What board game are you playing - chat thread

[frenchfancy]

I thought it would be nice to continue on the discussion about board games.

Our favourite game is 7 wonders.

Our favourite card game is Bohnanza.

We are currently learning to play Puerto Rico.

Anyone else.

ooooh I didn't know Splendor was good with 2 players, vikjul, I had it on my wish list for when we 3 play together, but now I shall bump it to the top of my list! I haven't played Agricola at all, so would be interested to hear what the 2 player one is like. I don't mind strategy games as such, it's just chess that I can't get on with, not sure why.

I had Othello when I was little! I remember using the counters for tiddlywinks I think, certainly not to play the game because I don't think I ever have. I wonder where my set's got to??

Thank you for the Casino recommendation, I'll look that up :)

Funghi looks really nice (would never say that about them IRL ), one of the other ones that comes up related to that is Parade which has the Cheshire Cat on the front. I love Alice (my diary this year is the British Library 150yrs of AIW one, soooo beautiful!) so always on the lookout for anything related.

Patchwork looks good too, although I prefer the look of Marrakech by Gigamic. Those little fabric rugs are just adorable! It's one on my shortlist for Christmas (since the choice is mine this year). Others I'm really strongly thinking of are Tokkaido (anything Japanese themed is instantly attractive to me, I'm an anime fan), Great Fire Of London (but it seems to be much cheaper in the Museum of London gift shop than anywhere else - I really regret not buying it there now!), maybe Tsuro but that might be too similar to Indigo. I also love Flashpoint but I want to get something that's totally new to us all as the Christmas game.

I am absolutely shit at chess. It's funny, it's often thought of as something that people with ASD (like myself) are more likely to be good at (and certainly DS seems to be going that way) but I just can't do it. I am good at other strategy/planning type games but trying to figure out all the different possible moves the opponent could make just addles my brain! It's like trying to mind read, and figure out what they'll do!

The game shop let me swap the games we'd got as duplicates :) really good of them since we didn't have the receipt.

I didn't really go in with a plan for what we'd swap for, so I ended up making a decision fairly spontaneously. Ended up with Waggle Dance and Hey That's My Fish! :)

Good to hear they let you exchange them Fuzzpig

I made the mistake of mentioning the minecraft card game to ds1, that someone talked about earlier on this thread. So it looks like that will have to go to the top of my list now! Still I'd rather play that than the electronic version, which I leave to dh.

We've loved Splendour and Codenames with adults, Enchanted Forest and Sleeping Queens with DD (6) and Dotty Dinosaurs, endlessly, with DS (3)!

All time favourite is Killer Bunnies, with as many expansion packs as possible.

When do you all manage to play games. DH and I are too knackered after work and DC bedtimes these days to ever play just the two of us. We play when we have guests (rarely!).

We got exploding kittens and love letter for xmas and both have been a hit. We also got castle panic and indigo but haven't got round to playing them yet.

Firbidden island and gubs are also very popular here.

Tried a quick game of Hey that's my fish last night. Quite good but think it'll be better with more than 2 players :)

Oh and as we had a game night with my DSCs we have started a spreadsheet of game scores. :o And we have decided the schedule for choosing what games to play.

Might need to increase our collection of games that can have up to 6 players, or invest in some expansions. Many of ours are only up to 4.

Also, does anyone have a really nice version of Battleships? I'd like to teach the DCs to play (with the aim of then going on to do the Periodic Table version that I keep seeing on Facebook!) but I am a game snob would prefer a nice sturdy version than a travel type set.

Love this thread. We got sleeping queens, Jaipur and Robinson Crusoe for Christmas. Sleeping queens and Jaipur have been huge hits with everyone (Kids are 4 and 6, and need some support in places. The 4 year old insists on collecting pink in Jaipur, which is far from there best strategy, but she still enjoys playing in a team).

The game we were looking forwards to most was Robinson Crusoe. We keep bring attracted to these complex scenario games, but they're never the ones we get most play out of. Crusoe is good. I do like the game ending because I got eaten by a panther, but I don't have that many evenings with two hours or so to spare. By the end of a game, I'm always falling asleep and just wishing it would finish.

I'm very interested in the sound of pandemic legacy. I'm a big pandemic fan but I struggle to get my husband to play as he thinks he's been there, done that with it. We don't have the budget for it at the moment though. Has anyone played any of the expansions, as I've heard these change the game from good to amazing?

Standard Carcassonne £15 on Amazon ;-)

I'll be able to play it in the flesh, rather than on the app from tomorrow

Gloom is still fun, but I'm starting to feel the need for an expansion to get some more variety.

Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert and Pandemic, like apparently everyone else. You can get a bit more mileage out of Island by using the official alternative island layouts published with the German edition, as shown here. If that kind of mechanic still appeals, it seems that Dead Men Tell No Tales plays like a hypothetical third Forbidden Pirate Ship (you lay out new tiles rather than remove or shift them) crossed with Flash Point. The ship's on fire. The pirates are undead.

Dead of Winter. Zombies! Ill-equipped survivors. Maybe a traitor. It starts to shine when everyone focuses on their own secret objectives ahead of the good of the Colony.

Small World is on order. I was getting tired of cooperative games. Flying Ratmen and Diplomatic Trolls here I come.

Cheaty Mages (by Seiji 'Love Letter' Kanai) arrived this morning. I'd get Love Letter too, but I don't really like the art in any of the many versions of the game, and it's easy enough to put together a makeshift set using regular playing cards.

Carcassonne at £15 is very tempting - cheaper than buying a tablet with a big enough screen to make the app less frustrating to use that's for sure.

Everyone else is playing Qwirkle which I found forgotten in the spare room. I don't like it. I think the scoring system doesn't quite work. Also in the spare room was a copy of Ingenious (Einfach Genial) which has exactly one tile missing.

We have spent the morning trying to work out how to play Agricola. It looks like it will be a great game once we work it out.

During our visit to the game shop yesterday we also bought Citadels and Sabateur which we also need to learn.

Does anyone else find the learning phase frustrating? We love playing games as a family but when we are learning a new game we inevitably end up fighting.

Hi all :) yes it can be frustrating trying to learn a new game! It makes me want to retreat to an old favourite sometimes.

Haven't played much for ages (although I did, as usual, take the Uno cards for me and DS to play while we waited outside DD's dance class today) - been such a stressful few weeks but my DSD and my BF are coming round tonight so hopefully we will play something. Haven't even tried my new games, Waggle Dance and Aquarius.

Got the Carcassone for £15 very happy as been on my list for ages not opened yet as also bought camel up and gubs ..
probably being a bit dense but havent cracked gubs yet was trying as 2 players will need to have another go..
Camel Up- great really enjoyed it from the start and its getting better the more we play
Had a good game refresh this year thanks to the games thread before Christmas..

Forbidden Island - Dh really likes I like - DS not proving so keen on co-operative although getting better - never played co-operative before and not sure how much play this has... may try the firefighting one next but also the extensions mentioned above..

Ticket to ride - all like I really like the fact its changing the - we only just started getting extra journey cards- ds (10) likes it but finds it hard as is losing by lots at the moment so need to try and work out a better game that suits him..
Go Sushi- nice little filler
Love Letters- great hit with all ages so far...

on wish list 7 wonders, firefighting co-op, jaipur, small world, dixit, bahangan (sp?)

Glad you got the Carcassonne at £15 Averythinline, it's back up to £21.55

We've had a splurge & bought a few new games recently - excited newbies - and definitely had the learning the rules / game problem. It's taken me about three weeks to tackle Carcassonne, as I was scared of the scoring. Been playing it for months on the app and didn't have to worry about scoring . .. . . turns out I should of paid more attention as I didn't realise I got double points for completed cities DOH Only doing the very basic set and think I've cracked the scoring . . . . .. might take another month to summon the courage to consider fields

We've learnt 4 new games in the last couple of weeks. It is brain frying and exhausting trying to plough through the rule books.

We've managed it, by agreeing the first two or three games aren't games, but attempts to learn the game and are happy to give up when we can't take any more First we watch two or three reviews / run through videos. Attempt game. Watch another video. Attempt again. The first video viewings are like reading the rule books and too much to take in. It takes one or two attempts, to understand what's supposed to be going on and then after an attempt watching again to see where we were going wrong and correct ourselves.

The games were :-

Takenoko LOVE IT.
Ivor The Engine need a few more plays to really get to grips with it, but seems like a nice game.
Pandemic LOVE IT, but find it really stressful and can only play one game at a time. It's like watching a heavy thriller or horror film!
Colt Express really enjoyed it, but slightly disappointed with tears on the train when popping the pieces out, as I was very careful.
Grand Austria Hotel LOVE IT when we eventually managed to play understanding all the symbols, cards, actions and tiles.

We also played Tsuro in a cafe which was nice, but think we'd prefer the sea version to own.

Can't check the price now, as I've bought it, but Forbidden Island ios was £1.49 on App Store, due to the release of Forbidden Dessert.

After a two player game next, so been researching those. . . .. but it's never ending and soooeeee hard to make a decision

Good to hear about Takenoko, it's on my "next big board game to buy" list!

Dh and I have been playing a lot of Battle Line lately - it's brilliant, highly recommended 2-player! We played so much Jaipur last year that it's nice with something different (but if you don't already have Jaipur I would really recommend that).

We've also played Machi Koro which is good fast-paced fun, DS10 likes it a lot!

Bringing Zooloretto Mini and BraveRats with us on holiday next week, both seem relatively simple and fun so I am hoping that they will go over well with both DS10 and DD7.

Also have Fungi (2-player), Port Royal, Parade and Guillotine stashed away as card games to bring out later in the year. Has anyone played any of these?

BuildersBum - you have almost exactly described how we learn new games, you only missed out the odd storming off But it has helped immensely to view the first two or three goes as only trial runs. And thank goodness for YouTube tutorials.

Inspired by this thread I've rather indulged myself with some new games recently. I play mostly with ds1, so am really interested in games for two players or good for two as well as for more. Always looking for more recommendations to add to my wishlist

We've just started Agricola all creatures big and small - which I got from this thread, thanks to whoever recommended it, because while it has definitely tested our new games learning curve so far, we love it. The animals are so cute, it's very nicely made, which makes the game playing a nice experience.

I've just bought Fungi and Citadels too, but we haven't opened those yet. We've played a couple of rounds of the Minecraft card game, which ds1 didn't think was as good as the electronic version, although he did quite enjoy it and has agreed he'll pay it again so it can't be that bad . That one was quite easy to learn, compared to Agricola all creatures.

DS1 got Guillotine for his birthday last year, it's not our favourite game but it's very straightforward and quite good fun. You lay out in a line 12 cards/aristocrats on their way to the guillotine, each worth different points, and take turns collecting the next in line/chopping off their heads. There are action cards too, which can change the order of the cards. All together you play three rounds/days of executions. Person with the most points, wins. The concept seems to amuse ds1.

I love Carcassone, it reminds me of all the matching games we played with toddler ds1, but in a sophisticated grown up sort of way, of course!

Played Dominion on tuesday (looooove that game)

I have played Guillotine, it's good fun :)

I got The Castles of Burgundy for Mothers Day

Just bought some little coloured ziplock bags off ebay to organise the pieces

Had a look at Battleline, but I don't like the graphics at all. I am so shallow!

Fungi has gone on the WishList though.

Eventually got OH to play Carcassonne - I'd put him off by telling him to play the Solitaire version on the app in the summer before the game and he'd really disliked it - now he's really into it! I think one of the Tom Vasel reviews raving about it helped too

What are your favourite Carcassonne expansion packs?

crankyagnes Glad to hear you're enjoying Agricola ACBAS, I think that I might have been the one who mentioned it upthread. We haven't actually played it yet, I have opened the box and looked through all the rules and components, but still feel a bit intimitated... Sounds as though the effort would be rewarding though!

Good to hear that people like Guillotine! Look forward to trying it further on!

Buildersbum Don't be put off by the look of Battleline! It is an incredibly tense and fun game, with a perfect combination of quick setup, simple rules and depth of play; our favourite 2-player game by far. I am actually contemplating buying a second copy just in case...

Very curious about Castles of Burgundy, but I think it might be a big step up in complexity in relation to what we play now. But that and San Juan are on my long term wish list...

We don't have Carcassonne but I bought the IOS version recently and really enjoy it.

Does anyone have and enjoy Biblios by the way? It's a game that gets loads of praise as a fantastic 2-4 player short game, but we just find it boring and pointless after a handful of plays. Probably need to give it another chance...

Oh, and ds10 and dd7 both like Zooloretto Mini (renamed now to Zooloretto Junior I think). It's a streamlined version of Zooloretto, like the simple card game Coloretto but with a theme. Each player has a zoo with three fields that they try to fill with animal tiles from different delivery trucks, but you can only have one animal type in each field, otherwise the extra animal types go into your barn and points are deducted. It's a sort of push your luck mechanism, where at each turn you need to consider whether to try to load as many useful animals as possible into a delivery truck and risk someone else taking it, whether to settle for fewer animals or whether to perhaps contaminate a delivery truck that looks interesting to another player. And if you get a fertile male and a fertile female you get animal babies! Good fun from about 6 and up I would say!

Pandemic currently £13.94 at Amazon!

....aaaaaaaand back up to £24.