Hamster's top 20 board games

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Okay. I love board games. I own loads, design them in my spare time and have a dozen podcast episodes I recorded about them from back in the day.

The main home for board game information on the internet is www.boardgamegeek.com and while, of course, there are plenty of geeky types there, it's also an interesting site with information on more games than you'd ever have thought existed.

Anyway, here are my top twenty games that I've played. Unlike my other lists these ARE in order.

There won't be Monopoly or Cluedo on this list. Sorry to disappoint you.

[NobBe Nobbs]

#1 - Diplomacy, thank you end of thread.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

20: Capitol

2-4 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "This game by Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum is a mix of territory acquisition, resource management and even a little auctioning thrown in for good measure. So-called "Architects of the Eternal City", compete in old Rome for the most spectacular buildings and dominance in the Roman prefectures. Whoever uses the 90 blocks and 40 roofs most effectively to secure points will win."

Capitol is a great game but it's out of print now. It's been re-released as Skyline 3000 and set in space (which I have) but the Ancient Rome theme just feels better. It's great because it's almost like a child's toy in that you're constructing little wooden towers with roofs in your colour and adding them to the board. You can only add a building of the same height or one higher than the tallest building in the area so as the game progresses there's a natural progression of buildings getting taller and taller.

[stokeriño]

#1 - Diplomacy, thank you end of thread.

You ever tried playing Diplomacy outside of the internet? Every time I've tried it's failed badly.

But in general, the story of my life is one of looking at board games and thinking "oh that looks awesome...oh wait, it requires 4+ players and I cannot find that many people even willing to give it a go, let alone willing to play a second time if they don't win immediately".

Sigh.

[NobBe Nobbs]

#1 - Diplomacy, thank you end of thread.

You ever tried playing Diplomacy outside of the internet? Every time I've tried it's failed badly.

But in general, the story of my life is one of looking at board games and thinking "oh that looks awesome...oh wait, it requires 4+ players and I cannot find that many people even willing to give it a go, let alone willing to play a second time if they don't win immediately".

Sigh.

Once or twice, with friends. It was...interesting.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

19: Pitchcar

2-8 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "PitchCar and Carabande are dexterity games where large, wooden, puzzle-like pieces are used to construct a race track that looks very similar to a slot car track when finished. But instead of using electrons, players use finger-flicks to send little round pucks around the track, a la Carrom."

Pitchcar is a flicky game. Each player gets a wooden disc with a racing car printed on it and take it in turns to flick it around the track. Smashing into opponents is within the rules and there's a real skill in getting angles right or bouncing off the walls in the right place. The track's well made out of wood and it's really addictive. You can play one-off races or can play seasons with different track layouts, 3 lap races, qualifying and points etc. You can play with a straightforward track or buy expansions with cross-overs, jumps and all kinds of crazy stuff.

I've got the game in the smaller format "Pitchcar Mini" which takes up less space so I sneak it into work to play with the kids if they've been good.

(not my hands - just a random picture)

[stokeriño]

...Okay, that's probably a game I could get people to play.

[fr34k]

This thread is awesome.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

18: Funny Friends

2-6 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Each player plays a character who starts the game as a teenager and then must choose the cards that will make his life take shape. He can repeat a school year and get new friends, start smoking, take part in a Bible discussion group and have his first sexual intercourse during Oktoberfest – all very realistic. Every event in the life of a character has some effect on his main characteristics - tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, wealth, health, sadness, spirituality and wisdom. Excess comes at a price, though, and when a characteristic gets too high, it cancels another one – if you smoke too much, you get thin; if you get too fat, you must stop drinking; if you drink too much you lose your wisdom, and so on – once more, very realistic. During game, you can get friends, and often more, with other player’s characters. This is an important feature in the game, since what happens to you usually affects, in good or bad, your friends, and this is one of the main interaction aspects of the game."

I love Funny Friends but have been very careful about who I play it with. The idea is that you take on the role of a person and live their life. You're dealt some life goals to complete and each requires you to have had a certain amount of sex, or be married, or divorced, or happy, or unhappy, or a heavy smoker or whatever. The reason why I need to choose opponents wisely is because they need to find the idea of two straight men having having gay sex, affairs, random sex with strangers, becoming an alcoholic, breaking up happy marriages and "sperm raiding" funny within the context of the game. I do. I don't know if my mother-in-law would enjoy the game though.

The main mechanism of the game is auctioning off action cards which show events that your character is taking part in (alone or they can rope their friends into doing it with them). I find the game funny and actually pretty tactical but I can see why people wouldn't like it.

[Ruki]

That actually seems really fun.

(Pitchcar that is)

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Pitchcar is loads of fun.

Looking at that black player board for Funny Friends - the player's character is the guy on the black token with the glass of wine. He smokes a little, doesn't drink or take drugs. Doesn't have any money, is a bit unhealthy, is pretty fat, pretty depressed very religious and a bit intelligent. He's had random sex twice with women and once with a man. Has an ex-grilfriend who he had a kid with and is now engaged to the woman on the yellow token. He's got four other friends.

[zap]

I hope to see Stratego make an appearance. ^_^

[LUKIE]

This thread is fantastic. Thanks Hammie!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

17: Tikal

2-4 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Tikal is a game of exploration within the Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, you find temples that require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points for occupying temples and holding onto treasure.

Tikal is the first game of the Mask Trilogy."

Ahhh jungles, exploration, occupying....What's not to love?! Tikal is quite a beautiful game of sending out your explorers (octagonal cylinders) into the jungle, setting up camp and then hunting down temples. The more time you spend on a temple site you uncover more of it which earns you more points. Thing is, your opponents can send in more of their own octagonal cylinders to overpower you and take on the temple for themselves. Tikal uses a mechanism whereby you get a certain number of "action points" each turn (6 if I remember rightly) and each action costs a different amount, so moving may cost you 1-4 depending on where you're going, uncovering temple costs another amount, setting up camp another....So you're having to balance what you want to do. Also, the board starts totally bare and you uncover the jungle as you go.

[stokeriño]

Hang on...board games come in trilogies?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Well...this one does. I've got Java which is in the series and there's another called Mexica. They use the same action point thing and they all have masks on the box...and they're by the same designer...

[Gazz]

Yeah, the third one is Jumanji.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

16: Carcassonne

2-5 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "A clever tile-laying game. The southern French city of Carcassonne is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players develop the area around Carcassonne and deploy their followers on the roads, in the cities, in the cloisters and in the fields. The skill of the players to best develop the area will determine who is victorious."

Anyone got this on their mobile phone device or XBox 360? It's pretty popular. My wife and I play it when we feel like playing a game but are too tired to play something complicated. The concept of the game is easy - draw a tile, play a tile so that it matches the tiles around it (like a jigsaw puzzle). Then you can lay one of your wooden guys in a town, road, farm or "cloister" to score points when said structure is complete. Well worth checking out if you haven't. We play with a couple of expansions that add a big guy each which makes it more aggressive and nasty to each other as you muscle each other out of the towns and roads.

[LUKIE]

I was checking that game out. Looks really good for a 2 person game. I guess that's the issue, finding more then 2 to play games, and most of the really good ones (Catan) are for 3+

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I think Carcassonne is best with two. With 5 there are too many other people taking turns before you get your next turn and so it just gets more and more luck-based.