Favorite Board Games?

[quozl]

And quozl, face-to-face is the ONLY way to play.  Anything else is kid's stuff.  Sneaking around, making speeches, conspiring to lock people in bathrooms... I mean, that's half the fun right there! ;)

Don't get me wrong, I love face-to-face games.  However, I hardly ever have the time (or the players) for them anymore.  But with PBEM and web-based Diplomacy, I can play 8 games simultaneously.  Also, I just started a game on www.dipbounced.com and as GM, you get to see all the press.  It's very interesting.

[GreatWolf]

My biggest problem with Diplomacy is that I don't think that I could get six other people to play it with me at the same time.

And, Jon, I hear you completely about PBeM games.  But I want to learn how to play the game face-to-face.  That tends to be my general rule; I learn better when I can touch the pieces.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Ben Lehman]

Dip's major design flaw is the same thing as Catan's -- your chance of winning diminishes or accelerates too quickly very early in the game.  Too many kingmaker situations.

I have a great love of Quiddler, for precisely this reason, although it is a sillier game.

And Set.  Why did no one mention Set?  A great, great game.

My Favorite games:
Diplomacy
Quiddler
Set
Go
Puerto Rico
Carcasonne

[Walt Freitag]

Carcassone, Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan
Tikal, Java, Mexico
J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (Reiner Knizia, to distinquish it from all the other LoTR games out there)
Mississippi Queen
Wiz-War
HeroQuest board game (house rule: players must actually say, "Oh great Zargon, open the door!" when opening doors)
Monopoly, Risk
Fast Food Franchise
Pictionary (just barely qualifies a board game, though)
Kill Dr. Lucky
Shogun (Milton Bradley)
Chess, Go, Abalone
Icehouse (qualifies as a board game on a technicality)
Gold (Ravensberger), The aMazeing Labyrinth
Kings & Things
TV-Time Touchdown (homebrewed game)
Fireball Island

Of this entire list one game that is most certain to be enjoyed by everyone no matter who I'm playing with, from 5-year-old nephews to the adults whose last board game was Trivial Pursuit in 1986 to the most hardcore hobbyists, is Fireball Island.

And Set. Why did no one mention Set? A great, great game.

Perhaps because it's a card game. Along with Fluxx, Chrononauts, Lord of the Fries, Hand Me The Brain, Bohnanza, Poker, Hearts, Bridge, Illuminati, Apples to Apples, Nuclear War, Munchkin...

- Walt

[Marhault]

Too many to name. . .  Some front runners are Diplomacy, Robo-Rally, Maul of America, and . . .  Clue.

[Jack Aidley]

What no Chess players?

Chess and Japanese Chess (Shogi) - not so fond of Chinese Chess.
Risk, and Middle Earth Risk (but why only 4 players?!)
Dungeon
Kingmaker (not so much a board game, more a simulator, but wierdly engrossing)
Monopoly (but only if you play it with lots of crazy deals - shares in houses anyone?)
Go, although I never played it enough to really understand it.
Othello
HeroQuest
Civilisation (oh how abusable your rules are!)

[GreatWolf]

I had forgotten Fireball Island.  After my brother and I waxed eloquent about this game, my wife tracked down two copies of it for Christmas:  one for me and one for him.

My wife loves me.  :-)

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Valamir]

Risk, and Middle Earth Risk (but why only 4 players?!)

Because the bastiches designed the game in two parts and then never released the second part except in Europe in a format where the cards were a different size/color and thus incompatable with the US version.

[Sean]

I'm a chess player, Jack, or at least a recovering one. I used to write a column for the Michigan Chess Bulletin. I did not lose to any non-masters in my last couple of years of tournament play, and have won two local tournaments here in the US outright and a rating-category prize on first board, going undefeated, at the US amateur teams. But I quit playing several years ago and haven't really looked back.

It's amazing what you can accomplish, procrastinating on your PhD thesis. I knew nothing about chess until I had to sit down and write my dissertation.

Chess is the only non-role-playing game that's ever obsessed me. I completely stopped all computer games about two decades ago, except a brief flirtation with Civilization, and I only play boardgames at parties as a social thing.

[GreatWolf]

I've played chess since I was six or so.  However, my personality is such that I like a broad variety of activities.  So, for example, I really want to learn how to play shogi.  I mean, I know the rules, but I'd love to see some actual strategy discussion.

Xianqi (Chinese chess) is interesting, too, but crazy.  The cannon pieces change the game radically.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Jack Aidley]

I find the fact that you can't build pawn structures in either of the oriental chesses (or any of the others I know of that matter) the biggest difference.

[Sean]

Actually, I think my greatest chess accomplishment is that I once drank an entire bottle of tequila while playing blindfolded against two people (no tequila or blindfold for either one) at once. I managed to keep both boards in my head and win both games. Neither was that good a player of course, but it was still a fine moment.

[orbsmatt]

Chess.  Definitely.

Either that or Junior Monopoly.  *looks around ashamed...*

[quozl]

Junior Monopoly.  *looks around ashamed...*

At least tell us why you like Junior Monopoly.  Educate those of us who've never tried it because of the "Junior" in the title.

[Mike Holmes]

Civilisation (oh how abusable your rules are!)

How so? I find Civ to be a very tight game. I have friends involved in the map expansion projects, and we recently played an 11 player game (the map will accept up to 14, in theory) at a little con we ran. I'd put it in my top five games.

There are some games that I admire, and enjoy but don't play a lot. Starfleet Battles I play about once a year. I don't play Advanced Squad Leader anymore, but it's sheer complexity is a wonderful thing.

I've also played in several attempts to get through the boardgame version of Europa Universalis. I think the latest game has stalled out on turn 40. We get in about three turns each month we play.

Starfire isn't a boardgame, precisely (mostly we play it by emailed spreadsheets), but the battles are fought that way. I'm very fond of this sort of game. Basically, the more strategy and planning that are involved, the more interesting a game is to me.

Mike