ALL TIME best board games

My tastes are similar to yours, but you are the kind of cunt that keeps people away from games.

lol how

I just know what games I don't want to play, and don't play them.

Except Eclipse. I hate Eclipse with a passion. Plus, I'm sick of being at games night and playing Cosmic Encounter, enjoying it, and having the Eurofags playing Terrashitting Mars say "It's so random" every 30 seconds.

Also, I'm trying to be edgy on an image board.

>playing nerd Monopoly

Of course, in real life, I wouldn't call them Eurofags, or dis their game. I just go set up something else and people come play. I'm the guy with all the ameritrash, so if people like it, they come to my table.

The gamesnobs are the ones that purposely try to ruin others funs by shitting on the game WHILE they are playing it. Playing Talisman and enjoying it - here comes gamesnob to tell you it's completely random and takes too long for "what it is".

Do you like Twilight Imperium? Here comes gamesnob to tell you Eclipse is a shorter version of it and is much better and can be played in 3 hours. I don't care. If I wanted a 3 hour game I wouldn't be playing Twilight Imperium. And Eclipse is MORE random than TI3.

Please ask me how much I hate Eclipse and why, so I can write an essay without seeming desperate.

t. Sam Cuckley

Not familiar with the name, or your parody name. You'll need to explain your joke so I can get offended.

eh screw it, I'm going to bed to dream about Twilight Imperium.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A

No.

I really like all of Sirlin's games, but they are mostly PvP focused, not sure how well that goes with your group.

Flash Duel is... thinking about it, it's very vaguely sorta like Nidhogg, but with cards
Yomi is Street Fighter, but with cards
Puzzle Strike is Puzzle Fighter/Dominion, but with chips.
Codex is Warcraft III, but with cards
There's also this andante thing I have no idea about, but I'll give it the benefit of doubt and say it's pretty good.

I have classic 2nd Edition Talisman, and nearly all of the expansions. Any version of Talisman is a 'shits-n-giggles' game. Strategy is almost non-existant in that game since you roll random D6 for damn near everything. Move - roll a D6. Land on a space with an event? Roll a D6. Fight a monster? Roll a D6. And with higher player counts the game can drag on way way to long.

Try something newer like "Roll for the Galaxy" where you roll your dice (which are your workers) and then based on the results you place them to guarantee that certain things will happen that turn. Now it's a game that uses dice but isn't a wall to wall 'Lulz-random' XD system.

Is Roll better than Race? I enjoy Race but I played it enough to get sick of it forever

>recommending Twilight Imperium

user, please don't troll us like this.

If you want an 8 hour game play Diplomacy.

I would rather walk over burning coals than play TI again.

>not liking based based Space Cat-Jews the box

I know this is normie tier shit now but 7 wonders is fun as hell.

I've played quite a few boardgames in my time (a shitload), here are some favourites in no particular order:

>Twilight imperium

Great strategic wargame with a dash of politics and many optional rule variants to suit the game to your needs, takes a long time to play though when you are not used to the rules

>Age of empires III: Age of Discovery
>Empires: Age of Discovery (new name, same game I think, licensing issues)

Literally plays nothing like the PC-game series. Settle the Americas and make your colonies the most profitable/strongest/largest by any means you can

>Cuba Libre

Unique counter-insurgency (or insurgency) sim-ish game, really interesting gameplay where you either try to root out rebels/criminals or try to overthrow the government. There are many games in this series and I'm sure the others are equally fun, I'm very interested to try the Vietnam one

So basically Ameritrash games are for twats. I get ya.

>Spooky House / Black Scooby-Doo.
Actually called Betrayal at House on the Hill, but that name is long and boring so it often gets shortened. And due to an error when they made the miniatures for it, everyone ended up in blackface. So if you want a game where Treyvon Martin, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Madame Cleo, and Jesus Nigga fight the forces of darkness, it might be for you. The expansion is shit, though. And the balance is absolutely awful with some scenarios being basically autowins for either traitor or survivors. But it's a fun time.

Talisman is like Diplomacy.
It has a small set of hardcore people who absolutely love it (probably because they couldn't get into a regular D&D group), and everyone else would rather choke on a million needles than play it a second time in their life.

These are the broad categories, sure, but only a tard would pick a 'side'. I love Twilight imperium, but I also really like many 'cube-counter' games like Cuba Libre and that Cathedral-building game you are talking about (forgot the name).

That's like saying 'I'm an action movie man, action movies are the best, pick them'. There are great movies in every category, and most people will watch movies of many genres.

7 Wonders is a perfectly fine, likeable game. Would say it's "intro gamer", not "normie"

>Twilight imperium

user, stop. It's not funny anymore.

Go

>Please ask me how much I hate Eclipse and why
I'll bite. Start typing.

You forgot that amerithrash has lots of rng and bullshit like action cards.

>I would rather walk over burning coals than play TI again.
So, it's _________fun_____________?

What part of "roll 50 dice at a time" did you not understand?

It really isn't an 8 hour game unless you include Yssaril, Naalu and the Jol'nar. Every game with Jol'nar is the same. They spend 40 minutes on their turn trying to figure out what technology to buy while everyone else waits.

Cranked out a 7 player game last weekend in 5 hours.

Nope, but they aren't for Eurofags. I like a good Eurogame. I just have no pretention about what they are - abstract mechanics with shit themes. Sometimes they are interesting (Great Western Trail is pretty good, and so is Scythe), sometimes they are the most awful game I've ever played (Terraforming Mars, Eclipse).

Every euro gamer I've played with does nothing but sperg about "elegant mechanics".

I appreciate Euros. I just don't like them.

Yeah, it's almost like I like Ameritrash, but I also like some Euros like Scythe & Nations

Alright

Eclipse is often heralded as TI-Lite. Whenever I try to organise TI, there used to be people who would dismiss it, never having played it and say "Why would I want to play an 8 hour game when I can get the same experience in 3" or "TI3 is too random" or "TI3 is too complex". I just don't invite them anymore. No hard feelings.

Eclipse is a Euro. It is an economic simulation and business management game disguised as a Sci Fi game. It promises excitement, and delivers nothing. I hate Eclipse because it is not what it claimed to be, by its own marketing and the hype surrounding it. Eurogamers love Eclipse. I don't know why. It is extremely random.

A comparison between Eclipse and TI is enough to demonstrate how objectively crap Eclipse is.

But I'll start with the good. Eclipse modular spaceship system works really well. In fact, if this could be implemented in TI3, it would improve Twilight Imperium, which is already perfect. That's how good the modular space ship system is in Eclipse.

But that's it.

Technology in Eclipse is random. You pull things out of a bag to determine what tech is available. How does this work thematically? Are all the races visiting the same galactic market? Why would someone else researching rockets hinder my own races research into rockets, especially when we have never met and have no neighbouring borders. Tech in TI3 uses a tech tree. Nice, simple, you have prerequisites that you need. TI4 looks to improve this by minimising the tech tree complexity into just having prerequisites.

Combat in Eclipse & Twilight Imperium is random. This isn't a negative for me since they are both manageable and you can deal with the randomness by having more ships, different tech etc.

Victory Points in Eclipse are totally random. This is probably my most hated aspect of Eclipse. It doesn't matter how well you play. If you get a 4VP chit and someone else gets a 1VP chit, well, it sucks to be them.

Diplomacy in Eclipse is pointless. "You're next to me? Okay, have a point. Oh, we attacked, lose a point". Who cares. Diplomacy in TI is meta, you're constantly defending your borders, making deals with your neighbours, building your flagship as the Nekro Virus and demanding your neighbours send tribute for your tech ability or you'll destroy their entire fleet in one glorious self destruction. Sending spys and counsellors to the negotiation table.

Exploration in Eclipse is random. In fact, it's possible to waste an entire action exploring because you can't place it down. TI has the system explored. Why wouldn't it. It's a millennia old war that is being fought. Exploration in Eclipse is so random you can end up with nothing, or finding the most powerful piece of armor in the game.

Game progression is the same every game for Eclipse. Works towards the centre, then pile in to the centre for the final round. Game progression in TI3 is different every game. Some players are going to go for Mecatol to get VP there while others will be sneaky, taking a different route, working towards secret VP etc.

We get it, you're a pleb. You may stop now.

It's not even about the length, it's just a shit game. The length is like the piss sauce for the shit brownie.

I don't know that I'd say it's 'better than' Race for the Galaxy. It is dice driven rather than card driven, and generally easier to teach to new players. As noted before - it has *better* dice mechanics that Talisman because:

Choose a strategy and then roll dice and pray the dice don't screw you over is a poor mechanic. Roll dice, and then use the results to choose your strategy is much better. Now your choices matter

>Terraforming Mars

What's wrong with it? I played it once, wasn't amazing but nor did I want to flip the table. And we felt like it would be better in the future now everyone's familiar with the rules.

Keep on buying $100 boxes of wooden cubes and calling them "elegant" and treating them like they'll one day go up in value.

>It promises excitement, and delivers nothing.

Sorry, are you talking about Eclipse or TI?

I am a sucker for these games. Runebound 3e with the unbreakable bonds expansion is going to be my next purchase.

In my personal, biased, and subjective ordering of war/board games I've played: From best to worst. Will answer questions anyone has about them, since a lot of them are a bit obscure

>World in Flames: Big hex and chit strategic level WW2 game
>Avalon Hill Advanced Civilization: multiplayer diplomacy/economic advancement game.
>Avalon Hill Dune: Multiplayer diplomacy/war game on everyone's favorite sci-fi desert world.
>Freedom In the Galaxy: A !Not Starwars game, where you have an Empire and a rebel player, where the rebels try to overthrow the Empire as quickly as possible. Has this neat little setup of interaction between heroic characters who run missions, and armies that take and hold planets and spacelanes.
>Lie Cheat and Steal: A monopolyish game about machine politics in a style of early 20th century
>Junta: Another multiplayer politics game, where you play different power interests in La Republique De Los Bannanos, and attempt to divert as much of the foreign aid money into your secret swiss bank account as possible.

I guess it's my groups dynamics. There are two distinct groups where I game. When we cross over, it's not good.

Some of us, self included, are very quick at taking turns. We're probably not optimal, or plan ahead very far, but we tend to play more thematic games with die rolls and stuff you can't plan too far for anyway.

So playing terraforming mars goes like this

Me : 30 second turn
Guy 2 : 30 second turn
Guy 3 : 30 second turn
Guy 4 (from the other group) : 10 minute turn spent optimising his actions and then undoing it all 3 times.
Guy 5 (from the other group) : Even worse than guy 4

The rest of us just groan. We might have liked it if it was just us 3 playing I guess? So for us, it just seems like we play for a few seconds and watch someone else for 2 hours. Boring.

Got it preordered :) Runebound 3e token system is fantastic. I wasn't sure I'd like battling with pogs, but it works really well.

Did you find Junta took way too long? Like the diplomacy part of the game was fun, dealing and handing out cash, but the actual coup just took ages to resolve.

>Actually called Betrayal at House on the Hill...
>And due to an error when they made the miniatures for it, everyone ended up in blackface.

Hmm, that must be the 2nd edition. I've got the old first edition and the figures are just fine (not great - but not craptacular either).

>The expansion is shit, though. And the balance is absolutely awful with some scenarios being basically autowins for either traitor or survivors. But it's a fun time.

Betrayal is more of a 'story telling experience' than a game at times. And for exactly the reasons you listed - a lot of random stuff happens, then the haunt begins. And based on all the random stuff before the haunt, one side or the other may curb-stomp the opposition. (In the 1st edition version - "The Blob" scenario - the heroes better have all the items needed to beat the blob as soon as the haunt drops or they are screwed! It covers the entire board in a matter of a few turns.)

tl:dr - Betrayal can be a fun experience, but it is doesn't have 'well polished game rules and balance' by today's board gaming standards.

This feedback pleases my greatly and just reinforces my excitement to play it.
Thanks user!

youtube.com/watch?v=2cVw7tPRZks

Pretty funny review. (they like it, despite making it seem like they don't. Most of their reviews are like this. I feel the girl is channeling aubrey plaza).

I'll never understand criticism of this game. What is your issue with it? It is one of the best games I've played, and I've played a lot of them.

Not him, but I'll bite.

The fact that it is Twilight Imperium-lite is not a problem for me, TI takes a long time to play and Eclipse offers a more bite size session.

It was ok until we started building missile ships. Missiles in the base game are completely broken. Tech missiles and put as many of them as you can on your ships and you'll win every fight, and there aren't enough missile techs to go around (I think there's two availible).

Also, you can win too easily by running away and building those monolith-things.

I found a usual game took 4-6 hours. But given that the top game on my list takes about 150 hours to play, I think my standards for what constitutes a "long" game might be skewed from the norm.

People who haven't played it hate it because they are jealous.

OR

They had a bad experience playing TI3 with a group of people that are prone to AP, or aren't in it to win it (eg, they aren't playing to complete objectives, but end up fighting petty wars of attrition, making the game last forever).

First thing I stress with new people is playing to get objectives. If someone attacks you, don't spend all your resources building a fleet to get revenge, unless revenge gets you VP.

>Eclipse is often heralded as TI-Lite.

It is, and it's objectively incorrect. Eclipse is purely a Space 4x game. TI3 falls into both the 4x *AND* 'Grand Strategy Games' categories.

>Eclipse is a Euro. It is an economic simulation and business management game disguised as a Sci Fi game.

I'm going to slightly disagree with you here. It *typically* plays like a Euro for the first 6 to 7 turns. Everyone spends that period building their economic engines. Then when turns 8 and 9 roll around it becomes Ameri-trash war gaming 101 - everyone tries to hang onto their own shiz while stealing other's high VP systems.

But with the rest of your points I'd largely agree. Random tech draws, no value political options that might as well be ignored, and other items that minimize player agency are NOT a good thing in Eclipse.

I'd generally recommend Exodus with the Eve of Extinction expansion over Eclipse (and I do like Eclipse in spite of its many flaws) for people wanting a 'solid' 4x experience without the time sink of a 'Grand Strategy' game like TI3.

I've also really stoked about the up coming Empires of the Void II. The game rules look solid and the component quality is looking damn skippy good.

youtube.com/watch?v=9k60fwZoWYk

Thinking about playing it again makes me so angry my stomach churns.

I like Ryan Laukert's games, so I'll probably pick up EofV2, even though I never played the first one.

I do own Near and Far and The Ancient World, which are both great. The latter is probably the only worker placement game I enjoy.

I missed the Near & Far KS, but there's a new one for the 'Mines of Amber' expansion. I'm seriously considering jumping on it with the option to get the core game and the expansion. I've heard a lot of good feedback on both of the games you've mentioned.

kickstarter.com/projects/953146955/near-and-far-amber-mines

So your group is shit, not the game. Gotcha.

No, the other group is shit. Why are you getting so butthurt that I don't like your crappy mars game.

takes long rewards little, action cards, diplomacy/politics stage with retarded laws, rng, kingmaking in the late game(in most my games), you can lose or practically lose in the early game and then it's 4 hours of waiting for you

Dominion is the GOAT

That's not a game. It's a way of life.

>takes long
Ok

>rewards little,
What are you wanting out of a game. I enjoy bants with mates, not figuring out how to make more corn to feed my starving family. I do that in real life already.

>action cards
A game with cards. How tragic. But I do hate sabotage cards, so I just removed them from the deck. Easy.

>, diplomacy/politics stage with retarded laws
Look up "Thinned political deck" or something. My political deck consists of 50 game changing cards.

>rng,
Literally only in combat, and it can be negated through tech and force. If you prefer Eclipse though, then you're an idiot, since Eclipse has RNG in EVERYTHING - exploration, tech, vp, combat, rewards.

> kingmaking in the late game(in most my games), you can lose or practically lose in the early game and then it's 4 hours of waiting for you

Unfortunately this is pretty much every 4x or grand strategy game. Kingmaking is fun though, because it's what happens in real politics anyway. And living in NZ, I experience it every election. We vote, Winston Peters decides the government.

>this game is so great once you remove half the stuff

Neck yourself

A fucking kiwi. Least it's not a fucking leaf, I guess.

>coup
>story war
>cards against humanity
>catchphrase

Can you tell I mostly play with drunk peopls?

Entire game is a modular sandbox. Removing/adding stuff is part of it.

*teleports behind you*

I wanna play both Yomi and Pandante way more. I still have 2 decks in the shrinkwrap for Yomi.

Heroquest is the best game ever made
And Anyone who say otherwise is wrong
youtu.be/Cx8sl2uC46A

>I do that in real life already
kek

>tfw had Heroquest as a child but not Space Crusade
I just want a plasma gun dammit

This^

This is the only explanation, this game absolutely hinges on that everyone goes 100% in for winning it.

More nothing, what is the issue?

Takes long rewards to a high degree in my opinion, and it doesn't even take THAT long when you know the rules by heart, takes my group around 4 hours nowadays.

Never actually tried the diplomacy/politics rule as they are completely optional, came in an expansion after we were already used to the game and none in my group felt like using them. You mean the stage with diplomats, right?

What is wrong with action cards and RNG? Sounds like you dislike all 'ameritrash'-games and not TI specifically.

Never had any issues with kingmaking or 'losing early game'. If you lag behind early it is completely possible to swing back later and win, or at the very least you can aim for second place.

Are you not aware that like 50% of the rules are optional?

This game never clicked for me. You just run around collecting looking-glass tokens and then you either die to an uncontrolled monster or shut the portal and win. There is no player adversary, just randomly walking monsters, takes away the enjoyment for me. I want to win against someone.

Shadows of Brimstone is one of the best "dungeon crawlers with a campaign" games that you can buy.

It's big, bulky, loads of fun. It's a hybrid between an RPG and a miniature game I guess. You have a character, level up, visit towns between adventures in the mines and other worlds, but unlike PnP RPGs you don't have to role play your actions (a turn off for some, but I'm not a fan of PnP RPGs, so this works well for me).

Your first mistake was playing a co-op game if what you wanted was to win against someone. There are plenty of cooperative games that do it better than AH, but it sounds more like you just aren't the type who would get much enjoyment out of any co-op boardgame. I'm the opposite. I get more fulfillment out of team versus team or co-op games because I like the feeling of being part of a larger group and having a special role. I'm the dumb one in my group of friends so any strictly free-for-all game I tend to get stomped. Only 1v1 game I really enjoy or am any good at is Space Hulk.

I'd enjoy some coop-games I'm sure, I mean I like coop games on PC when, as you say, each person has their role and are expected to fill it. But in Arkham horror the only role seems to be 'hunt for clues'.

Anyone?

Nevermind, then. You said "I want to win against someone" and "There is no player adversary" so I thought that was your main issue. Obviously clues are the most valuable resource in AH and you should prioritize collecting them when you can, but there is more to the game than that and if all players are too focused on collecting clues then you will likely suffer, especially on the harder ancient ones. Usually you switch up what you are doing based on who is in the best position to do important things on a turn. Someone who is in a good position to close a gate and has the clues to seal it should obv enter an otherworld. A player who is playing a guy with good fight should try to clean up the streets to keep the terror level from rising. If he has the cash and isn't needed elsewhere, a player should stop by the curio shop to see if he can find an elder sign. These are just a couple of things, but there is more to the game than just grabbing clues. I will say that vanilla AH is extremely samey and doesn't have much to offer. I feel that the Dunwich Horror xpac is mandatory, because it introduced madness and injury cards that shoulda been there from the start, and vortices on the Dunwich board mean the terror level actually rises whereas it is way too easy to prevent in the base game. The extra board also means that players often have to hop a train to the other board and stop guys from marching into the vortices, so it mixes it up a little. Me and my friends enjoy AH, but it isn't an elegant game by any means and if you hate games that focus on theme over mechanics and luck/dice chucking then this game will make you wanna caber toss the board out the nearest window.

Not directed at you really, but this is an interesting project from a guy to collect general statistics about things in AH.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v_y5tJMBalbjUg5i2kbmfi7QMyXxEpxm82Pcx2DzdTU/edit?hl=en_US&hl=en_US#gid=30

I can understand why this may not like...in fact Arkham horror it can frustrating, harsh and generally merciless.
but you know what? it's still the most challenging, therefore from my perspective the best, game I've ever played with my group: every decision can heavily influence the board state, knowing the percentage of portal incidence for each location, having a limited range of stats manipulation but yet knowing the best sinergies between each investigator, you usually win the game VERY few turns before the ancient one awake or few turns before you just lose.
Compared to AK every other game I've played was something like: "hurr durr, let me thow some dices, we're the bestest of best".