Like the title! For someone getting into board games, what would you recommend? Bonus points if it is or can be played cooperatively, with 2 players, and double bonus points if it has a sci-fi theme (like, grand sci-fi), though the previous points are more important.
What do you like to play? Arcs and Earthborne Rangers both look cool to me, but wanted to ask here too! Anyone have experience with those two?
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TrueAnon storm the capital
(I haven’t actually played it)
Wingspan! Fun engine builder that is simple enough to introduce new people to it at a game night but can get more complex and deep with expansions. Also if you’re a bird nerd it’s a great way to memorize names (and calls/songs if you play the pc version)
Fucking love wingspan.
Settlers of Catan! Funny how badly choosing your starting loc can leave you hardstuck on a resource.
Settlers
Op here is a tip Get whichever is cheapest and slowly build a collection Board games can get really repetitive if you don’t have variety I would recommend secret Hitler, really simple premise and rulesets
this. also most simple boardgames you can just print yourself no need to buy especially card games. although if you don’t own a printer yourself i doubt it’ll be cheaper but it’s a good option if you’re living somewhere without access to novelty game stores.
Also ttrpgs can scratch this itch but they require more effort to get into
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a lot of fun. Coop haunted house exploration, until part way through, the haunt happens and maybe your friends a vampire now! Maybe there’s a ghost stalking these halls! Maybe there’s a zombie dog that you can distract by throwing meat at it!
Pandemic is also a lot of fun and coop, but I was gifted it mid-2019 and my friends quickly found it too “topical”. Also lmao, it acts like the whole world would unite in the face of a horrible pandemic and now we know that that’s a wild fantasy.
oh big +1 on Betrayal, probably my favorite game too. The exploration component is so much fun
There’s a Star Wars Clone Wars version of pandemic that looks pretty cool
Wingspan - easy to learn, playing with more of your friends makes it even more fun, lots of people play it, not cooperative but you don’t fuck each other over, game revolves around collecting bird cards
Spirit Island - Fairly complicated, but if someone knows what they’re doing it’s easy for them to carry newbies, very fun & strategic, also quite popular so easy to run into people who play it, theme is kill whitey
Hegemony - A new lesser-known game that simulates the dynamics of a democratic-capitalist society, one person plays as the capitalist class, one the working class, one the middle class, and one the state; it’s cool and very didactic to play these roles but requires a lot of buy-in to convince people to play it. I bought this on the recommendation of some person here. I had to study the manual & mock-play it for probably eight hours before I felt comfortable inviting others over. It definitely is not the sort of thing where you can invite people over to communally “figure it out as you go”.
I have a buddy that is too into board games. Go to boardgame geek. Pretty much any game with a “push your luck” mechanic will be a crowd pleaser. Just find whatever one looks cute and is being sold reasonably cheap. It probably won’t be good but everyone will have a good time when you bust it out here or there. The first one he got was monopoly go. Which is fine, but for any given evening playing boardgames the most hype moment is likely to be people pushing their luck to hard on a big roll of that game. You sound like you were asking for more big event games which I think everyone else here can get you set up with.
Wow, that’s really good advice 👍 I’m on boardgame geek and hadn’t thought of that.
It also wasn’t what you asked for so no shade there. It is the curse of the boardgame haver. You end up playing dungion master. As you are bringing the game to the audience you are responsible for setting it up and examining the rules so the parties involved have a good time. They are probably going to meet you half way but that still leaves half the show boardgame type people are not inclined to prep for. Explaining rules and setup are notorious hurdles in having a nice boardgame eveing. I think one if the cruelist things I ever did to that buddy was get him a very good and fun boardgame that is very difficult to set up and run. So the odds of any attempt to play it living up to the potential was low. It haunted him for quite some time till he got a system down to run it.
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Dune, unlike its terrible luck for computer games lately, have actually great luck for board ones. Dune: Imperium is hands down best board game i ever played, and the reboot of old 1979 game is also great.
Neither of them is really for only two players, though Imperium have mechanics to substitute players by special deck draws so it can be played solo or in 2 players all right. The other one can be played even in 12 players if you’re crazy (normally 2-6)
I have the dune 1979 reboot and it fucking rules. Extremely fun and wild game. I took out my friends entire army with an assassination at a key moment in one of the last turns of the game and it completely blindsided them. It was the best feeling I’ve ever had playing a board game. I will probably remember that moment forever.
I had two memorable moments, first was when Atreides and Harkonnen nuked almost their entire armies with shield/lasgun reaction during epic final battle for Arrakeen and i looked at them and said “Dune heals itself, bi-la kaifa” and (as Fremen) just waltzed in last turn and won the game.
Second when again Atreides vs Harkonnen and Atreides player held Yueh traitor card so he was absolutely sure Yueh can’t be traitor. It was Jessica, Thufir vindicated.
Do you have all expansions? There’s some wild stuff there, Ixians with movable fortress doing spice grabs, Tleilaxu rapidly becoming my second favourite faction after Fremen, Choam with at first seeming minor mechanics which will make you swim in spice in no time, Richese with their own treachery minidec they can keep or sell, Ecaz simulating other factions perks and Moritani with traps (including susprise nukes). 3rd expansion (Ecaz/Moritani) also have some cool new mechanics like nexus cards for usage when you’re not in alliance and homeworlds for each faction (2 for Emperor) which gives additional bonuses and can be invaded adding next strategical layer.
Oh man I had no idea there were expansions. I honestly didn’t even think to look for any but I’m definitely checking those out thank you 🙂
I haven’t had the opportunity to play Arcs or Earthborn Rangers, but the group I play with loves them.
I usually like very adversarial games, kind of the opposite of what you’re looking for. Anyhow, here’s some current favorites:
Dune - a classic from 1979, it’s super thematic and cuthroat, and established a lot of modern game mechanics. It’s a sci-fi theme, and a good one, but it’s really only playable with 5 or 6 players.
Inis - Celtic tribes clashing with one another about who’s gonna be king. Super interesting card play combined with area control. Mega bonus points to this game for being really good with any player count from 2 to 5, a rare thing!
Imperial and Imperial 2030 - similar to Risk or Diplomacy, but where you the player is not representing any particular country, but rather are the shadowy billionaires who pull the strings behind the scene to affect world affair for profit. Great fun, it’s basically like Diplomacy, but where the goal is to get rich off of the wars of the great powers. This is a 3-6 player game.
The Estates - play as crooked developers trying to build a new housing subdivision. This is one of the most insanely cuthroat games out there, and it’s entirely possible for the game to end with everyone having negative points. A 3-5 player game.
Love Letter - a really simple 15 card mini game where you’re trying to pass a love letter from person to person until it reaches the princess. A 3-4 player game.
1830: Railways & Robber Barons - part of a series of train games where the focus is on stock market speculation. When you’re starting out, you think “oh, this game is about running really good train companies”. Once you get some experience, you realize “oh, this game is actually more about obstructing other people’s train company so you come out relatively ahead”. Once you get a lot of experience, you realize “oh, running good companies is irrelevant, this is all about just being an absolute menace and using underhanded stock manipulation”. Not an easy game series to get into, but a great one for people who want to play competitive spreadsheets against other train nerds. Mainly a 3-6 player game.
I also have been playing a lot of the COIN series of games, which are about historical counter-insurgency warfare. These can have pretty problematic politics if you actually read the playbook (the designers are sometimes chuds), but they’re pretty interesting for storytelling an alt-history. My favorites of these so far is People Power, which is about the fall of the Marcos government in the Philippines in the 80s, and then A Distant Plain, which is about the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan. These are mainly 3 or 4 player games, but they have very good bot players (you follow an action flowchart), so you can play these as 2 player games. These are pretty meaty and difficult to get into, but they’re a blast to play.
Second the recommendation of Love Letter as a fantastic quick/casual game. Another one in a somewhat similar vein is Skulls which I think is up to 5 or 6 player and is a dead simple but really fun bluffing card game
I like cooperative games! I’m the only one I know who liked the first iteration of The Captain is Dead (too complex, too many things to keep track of), but the sequel The Captain is Dead: Dangerous Planet has been a hit with every group I’ve tabled it. You’re the crew of a spaceship and you need to gather the materials you need to escape the planet before the bugs get you.
Competitive games I love are Quacks of Quedlinburg, Clank!, Azul Summer Pavillion, Colt Express, Dune Imperium
Spirit Island is a great coop game where you play slumbering nature spirits who have to wake up and kick all the colonizers out. There’s some funny elements to the component designs as well; all of the tokens for the spirits and indigenous peoples are wood or cardboard, while the colonizers are white plastic.
Pro-tip: most boardgames have mods on Tabletop Simulator on Steam, which makes it a decent way to “demo” games before you go out and spend $50 on something you might not like!
If you like deck building, Dominion is one of my favorite board games. You build your deck along the course of the game and every game you choose 10 different card types to have available to players so each game is a little different depending on which cards are in play. There are a few expansions that add some cards that have really interesting mechanics.
If you don’t have a set of Looney Pyramids, I’d suggest getting some. There’s dozens of games you can play with those.
Lately, however, I’ve been into the classics. Mancala, Nine Holes, Shogi, that sorta stuff.
damn ive been meaning to get a set of looney pyramids for Years lmao. i keep forgetting
The Looney Pyramid suggestion is a great idea, thanks!
ascension is one of my favs, its a deckbuilder similar to the more popular dominion, but has really cool art (at least with the early expansions, the later ones i dont care for).
basically any game in the oniverse is also good like onirim, sylvion, cyberion, etc. those ones are made for single player but they also have two-player co-op (never tried it though).
tiny epic galaxies is also pretty good if youre looking for a small fast paced space adventure
theres probs better introductions to board gaming lmao and i dont know many co-op games aside from aeons end and spirit island (both of which are very good) but i like to play these personally
