Best board games

[Leah]

my sister's MALE friends do enjoy the Barbie Game.......,

[The Burgomaster]

Here are a few suggestions:

DOMINANT SPECIES: Each player chooses an animal class (mammal, insect, bird, etc.) and tries to adapt and survive in a changing environment.





TWILIGHT STRUGGLE: One player represents the U.S., the other represents the Soviet Union.  Each player plays cards representing historic events that influenced either democracy or communism or both in order to gain the most support from other countries.




DUST: Sort of like Risk, only better.

[venomx]

DUST: Sort of like Risk, only better.

That looks cool as well!

[bob]

I'm not sure if this counts but Scatagories is great.

[Couchtr26]

Hero Quest



Key to the Kingdom



AVGN recently talked about it but I remember playing.  I always hated it as it tended to dissolve into winning by any means necessary. 

Trivial Pursuit



I always found it rather interesting but then got older and it lost some of its magic.  It did get me remembering useless trivia.   Yeah!

Fortress America



Weird one like many war simulation games.  The United States is invaded on three fronts and the three forces cooperate to eliminate the US. 

The Burgomaster you have some interesting games there.  I haven't seen any of them and they all seem like interesting strategic games. 

[Psycho Circus]

Anyone else ever find the kids on the boxes and TV ads really irritating? They look like they're going to p**s their pants. I know it's to make the games look more exciting so they'll get purchased but does anyone seriously get that excited over a board game? That's just what they are "bored" games.

[Flick James]

Anyone else ever find the kids on the boxes and TV ads really irritating? They look like they're going to p**s their pants. I know it's to make the games look more exciting so they'll get purchased but does anyone seriously get that excited over a board game? That's just what they are "bored" games.

You're cracking me up, Circus, because I know what you're talking about. Sometimes it's not just the kids. Sometime the box has a family, mom, dad, two kids, playing the game and looking like they're, as you say, p**sing themselves from excitement. I wouldn't let it annoy you too much. I recommend seeing the comedy in it.

[venomx]

After playing Monopoly for an hour I get sick of it!

[Rev. Powell]

Diplomacy - this game was ridiculously fun, but you needed a full 7 players to get up a decent game.  Set in pre-WWI in Europe.  There was no luck element to the combat, it was a simple numbers game.  The tricky part was making and breaking alliances, and selectively betraying the other players.  Like the name says, the game was won or lost through diplomacy. 

[InformationGeek]

Anyone else ever find the kids on the boxes and TV ads really irritating? They look like they're going to p**s their pants. I know it's to make the games look more exciting so they'll get purchased but does anyone seriously get that excited over a board game? That's just what they are "bored" games.

Oh you mean like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI37Owi_Cls

[zombie no.one]

chess
draughts
othello
backgammon

not mentioned yet, just thought I'd chuck em in there!

[JaseSF]

I rarely play games anymore (well on rare occasions I play card games) but I do own some nevertheless. My favourites are:

Scrabble
Monopoly
Battleship
Checkers

But I also own:

Snakes and Ladders
Pictionary
Risk

As a kid I loved also:

Table Top Hockey
The Game of Life
Legends of Wrestling (a card and dice game you ordered out of rasslin' mags)
Bingo
Connect Four
Candyland
Mouse Trap

[The Burgomaster]

ZOMBIE STATE: I mentioned this in another discussion thread awhile back.  It's sort of like Risk, except players don't play against each other.  Instead, each player is defending a continent against multiplying and wandering zombie hoardes.  You can use military might, technological breakthroughs, or a combination of the two.  Whichever player fares best against the zombies attacking his continent is the winner.

[Mofo Rising]

I've been playing a good amount of Mansions of Madness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ5mZStU5zI

It's a sister game to Arkham Horror, down to containing the same "investigators."

It's primary difference from Arkham Horror is that one player is the keeper, who sets up the game board and has the primary job of screwing over the other players. The rest of the players must work together to solve the story (five are included with the game), which is unknown to them when they begin the game.

Also, each story takes place in one location. As opposed to the cosmic horror of Arkham, each game of Mansions of Madness is a self-contained "haunted house" tale.

It's a streamlined tabletop RPG, where each game last two hours or so. Even though most of the gameplay is largely based on randomized event cards, it lends itself surprisingly well to story-telling.

Lots of fun. Not very cheap.

[The Burgomaster]

Diplomacy - this game was ridiculously fun, but you needed a full 7 players to get up a decent game.  Set in pre-WWI in Europe.  There was no luck element to the combat, it was a simple numbers game.  The tricky part was making and breaking alliances, and selectively betraying the other players.  Like the name says, the game was won or lost through diplomacy. 

Years ago, I bought a PC version of this for a couple of bucks from a guy who was having a moving sale at his apartment.  It was fun the first few times I played it, but then I lost interest.  Definitely something that requires personal interaction.