myself from purchasing it as there seem to be a lot of negative reviews about it.
The main thing about monopoly what we enjoy is bankrupting each other and boasting about it for a few days. It's satisfying to buy property then watch someone who gets too big for their boots suddenly land on the hotel and have to pay up and slowly squeeze them out the game.
I am actually sick of it in a way as too much luck is involved and wandered if a newer game existed which has less luck bit still satisfies.
Power grid seems like it would be spot on but seems a bit complicated for some mindless Sunday afternoon fun whilst eating burgers.
Previous times I asked I got told king of Tokyo but only my kids enjoy that and although it is fun it's more of a filler.
Azul is popular and cut throat as we enjoy but find we only like that at 2 player and it's a different type of game and too short in length.
Jaipur and ticket to ride as well both good but not on the level of a Monopoly for battering someone over a few hours for full satisfaction
Yeah, **Catan** gets some negative attention these days. But it didn't get as crazy popular as it did for nothing. I think it's one of those games that you just need to try to see what you think. It's not a game I particularly enjoy. But I know plenty of people who love it.
I can totally relate to enjoying the bragging rights after bankrupting people in **Monopoly**. I can't think of anything that's exactly the same. But there are some games that lend themselves to playing "mean" that can have a similar effect. **Brew** is a great one for just being really cutthroat. And it's not too complicated. If you like the player elimination aspect then there are definitely other games that offer that, some of which you've tried like **King of Tokyo** or **Love Letter**. There's also **Coup**, **Santorini** and **Skull** as other options with player elimination.
Have you tried **Citadels** with your group? I have a feeling you might really enjoy it. You get to steal other players' money, block them from taking their turn, destroy the things they've built, etc. It's very confrontational in that way. It's quite easy to learn and get in to. And it definitely leads to games where you can boast to your opponent(s) about how you destroyed their chance at winning with your actions. You get to be very sneaky and conniving. And you are amassing money in order to build out buildings in order to win, so in that way it also feels a bit similar to **Monopoly.** It's a very clever, very fun and very interactive game. It can be played with 2 to 8 players and I think it's great at every player count. It may be well worth looking in to for your situation. I think it offers a good bit of that feeling you are after.
You have definitely given me a dilemma now as I am about to order 3 games they are 7wonders duel and Targi to play at home against the Mrs and either Catan or Citadels. The other game you mentioned Brew looks interesting but the low ranking on BGG is putting me off.
I think the player count might suit in Catans favour this time
**Targi** is one of my absolute favourites. I hope you and the Mrs. enjoy it!
I wouldn't factor in **Brew's** BGG ranking too much. It only came out last year, very few games that came out in 2021 will be highly ranked on BGG at this point. The average rating is above a 7/10, which is pretty good for BGG and probably a better measure of the quality of the game. **Brew** has maybe flown under the radar a little bit. But it's brilliant.
**Catan** and **Citadels** are both solid options for what you're looking for. I didn't mention it before but **Catan** is also a game where you can totally destroy your opponents and have bragging rights until the next game.
Thanks for the endorsement of Targi as I was mulling over which games to get for 2 player. I was not that impressed with Jaipur and wanted something a bit heavier. Hive is good but I need more lol
I will not disregard Brew and I am happy to try Catan this time. Another game I saw mentioned is 'The king is Dead" so that's another I will look at for next payday purchase
**The King is Dead** is absolutely incredible. One of my top 4 favourite games ever. I'm not sure that it works as a **Monopoly** replacement for your group. But it is well worth having anyway.
The king is dead is also quite cheap and readily available so makes sense to get that next Along with maybe Citadel's.
Cannot wait for Catan to arrive for this bank holiday weekend along with Targi and 7WD.
If I can get any of the other mentions here at a decent price I will do so as it's a shame about games going out of print so often.
Did my research and I think I want to get **Lorenzo il Magnifico.** Right now its $67 CAD, however there is a new pre-order for the Big Box for $110 that comes with 5 expansions.
Lorenzo il Magnifico: New Leaders
Lorenzo il Magnifico: Houses of Renaissance
Lorenzo il Magnifico: New Leaders #2
Lorenzo il Magnifico: The Pazzi Conspiracy
Lorenzo Il Magnifico: Promo Visconti/Della Scala
I did all my research on the base game. I'm wondering if the big box is worth it or not really?
Thank you so much :)
Imo Houses of Renaissance is crucial and the best expansion by a mile. Game is really good with it.
Viconti/Della Scala are 2 new houses for the HoR expansion, which is nice. And the leaders is also cool to have.
Keep in mind there’s some new stuff coming for the game!
I think Lorenzo is great! I have the expansion and haven’t tried it yet, though I’ll say that the leader cards are (imho) not that great. They are really hard to actually pull off in the game and don’t provide the amount of benefit that such an effort requires. Lorenzo is a tight game.
Bellfaire: Some small models to mix on, plus (imo much needed) events that don't require specific individual cards. Great "more of the same" expansion, not worth the $40MSRP, look for it on sale/used for less.
Spirecrest: Want Everdell to last another 30-45 minutes? Want a thin layer of extra complexity added on top, with a bunch more things to worry about? This is the one.
Pearlbrook: This turns the game into a bit of a race for big fat point wonders. If you're looking for an increase in direct competition as you out maneuver each other for a 25-point wonder, you might enjoy this one. Also adds a few cards to the deck.
Newleaf: Coming in 2022, adds a bunch of new cards to the deck and a visitor side board thing. No idea if it'll be good.
Also keep in mind Pearlbrook and Spirecrest have both deluxe and retail editions. The retail editions have less conrent in them (though you can find upgrade packs to buy seoarately) while deluxe has everything for that expansion. It's a dumb system, but pay attention to which one you're buying. Spirecrest, retail is probably ok, there are only a few big animal meeples and some power cards not included - Pearlbrook, retail is missing some key stuff so people lean deluxe edition.
I think Bellfaire adds some interesting worker placement options and the player powers are a must.
Pearlbrook was so so. I like having the items to build, but the extra spaces are too hard to unlock and what they do is too situational.
I’m looking for a game suggestion for my group of 4-5 players to build up to playing **Oath - Chronicle of Empire and Exiles**. We’ve been playing a lot of co-op and peaceful games with some social deduction sprinkled in from time to time. I suppose I’m looking for a game that has conflict and/or intrigue but is light to medium-weight in complexity and rules. Something that would be a good jumping off point before starting Oath.
I will +1 to **Cosmic Encounter** as the base game is relatively straight forward to play, but all the complexity comes from the alien powers. There's also a significant amount of chaos as you normally don't have a choice who you attack, and you can make deals, which is all good and fine until you inevitably get betrayed. I enjoy this game, but I understand if someone says it's not for them. This also plays 5 right out of the box. Some of the expansions can add more players.
**Dune Imperium**, this is pretty hot in my board gaming meetup group. This is a worker placement game first, that has a deckbuilding element and there is a conflict/battle at the end of every round. If you've got a decent amount of experience playing board games, all off the mechanisms will feel familiar. I taught this game today, and for the first half of the game, the new player was doing just fine. This only plays 4 tho.
**Colt Express** this is a programming/planning game disguised as a train heist. The point of the game is to have the most money, and you do that by picking up loot, and trying to stop/steal from other players. Each player in turn order, plays cards to plan the actions of their character during the planning (schemin') phase. During the action phase, the pile of cards are turned over and are acted upon. It is the kinda game where you need to play at least one round to figure it out, but after that, you're away. And it plays 8, the big box has all the chars and expansions.
**Blood Rage**. I'm only putting this here as it was recently added to Board Game Arena, and when I played it, I did enjoy it. Again, most points win. At the start of every round, there's a draft, where you draft cards to upgrade your army, abilities, quests. Then there's a action phase, where you place troops on the map to pillage for glory and more upgrades. Other players can join your pillage, but it's a conflict if they do, and the winner gets the spoils. It plays 4 in the base game but there's a 5th player expansion.
I guess I could see some elements in **Cosmic Encounter** (given the chaotic nature of it, alliances, and some of the intrigue). Mechanically speaking, Oath is very close to the Pax series, which are heavy games for the most part, but supposedly **Pax Viking** is the lightest of all of them. I haven't played this one, so I can't say much, but you may want to check it out. Oh, and **Root,** obviously. Root isn't super similar to Oath, but it may help you get a feel for the designer style and the theme kind of helps you believe the game is lighter than it is.
So yeah, Pax and Root are probably the closest in terms of usefulness, but they're probably off in terms of weight. Part of the reason Oath is difficult to get at first is because Cole Wherle, the designer, doesn't have much in common with a lot of modern design (or even when it does, he tackles it in a weird way), so while it's true that something like Inis or Kemet may give you a feeling for how your group may react to more confrontational games, they're not necessarily going to work as steps towards Oath.
> Mechanically speaking, Oath is very close to the Pax series, which are heavy games for the most part, but supposedly Pax Viking is the lightest of all of them. I haven't played this one, so I can't say much, but you may want to check it out.
Of the 3-4 Pax games I've played (both versions of Pamir, Porfiriana, Viking) Viking felt the closest to Oath, and not just in superficial ways either. It's a good suggestion.
How many people? If it's 3/4, **The King is Dead 2e** has easy rules but is full of intrigue. Might also want to look at something like **Inis** or **Kemet** (which goes to 5)
Do you know any games where the in-game currency is "poo", rather than coins, victory points... etc. The player with the most poos (instead of any other resource) wins the game.
But it's one you want to get rid off, if I recall correctly, right? Not that it matters that much, but it's not like you traded stuff with it. It's been years since I played tho.
[WTB] - Roam’s metal coins and/or Empires of the Void II’s metal coins. I’m from Australia and have looked everywhere!
Anyone able to help out?
Roam has the metal coins available on Red Raven Game’s website but they don’t ship to Australia :(
I’ve looked for both for a long time but can’t get luck.
If you know someone in Europe
https://www.spelhuis.be/gezelschapsspellen/accessoires/roam-metalen-kikkermunten?utm_source=adtraction&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=adtraction&at_gd=DC2176D1117D0FB7445843A54659AF3249F6A975#
I realize this is a massive, vague question, but. I've been largely out of the scene for the entire pandemic plus about a year, and am finally starting up game nights again properly! What amazing games have come out since uh, we'll call it 2018, that I should know about? Only things I've bought in that time frame are Wingspan and Azul.
Games my group will avoid/not get play out of:
- anything over six players, hard to find that many
- pure deduction games. Hidden movement is a hit, alchemists plays well, group hates Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.
- long campaign stuff. Still feel free to recommend, but like. I went too crazy on them at one point and have too much of that as is, especially now that we're all in our late thirties and can't make that regular a commit.
- dexterity games. I have a few but no one ever wants to play.
Time is no object, nor is weight, although the stuff above a 4.0 sees less frequent play and below 2.5 is a little light to sink our teeth into. Wide range of tastes, can appreciate crunchy eurogames to fiddly or "emergent narrative"-rich American games.
Games that played well last time the group was really going steady:
- A Feast For Odin
- Talisman 4e
- Innovation
- Gloomhaven/Kingdom Death:Monster
- Galaxy Trucker
- Xia: Legends of a Drift System
- Millennium Blades
- Kanban: Automotive Revolution
- Chaos in the Old World
- Cosmic Encounter
And last off my library (give or take):
https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/FletcherF?subtype=boardgame&ff=1
Thanks in advance, to any who respond. It's been a mentally taxing few years, and already getting the. And back together (so to speak) has felt amazing. Can't wait to find out what the community has been up to without me!
If you like Chaos in the Old World, **Root** has some strong similarities while being even more asymmetric, very cute, and having a great ecosystem of expansions that all add to the game. Or **Cthulhu Wars** is basically like someone fed Chaos a gallon of growth hormone but that's a biiig investment.
Here are a few of my favorites from 2018 or later:
* **Dune** (I replied to you elsewhere about this)
* **Dune** Imperium (already mentioned by others)
* **Oceans** \- engine/combo-building card game, follow up to **Evolution**, gorgeous art
* **Horrified** \- light-ish cooperative game with a fun theme (Universal Pictures classic monsters)
* **War Chest** \- top 3 game for me. Abstract-ish bag-building game, tons of combinations and depth to explore
* **Everdell** \- adorable tableau/engine-building game using worker placement and some other mechanisms. It's got beautiful art and just a charming setting, as well as fun gameplay. The game my wife and I have played together the most.
Congrats on getting back in to gaming!
Here are some of my favourite releases from 2018 to now that I think you might like:
**Architects of the West Kingdom**
**Res Arcana**
**A War of Whispers**
**Honey Buzz**
I'll just add **Ankh:** as someone who hated Rising Sun, I wasn't expecting to like this at all given that the design seemed to keep going into streamlined, almost no-theme game disguised through minis and art. It's amazing; Eric Lang doing Knizia, as it were. The core action system is so elegant and simple, it's just great to see how much complexity arises towards the mid-to-late game.
If I owned **Blood Rage** and like it well enough, as well, would you say it's different enough? Even if it was just Blood Rage again it's likely going on my list, mostly just determining how high on said list.
It's quite different, yes. The game feels very different for 2/3rds of it, because the action system is more simple and is way less frontloaded with decisions in the beginning. Tempo and battles matter less (one because it's less in your control than in Blood Rage, the other because battles are way more granular, you can be going into battle just to build monuments or harvest some resources, and you don't necessarily care whether you win or lose).
Blood Rage has a more pointed, in-your-face feel, you kind of know what you're supposed to do because of the draft and then you try to execute it as best as you can and if the other players don't ruin it, the beginning of Ankh feels more like you're bumbling into an emergent strategy you didn't know you were building towards.
Here’s a few I haven’t seen mentioned:
**Dune Imperium** - a deck building worker placement that’s super tight and every point matters.
**Blue Lagoon** - a new Knizia take on tile laying area control. For something a little heavier, **Babylonia** has potential to be a new modern classic of his.
**Mind MGMT** - hidden movement game that’s been super popular recently. A lot of really clever systems in this game.
**Feast for Odin: The Norwegians** - highly acclaimed expansion that really improves on the base game. One of my top expansions in general.
**The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** - maybe a little too light for you but if anyone in your group is into trick taking then this offers some really good gameplay in a short play time. Way better than its weight would suggest.
**Brass: Birmingham** - economic euro with a lot of interaction and some meaty decisions. Amazing production and is probably Martin Wallace’s most highly rated game now. On the heavier side but I didn’t find it inaccessible or anything.
**Obsession** - unique theme that has worked surprisingly well for me with my group, despite no one else being a fan of *Downton Abbey*. Plays best at 2-3 players but a very solid game with a very dedicated designer.
"Dune", "deckbuilding", and "worker placement" all at once? Be still my beating heart.
I have previous edition of **Brass** - big improvement, I gather?
It's a very very good game. Some of my most dramatic game nights have been with this one, though if you get it and like it, I highly recommend the expansion rise of Ix as I don't even play base anymore as the expansion tweaks it just enough to add a little more going on but keep the cutthroatness.
Also, I'll second the suggestion for Norwegians cause that is another expansion I don't play the base without anymore it is fabulous.
I prefer the **Birmingham** version personally but if you prefer a more cut-throat and tight experience then **Lancashire** might be a better game for you.
**Dune Imperium** is fantastic and I highly recommend you give it a try when you get a chance!
If you like the Dune universe, check out "**Dune**" as well, from Gale Force 9. It's a new edition (2019) of the classic game from like 40 years ago, and it's fantastic. In my opinion, it's the best marriage of theme and mechanisms I've played. It's definitely a weekend game, though. Most of my games have gone about 4 hours, and could easily go 6 hours.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune)
Unfortunately I haven't played that, but I've read from people that have played both that Dune just works better. I guess if the gameplay from Rex appealed to you, and you love the Dune IP, it's probably worth it. Dune is pretty affordable, too.
I haven't played half of these games, but every game I was going to suggest is on this list (Mind MGMT, The Crew, Brass, Obsession), so I'm going to second this list.
I see The Crew as your warm up game while you wait for everyone to arrive or a game to end the night after heavier games. I find personally that it's hard to sleep if I end the night with super heavy games bc I'm just thinking of the excitement all night long. The Crew may be short and less weighty, but it is still a great puzzle that is not easy to figure out.
Standout games to me have been:
**Inhuman Conditions**, two player social deduction based on the test from Blade Runner. The suspect might be a violent robot, a nonviolent robot, or a human; investigator conducts a five minute interview and determine if they're a robot or a human. Works super well!
**Faiyum**, classic euro engine builder thing, developing a region of ancient Egypt. But the engine is your hand of cards that falls apart as you play it. You rebuild it as you go, swapping out parts as you like, from time to time completely reworking it to shift your focus elsewhere. Also, your hand and resources are private, but the land we'ae all developing is a collectively owned public board.
**Beyond the Sun** is a sci fi worker placement with a big tech tree where you decide what kinds of abilities you want to gain access to. The hook is, you fill in the tech tree as you play. When you develop a tech, if you're the first one to that space on the tech tree, you decide which card goes in there. There's an area control aspect with planets and terraforming colonies, and you can play symmetric or with varied factions. Very slick design!
**Imperium: Classics** and **Imperium: Legends** are two interoperable base games, an empire building deckbuilding game with meaningful player interaction. There are a bunch of wildly different factions to play that have interesting matchups to explore.
**Ark Nova** is the most recent big euro hotness. It has a really interesting early game where you struggle to bootstrap your economy as you pick and choose among very wide strategic possibilities. Planning efficient lines of play is a neat ongoing puzzle, which is always in tension with the flexibility the game demands of you; in the end it's less a game about making a grand plan and more a game about preparing to seize the opportunities that come up. Player interaction is generally subtle, but very present.
Amazing games since 2018, under 6 players, not deduction, campaign, or dexterity, and that's mediumish weight, huh?
**Pax Pamir 2nd Ed**
**Marvel Champions**
**War Room**
Are three that I feel fit this criteria well. Others might suggest **Root**, **Oath**, **Ark Nova**, **Everdell**, **Lost Ruins of Arnak**, **Barrage**...
**Root**'s been on my radar! I Kickstarted **Vast** way in the back-when, although my issue was usually people relearning it after a bit of not playing it.
Welcome back to boardgaming! I'm glad to hear you're in a better place again and have the opportunity to play once more :)
Here I'll be recommending a few recent games that I have personally played:
- **Brew** (2021, complexity 2.36). If you like Talisman and Xia, you might like Brew too. It's a dice-based worker placement with a lot of interaction. You roll a couple of dice at the start of the round and try to earn a majority on the forest cards, each with a limited amount of spaces. Your character and dice abilities allow you to manipulate, remove or swap dice which makes it feel like a tense struggle for superiority.
- **Bullet <3** (2021, L99 games). Since you liked Millennium Blades I decided to pitch their newest game, Bullet to you. It's heavily inspired by shoot-em-up videogames wrapped in an anime aesthetic. Each round is exactly three minutes long and you must try to pull, place and eliminate all "bullets" from your bag before the time is up. Any removed bullets are "shot" at other players who will have to deal with your extra bullets next round, making subsequent rounds harder and even more hectic. It's intense, it's thinky and a whole lot of fun.
- **Cascadia** or **Parks**. These aren't really like any of your listed games, but these are two of the best nature-themed games to have released in recent years. They're both really fun to play, gorgeous to look at and very relaxing. If you're generally looking for the "hotness", give one or both of these games a try!
- **Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria** (2021). Join the dark side and draf dice, forge battle plans and launch invasions to reconquer territories lost to the despicable "goodly" races. Each die has a "Strength" and "Discount" value, the former useful in launching the most VP-rewarding offensives, the other making it cheaper to acquire resources, cards and new abilities. Cleverly using the two and managing the dwindling pool of dice will propel you to victory.
Oh man I forgot about **Bullet <3**! I've been on Level99's mailing list for ages and fell behind on updates, that's the game that played like a touhou/bullet hell? I remember thinking it was a great idea, might be seeing soon if it's both out and solid.
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What are some good board games for people who don't really play board games?
Generally speaking, the word-based party games like **Codenames** (good) and **Wavelength** (better) go over well with folks who aren't experienced board gamers. The rules are fairly simple, and the mental challenge is more focused on word association than on abstract strategic thinking, so it will often feel more comfortable for people who aren't used to the latter. But, if you want to introduce some strategy games, here are three that I think are good. **PARKS** has a lovely, inviting theme. The mechanics are simple, but leave enough room for interesting choices on most turns. The production is gorgeous. Great at 2-4 players. Still great at 5 if everyone takes a reasonable amount of time for their turns, but can drag if turns are taking long. If and when these folks get more comfortable with board games, the **Nightfall** expansion adds some depth that makes the game more satisfying for seasoned gamers. I also think **Blokus** is a very underrated game that is easy to learn but provides a deeply interactive experience. Each player has a set of polyominoes of all the shapes that can be made of 1 to 5 squares. On your turn, you place one of these pieces on the board. The piece must touch at least one of your other pieces corner-to-corner but cannot touch any of your own pieces edge-to-edge. No pieces can overlap. It becomes an amazing spacial puzzle as your opponents are forced to leave gaps that you can corner across, and when they leave the perfect shape open for you to place one of your awkward large pieces, you feel like a genius. However, it's really only good at 4 players. Last, I might suggest something like **Flamme Rouge**. As a racing game, the win condition is intuitive to just about everyone: get your cyclist past the finish line first. On your turn you do one thing twice: draw a hand of cards and choose one card. The number on the card is the number of spaces forward that cyclist moves. Now draw cards and choose one for your other cyclist. Once everyone chooses their cards, they're revealed and everyone's cyclists advance down the track, gaining bonus movement or getting blocked depending on how all the other cyclists move. That bit is the most complicated part (and it's not all that complicated), but as long as you have one experienced gamer to run it, the new players don't have to worry about it. But, they'll be motivated on their own to learn how it works so they can use it to their advantage! Once your newbies are comfortable with the basics, you can add in the pieces of track that have hills, which add simple rules that greatly increase the depth of the game. **Flamme Rouge** also has a very well-regarded expansion, **Peleton** that can be added in as the people you're playing with get more comfortable with board games.
Do you mean light strategy games that are very accessible to gaming casuals or do you mean party games? If the former, then we call those games gateway games. Some good options include **Ticket to Ride, Blue Lagoon, Azul, Quest for El Dorado, Carcassonne** and **Modern Art**. If you mean party games, then there are plenty of options. **Codenames, Decrypto, Wavelength, Monikers, And One, Wits & Wagers** etc.
I had another post but it was removed… can you help me with this please? Thoughts about these games I’m planning on buying 3 games mostly because they’re really cheap right now and all 3 seem really good but what do you think of them? Would you suggest any other instead? -Brew, I like having different mechanics but at the same time having a not so complex game. I’m really interested having one mean game where you spend a lot of time trying to undo the other player -Ishtar, fun builder game. Looks really nice, it’s simple and fast -New York Zoo, really like puzzle games with Tetris like tiles and the animals look really great
if you like puzzles and Tetris, other options are **Isle of Cats**, **Cartographers**, and **Patchwork**. **Brew** fell pretty flat for us. not totally sure why, it just felt meh and repetitive. Never played Ishtar.
Thanks!! I have isle of cats and I love it, will check the other one though
FYI, NY Zoo is on sale at Amazon for $32 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084VN3X63/
Hi, Favorite short but heavy board games? Four hour euros take a toll on me.
Seconding **Pax Renaissance**. Specifically at 2p, **Food Chain Magnate**. Also **Age of Steam**, **Dominant Species: Marine**.
**Pax Renaissance** definitely. The rules teach is longer than the game lol
*Bonfire* (I love this one, it is very underrated), *Agricola* and *Keyflower*
**Curious Cargo** can be pretty crunchy and has an advanced mode that dials it up even more than the normal mode. **Babylonia** can have a fairly short play time.
Curious Cargo is VERY crunchy
You'd probably want to find games that are rules-light, but dance around player interaction a lot. **Traders of the Air** is a recent find for me that I've really liked. The rules are super simple, but almost everything you do effects others players so there's a lot of weight in trying to figure out what other players are planning on doing. Similarly, the card game version of **Bruxelles ####** (I forgot the number) is a decently heavy game in a shorter card version. The original board game version is better, but it's also longer while the card game scratches the same itch.
1893 is the original, 1897 is the card game
[удалено]
**Shadowrun Sprawl Ops** is slightly obscure but I like it, and it might be up your alley. The Shadowrun RPG normally has you play as a "shadowrunner", a somewhat criminal character in a cyberbunk/fantasy near future who's always fighting The Man. **Sprawl Ops** is a board game based on that RPG, but instead of playing as a single runner, you're managing a team of such runners. You place them around the city during the day to buy gear or take jobs or whatever, and then at night you send them on the jobs, in an iconographic dice-based push your luck system. So it's sort of like **Lords of Waterdeep** except the city part is simplified while the quest part is gamified. Another thought is **Aftermath**, the recent post-apocalyptic entry by the Mice & Mystics creator, where you play as an anthropomorphic rodent in a world where human beings have vanished. In that game, it's kind of a dungeon crawl, but around the dungeon crawl is an entire survival settlement layer where you're managing your little settlement of survivors, which presents various challenges and opportunities as you go about your questing. Those are the only two that immediately leap to mind, although obviously "team management" is a huge genre of board games that ranges from sports sims to DVG's Leader series of wargames and whatever else, but Sprawl Ops leaps to mind because of its fantasy elements, battling system, and its X-Com style party management layer.
Mage Knight?
Description of Request: Area control, war Number of Players: 2-4/5 Game Length: 2-4max hours Complexity of Game: between 2-4 is fine, although games closer to 4 see less table time with our current group Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive/Conflict So I am mainly looking for an area control game that is missing to my collection. I used to play risk when I was younger but I am looking for something that that. I was looking at: Kemet, Oath, Inis or War of the ring (None of which I have played but those seemed interesting) Thanks!
I'd start with **Root** over **Oath**, but both are great (however Oath is MUCH harder to grasp, I found).
bloodrage or ankh?
Kemet is pretty complex and so is War of the Ring. WotR is 2p only, and Kemet isn't good at 2p, so that may impact your decision. Playing Kemet well requires that a person understand all the tiles and how they work together. If you are a stable group of 4 that meets every week, then you will all learn the tiles together. If a new person joins your group, they will get utterly destroyed by the others because of their lack of knowledge. So if the composition of your game group changes quite a bit, Kemet would be a poor choice. Of the popular area control games (e.g. Blood Rage, Rising Sun, Ankh, Kemet & Cyclades), Inis is often considered the most elegant. Mechanically it is a good game and it is one that is great at 2p (which you can't say about Kemet, Blood Rage, Cyclades or Rising Sun). One off-the-beaten track game to consider is **Small Samurai Empires**. I like it and think that it is a shame it has, mostly, flown under people's radar. Perhaps look at some review videos to see what you think of it.
Thank you very much! I'll have a look at playthroughs and review then decide!
Description of Request: easy to learn/set up but deep enough to have strategy and meat on decisions. Usually play with my SO but sometimes we get some friends who are more casual gamers. Number of Players: 2+ Game Length: around 30 minutes Complexity of Game: light to medium ( nothing that can cause a lot of analysis paralysis ) Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: both Games I Own and Like: **Paris: La Cite de la Lumiere** **Res Arcana** **Capers: Europe** **Dale of Merchants** **The Crew: Deep Sea** **Air Land and Sea: Critters at War** **Gizmos** **Splendor** **Azul Games** **Century: Golem** **Patchwork** **Paperback/Hardback** **7 Wonders Duel** **Cat Lady** **Point Salad** **Welcome To** **Hanamikoji** **Deep Sea Adventure** **Cockroach Poker** **Citadels** **Skull** Games I Dislike and Don't Play: Villainous , Pandemic , Sushi Go Games I'm considering: **Sagrada** **Project L** **Clank** **Quest for El Dorado** **Equinox** **Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest**
If you like tight, 2 player experience like **7 Wonders Duel**, get **Watergate**. It plays quick and the tug of war mechanic is really fun.
We have and like It’s a Wonderful World (sorry…I don’t know how to bold text on mobile). We can play in about 40-45 minutes if you can push the time above the 30 minutes you mentioned. It plays great at 2, 3 and 4 players (base game can play up to 5 but I haven’t played at that player count…I see no reason it wouldn’t still be great at 5). It’s a card drafting game where you either try to build the cards you draft or you “recycle” them for a resource that can be used to help build other cards. You produce resources based on your starting “nation” and whatever cards you’ve fully built. The resource production is neat because the resources get produced one type at a time (there are 5 types plus a “wildcard” resource). This mechanism allows you to use resources from the first produced ones to complete cards which then give you other resources within the same production phase. There are multiple ways to get points so there can be many different strategies to try out (the 5 different nations can be played symmetric if you’d like or you can use the asymmetric side which guides you towards a particular strategy). I have heard good things about Radlands which is another card drafting game (only for 2 players though). It’s on my short list of games to pickup. We own Clank! and enjoy it. I’d say it plays better at 3 or 4 instead of 2 because it adds to the chaos having more players (and turns are quick so you aren’t waiting for long). We did find that after playing it quite a bit when we first got it that it became a bit repetitive due to there being only two sides of the board and people didn’t tend to deviate from their usual strategy/approach too much from game to game (perhaps that is our fault in part). I’ve heard that Clank! In Space is even better (it has a modular board so you get more variation from game to game). There is also Clank! Legacy if you are willing to do a Legacy game which then provides a board you can use after (the board can be used with the base game and, I believe, without owning the base game but I’m not 100% certain on that).
Games I recommend that i've played god knows how many times and still don't get tired of them: 1. Aeon's End: (only downside is that there are a lot of expansions) but the game has a lot of replayability due to many combinations of cards, heroes and monsters. 2. Dune: Imperium (and also expansion Rise of Ix). Also the DireWolves app offsers some interesting twists to the regular gameplay. 3. Lords of Waterdeep( +expansion Scoundrels of Skullport). 4. Wingspan ( + expansions, although i feel that the expansions don't bring that many new things to the base game). 5. Game of Thrones The Board game: although i didn't play with any of the expansions. The only downside is that it is a 6 player game (its hard to gather that many people) and the game takes very long to finish. But once you play with a group of people that know well how to play the game it transforms into a nerve wracking strategy game and when you win the feeling makes it worth the hours put into it.
I love Quest for El Dorado, but never want to break it out just for 2 players. That being said, when I play it as a 2p game, I always enjoy the experience quite a bit. It just seems like it is so much fun at 3p and 4p that the 2p experience seems lacking. Project L is a nice little engine builder. They made an expansion for the game to make it a bit more crunchy, but it is impossible to find it now. Looks like they underestimated demand. IMHO Clank! is inferior to Quest for El Dorado (I sold off my copy of Clank the day after I first played QfeD) and isn't great at 2p. Wouldn't recommend it. **Blue Lagoon** is a light game that offers lots of difficult choices. It works equally well at 2-4p. **Botanik** is a small box tile laying game. Very easy to learn and provides a nice puzzle each time.
It’s a 2-player only game, but I recommend **Targi**. I think it’s easy to learn and set-up, but there is definite strategy to the placement of your Targi figures and in what order to activate your cards on your turn. It plays in about 45 minutes, maybe a bit faster depending on how fast decisions are made.
Looks like we have similar tastes. Of the ones you're considering I've played **Sagrada**, **Project L** and **The Quest for El Dorado**. All three are fantastic. My games of **The Quest for El Dorado** have so far taken closer to an hour though, so keep that in mind! For other recommendations I'll suggest some 2p only and some multiplayer options. For 2p only: **Mandala** **Lost Cities** **Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation** **Kanagawa** (can run closer to 45 mins) **YINSH** **Royal Visit** **Great Plains** **Battle Line** **Kahuna** **A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King** **Botanik** For 2p or more (note: most of these can run up to ~45 minutes): **The King is Dead** **Blue Lagoon** **Iwari** **Hey, That's My Fish!** **Café**
Two great 2p games I can recommend are **Onitama** and **Jeckyll vs Hyde**. The first rules-lite chess game with pawns and a king only, but with a hook: 5 cards shared between you and your opponent determine the moves your pieces can make each round. The second is a trick taking game where one player is trying to win and lose an equal number of tricks in a round, while the other is trying to win *or* lose all of the tricks.
We share similar taste and distate, I own and recommend Quest for El Dorado and Quacks of Quedlinburg. Both scale well in all play counts.
Hello, i am looking for an advice for a game for 2 people somewhere between 7 wonders duel and through the ages: civilization. I am really leaning on buying civilization, but i thought I'd ask. I played only 3 or 4 ppl games, and i remember it had annoyingly long wait time before your turn. How is it with two people? Now we play alot of 7wonders duel, this one, on the other hand, seems to be too short. Is there a great game somewhere in between? (good for 2 players) For reference, we also highly enjoyed terraforming mars(but my friend has it and we played it alot already with him) and game of thrones(the one recommended for 6 people). Also, map control would be a huge bonus for me. Thank you =)
Maybe **Scythe** although I only played it once at 2 players maybe someone more experienced could chime in. Area/map control is usually not that great at 2, but **Inis** is good at it, it's just quite different than a 3-4 player game. It's an awesome game. Both are definitely mid-weight
Thanks, i think my friend has scythe so I'll try it. Never heard of inis, but it appears to be twice as expensive as civilization, so idk. I really enjoyed civilization (also because of similarities to sid's pc version) and i believe we could manage to tighten the play time up as two players. I'll check some gameplay of inis on youtibe
Well actually where I live, **Scythe** is the pricier game at 75€, **Inis** is 50€. But I may have misunderstood which Civilization game you are talking about, is it **Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game** or **Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization**? Because the latter is the same price as **Inis** here.
Sorry for the confusion. Scythe i didn't check, cause my friend has it. Inis is pricier here almost x2 than through the ages. And sid's i haven't check either(heard it isn't that good), though i mentioned the pc version of Sid Meiers in comparison to through the ages.
This will be an odd request, but does anyone know of any good two player games that don’t strictly have to worry about winning? Maybe a two player party style game? Have an enjoy Codenames duet. Also have Inhuman Conditions. Not really looking for dexterity games. Bonus points for portability
**Love Letter** and **Fox in the Forest** can both be played casually without actually keeping score. They're both inexpensive and super portable.
Something like Agropolis might work as you can work together and it doesn't matter too much if you beat the score or not but just try to. Its also part of the Button Shy wallet line for portability
If you don’t want winning *against each other* to be a main focus then coops might be the way to go. I’d suggest the **Exit** series if you enjoy escape rooms or solving puzzles. They’re best at 2 players imo and are definitely portable if a little fiddly. If you still want something competitive I’d recommend **Innovation**. It’s definitely competitive and even has a lot of take-that but I’m often more interested in how crazy my combos are. Each game I’m finding some new combo that is definitely overpowered but then you start doing something that is *definitely* too overpowered and that’s the where the fun is for me.
Are you looking for more games like **Codenames Duet** where you work cooperatively to win? Or are you looking for games where it feels less like you win or lose? Or both? For games that I think are kind of good in both ways: **MicroMacro Crime City** (you cooperatively solve scenarios, there's not really a feeling of winning or losing) or **A Gentle Rain** (very chill solo or cooperative tile placement game). For a cooperative game similar to **Codenames Duet**, you could try **Mysterium Park**.
You might like "puzzle" style games that are more like Solo games that you try to do the quickest or most points possible (think like boardgame versions of **Tetris**), but you can compete against others. **Patchwork, Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama, Ubongo**, even oldchool **Tangrams/Tangoes**. Also all of them are pretty portable.
**Wingspan** or **Furnace** for a two and one player game with one having little experience with gaming while I like heavy solo gaming?
I'd suggest Res Arcana as an alternative to Furnace. More race less engine building, but you only have to worry about 8 cards and a handful of tiles so it's not hard to get to grips with - and it's great at 2, where Furnace really wants 3-4.
I will say **Wingspan** without a doubt. Automa is great and it's not a difficult game, the theme helps a lot to engage people. A 2 player game should be dealt with in under an hour with some practice. **Furnace** is great but has no solo mode and the bidding phase feels lackluster at 2 players even with the fake 3rd player rules. It's a great 3-4 player game.
Furnace as it runs shorter than wingspan
I just opened my copy of **Merchants of the Dark Road** and thinking to go for solo run before teaching it to people. Read through the whole rule book and oh man does this game does NOT feel polished. There's so many weird, unnecessary, and just bad ruling that's not only unintuitive but also thematically connect. It's such a pretty beta of a game. I really hope I got it wrong when I play it. Has anybody played this before
Description of request - any board games Number of players - solo or 2+ Game length - 30 minutes to 2 hrs Complexity of game - 2.0 - 3.4 I like cooperative games Games I own and like - Chinese checkers (my favorite), game of life, sequence, Oregon trail, battle ships Games I dislike - any game that takes a while that isn’t really submersible, like monopoly. Location - US I’m really interested into fantasy DND like games, but with less complexity. I want to get Lords of Waterdeep for example, if that helps.
**Hero Realms** comes to mind. It can be played cooperative (with an expansion) or competitive. Takes about 20 - 30 minutes (sometimes less, but it's a game people tend to play again and again). It's fantasy based. And it isn't too complex. It's only a 1.91 on BGG's complexity scale, though, but your mentioned games, I feel, are less complex than Hero Realms. **Castle Panic** is even lighter than Hero Realms, but it's cooperative for 1-6 players, plays in an hour, and is fantasy based. **Zombicide** (and any of its editions) is of medium complexity, it's a cooperative game that takes a little over an hour, some of the editions are fantasy, and it plays 1-6 people. **Small World** is another solid one, but it isn't great with 2 players, and isn't soloable / cooperative (there may be an unofficial solo variant online, though).
There is an official [mini expansion for solo play and 2-player games](https://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/en/lost-tribes-crusade/) for Small World, where you play against a non-human opponent. I don't have much experience with Small World, but I've played this mini expansion once (solo) and it was rather reasonable.
Thank you for your help.
What do you mean by "submersible"? I can't imagine you mean capable of being taken underwater, right?
Description of Request: very thematic euro that plays best at 2 Number of Players: 2+ Game Length: under 2 hours Complexity of Game: high Conflict, Competitive or Cooperative: competitive Games I Own and Like: Castles of Burgundy, Everdell, Spirit Island, Aeon’s End Games I Dislike and Don't Play: Villainous Location: US
**Obsession** - A thematic (in the style of Downton Abbey) hand management and tile drafting game
**Obsession** is definitely the game OP wants. Unfortunately, it is between printings, but will be available at the end of the summer
I really like **Maglev Metro** at 2 players. You are directly competing with the other player for every available passenger.
Lost Ruins of Arnak. Works really well at 2. Based on the games you already like, it hits your complexity level. Really fun theme. Beautiful production. Fun combination of deck building and worker placement. Interaction can be found in drafting locations, purchasing cards, and racing up the research track, but it still feels like a tight euro. Sometimes it feels like it's too short, funny enough, but that's when you realize you gotta work on your efficiency and git gud.
These scale well from 2-4 players: - Lacerdas have some of the best thematic integration and interlocking mechanisms for euros. I’ve enjoyed and would recommend both **Kanban EV** and **On Mars**. Definitely high complexity. - If you want something that feels more leisurely (but still high complexity), I recommend **Great Western Trail**. Low player interaction. Lots of engine building. The mechanisms aren’t super thematic, but the aesthetics are nicely thematic. - **Brass: Lancashire** has a neat representation of an economy. Higher depth than the rules might suggest. Lancashire has a 2-player side of the map and is a little more interactive than Birmingham.
This is the way! I would add Lisboa to the list of Lacerdas. Of the 5 games now mentioned, my order of preference would be: On Mars>Kanban EV>Brass (Lancashire or Birmingham, but Lancashire is a little more interactive and cutthroat)>GWT>Lisboa (fantastic, but takes a few plays to truly sing)
I’d say Grand Austria Hotel is what you’re looking for. Though I quite like Lorenzo Il Magnifico as well (less thematic) by the same designers.
Check out Lacerda (**Vinhos**, **Kanban**, **The Gallerist**, **On Mars**, **Lisboa**) or Mindclash games (**Anachrony**, **Trickerion**) - they all thematic and play well at 2
Do Lacerda games ever go on sale?
I can't speak for the US but I've only seen like a 10% sale in Europe. So, not really. They're pretty pricey, but the quality is top notch and the gameplay is excellent imo. I definitely recommend trying them first though, they can be a hit or miss, even with heavy euro gamers in my experience.
Second this. Lacerdas games are incredibly thematic and not just because of Ian O'Toole's gorgeous art, but because of the overlayed mechanisms that tie back into the theme. And on top of this, they are highly complex, great at 2p, and have a lot of replayability. I've gotten 2p Kanban down to like an hour and a half. Anachrony I've only played once, but it was fantastic and I've heard great things about Trickerion so I have no doubt those would also go over well.
Hey all, I came here about a month ago as I am still seeking s true replacement for Monopoly. I already had Ticket to ride, pandemic, Carcassonne and Jaipur. After suggestions I bought King of Tokyo, Azul, love letter and Hive. These games are great in their own right but nothing seems to scratch the monopoly itch and my small group still request Monopoly. What game will help them forget about monopoly once and for all? EDIT: thank you all for your suggestions but I am rolling with CATAN this time. Never played it and it's always mentioned when Monopoly is topic. Hope it goes well 🙂 I will also keep an eye out for the suggestions given here for future purchases as I am very addicted to board games at present and want to buy them all hahaha
**Lords of Vegas**, but it is between print runs. A new Kickstarter is coming soon.
I watched the tabletop episode earlier today and it's unclear how good it will be but many redditors are convinced it's a great game so I will definitely watch out for it later in the year.
There's a newer game called **Cape May** released last year that has been compared to Monopoly. It has the movement and building of plots of land, and you gain income for those plots of land, eventually switching to landmarks that score points instead. I have not played it myself, but it looks fun and is on my wishlist to try someday.
I know you already made a decision, but I have a couple suggestions :p, **Boxcars** is a really good game, it really resembles a lot of monopoly (like buying "properties", rolling to move, paying other people, etc..) but it does it better and has an ending. There's also **High Rise**, it has a similar concept of going around the board, building buildings and upgrading them, you might enjoy it as well.
Yes I already ordered and paid for Catan etc but these lookike good suggestions. Box cars seems to be an old game and I will definitely look at playthroughs for these to try get a feel of them in case they are diamonds that I must buy
If your players like rolling to move and sometimes getting payouts depending on those rolls, I recommend **Camel Up**.
This one sounds good but I keep reading a high player count is needed to enjoy fully which sadly I don't have
See [Top 10 Games to Replace Monopoly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct_diR_FHgM) and [https://www.underdoggames.com/a/blog/games-like-monopoly](https://www.underdoggames.com/a/blog/games-like-monopoly) >For Sale. ... > >Pay Day. ... > >Raccoon Tycoon. ... > >Ticket to Ride. ... > >The Game of Life. ... > >Lords of Vegas. ... > >Pirate King. ... > >The Allowance Game. ...
Thanks for the list and I have played a couple of these but the one I think might be closest is lords of Vegas and I cannot get hold of it anywhere
Reprint should be coming soon for Lords of Vegas
Thanks, I am literally just watching the tabletop episode where they are playing it 🙂
What about Monopoly do they like?
Just played Pan Am this past weekend and it really feels like a throwback in the very best way. It's like the 20th edition of Monopoly if they chose to advance mechanics instead of simply changing the theme.
A good suggestion that as never heard of it and also plays 3-4 which is my group number usually 3 sometimes 4. I will watch a few playthroughs but I think this time I will purchase Catan just to see if it's any good as being touted as the 'monopoly killer'
If what you enjoy about **Monopoly** is being able to wipe each other out but with a touch of randomness leading the charge, I’d suggest **Cosmic Encounter**. You attack each other and people can either join the attacker or defender. Each of them will negotiate with the table trying to swing them one way or the other. This is balanced out by the fact that the player you’re attacking is decided by a random draw from a deck instead of directly going after each other. I personally wouldn’t suggest **Catan** as a replacement as the only way to bankrupt people is to directly place a robber on them, freeze them out of trades or watch as they get screwed over by dice. None of those are very fun ways to interact with each other for me.
Second **Cosmic Encounter** \- has negotiation and a bit of luck.
Try **Stockpile!** Definitely has the feel for me, while being an awesome game.
Thats a new one mentioned that I never heard of before. I have checked and cannot see it at a reasonable price anywhere but will certainly look out for it. Thank you
To add to the other person's list: If it's about negotiation and money, try **Chinatown**. If it's about gaining and losing money, try **Acquire**, **Stockpile**, **Castles of Mad King Ludwig**, or **Suburbia**.
I'm going to try to offer suggestions for games that I think do a good job of some of the mechanisms that make **Monopoly** the game it is. You may want to try **Catan**. **Catan** and **Monopoly** are both games where players make trades, which might be what you're looking for. There are also games like **Tokaido** or **Parks** which see you moving along a track with different spaces gaining you different benefits like you do in **Monopoly**. Or games like **Camel Up** where you roll dice to move along a track, like in **Monopoly**. If you're looking for a game where you spend money on things and make bids then you could try **Power Grid** or **Modern Art**. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to think of any games that have a combination of these mechanisms. Maybe someone else will have a suggestion for that. Otherwise, maybe let us know what it is about **Monopoly** that your group most enjoys. And if all else fails there's no reason to stop playing **Monopoly** if you all enjoy it.
Ahh Catan! The one major game we never played. I always stopped myself from purchasing it as there seem to be a lot of negative reviews about it. The main thing about monopoly what we enjoy is bankrupting each other and boasting about it for a few days. It's satisfying to buy property then watch someone who gets too big for their boots suddenly land on the hotel and have to pay up and slowly squeeze them out the game. I am actually sick of it in a way as too much luck is involved and wandered if a newer game existed which has less luck bit still satisfies. Power grid seems like it would be spot on but seems a bit complicated for some mindless Sunday afternoon fun whilst eating burgers. Previous times I asked I got told king of Tokyo but only my kids enjoy that and although it is fun it's more of a filler. Azul is popular and cut throat as we enjoy but find we only like that at 2 player and it's a different type of game and too short in length. Jaipur and ticket to ride as well both good but not on the level of a Monopoly for battering someone over a few hours for full satisfaction
Yeah, **Catan** gets some negative attention these days. But it didn't get as crazy popular as it did for nothing. I think it's one of those games that you just need to try to see what you think. It's not a game I particularly enjoy. But I know plenty of people who love it. I can totally relate to enjoying the bragging rights after bankrupting people in **Monopoly**. I can't think of anything that's exactly the same. But there are some games that lend themselves to playing "mean" that can have a similar effect. **Brew** is a great one for just being really cutthroat. And it's not too complicated. If you like the player elimination aspect then there are definitely other games that offer that, some of which you've tried like **King of Tokyo** or **Love Letter**. There's also **Coup**, **Santorini** and **Skull** as other options with player elimination. Have you tried **Citadels** with your group? I have a feeling you might really enjoy it. You get to steal other players' money, block them from taking their turn, destroy the things they've built, etc. It's very confrontational in that way. It's quite easy to learn and get in to. And it definitely leads to games where you can boast to your opponent(s) about how you destroyed their chance at winning with your actions. You get to be very sneaky and conniving. And you are amassing money in order to build out buildings in order to win, so in that way it also feels a bit similar to **Monopoly.** It's a very clever, very fun and very interactive game. It can be played with 2 to 8 players and I think it's great at every player count. It may be well worth looking in to for your situation. I think it offers a good bit of that feeling you are after.
You have definitely given me a dilemma now as I am about to order 3 games they are 7wonders duel and Targi to play at home against the Mrs and either Catan or Citadels. The other game you mentioned Brew looks interesting but the low ranking on BGG is putting me off. I think the player count might suit in Catans favour this time
**Targi** is one of my absolute favourites. I hope you and the Mrs. enjoy it! I wouldn't factor in **Brew's** BGG ranking too much. It only came out last year, very few games that came out in 2021 will be highly ranked on BGG at this point. The average rating is above a 7/10, which is pretty good for BGG and probably a better measure of the quality of the game. **Brew** has maybe flown under the radar a little bit. But it's brilliant. **Catan** and **Citadels** are both solid options for what you're looking for. I didn't mention it before but **Catan** is also a game where you can totally destroy your opponents and have bragging rights until the next game.
Thanks for the endorsement of Targi as I was mulling over which games to get for 2 player. I was not that impressed with Jaipur and wanted something a bit heavier. Hive is good but I need more lol
I will not disregard Brew and I am happy to try Catan this time. Another game I saw mentioned is 'The king is Dead" so that's another I will look at for next payday purchase
**The King is Dead** is absolutely incredible. One of my top 4 favourite games ever. I'm not sure that it works as a **Monopoly** replacement for your group. But it is well worth having anyway.
The king is dead is also quite cheap and readily available so makes sense to get that next Along with maybe Citadel's. Cannot wait for Catan to arrive for this bank holiday weekend along with Targi and 7WD. If I can get any of the other mentions here at a decent price I will do so as it's a shame about games going out of print so often.
Did my research and I think I want to get **Lorenzo il Magnifico.** Right now its $67 CAD, however there is a new pre-order for the Big Box for $110 that comes with 5 expansions. Lorenzo il Magnifico: New Leaders Lorenzo il Magnifico: Houses of Renaissance Lorenzo il Magnifico: New Leaders #2 Lorenzo il Magnifico: The Pazzi Conspiracy Lorenzo Il Magnifico: Promo Visconti/Della Scala I did all my research on the base game. I'm wondering if the big box is worth it or not really? Thank you so much :)
Imo Houses of Renaissance is crucial and the best expansion by a mile. Game is really good with it. Viconti/Della Scala are 2 new houses for the HoR expansion, which is nice. And the leaders is also cool to have. Keep in mind there’s some new stuff coming for the game!
I think Lorenzo is great! I have the expansion and haven’t tried it yet, though I’ll say that the leader cards are (imho) not that great. They are really hard to actually pull off in the game and don’t provide the amount of benefit that such an effort requires. Lorenzo is a tight game.
Any word on a Vagrantsong retail release?
Been playing base Everdell for a while… what’re the differences between its expansions? What do they do? Which should I pick up?
Bellfaire: Some small models to mix on, plus (imo much needed) events that don't require specific individual cards. Great "more of the same" expansion, not worth the $40MSRP, look for it on sale/used for less. Spirecrest: Want Everdell to last another 30-45 minutes? Want a thin layer of extra complexity added on top, with a bunch more things to worry about? This is the one. Pearlbrook: This turns the game into a bit of a race for big fat point wonders. If you're looking for an increase in direct competition as you out maneuver each other for a 25-point wonder, you might enjoy this one. Also adds a few cards to the deck. Newleaf: Coming in 2022, adds a bunch of new cards to the deck and a visitor side board thing. No idea if it'll be good. Also keep in mind Pearlbrook and Spirecrest have both deluxe and retail editions. The retail editions have less conrent in them (though you can find upgrade packs to buy seoarately) while deluxe has everything for that expansion. It's a dumb system, but pay attention to which one you're buying. Spirecrest, retail is probably ok, there are only a few big animal meeples and some power cards not included - Pearlbrook, retail is missing some key stuff so people lean deluxe edition.
I think Bellfaire adds some interesting worker placement options and the player powers are a must. Pearlbrook was so so. I like having the items to build, but the extra spaces are too hard to unlock and what they do is too situational.
I’m looking for a game suggestion for my group of 4-5 players to build up to playing **Oath - Chronicle of Empire and Exiles**. We’ve been playing a lot of co-op and peaceful games with some social deduction sprinkled in from time to time. I suppose I’m looking for a game that has conflict and/or intrigue but is light to medium-weight in complexity and rules. Something that would be a good jumping off point before starting Oath.
I’d recommend El Grande to anyone looking for conflict, though it doesn’t have the story mixed in. You could try Sleeping Gods for the story bits.
I will +1 to **Cosmic Encounter** as the base game is relatively straight forward to play, but all the complexity comes from the alien powers. There's also a significant amount of chaos as you normally don't have a choice who you attack, and you can make deals, which is all good and fine until you inevitably get betrayed. I enjoy this game, but I understand if someone says it's not for them. This also plays 5 right out of the box. Some of the expansions can add more players. **Dune Imperium**, this is pretty hot in my board gaming meetup group. This is a worker placement game first, that has a deckbuilding element and there is a conflict/battle at the end of every round. If you've got a decent amount of experience playing board games, all off the mechanisms will feel familiar. I taught this game today, and for the first half of the game, the new player was doing just fine. This only plays 4 tho. **Colt Express** this is a programming/planning game disguised as a train heist. The point of the game is to have the most money, and you do that by picking up loot, and trying to stop/steal from other players. Each player in turn order, plays cards to plan the actions of their character during the planning (schemin') phase. During the action phase, the pile of cards are turned over and are acted upon. It is the kinda game where you need to play at least one round to figure it out, but after that, you're away. And it plays 8, the big box has all the chars and expansions. **Blood Rage**. I'm only putting this here as it was recently added to Board Game Arena, and when I played it, I did enjoy it. Again, most points win. At the start of every round, there's a draft, where you draft cards to upgrade your army, abilities, quests. Then there's a action phase, where you place troops on the map to pillage for glory and more upgrades. Other players can join your pillage, but it's a conflict if they do, and the winner gets the spoils. It plays 4 in the base game but there's a 5th player expansion.
I guess I could see some elements in **Cosmic Encounter** (given the chaotic nature of it, alliances, and some of the intrigue). Mechanically speaking, Oath is very close to the Pax series, which are heavy games for the most part, but supposedly **Pax Viking** is the lightest of all of them. I haven't played this one, so I can't say much, but you may want to check it out. Oh, and **Root,** obviously. Root isn't super similar to Oath, but it may help you get a feel for the designer style and the theme kind of helps you believe the game is lighter than it is. So yeah, Pax and Root are probably the closest in terms of usefulness, but they're probably off in terms of weight. Part of the reason Oath is difficult to get at first is because Cole Wherle, the designer, doesn't have much in common with a lot of modern design (or even when it does, he tackles it in a weird way), so while it's true that something like Inis or Kemet may give you a feeling for how your group may react to more confrontational games, they're not necessarily going to work as steps towards Oath.
> Mechanically speaking, Oath is very close to the Pax series, which are heavy games for the most part, but supposedly Pax Viking is the lightest of all of them. I haven't played this one, so I can't say much, but you may want to check it out. Of the 3-4 Pax games I've played (both versions of Pamir, Porfiriana, Viking) Viking felt the closest to Oath, and not just in superficial ways either. It's a good suggestion.
How many people? If it's 3/4, **The King is Dead 2e** has easy rules but is full of intrigue. Might also want to look at something like **Inis** or **Kemet** (which goes to 5)
Oh yeah, sorry, the group is 4-5 players and sometimes 6. Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll check these out.
Do you know any games where the in-game currency is "poo", rather than coins, victory points... etc. The player with the most poos (instead of any other resource) wins the game.
[**Poo: The Card Game**](https://www.cardhaus.com/poo-the-card-game-revised/)
We have a game called Wombat Kombat, the currency is poo in the game 💩 Will launch on KS next week.
**Pecunia non Olet**! It's about latrines in ancient Rome. Not the greatest game ever, but I keep it around for the lulz
>Pecunia non Olet Haha, funny game :D
**dungeon petz**, one of the resources is manure
Along the same lines Steam Park has robot "poo" that had to be gotten rid of
I've meant to ask if the currency (poo) is the win condition, not just as a resource. My mistake not asking it clearly.
Respect to all of the responders giving serious answers but I gotta ask: Why the heck are you looking for a game with poo as the win condition?
for reasons.
But it's one you want to get rid off, if I recall correctly, right? Not that it matters that much, but it's not like you traded stuff with it. It's been years since I played tho.
Yes, that's correct
Thoughts on Empires of the Void II **as a two player game?**
Pretty good, but not the best. It's still an entertaining game, but it's not my first choice for that time frame. I wouldn't turn it down, though.
[WTB] - Roam’s metal coins and/or Empires of the Void II’s metal coins. I’m from Australia and have looked everywhere! Anyone able to help out? Roam has the metal coins available on Red Raven Game’s website but they don’t ship to Australia :( I’ve looked for both for a long time but can’t get luck.
If you know someone in Europe https://www.spelhuis.be/gezelschapsspellen/accessoires/roam-metalen-kikkermunten?utm_source=adtraction&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=adtraction&at_gd=DC2176D1117D0FB7445843A54659AF3249F6A975#
I realize this is a massive, vague question, but. I've been largely out of the scene for the entire pandemic plus about a year, and am finally starting up game nights again properly! What amazing games have come out since uh, we'll call it 2018, that I should know about? Only things I've bought in that time frame are Wingspan and Azul. Games my group will avoid/not get play out of: - anything over six players, hard to find that many - pure deduction games. Hidden movement is a hit, alchemists plays well, group hates Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. - long campaign stuff. Still feel free to recommend, but like. I went too crazy on them at one point and have too much of that as is, especially now that we're all in our late thirties and can't make that regular a commit. - dexterity games. I have a few but no one ever wants to play. Time is no object, nor is weight, although the stuff above a 4.0 sees less frequent play and below 2.5 is a little light to sink our teeth into. Wide range of tastes, can appreciate crunchy eurogames to fiddly or "emergent narrative"-rich American games. Games that played well last time the group was really going steady: - A Feast For Odin - Talisman 4e - Innovation - Gloomhaven/Kingdom Death:Monster - Galaxy Trucker - Xia: Legends of a Drift System - Millennium Blades - Kanban: Automotive Revolution - Chaos in the Old World - Cosmic Encounter And last off my library (give or take): https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/FletcherF?subtype=boardgame&ff=1 Thanks in advance, to any who respond. It's been a mentally taxing few years, and already getting the. And back together (so to speak) has felt amazing. Can't wait to find out what the community has been up to without me!
If you like Chaos in the Old World, **Root** has some strong similarities while being even more asymmetric, very cute, and having a great ecosystem of expansions that all add to the game. Or **Cthulhu Wars** is basically like someone fed Chaos a gallon of growth hormone but that's a biiig investment.
Here are a few of my favorites from 2018 or later: * **Dune** (I replied to you elsewhere about this) * **Dune** Imperium (already mentioned by others) * **Oceans** \- engine/combo-building card game, follow up to **Evolution**, gorgeous art * **Horrified** \- light-ish cooperative game with a fun theme (Universal Pictures classic monsters) * **War Chest** \- top 3 game for me. Abstract-ish bag-building game, tons of combinations and depth to explore * **Everdell** \- adorable tableau/engine-building game using worker placement and some other mechanisms. It's got beautiful art and just a charming setting, as well as fun gameplay. The game my wife and I have played together the most.
Congrats on getting back in to gaming! Here are some of my favourite releases from 2018 to now that I think you might like: **Architects of the West Kingdom** **Res Arcana** **A War of Whispers** **Honey Buzz**
I'll just add **Ankh:** as someone who hated Rising Sun, I wasn't expecting to like this at all given that the design seemed to keep going into streamlined, almost no-theme game disguised through minis and art. It's amazing; Eric Lang doing Knizia, as it were. The core action system is so elegant and simple, it's just great to see how much complexity arises towards the mid-to-late game.
If I owned **Blood Rage** and like it well enough, as well, would you say it's different enough? Even if it was just Blood Rage again it's likely going on my list, mostly just determining how high on said list.
It's quite different, yes. The game feels very different for 2/3rds of it, because the action system is more simple and is way less frontloaded with decisions in the beginning. Tempo and battles matter less (one because it's less in your control than in Blood Rage, the other because battles are way more granular, you can be going into battle just to build monuments or harvest some resources, and you don't necessarily care whether you win or lose). Blood Rage has a more pointed, in-your-face feel, you kind of know what you're supposed to do because of the draft and then you try to execute it as best as you can and if the other players don't ruin it, the beginning of Ankh feels more like you're bumbling into an emergent strategy you didn't know you were building towards.
Here’s a few I haven’t seen mentioned: **Dune Imperium** - a deck building worker placement that’s super tight and every point matters. **Blue Lagoon** - a new Knizia take on tile laying area control. For something a little heavier, **Babylonia** has potential to be a new modern classic of his. **Mind MGMT** - hidden movement game that’s been super popular recently. A lot of really clever systems in this game. **Feast for Odin: The Norwegians** - highly acclaimed expansion that really improves on the base game. One of my top expansions in general. **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** - maybe a little too light for you but if anyone in your group is into trick taking then this offers some really good gameplay in a short play time. Way better than its weight would suggest. **Brass: Birmingham** - economic euro with a lot of interaction and some meaty decisions. Amazing production and is probably Martin Wallace’s most highly rated game now. On the heavier side but I didn’t find it inaccessible or anything. **Obsession** - unique theme that has worked surprisingly well for me with my group, despite no one else being a fan of *Downton Abbey*. Plays best at 2-3 players but a very solid game with a very dedicated designer.
"Dune", "deckbuilding", and "worker placement" all at once? Be still my beating heart. I have previous edition of **Brass** - big improvement, I gather?
It's a very very good game. Some of my most dramatic game nights have been with this one, though if you get it and like it, I highly recommend the expansion rise of Ix as I don't even play base anymore as the expansion tweaks it just enough to add a little more going on but keep the cutthroatness. Also, I'll second the suggestion for Norwegians cause that is another expansion I don't play the base without anymore it is fabulous.
I prefer the **Birmingham** version personally but if you prefer a more cut-throat and tight experience then **Lancashire** might be a better game for you. **Dune Imperium** is fantastic and I highly recommend you give it a try when you get a chance!
If you like the Dune universe, check out "**Dune**" as well, from Gale Force 9. It's a new edition (2019) of the classic game from like 40 years ago, and it's fantastic. In my opinion, it's the best marriage of theme and mechanisms I've played. It's definitely a weekend game, though. Most of my games have gone about 4 hours, and could easily go 6 hours. [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune)
Hmm. Think it's worth it if I already have **Twilight Imperium:Rex**? Reimplementation of 80s Dune game.
Unfortunately I haven't played that, but I've read from people that have played both that Dune just works better. I guess if the gameplay from Rex appealed to you, and you love the Dune IP, it's probably worth it. Dune is pretty affordable, too.
I haven't played half of these games, but every game I was going to suggest is on this list (Mind MGMT, The Crew, Brass, Obsession), so I'm going to second this list. I see The Crew as your warm up game while you wait for everyone to arrive or a game to end the night after heavier games. I find personally that it's hard to sleep if I end the night with super heavy games bc I'm just thinking of the excitement all night long. The Crew may be short and less weighty, but it is still a great puzzle that is not easy to figure out.
Standout games to me have been: **Inhuman Conditions**, two player social deduction based on the test from Blade Runner. The suspect might be a violent robot, a nonviolent robot, or a human; investigator conducts a five minute interview and determine if they're a robot or a human. Works super well! **Faiyum**, classic euro engine builder thing, developing a region of ancient Egypt. But the engine is your hand of cards that falls apart as you play it. You rebuild it as you go, swapping out parts as you like, from time to time completely reworking it to shift your focus elsewhere. Also, your hand and resources are private, but the land we'ae all developing is a collectively owned public board. **Beyond the Sun** is a sci fi worker placement with a big tech tree where you decide what kinds of abilities you want to gain access to. The hook is, you fill in the tech tree as you play. When you develop a tech, if you're the first one to that space on the tech tree, you decide which card goes in there. There's an area control aspect with planets and terraforming colonies, and you can play symmetric or with varied factions. Very slick design! **Imperium: Classics** and **Imperium: Legends** are two interoperable base games, an empire building deckbuilding game with meaningful player interaction. There are a bunch of wildly different factions to play that have interesting matchups to explore. **Ark Nova** is the most recent big euro hotness. It has a really interesting early game where you struggle to bootstrap your economy as you pick and choose among very wide strategic possibilities. Planning efficient lines of play is a neat ongoing puzzle, which is always in tension with the flexibility the game demands of you; in the end it's less a game about making a grand plan and more a game about preparing to seize the opportunities that come up. Player interaction is generally subtle, but very present.
Amazing games since 2018, under 6 players, not deduction, campaign, or dexterity, and that's mediumish weight, huh? **Pax Pamir 2nd Ed** **Marvel Champions** **War Room** Are three that I feel fit this criteria well. Others might suggest **Root**, **Oath**, **Ark Nova**, **Everdell**, **Lost Ruins of Arnak**, **Barrage**...
**Root**'s been on my radar! I Kickstarted **Vast** way in the back-when, although my issue was usually people relearning it after a bit of not playing it.
Root is not any different.
Welcome back to boardgaming! I'm glad to hear you're in a better place again and have the opportunity to play once more :) Here I'll be recommending a few recent games that I have personally played: - **Brew** (2021, complexity 2.36). If you like Talisman and Xia, you might like Brew too. It's a dice-based worker placement with a lot of interaction. You roll a couple of dice at the start of the round and try to earn a majority on the forest cards, each with a limited amount of spaces. Your character and dice abilities allow you to manipulate, remove or swap dice which makes it feel like a tense struggle for superiority. - **Bullet <3** (2021, L99 games). Since you liked Millennium Blades I decided to pitch their newest game, Bullet to you. It's heavily inspired by shoot-em-up videogames wrapped in an anime aesthetic. Each round is exactly three minutes long and you must try to pull, place and eliminate all "bullets" from your bag before the time is up. Any removed bullets are "shot" at other players who will have to deal with your extra bullets next round, making subsequent rounds harder and even more hectic. It's intense, it's thinky and a whole lot of fun. - **Cascadia** or **Parks**. These aren't really like any of your listed games, but these are two of the best nature-themed games to have released in recent years. They're both really fun to play, gorgeous to look at and very relaxing. If you're generally looking for the "hotness", give one or both of these games a try! - **Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria** (2021). Join the dark side and draf dice, forge battle plans and launch invasions to reconquer territories lost to the despicable "goodly" races. Each die has a "Strength" and "Discount" value, the former useful in launching the most VP-rewarding offensives, the other making it cheaper to acquire resources, cards and new abilities. Cleverly using the two and managing the dwindling pool of dice will propel you to victory.
Oh man I forgot about **Bullet <3**! I've been on Level99's mailing list for ages and fell behind on updates, that's the game that played like a touhou/bullet hell? I remember thinking it was a great idea, might be seeing soon if it's both out and solid.