As mentioned in a previous blog post, I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of board games at work with my coworkers during lunch. This has led me to buying several newer board games for myself and making a massive Amazon wishlist for many more. Thankfully, my wife has been indulging me in this so far.
I’ve also recently met several people at the church we meet with who are into gaming as well. So my opportunities to geek-out are exponentially increasing. For someone who always loved board and card games, but found it hard to find people with similar interests, I am getting closer and closer to nerd heaven.
Anyway, below are the top five games I’ve played so far since February (I hadn’t even heard of these before then.)
5. Carcasonne – This is an easy game to learn, but for some reason I haven’t figured out a solid strategy yet. Still fun. I’ve only played the expanded base set.
4. Ticket to Ride – Super easy to play and pretty fun as well. I’ve only played the original version, but I hear the Europe expansion is also cool since it introduces new features to the game.
3. Citadels – This one is a lot of fun. The one downside is that it takes longer than the an hour lunch break so I’ve only had a chance to play it with a large group once and then once again with four people. However, the two-player option works really well as my wife and I have played it several times.
2. Dominion – Easy and a lot of fun. I’ve only played with the base set and the Intrigue expansion so far, but I have fun with it every time. The games go quick which means we can usually play 2-3 during lunch.
1. Seven Wonders (with Leaders and Cities expansions) – I’ve played this game the most out of all others, in part because everyone likes it, and also because it plays 8 people so there is no splitting up into two groups. We can usually do a full game (including scoring) in less than 40-45 minutes.
I’ll get a chance to play Forbidden Island, Flashpoint, Liberatalia, and a couple others in the next month or so. Others I’ve also played that didn’t make the list (but still really enjoyed) include, Dixit, Sushi-Go, Guillotine, Poo, Word on the Street, and Wits and Wagers. Any cool games I should know about? Or thoughts on the ones listed?
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Ticket to Ride is good, Ticket to Ride Europe is a solid upgrade, adds some variability to the routes and takes strategy up a bit. My wife and I like using these two as introductions for games when people are interested in moving past Monopoly and Scrabble.
Some other games that can work well over a lunch:
Love Letters: Quick four person card game, you are trying to end each hand with the high value card while everyone is working supposition, blind luck, traitorous cards, counting what has been played and who has played what... You can probably get 4 games in with a determined group. Set up and clean up are a snap, only 16 cards to worry about.
Bananagrams is a great freeform word building game. You are making a crossword sequence in front of you simultaneous with all other players making there own, drawing letters until the letters run out. Players can jump in at any time and jump out just as easily, great for transitory situations and it really forces you to think quickly. Its like a sustained sprint versus Scrabbles languid golfing pace.
Ticket to Ride Europe is definitely on my wishlist and I’ve heard a lot of good things about Love Letters. Good suggestions.
Right now the biggest challenge is that several of the people who play prefer that we don’t break up in smaller groups. Therefore, we often play Seven Wonders, Liberatalia, or some party games since we can have 6-8 people at time and there aren’t a lot of games that play more than 5 people. Hopefully, people get more open to splitting up so that we can introduce different games than our usual fare.