Board games

[Varislintu]

Awesome, there was a thread about board games here, too !

Nowadays board games like De kolonisten van Catan (Settlers of Catan) and Boonanza (Bohnanza) are very popular.

Me and Boyfriend have only just started to get to know the world of modern adult board games, and these are titles I associate with that genre. Although nowadays I think Carcassonne is an even more popular title than Catan. That's the game we bought first, as it was said to be a good introductory game for people who haven't played much anything but Monopoly. Now we also own Ticket to Ride - Europe. Both are really good games, can't but recommend them . Has anyone else tried them?

We're looking at Agricola or Funkenschlag (/Power Grid) as a possible next purchase, as they score really highly among Finnish enthusiasts. In general board games are experiencing a bit of a boom here, and the new generation German games are the most popular. It's still not a very mainstream hobby, but enough that there are stores and webstores, sites and events catering for those who play. Too bad it's a little bit expensive here in Finland, but so is anything.

[razlem]

My family has Carcassonne, but I never got around to playing it. I can kick their asses at Catan though

Both seem to be gaining popularity here, which is nice.

[linguoboy]

Me and Boyfriend have only just started to get to know the world of modern adult board games, and these are titles I associate with that genre. Although nowadays I think Carcassonne is an even more popular title than Catan. That's the game we bought first, as it was said to be a good introductory game for people who haven't played much anything but Monopoly. Now we also own Ticket to Ride - Europe. Both are really good games, can't but recommend them . Has anyone else tried them?

My brother-in-law is a huge fan of board and card games. He probably owns a hundred or more. Not only does he have Carcasonne, he has two or three expansion packs for it. But he's played it so much I think he's tired of it except that his sons are of an age that it's a good game to play with them. We still play Ticket to Ride (both versions) but I think I like Thurn und Taxis a bit more. (Rather similar, except you're building postal routes rather than rail connexions.) Small World was a Christmas gift to him from me last year which we still really enjoy playing.

I just came from a game night with pals. Some of the more serious board game geeks have left, so now it's mostly party games like Catchphrase and Apples to Apples. So far my favourite game that I've been introduce to through it is a word game called Snatch-It which has similarities to Scrabble except that all the tiles are in view and anyone can form new words at any time, so it moves along much better. One of my coworkers is a big fan of the card game Fluxx and we actually hosted a drop-in gaming session at work once.

[Reinder]

Catan is definitely my favourite board game. I love that it's known all over the world, would be awesome to play the game with some foreigners some day.

[Varislintu]

Hey, cool to see some other boardgamers here, yay!

My brother-in-law is a huge fan of board and card games. He probably owns a hundred or more. Not only does he have Carcasonne, he has two or three expansion packs for it. But he's played it so much I think he's tired of it except that his sons are of an age that it's a good game to play with them. We still play Ticket to Ride (both versions) but I think I like Thurn und Taxis a bit more. (Rather similar, except you're building postal routes rather than rail connexions.)

Ah, shoot, I was trying to bid for a Thurn und Taxis on an auction site, but looks like I won't be winning. On the other hand, it's on sale in the stores, 22 euros. Hmmmmm .

I'm also trying to bid for Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries, that would be my Christmas present .

We're going to buy a couple Carcassonne extensions in Hungary, they're only half the price there. And of course now there's also the release of Ticket to Ride: Asia and Ticket to Ride: India (& Switzerland). As befits a new convert, I want them aaaaallll !

Small World was a Christmas gift to him from me last year which we still really enjoy playing.

Don't card games get boring? That's what we're worried about, so we haven't bought any yet, even if there are some that are extremely praised.

I just came from a game night with pals. Some of the more serious board game geeks have left, so now it's mostly party games like Catchphrase and Apples to Apples. So far my favourite game that I've been introduce to through it is a word game called Snatch-It which has similarities to Scrabble except that all the tiles are in view and anyone can form new words at any time, so it moves along much better. One of my coworkers is a big fan of the card game Fluxx and we actually hosted a drop-in gaming session at work once.

These all sound new to me, except Scrabble. I think we haven't really been looking at party games much yet.

Catan is definitely my favourite board game. I love that it's known all over the world, would be awesome to play the game with some foreigners some day.

Yeah, you can be proud of Catan ! Finland isn't a big producer of boardgames, although recently there was the release of Eclipse, a Finnish-made 4X scifi boardgame targeted at the international market. We'll see if it makes it or not .

Any hardcorer here ever play Arkham Horror?

[''']

anyone play bagh chal?

[linguoboy]

Don't card games get boring? That's what we're worried about, so we haven't bought any yet, even if there are some that are extremely praised.

I dunno, have people gone off playing poker, bridge, Solitaire, Skat, etc.?

One of the most perennially favourite games around here is Uno, which is a slicker version of Crazy Eights with a special deck. It moves fast and it's very easy to teach to others.

Any hardcorer here ever play Arkham Horror?

I played it once at a horror-themed game night around Halloween last year that a friend hosted. To be honest, I found it kind of boring. It felt like an RPG with all the character interaction stripped out.

That friend, btw, is a big fan of cooperative board games. One we very much enjoyed is Forbidden Island, where players have to race around an island collecting treasures before it sinks. Another one we played at that Halloween party was Ghost Stories were you play Daoist monks defending a Chinese village from attacking ghosts. And then he had a very interesting game where you win by picking out the best gifts for everyone around you.

Zombie-themed games are also very popular right now. There's Zombies!!!, which is basically an every-man-for-himself shoot-'em-up. Okay as far as it goes, but last time I played it dragged on nearly two hours. I'm told Oh no...Zombies! is a bit better because the play is fast and "dead" characters don't have to leave the game; instead they join Team Zombie!

[Varislintu]

Don't card games get boring? That's what we're worried about, so we haven't bought any yet, even if there are some that are extremely praised.

I dunno, have people gone off playing poker, bridge, Solitaire, Skat, etc.?

True . But I mean more like concerning people who are only really used to playing boardgames with a board and tokens etc. But I think it's just a matter of not having tried them that makes them seem "boring" .

I played it once at a horror-themed game night around Halloween last year that a friend hosted. To be honest, I found it kind of boring. It felt like an RPG with all the character interaction stripped out.

I see. That's a pity. We've been looking for a game where you cooperate against the game itself instead of playing against each other, and that was described as such a game.

That friend, btw, is a big fan of cooperative board games. One we very much enjoyed is Forbidden Island, where players have to race around an island collecting treasures before it sinks. Another one we played at that Halloween party was Ghost Stories were you play Daoist monks defending a Chinese village from attacking ghosts. And then he had a very interesting game where you win by picking out the best gifts for everyone around you.

Those sound familar, will check if they're in the Finnish sites.

We bought Thurn und Taxis and have played it twice now. First we were a bit like "what is this?", but now it's starting to feel more entertaining. The board could be a bit more clearly coloured into the areas, and the game comes with all kinds of extra little thingies that are pretty useless, like ours came with four rule summary cards (Finnish/Swedish/Danish/Norwegian), a victory chip, stable cards that only serve as a platform for placing other cards onto, etc... It's a bit annoying to set up a game with so many little chips, so we just left out as much as we could. Also, the cards are the small size, which is really inconvenient since you have to shuffle them about 3 or 4 times each game. One of the houses was also malformed, and there was one too many of one colour houses, something we didn't notice until after the game ! Made in China, yay . But it seems like a pretty nice game now that the rules are sinking in, even for just two. And my boyfirend sabotaged my game to tatters last time so it's not true that there's no interaction in this game .

[Hunef]

I would like to play the fictitious Nukem board game.

Snapshot from the linked Nukem commercial.

[Varislintu]

Haven't heard of that .

Well, we bought Pandemic second hand today, and we really like it after two rounds. Verdict is still out whether it's too easy with two players. It's a collaborative game where you try to stop diseases from taking over the world. Thing is, there are several ways the game can end before you can win, and there is only one way to win . So it's kind of challenging, and panicky once diseases start spreading totally out of hand. It's great to get to work together against the game, though, instead of playing games where you win by being mean to other players. That concept is good for relationships and friendships .

[Varislintu]

Has anyone played Eclipse, a recently published Finnish scifi board game? It's a space exploration and conquering game where you battle the other players and the game's aliens ("ancients") for resources and points. We bought it, and have given it a few tries, and really like it. It's designed to be much more "lightweight" than previous games in this genre, i.e. that it takes much less time to play through a game. It's gotten a lot of praise for its game mechanics, and they do seem to work pretty well (I'm not an expert in this genre, though).

The sheer amount of pieces may seem daunting, but the rules are actually reasonably simple, and if you bag the pieces in the right way set-up doesn't take too long either.

Here's a pic of the end of one of our games. My boyfriend (green) just had a field day conquering my galaxies and won .

[Sol Invictus]

I was doing a bit of research on board games recently and discovered that it seems everyone is not on the same page as to how traditional games are played - appears that there are numerous versions to traditional games like draughts and ludo. So I am slightly interested how others play these

Continuing the original theme
draughts - damas - Dame - Damka - Dammen - Dambrete - 8x8 board, the aim is to kill of opponent's pieces by jumping over them, you can kill as many as you can in one go, when you get to other end of board your piece turns into dame, which means it has unlimited moves

nine men's morris - moinho / trilla - Mühle - Molen - Dzirnavas (Mills) - Boring game that often comes along with X games in one sets of German origin. Not sure how much people play it here, though I've seen localized version meant to be souvenir for tourists.

ludo - ludo - Mensch ärgere dich nicht - Ludo - Mens erger je niet - Riču-raču - Every player has four pieces that need to run around the board to their houses. You move pieces according to points on die, 1 or 6 means you can make first move or throw die again (this is system that we use for every board game that requires dice). Don't remember what the killing rules were. When you get to your house, you need to order your pieces in it by throwing die, ad nauseum, if you get too much points you go backwards.

peg solitaire - resta-um - Solitär - Soliter - Solitaire - Solitērs - Solo game from box sets, nobody plays it here, when I tried I had to look up rules in game book, but supposedly you can use the board for X number of other games

Chinese draughts - xadrez chinês - Damka Sinit - Chinees Dammen - (Zvaigznes) halma - Wildly popular with my mother for some reason unclear to me, but haven't hear of anyone else playing it much, this also was first found in one of the box sets

naughts and crosses - jogo-da-velha - Boter kaas en eieren - Desas (sausages)/krustiņi un nullītes (crosses and zeros) - This is a board, not paper and pencil, game? Pretty sure this has same rules everywhere - you win by making line of three in any direction

chess - xadrez - Schach - Shachmat - Schaken - Šahs - I think this is standartized everywhere since it is tournament game, except I usually forget special moves like castling and killing en passant and promotion is usually impossible as there are not enough pieces in set

Battleships - Schiffe versenken - Torpedo - Zeeslag - Kuģi/Kuģu šaušana/Kartupelis (Ships/shooting ships/patato) - To me this is paper and pencil game,I can't understand why would anyone buy expensive board game version for this. Anyways there can be some variation on ship shapesand nummber. Kartupelis is when you write that word instead of letters alphabetically for grid coordinates

Besides these and proprietary games like Monopoly, we play Cirks (circus) which is a version of Snakes and ladders (except actual snakes and ladders that was in one of the game sets I have are way more boring)

[ich]

I recognize some games
draughts - is this checkers??
Chinese draughts - is this Chinese checkers???
naughts and crosses - is this tic tac toe?????
Battleships - in America, we call it by the singular form, so just Battleship

nine men's morris, ludo, peg solitaire I don't recognize at all, but I am wondering how much that has to do with just not recognizing the other English names for these games.

Some common games in the US not mentioned yet:
hang man (especially in class) not really a board game :/
taboo (more of a party game)
speed (card game)
clue (board game)

[SarahR]

I love Candyland too!
I heard that Snakes and Ladders is called Cat Tails and Gutters. Any other names out there?
And that Musical Chairs is called Marching to Jerusalem.

[vijayjohn]

I recognize some games
draughts - is this checkers??

Yes.

Chinese draughts - is this Chinese checkers???

Presumably.

naughts and crosses - is this tic tac toe?????

Yes.

Battleships - in America, we call it by the singular form, so just Battleship

I had no idea, honestly. I got so few opportunities to play that game.

nine men's morris, ludo, peg solitaire I don't recognize at all, but I am wondering how much that has to do with just not recognizing the other English names for these games.

Not much I had to look them up, and I've never heard of Nine Men's Morris or peg solitaire, either. I've heard of Ludo, though. Apparently, Nine Men's Morris is related to tic-tac-toe, and Ludo is basically the British version of Parcheesi.

I heard that Snakes and Ladders is called Cat Tails and Gutters. Any other names out there?

Omg, I thought it was supposed to be called chutes and ladders and that snakes and ladders was just a cheap version of that that my dad made up for my brother on a piece of cardboard! And I honestly had no clue this game was also of Indian origin, just like Parcheesi and chess are.

[Lada]

Any hardcorer here ever play Arkham Horror?

I played several times original version and with extentions like Danwich Horror and something with Pharaoh (don't remember it's name exactly). I would definitely recommend everyone this game, what I really like is that it is a team building game, if one player loses, all the rest lose too. However there was no any single game we lost, we always won. Either the game is so easy (however it doesn't seem to be like that) either we are all very smart people

Traditional board games I usually play are cards (I know many games including the ones soldiers in Tsarist army used to play), chess, checkers, domino, wolf and sheep (fox games) and corners or уголки. The latter has actually a page in English language wikipedia called ugolki, so I presume, this game is known only in Russia/ex-USSR.

[vijayjohn]

I played several times, the original version and with extentsions like Danwich Horror and something with Pharaoh (don't remember it's name exactly). I would definitely recommend everyone this game to everyone,; what I really like is that it is a team building game, so if one player loses, all the rest lose too. However there was not any single game we lost, we always won. Either the game is so very easy (however it doesn't seem to be like that) either or we are all very smart people

Traditional board games I usually play are cards (I know many games including the ones soldiers in Tsarist army used to play), chess, checkers, domino(e)s, wolf and sheep (fox games) and corners or уголки. The latter has actually a page in English language wikipedia called ugolki, so I presume, this game is known only in Russia/ex-USSR.

Several years ago, I discovered what this page calls "fox and hounds" described on the back of our checkerboard as "fox and geese." I've played it a few times but usually lose.

[OldBoring]

Popular board games in Italy:

checkers = dama
chess = scacchi
tic-tac-toe = tris / filetto (old-fashioned)
Nine Men's Morris = filetto / tris (Wikipedia says mulino)
Connect Four = Forza Quattro
battleship = battaglia navale
Game of the Goose = gioco dell'oca
Monopoly = Monopoli /mo'nɔpoli/ (it used to be spelled with -i) / Monopoly (after Hasbro produced the Italian version)

I've never heard of most of the games you guys mentioned, I had to look them up.
I played Nine Men's Morris as a child, but I played it as tic-tac-toe, i.e. I played only the first phase, until someone did three in a row, column, or diagonal.
I don't know all those race games either, while I've heard of backgammon, but never knew what it consisted of. In Italy the most popular ones are the Game of the Goose and Monopoly.

Popular games in China:
Go = 围棋 wéiqí
Gomoku (also called Gobang or Five in a row) = 五子棋 wúzǐqí - played with go board and pieces
Chinese chess = 象棋 xiàngqí (中国象棋 zhōngguó xiàngqí when opposed to international chess)
Chess = 国际象棋 guójì xiàngqí (=international chess)
Chinese checkers = 跳棋 tiàoqí
Lùzhànqí = 陆战棋 or 军旗 jūnqí


Chinese chess and Chinese checkers are different games.
Chinese chess (Xiangqi) may resemble checkers because it uses round flat stones, but the playing method is definitely chess.
Chinese checkers (Tiaoqi) is derived from the German game Halma, and it's usually played with marbles.
Otherwise, Go, Gomoku (known in the West with their Sino-Japanese names) and Luzhanqi could also be considered forms of Chinese checkers...

[Olinguito]

Popular games in China:
Go = 围棋 wéiqí
Gomoku (also called Gobang or Five in a row) = 五子棋 wúzǐqí - played with go board and pieces
Chinese chess = 象棋 xiàngqí (中国象棋 zhōngguó xiàngqí when opposed to international chess)
Chess = 国际象棋 guójì xiàngqí (=international chess)
Chinese checkers = 跳棋 tiàoqí
Lùzhànqí = 陆战棋 or 军旗 jūnqí

Do you also have animal chess (斗兽棋 dòushòuqí)? I've seen it Singapore, where it's quite popular (especially with children).

[OldBoring]

I've never seen it, but it could be popular in China among children. I can't answer because I moved to Italy when I was 6.