Octopus Overlords

My extended family likes boardgames. Between my parents, brother, sister and spouses + teenage kids we have 10 or 11 people who like various games. However this year my brother isn't going to make it to Christmas and he's often the one who introduces us to new games. So I'm stepping into that role even if its a little late.

Any thoughts on good games? I've included some hits and misses below. I will be the only one reading the rules so it has to be fairly easy to explain.

Some things that have been hits over the years (in no order)
Carssacone
7 Wonders
Settler of Catan
Bang!
San Juan
Dominions
the old AH Stocks and Bonds game
Modern Art
Galaxy Trucker

Some failures
Flux
Dixit - beautiful but didn't click
Sentinels of the Multiverse - too crunchy and the theme didn't appeal (my brother, my two sons, and I loved it but it wasn't a general hit)
Mystery of the Abbey - too long and not engaging enough; ok once of twice but has worn out its welcome
Shadows over Camelot

Cthulhu Gloom for a quick 3-4 player card game with a funny, morbid twist.
Letters from Whitechapel for a coop investigative game best played against a sociopathic family member. Best played with 3-4.

I tried strip monopoly with a girl last week... though I guess it could get a bit awkward with the family

Vorret wrote:I tried strip monopoly with a girl last week... though I guess it could get a bit awkward with the family

Strip Monopoly! I'm all for delayed gratification but that's pushing it too far.

I knew I could count on OO making that joke.

Isgrimnur wrote:Cthulhu Gloom for a quick 3-4 player card game with a funny, morbid twist.
Letters from Whitechapel for a coop investigative game best played against a sociopathic family member. Best played with 3-4.

Thanks for things to look up!

Are you looking for party-style games where everyone plays at the same time, or are you ok with a couple of games and folks playing different games at the same time?

Vorret wrote:I tried strip monopoly with a girl last week...

I heard you were the thimble.

hentzau wrote:Are you looking for party-style games where everyone plays at the same time, or are you ok with a couple of games and folks playing different games at the same time?

We will have between 6 and 9 people at various times but mostly 6. Of those six we will mostly get 4 or 5 to play at once (my dad rarely plays anymore although a financial themed game might lure him in). Now that the kids are older we would prefer one game.

Do not pass the g-string, do not collect $200.

Love Letter is cheap, quick, fun, and easy to learn.

I wish I had the time to play games. But between lots of work and lack of friends I don't play much.

I guess this depends on taste, but for the right group I heartily recommend Dungeonquest. It's for 4 people, and the idea is that you're each an adventurer going into a dungeon with treasure and a sleeping dragon (plus monsters). The idea is to go into the dungeon and get as much loot as possible (ideally getting to the center of the dungeon to steal from the dragon's treasure horde) and then getting out alive. But the game is so hilariously cruel that there are literally encounter cards like "roll 2d6 and if you roll less than 6 you die." One time my friend on his first encounter got a card that says "You get a spectre. Roll 2d6 every turn and if you roll snake eyes, you die. You can never get rid of this card."

There's also Infiltration which is similar but has a different theme (high tech / cyberpunk-ish) and is less overtly cruel.

I also love Railroad Tycoon. It takes longer but is pretty easy to pick up and has a pretty friendly theme (building railroads). Man, I haven't played that game in forever.

First off, some go to easy card games. Love Letter has already been mentioned. Highly recommended, and there's a Christmast themed "Letters to Santa" version out now.

I've sang my love for Pairs over in GiG. Cheap and easy to teach, games play in 10 minutes tops. Decks are like $10.

An old favorite of our group has long been The Great Dalmuti. Created by the guy who created Magic, but much easier and can accommodate up to 8 easily.

There's the Christmas themed card game "12 Days". Beautiful artwork on the cards, but gameplay is just so-so. I played about 3 games of it last year and never really grabbed the strategy.

Party type games:

Have you tried Wits and Wagers? Get lots of people playing that one. Trivia-ish sort of game where a question is asked, answers are revealed, then people bet on who is going to be closer to the actual answer. We had some fun with that one a few years back.

Apples to Apples? Or, after the kids go to bed, Cards Against Humanity?

Straight up Board games:

Formula D. You can get lots of people playing this one, just have to be concerned about downtime. Rules are pretty damn easy to learn.

Lords of Waterdeep. Light worker placement game for up to 5 people. 6 if you get the expansion. Great fun, probably my favorite worker placement game.

Bang! The Dice Game. You already mentioned Bang, this plays faster and is (IMO) more fun.

Thats some for starters. I'll be back if you want some more, or I'll let other folks chime in.

El Guapo wrote:There's also Infiltration which is similar but has a different theme (high tech / cyberpunk-ish) and is less overtly cruel.

That one's tied to the Android line, the same as the 2-player Netrunner card game and the murder investigation game, just called Android.

El Guapo wrote:I guess this depends on taste, but for the right group I heartily recommend Dungeonquest.

Unfortunately neither my wife nor my mother are into that sort of theme. Similarly while Gloom (and Chuthulu Gloom mentioned upthread) looks interesting I don't think it would fly. I'm still trying to decide if I should pick up Betrayal in the House on the Hill or not. My sons and I would love it but I don't know if any of the others would and I'd rather not play games that focus on my family playing together when we could be playing with my parents or my sister's family.

I forgot to mention Apple to Apples and Formula D in the list of things that are known hits.

Love Letters is definitely on my list now as my college age son also suggested it as fun.

Great suggestions everyone; keep them coming.

Hanabi is the intro game of choice in my opinion. There’s only a few rules. It’s cooperative, which many people have no concept of. It’s also portable.

Going back to the classics, have you guys tried Pandemic? Everyone I've ever taught that game to went out and bought it. I'd also throw Ticket to Ride in that category.

Formula D has fallen out of favor due to the dice randomness. While Formula D is good, the more people means the more downtime. And a lot of player's turns have little to no impact or interest to the other players. And then there's the AP to bog things down.

The new racing game hotness is Thunder Alley. Plays up to seven, and every player's actions have the potential to impact every other player.

The theme might be a bit much, but Nightfall plays 5 and keeps everyone involved in every turn. It takes a bit of crunch to learn, but once you get it, it plays smoothly.

Bohnanza, which coop will turn his nose up, is a pretty good party game. Plenty of wheeling and dealing, table talk, etc. You just have to really stress the rule about not rearranging your hand.

Might not be your family's thing considering Dungeonquest, but I've been playing a lot of Munchkin lately. It's a light-hearted RPGish type card came.

I would also add a +1 to the Bang! dice game and if your family is into rolling dice, I'll add Hunters of Arcfall to the list. It's essentially a press your luck dice game (like Zombie Dice), but you have characters and card decks for variety (more like BANG! the dice game) and a bit more depth than just rolling dice. The only complaint is that the text on the cards is a bit tiny and sometimes it's hard to see the icons on certain cards (dice needed to defeat), but I didn't really feel it was ever bad enough that it took away from the fun. Plays up to 6 people.

If I thought you could get your hands on a copy for retail prices, I'd recommend Dead of Winter -- probably my favorite game of 2014.

I second two that have already been said-

Love Letters (quick great game especially for 4 players. Won't play more than 4, and 2 isn't very fun. 3 is ok.) I have letters to Santa as well now and the theme is pasted on and doesn't really make as much sense but it's the same game and just as fun.

Lords of Waterdeep- Don't let the theme fool you, this isn't really D&D, people get turned off by the theme I think but it works well and is a great worker placement game.

Some other options I would throw out based on your list-

Jamaica- I'm a big fan of this game, and people seem to always want to play my copy. Not sure how easy it is to get ahold of right now, I think it is in print again, but it is a fun little racing game with fantastic components and you can learn it in about 10 minutes. It plays 6 players, the more the better. I have had lots of fun with 2 players though as well. It is like Formula D but lighter, with far more player interaction and much less down time.
2-6 Players, 30-60 minutes

Ticket to Ride- A lot of the games that have been a hit with your family have been gateway type games, and TTR is a great game in that field. It is light, with decent strategy, easy to learn, and rewarding for all players even those who lose. It is a rummy style game with secret routes and some competition on the board. I would suggest the Europe version if you are only getting one as I think it is the best stand alone version. The rules for it are a little more complicated than the USA version (AKA Ticket to Ride) but it also comes with full sized cards in the box and the extra rules give some good fun strategies to add to the game. The game also scales very well for anywhere between 2-5.
Plays 2- 5 players, games last 30-60 minutes

Alhambra- Tile placing game with mechanics of buying the pieces you want and not building a map together. If Carcassonne is a hit I am guessing Alhambra would also be a hit. Somewhat of an auction mechanic in play, you build your own Alhambra. Quick to learn, easy to teach, lots of different strategies. Just get the base game if you look into this one. I've played lots of the expansions and they don't add much in my opinion. Like ticket to ride people who aren't winning are also having a good time.
Plays 2-5, best with 3-5, and games run about 60 minutes.

Isgrimnur wrote: The new racing game hotness is Thunder Alley. Plays up to seven, and every player's actions have the potential to impact every other player.

Bohnanza, which coop will turn his nose up, is a pretty good party game. Plenty of wheeling and dealing, table talk, etc. You just have to really stress the rule about not rearranging your hand.

I'll look up Thunder Alley - I was surprised at how much my wife liked Formula D but we all agreed that the randomness was slightly too high.

Oops, I'm bad at listing things! Bohnanza is great fun and a constant winner. But we already own it.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:Might not be your family's thing considering Dungeonquest, but I've been playing a lot of Munchkin lately. It's a light-hearted RPGish type card came.

My wife will not touch that game ever again! She got really tired of the humor after playing it way too many times with the two sons when they were younger. I'm burnt out on it also but not quite as much as she is.

Ticket to Ride was also the first one that popped into my mind.

Pandemic needs a good group. The guy that taught it to me was very much the "you do this, then I'll do this, ok now you do this..." type of guy. He might as well have been playing the game by himself. And I know that it would be the same way in my group of friends. Bang is about as cooperative as we can get.

Revolution was pretty fun. Bribe, blackmail, or just straight threaten people to gain influence and take over buildings in town. Plays 3-4, the Anarchy expansion brings it up to 6.

And then there are the Werewolf variants.

msteelers wrote:Pandemic needs a good group. The guy that taught it to me was very much the "you do this, then I'll do this, ok now you do this..." type of guy. He might as well have been playing the game by himself. And I know that it would be the same way in my group of friends. Bang is about as cooperative as we can get.

That's my experience with pandemic as well. It really lends itself to the alpha player issue.

One more game I forgot to list - Ticket to Ride.

We have it and loved it for a while but the interest died down when I figured out/learned about a strategy that seemed to be more than competitive but was boring. Probably solved if we got one of the newer map variants but we haven't. A train themed game with a little more gameplay would probably go over well.

Jamaica is on my list to look up now. Sounds interesting. Similarly, while I have never bought Pandemic I've looked at it a number of times so I'll add it to the list to look up.


Current List of games to consider (in no order)
Love Letters
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Thunder Alley
Pandemic
Jamaica

Madmarcus wrote:One more game I forgot to list - Ticket to Ride.

We have it and loved it for a while but the interest died down when I figured out/learned about a strategy that seemed to be more than competitive but was boring. Probably solved if we got one of the newer map variants but we haven't. A train themed game with a little more gameplay would probably go over well.

Jamaica is on my list to look up now. Sounds interesting. Similarly, while I have never bought Pandemic I've looked at it a number of times so I'll add it to the list to look up.


Current List of games to consider (in no order)
Love Letters
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Thunder Alley
Pandemic
Jamaica

A more in depth train game you say? I would suggest:

Railways of the World. It is far more in depth than Ticket to Ride, you build routes and deliver goods. You have to pay for the track you are putting down but really it is a cool game that has somewhat replaced Ticket to Ride for my wife and I because it adds layers of complexity. It is still easy to teach and play though, but there are more options available. You can put track down, take action cards, move goods, stock goods, upgrade your engine etc. Just lots of options. With casual people we tend to break out TTR still, but Railways of the World is just more complex and deep. Not as pretty though, because of course it isn't days of wonder. It scales well though and the base game comes with a special 2 player map (Mexico).

Edit to add- It is also somewhat financial in nature as you are a railroad baron and you have to take out loans to get things done, run goods to make money, and increase the size of your network all while knowing if you get too big the overhead starts catching up with you and your profit margin slips. Pretty cool.

Another train themed game with some aspect of route building that I have recently picked up and enjoyed:

Trains- It's a deck builder with route building. If you have played Dominion it is a lot like it but with an added board to build routes and no "big money" strategy in which someone can just stash the money and win that way. It has replaced Dominion largely for us, and it is train themed, which for some reason makes a great board game theme.
I believe it is only 2-4 players, and we usually play in under an hour. But it scales extremely well.

Chrisoc13 wrote:
Railways of the World. It is far more in depth than Ticket to Ride, you build routes and deliver goods. You have to pay for the track you are putting down but really it is a cool game that has somewhat replaced Ticket to Ride for my wife and I because it adds layers of complexity. It is still easy to teach and play though, but there are more options available. You can put track down, take action cards, move goods, stock goods, upgrade your engine etc. Just lots of options. With casual people we tend to break out TTR still, but Railways of the World is just more complex and deep. Not as pretty though, because of course it isn't days of wonder. It scales well though and the base game comes with a special 2 player map (Mexico).

Edit to add- It is also somewhat financial in nature as you are a railroad baron and you have to take out loans to get things done, run goods to make money, and increase the size of your network all while knowing if you get too big the overhead starts catching up with you and your profit margin slips. Pretty cool.

Another train themed game with some aspect of route building that I have recently picked up and enjoyed:

Trains- It's a deck builder with route building. If you have played Dominion it is a lot like it but with an added board to build routes and no "big money" strategy in which someone can just stash the money and win that way. It has replaced Dominion largely for us, and it is train themed, which for some reason makes a great board game theme.
I believe it is only 2-4 players, and we usually play in under an hour. But it scales extremely well.

Added to my list! Both sound interesting.

Big thumbs up on both of those games.

King of Tokyo and/or its recent sequel,



King of New York.

They're both great fun and incredibly easy to teach. With teenaged kids, either (or both) would be a surefire hit. What's not to love about unleashing epic dice-based destruction as gigantic mutant monsters, robots, or aliens?

I've played Alien Frontiers a couple of times recently and can recommend it as a very well-designed game. Easy to learn (the rules appear right on the board in iconic form) with deep strategy options and a luck component. Best with 4 players.

El Grande is popular with several members of my family including my grandmother.

I'm going to move this over to Gaming in General, which is the perfect fit for this topic.

Some of my favorites

Caverna/Agricola – I prefer Caverna but both are similar. This is a fairly relaxed worker placement game. Take turns claiming actions to send your Dwarfs out to do various jobs. Then use the resources to build up your cave home base. I like to think of it as Minecraft: The Board Game! This has a ton of pieces but is remarkably easy to learn. Up to 7 players.


Terra Mystica – The setup of this game will scare everyone but I promise, once the player mats are setup, it’s really not bad at all. You can think of it a bit like Settlers of Cataan, except every player is a different race with slightly different abilities. You terra-form the game board so that you can expand you cities, which gives you additional resources. Up to 5 players.


Mansions of Madness – Not the most Christmas festive but a ton of fun if you don’t mind taking an active role as story teller/game master. MoM is a semi-cooperative story based game within the Chthulu mythos. One player acts as game master while the four other people are on a team to solve the mystery/save the world. As game master, you would have to know a lot of rules but the “heroes” pretty much only need to know the basics of moment and combat. This one is very popular with my group of friends and has been a great intro game for many people.

Eclipse is epic in scale and can easily take an hour or more per player.

Yeah, I actually just removed it, while I love it, in retrospect, it's not appropriate to recommend here.

Small World is also a hit with my friends. Quick games, easy to learn, hard to master. You claim a race and use it to take over the world, but when you expand too far you put your race into decline and pick a new race. This is the game my friends keep requesting to play whenever we manage to get together.

msteelers wrote:Small World is also a hit with my friends. Quick games, easy to learn, hard to master. You claim a race and use it to take over the world, but when you expand too far you put your race into decline and pick a new race. This is the game my friends keep requesting to play whenever we manage to get together.

I would second small world. The only issue is with five players you run through the races in a single have sometimes and may want an expansion or two. They are cheap and unnecessary but the races get recycled with five players without them.

Just thought of another two you may want to check out:

Forbidden Island

and

Forbidden Desert

A few reasons I recommend these to people with more casual gaming groups:

- Both are really inexpensive compared to most board games, so if you end up not liking them you're not out a lot of money
- The components and boxes are just top-notch quality - better than some $60 games I own
- The game mechanics are a simplified version of the same type of co-op gameplay you'd find in more complex games like Pandemic, so if your group likes these they are a good gateway to more advanced games

Of the two I slightly prefer Forbidden Desert because it adds some interesting gameplay mechanics with the shifting desert sands that I really liked. However, both are great, simple to learn games that don't require lengthy sessions. I typically break one of these two out as a quick game night appetizer, or when trying to introduce non-gamers to co-op play.