Veeky Forums approved board games

Me my girlfriend and my Mum and Dad love board games but I'm getting bored of the classics like scrabble, cluedo, scatergories etc. Anything that can be recommended to change things up? Something a bit original.

I highly recommend Ticket To Ride: Europe. It's the first thing that pops into my head when I think of new-age family board game.

We have a thread for this New Friend, look in the catalog for /bgg/

Cards Against Humanity if they're open to that kind of thing. There's even a UK edition (assuming you're British).

Don't listen to this guy, he is memeing you.

there are two boardgames by Phalanx that I recommend all the way, all the time:
Discworld and, more recent Study in Emerald
both are great in terms of player interaction and recource management, and while Discworld is close to the edge of bearable RNG, it's still awesome.
I seriously recommend buying and playing both of these games, especially now that Discworld is off licence and no longer in print.

You should Catan

"Stone age" if you like peaceful competition.

"Pandemic" if you you want a co-operative game with no competition.

"Quantum" if you like sci-fi and want an antagonistic game with attackig of each other.

Seven Wonders is a solid drafting game, and Sushi Go is a lighter in-betweener of the same sort. Tsuro, Quoridor, and Quarto are all quick, abstract games with simple rules and a reasonable degree of strategy. Quoridor and Quarto are both meant for 2, but can work with 4 players, so if you and your girlfriend play without the parents, you can get some extra mileage from them.

Posting pics.

Stone age is a game where each player is the leader of a tribe of people in ancient times. Each morning players will send some of their tibesmen to do different task such as hunt, collect wood, make tools, or trade with far off tribes. Then in the evening the tribesmen will return with their days work. The goal is to build the most advanced civilization.

There is competition for limited resources, but players cannot attack or steal from each other.

2-4 players. 60 minutes. (90 on first play)

Pandemic is a co-operative game where players are officials from the centre for disease control who are trying to stop the spread of 4 deadly pathogens. Players receive 4 actions to spend on their turn, which can be used to move, contain diseases, research a cure or use their special player power. Everybody wins as a team if all 4 pathogens are cured or eradicated. Players lose if everybody dies.

2-4 players, 45-60 mins.

Quantum is a game of exploration and expansion in outer space. Players must place all of their 'Quantum Cubes' on different planets to win. Each player starts with a fleet of 3 unique space ships, each represented by a large frosted die. The number on the die represents the type of ship, it's speed, and it's combat prowess. Players receive 3 actions a turn with which to move, research science, or reconfigure their ships into a new type (reroll one of the dice). A player can place one quantum cube on a planet by sending ships totaling a certain number to that planet, or by killing enough enemy ships .The art and components are stunning, i hated sci-fi games before this one.

2-4 players, 45 mins

Ingenious is a great abstract game. Granted, free-for-all is bullshit (in a 3 player game, I absolutely demolished the other person who was on my skill level because I got to go after the weak player who left me with openings), so I'd only really recommend it for 2 players or 2v2, with the latter being by far the most fun. The rule we play by is that table talk about the game should be kept to a minimum, so that the players on a team have to intuit from each other what the plan is, and they play as individuals working together rather than as committees making group decisions.

I have to say that Ingenious honestly didn't look very interesting for me, and the rules are very simplistic, but the game play is a lot of fun. You're basically making points by getting as many matching shapes in a row (or two rows) as possible when you play your tile. You score each color individually (with players on a team using the same scoring track and thus adding their points together) and your score at the end of the game is the color you have the least number of points in. It's a Reiner Knizia game, for those of you who are aware of his work.

I have a very good winning record because I'm an absolute bastard in the game. Most other people try to get points for themselves and try to block other people off from the colors they need only as a distant afterthought. I'm pretty much looking for ways to screw the other team from the get-go (though it doesn't really become feasible as a primary strategy until you're a decent bit into the game, because folks don't really have a weak color until then and could recover from an deficit anyway as the board would still be wide open with tons of tiles left to play).

I second Pandemic. Can't speak for you, but in my experience chicks and family love it. Also if you ever get tired of it there are like 4 different expansions that add features/difficulty.

I need some good co-op multiplayer games.

My group is playing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, but we don't want to play it every time.

Pandemic, flashpoint, xenoshyft onslaught, the grizzled

To clarify, by everybody dies I mean the human population, not players. Nobody can be eliminated.

Twilight Struggle is pretty original and pretty good.

Only two players though.

Those look great, thanks.

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Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror maybe? Players cooperate together against the board game to fight against monsters that are coming from portals around the town, while trying to close the portals and prevent The Ancient One (a boss) from waking up.

If they do wake up The Ancient One, they need to struggle together to defeat it. Not an easy task.

Probably one of the most popular RPG-ish board games though, with lots of expansions and player generated content.

Disclosure: I've never played the game, but I've seen a few videos and seen it interesting. I'd like to play it sometime but obviously I have no friends to play with, and solo isn't maybe as fun as with friends.

How well does the Hive stand here?