What's Your Top 5 Favorite Board Games?

Asking ONLY about "at home" games. No Casino games! No Computer/Online games (many of which--like Poker are rigged).

• Chess is by far my favorite board game, as it is one of the few that has no element of chance (card draw, throw of dice, etc.). Chess trains you to think in ways that other games do not.

• Second would have to be Poker, but only at a table with friends, and not with expensive chip buy-ins. (I define "not expensive" as no one can lose more than $50). Online games are rigged.

• My third favorite would have to be Risk. But it has to be played with the original, old style wooden pieces. Risk brings out the best in people. :devil:

• Fourth would be Monopoly, again with old style wooden houses and hotels.

• Fifth would be Scrabble, also with old style wooden squares.

I'd say that my top 5ish at the moment are:

The Princes of Florence

Dominion

Twilight Struggle and 1960:The Making of the President. They are both great 2-player games with very similar gameplay but different themes.

Scotland Yard. Yay for older games.

Space Alert. Awesome co-op game.

Othello - a game that takes about twenty seconds to set up and twenty seconds to learn, yet becomes remarkably complex and elusive. Unlike most other board games, the way the board looks at any given time means absolutely nothing about who is actually winning or losing - a player can have nearly all the pieces on the board, and a single move can suddenly plunge them into unrecoverable loss.

Yinsh - very similar to Othello, just as quick to set up and learn, but with added elements that introduce offensive/defensive styles of play, cranking up the complexity that much more.


Sorry - The original "revenge" game, best played with the alternate "poker" rules where each player holds five cards, which adds the work-with-what-you're-given strategy play nicely.

Fluxx - actually a card game, but certainly worth mentioning for its completely out of the ordinary style of play; the game has no set rules or goals - the rules and goals are on the cards, so as you play, the game itself changes radically. You may be playing a game where you have several dozen cards, or no cards at all, you may be playing someone elses cards, etc. And you might be moments from winning only to have the goal of the game change (and you can of course change it on someone else). It's a game with all the organization of a cloud or puff of smoke, and just as unpredictable.

It all went downhill once I discovered Settlers of Catan. It's perhaps one of the most perfectly conceived and executed games ever. I've never really been a fan of board games, but this one is so well done...

Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, Risk, Monopoly, and Chess would be my choices. If betting's allowed, poker's most definitely in.

- FITP

Diplomacy

Cities & Knights
Settlers of Catan
Zombie Fluxx
Apples to Apples
Chess

chess
backgammon
checkers
chinese checkers
ouija board...this one time..and stuff started flying...and its all lies...hahha
ok, no, no 5. Monopoly.

trivial pursuit
pictionary
scattergories
monopoly
scrabble


as i kid i liked:

sorry
life
payday
stratego.

never got into yatzhee.

Monopoly by far

Robo-Rally is the perhaps the best board game I've played in awhile. It's also extremely demanding from a mental perspective. I grew up on stuff like Star Fleet Battles so I like a challenge.

Uecker for cards.

Never cared for 'Risk' because of dice throw randomness, but Eddy Izzard made perhaps the funniest one-liners I've ever heard regarding the game: "Hitler never played Risk as a child"

Preferred Stratego as a kid. Beat all my teachers in gradeschool at Chess before I lost interest. Realized that the player who moves first should either always win or stalemate.

Settlers of Catan is such a great gateway game.

Fire and Axe is a lot of fun
The Hunt for Dracula is good if you can round up exactly 3 or 5 players
Powergrid is fun

German-style board games ftw.

Blasterman: you clearly didn't get very far in chess, then. It's far more challenging when played against opponents who don't suck. The first move is a minimal advantage (possibly a disadvantage) against any serious player.

BloodBowl (american football crossed with Warhammer)
Risk
Catan
Trivial Pursuit
Monopoly

I don't have 5, as I only play 1, but it's no contest:

MEGA Monopoly.

Yes, a revision to an old beloved game actually came out better than the original for once. We've been addicted to this for about 2 years now; really makes the game faster paced instead of the drawn-out old version which commonly takes 3+ hours to finish a single game.

csa said:

Blasterman: you clearly didn't get very far in chess, then. It's far more challenging when played against opponents who don't suck.

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First, how do you know my opponents 'sucked'? I wasted a lot of money on the latest and greatest chess computers after getting tired of whipping all my upper classmen. Chess is after all nothing more than an algorithm.

Next, I also lost interest because I grew more interested in chasing girls. Something perhaps "you didn't get too far in."

Risk
Battletech
Titan - the Arena
Settlers of Catan
Magic: The Gathering

and RoboRally, but I seldom play as the women don't like it.

"lie, cheat, and steal" about 25 years old and discontinued. its a game about politics.

scrabble
chinese checkers
monopoly

Lux, when I saw this thread Risk was the first thing that came to my mind. The intense strategy games where there is more going on in the game than what can be seen on the board are by far my favorite. It takes a certain type of person to really appreciate this game. I have found that for most its just to involved and that they find it long and tiresome, and for me the game is only good with seasoned players. The kind that will play aggressively and that I don't want me to feel sorry for them when we play. The only downside to this is I have had adults become almost angry with this game, one guy even flipped the board closed, hurling all the tiny soldiers to their death . I still liked playing with him though because he was good.

I do like Monopoly, and at one time I was an avid chess player, even did a local tournament when I was in middle school, and went to a state championship (where our winning streak came to a halt).

Another game that I enjoy playing with aggressive players (a group from my church) is Sorry. Its a simple game but the dynamic of it makes my brain think outside the box a bit.

I guess I dont have a 5th for a board game.

EDIT: If you are including card games I guess I do have one other. Its a far less know game but Hand and Foot is a card game my family plays regularly. It takes 6 decks of cards if I recall, and can be played with 2-4 people in singles or partners. The game plays a bit like a super elite group solitaire is the only way I can think to explain it. What I enjoy about it is its another game where some of the strategy takes place in subtle ways. Its fairly easy for new people to learn because there is a far greater amount of the game played on the table vs a poker game where only 5% of what is taking place in the game visible.

Backgammon, some might argue it is all about the dice but its just a sick game.

Poker 50 or 100 buy in nothing crazy

Gin nickel a pt, can add up, hope u have a good partner. Think the movie The Flamingo Kid with matt dillon

Monopoly greed at it's finest

Risk an amazing strategy game, are you one of those people who pitches a tent in aus?

If gin is thrown out scategories

keeftea said:

Risk an amazing strategy game, are you one of those people who pitches a tent in aus?

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LOL, I have been that guy, and I have killed that guy ( and a few times lost to that guy).

I find that the only disadvantage to this is if you need to crash the boarders of the people in US or South America, because it didn't get done by others, it can be a long haul in the beginning to get from Aus to get the job done.

In a game with advanced players I have found Australia to be a decent starting place, but North or sometimes South America are my preference.

I almost never start in Africa to many borders for not enough reward. And Europe is with out a doubt the hardest to control ( like in real life I guess) so the ONLY time I will start from there is if its me VS a group of noobs, that way the game is still a bit of a challenge.

Only really one i guess, Texas Hold Em!