Board Gaming
 

This is a hobby I got into about a year ago and it’s definitely grown into a serious part of my life. I think so many people are unaware of the kinds of awesome **** that’s out there for board games. Maybe you’ve played/heard of Catan or something but it gets way deeper than that. There are hundreds of awesome titles that come out every year that the general public does not hear about at all, and instead we see 40 new editions of Monopoly on store shelves and that’s the perception of what the board gaming hobby is.

I have a pretty big collection of 40+ titles at this point but I’ll focus on some of my coolest ones here. If anyone else is into the hobby or intrigued by what else I have I’d happily gush about my entire collection

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/opengra...pic3163924.jpg

A game with a pretty typical base scenario: you choose a faction and you’re trying to spread your influence over as much of the hexagonal map as possible, occasionally battling your opponents. What this game adds is an incredible art style, giant mechs (and awesome mianiatures of them to place on the board), and perhaps my favorite gameplay component in the entire hobby which is variable player powers. Each faction you can pick has their own special abilities and strategies to focus on, so each time you play you can have a vastly different experience. I absolutely love this. One faction might want to be more aggressive and attack other players, whereas another might want to turtle up in their starting section of the map and build up a bunch of resources. This makes the game so replayable and no two games will go the same.

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/itemrep...pic2649952.jpg

A game about running a wine-making business?! It’s a lot cooler than it sounds! This game is in the subgenre of worker placement games, where there are spots on the board that do a certain action, and you have limited workers to place on those spaces. You’re also competing with your opponents for those spaces, like if your opponents take all of the “plant a vine” spaces during a round, you won’t be able to do that until the next round. There are so many cool little mechanics to this game, like at the start of a round everyone bids for turn order, and if you want to go first you won’t get any extra rewards whereas going last gets you powerful bonuses like an extra worker for the round or a free victory point.

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A very new title to my collection, this is a co-op game, meaning everybody works together against the game. You all either win together or lose together, and its tough to win in this game! This one takes variable player powers to the next level, where you pick one of eight base spirits that all play vastly different as you try to protect your island from colonizing invaders. There’s so much packed into this box, including different scenarios and difficulty levels to tailor your experience however you want. It’s also refreshing to play a game where you’re not competing against your friends and instead you’re all in it together!

I love tabletop games but its hard to find people to play with. I thought about buting tabletop simulator on steam but its just not the same.

Only game i own is Boss Monster.

Risk is still the **** when I've got like ten hours to kill and a roomful of people who don't know what they're getting into.

I like Jenga.

I used to enjoy Risk too but now I’ve just played too many games that do similar things so much better. I respect Risk for its influence but I never plan to play again. Look into games like Scythe or especially Smallworld if you like putting armies on a map and duking it out

Playing a single game of Axis and Allies for days by yourself and it never ends because alliances are constantly shifting ftw.

I've really wanted to dive into board games but there's so much to learn. I have played the Tabletop Simulator on Steam and it's actually a lot of fun with the right people. But I know board games in general have been gaining a lot of popularity.

*drops a dusty Candy Land box on the table and slams down a bottle of whiskey next to it*

It's time

Bruh we live near each other.

Tabletop Simulator just doesn’t do it for me. You gotta be with the people, holding the pieces and having the board there in front of you. And a lot of games are also about just having a wonderful piece of art in front of everybody. Games in my collection like Photosynthesis or Yamatai are simply gorgeous to look at

https://i.imgur.com/RnLaPEE.jpg

I need to fix the backing of this shelf sometime

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Just looking at these shelves brings me distinct memories of playing them with friends. All kinds of context floods back, especially with some of the games that aren’t necessarily the best in terms of gameplay but are so excellent simply as an experience, like King of Tokyo or Betrayal at House on the Hill around Halloween

Edit sorry the photos are huge lol too lazy to edit them

Yes but the best. You can't know the glory until you've done it.

It's another beast entirely when played alone.

I own a few board games and play with friends every few weekends.

Some personal favorites from my shelf:

Samurai
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3/samurai
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....HL._SY450_.jpg
I've got this old school version of the game. The newer releases have different graphical design.
The rules are quite simple (except for the mildly complex rules for tallying points), but it's very deep once you get beyond the surface.

Ivanhoe
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/883/ivanhoe
https://cf.geekdo-images.com/opengra.../pic535134.jpg
A good mix of "take that!" and risk assessment. You draw cards all the time, so it's got a big random factor, but there's a lot of tactics in whether or not to expend the cards you have quite yet, since you can play as many as you want any round, but only draw 1.

A few well known games I also really like: Carcassonne and Timeline.

Also worth noting: Samurai and Ivanhoe, plus several of my other favorites are from the same designer: Reiner Knizia. He's made so many good games, including ones that I've played but haven't bought yet. For example:

Tigris & Euphrates
Through the Desert
Ra

Probably the biggest challenge with board games I find. I have a great dungeon crawl game called Descent, but trying to find a few dedicated people to play through the campaign feels next to impossible.

I've heard great things about Descent, I wish I knew somebody that owned it!

Dungeon crawl games in general are something I haven't been able to get into much. My fiancee isn't interested, I'm the only one in my friend group that buys games so it comes out of my wallet, and I don't want to take a huge gamble on an expensive game like that or Gloomhaven knowing there's a chance nobody will want to play it with me

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon...._AC_SS350_.jpg

Tops

This is a card game.

What's it packaged in, smart guy

A box.

A cardboard box. Checkmate.

****.

Probably the worst game in this hobby that I've ever played in terms of pure design

Someone got hit with the +4

Seriously look into some of the quality **** that I've posted about in this thread, you have no idea of all the awesome stuff you're missing out on

A simple party card game that anyone can learn in 5 minutes that has FOREVER replaced Uno for me and everyone I've ever showed it to:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....DL._SX425_.jpg

Sorry is the best board game anyway.

Miss me with that weeb ****.

This legit looks fun.

Incredibly

But also I think it's dumb how some of these **** board games have Monopolized (get it?) the industry for the vast majority of normies and all the superior games are only bought by the dedicated hobbyists. Do we really need people buying even more copies of Uno and letting them have all the money without innovating or trying at all while smaller companies do their best to put out superior games that make a fraction of what Uno does?

Or just like, kick back and kill some time with a game.

I can understand YD on this one because I treat video games the same way. I don't use it just to kill time. I want to enjoy what I'm playing too.

Well for my friends board games aren't about killing time, they're what we plan our entire evening around

Man...if we lived closer.

*kick back and enjoy the game

Sorry for having the nerve to imply that you would KILL time.

Can't enjoy a game if it sucks.

Thank you for this eye opening point that has nothing to do with what's being discussed.

I honestly think you would feel different about this if someone you knew asked you to play a game of Scythe or something

You seem like the kind of guy that would enjoy some of the higher quality games, you've just never played them and don't know what it's like

Even just from a pure art perspective they can be amazing to have out on a table. Like look how gorgeous this game is:

http://www.boardgameauthority.com/wp...rd-game-1b.jpg

It...does tho.

Well now I hate Scythe just to spite you.

I'm not even going to bother. Here: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/...nglish-lessons

There's so much innovative **** out there that no one will ever know exists because all the major stores only carry Monopoly/Sorry/Operation

I mean look at this ****, everyone that's ever played it with me was absolutely captivated by the game:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1500_.jpg

Obv Frown missed my point so I'll just leave it. I've always thought board games looked neat artistically.

On another note, I own like...5 or 6 different copies of Clue because my aunt decided to gift them to me every Christmas for like...5 or 6 years I think.