Alternative gaming Discussion - Board Games

[Chadders87]

I recently got grief from the other half about time spent playing games. After failing to get her into gaming and with me failing to enjoy "Meet the Bride", "Big Brother" or "Made in Chelsea" we have reached a compromise.

No not seperation. Board games.

Not wanting to play monopoly, yahtzee, cluedo etc or any of the dull clones I have bee searching for something different. Sadly Tesco, Argos, Entertainer, WH Smiths etc all seem to think Monopoloy is the worlds greatest and only game choice.....with 8 variants in one store alone! And nothing different or exciting.

Finally settled for Pandemic off amazon, as all the reviews state it is easy to learn and is great for 2-players. After this I am hoping to level her up to "Civilization"...

Ignoring the requirement for 2-players, theres quite a few board games out there which I have never even heard of: Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkin (I wish this was 2-player!).

Anyone else played any "non-mainstream" board games they can suggest, especially if it is for 2+ players.

Current Suggetsions:
Pandemic Purchased - 7/10
Civilization
Discworld: Ankh Morpork
Discworld: Guards, Guards!
Discworld: Witches
Discworld: Thud (Forgot I Owned this. Good game!)
Gears of War
Arkham Horror (Call of Cthulu)
Ticket to Ride Purchased - 9/10
Forbidden Island
Dominion
Citadels Purchased - 4/10
Dobble
Elder Sign
Settlers of Catan
Carcasonne Purchased - 8/10
Munchkin
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small Purchased - 8/10
Smallworld
Rummikub
Sequence
The London Game
Stratego
Blokus
Pathfinder
Cards Against Humanity
Savage Worlds

[Ferral]

There's loads of decent board games aimed at adults, we are going to be getting a few for me and my wife to sit and play. Arkham Horror is a good one to get as it has additional scenarios that you can get for it which ads to replay value.

Few off my wishlist that I have seen positive reviews for :

Terry Pratchett Discworld :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terry-Pratch...=ITCCTZ2I8Q27D

Gears of War :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gears-War-Th...=I8ACT2851RU9D

Arkham Horror (Call of Cthulhu) :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arkham-Horro...=IAE18AL16KJ2E

[kalniel]

Arkham horror is great, quite like pandemic

Another one along similar lines but slightly more different is:
Forbidden Island:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gamewright-3...and+board+game

A fantastic competitive one on different lines but really fun for two is Dominion:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rio-Grande-G...words=dominion

Both are well rated, but are also mainstream I guess, not sure how non-mainstream you want.

[Dooms]

Hmmm interesting. I love board games but the issue is the 'big ones' all require more than 2 players but some of these looks pretty good. Watching this space!

[Gerrard]

Wil Wheaton does a YouTube series called "TableTop" you could watch to get some ideas, but does always have 4 players, so not all will be applicable for just 2.

http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop/

Alternatively, you could see if there are any "board game cafes" near you where you can basically pay to enter and play any games they have to see if you like it or not. For example, my closest one in Oxford is: -

http://www.thirstymeeples.co.uk/

Over New Years, one of my friends brought "Augustus" which was pretty popular with the girls; the fact that it is a bit like Bingo I'm sure had nothing to do with it! However that was with 6, so not sure if it would be as entertaining with just 2 people.

[Ttaskmaster]

Try one called Citadels - Works for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 quite well and is easy to learn, but can be as devious as you like!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadels_%28card_game%29
We got this in late November, but have played a good 30 games of it in that short space of time!

[Gerrard]

Funny enough, Citadels was the other game brought last week. We only had a couple of games with 4 players, but I agree that for such a simple game it can take a while to play as you guess and second guess other people's moves.

[SeriousSam]

There is a Discworld game that is sort of Monopoly with knives... though is probably best with more than 2 players.

[Zak33]

what you need is Dobble

it's a "kids" card game.. but it's devilishly fast and uber good fun for adults too.

2 or more players

Well worth owning.

Also... good old Ludo.

[snedger]

There's loads of decent board games aimed at adults, we are going to be getting a few for me and my wife to sit and play. Arkham Horror is a good one to get as it has additional scenarios that you can get for it which ads to replay value.

Few off my wishlist that I have seen positive reviews for :

Terry Pratchett Discworld :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terry-Pratch...=ITCCTZ2I8Q27D

Gears of War :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gears-War-Th...=I8ACT2851RU9D

Arkham Horror (Call of Cthulhu) :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arkham-Horro...=IAE18AL16KJ2E

The Discworld: Ankh Morpork reviews do make it sound like a game worth going for.
There's also Witches, Guards! Guards! and Thud - based on the hugely high prices of the latter 2 games, I would strongly recommend nabbing a set if found in a charity shop.
Cheers for expanding my Discworld universe!

[KeyboardDemon]

I'm a big fan of Ticket to Ride, we have the board game, I have on my Steam account and on my XBox and when I had one, I had it on my iPhone too. That's how much I like it.

[scaryjim]

Funny you should ask, just got back from a weekend gaming convention last night

Discworld: Ankh Morporh is great fun, but also have a look at the new Discworld game, The Witches. Plays well with two, really simple mechanic, lots of fun but quite competitive and also partially cooperative.

Arkham Horror is fun but eats time like nobody's business: a full game can last all day. If you like the Cthulu mythos, I'd personally go for Elder Sign, which is a lot faster to play (1 - 2 hours) and balances really nicely for 2 people. There's an expansion called Unseen Forces which adds a lot to the game and is worth investing in (Elder Sign has been played on Tabletop: worth watching the episode to see if you like the look of it).

There's a version of Carcasonne called The Castle which is specifically for 2 people and I really enjoy. Ticket to Ride also has a card game version, which is good for 2 and is both fun and quick. Catan can be played with 2 players but you need a special set of rules for it (which may be available online), and Munchkin can also be played with 2 but can get really vicious (I mean, even more vicious than Munchkin usually is, and it's usually pretty bad!).

But why worry about 2 player games? Gaming night is a great time to get friends round! We have a regular roleplaying night once a week, but we also have people round once or twice a month just to play games. We usually cook dinner, break out soft drinks (and alcoholic ones for those who want), lots of snack foods, and have a great evening. It's oine of the most social hobbies I can think of, and well worth getting in to.

Oh, and as an aside - while I've linked to Amazon above, please please please find your local friendly game store (LFGS) and try to buy things from them. These are almost always local independent businesses, they will almost certainly be full of socially awkward people who will either not look at you or be massively over-enthusiastic about the game they think you should buy, and they are the life-blood of board-gaming as a hobby. They'll talk to you about games, quite possibly have copies you can try or already have people playing games in store, and give you excellent advice. Support your LFGS If you're not sure where yours is, feel free to PM me - I may well be able to put you in touch with both a LFGS and some friendly gamers in your area!

EDIT: as you may have guessed, I'm a huge gaming geek - any questions, just ask: or check out boardgamegeek.com which knows everything about every game ever played

[Ambersuccubus]

Boardgaming is much more social than computer gaming, so I would second Scaryjim's notion of sometimes adding to your 2 person sessions by inviting friends round. That said, you could also check out Agricola's baby brother All Creatures Big and Small, which is a specific 2 player variant, or look at Smallworld, which is a more vicious, fantasy, Risk-type game that uses boards scaled to the number of players...

[Kumagoro]

Rummicub or whatever it's called can be played two player.

I use to like diplomacy which is best played at least 4 player but it would still be good 2 player but obviously no diplomacy then.

[virtuo]

Rummicub or whatever it's called can be played two player.

I started replying yesterday but it got lost in my jungle of tabs.

I played rummikub for the first time over Christmas - it's certainly not a game you can mix skill levels - I got destroyed by 3 generations of the missuses family (and I'm usually pretty good at board games). I can imagine it'd be quite good fun if you are both new to it.

Ticket to Ride is my favourite board game, well worth getting - although it's more fun with 4 players rather than 2.

I have recently been playing a lot of "Sequence" - it's ideal for 2-3 players and can be played in teams for multiples of those. It's a kind of card based connect-4/noughts-and-crosses game. Good fun and doesn't drag on for too long - 15-20 minute games usually.

[finlay666]

Ticket to ride is good fun, as is Fluxx and variants on it (suitable for 2+ players)

A lot of them are designed for more players but a lot of the card based ones work. Munchkin would work but would be very frustrating with you working against each other and dull working together