Board Games!

[zoraster]

it is. it's also the only game i specifically said wouldn't work for us

[Untrod Tripod]

not with that attitude

[Untrod Tripod]

it looks like what you need is a cooperative thematic game with shifting alliances

what about Yahtzee

[Chickadee]

cooperative thematic game with shifting alliances

Betrayal at house on the hill
Mechs vs Minions (not so much shifting alliances though, but the drafting can make you feel like someone isn't on your side sometimes)
Bandito (cute fun little filler game...ignore the rules on player count. we tested it)
Fuse (again, no shifting alliances, but fun under pressure)
Saboteur


Those kinds of games?

[Untrod Tripod]

the joke was that those are all of the things he said he specifically didn't want

[Chickadee]

Ah, clearly I didn't read well enough hahaha

[Faraday]

Could get the five tribes expansion that lets it play 5

[Vi]

@ LLD: How is Code of Nine? It's on super sale at my lgs with Eminent Domain.

Not LLD, but--
I like it as a light hidden information game. It plays VERY quickly for a game that's not a glorified party game. It's mechanically very concise (every player gets 15 moves), pretty easy to explain, and you can play aggressive mind games. It's also a game where you can see how you're about to get screwed over several turns before it happens but well after you can do anything about it. I have ~thoughts~ about the design of the hidden information cards but you can come up with your own opinions.

The major concern is that you want to play it with a group of exactly four people.

[Gammagooey]

Looking for a suggestion for my family's yearly week long vacation. Need to add a

5 player game

(6 players is also great, but 5 is our most normal number of players). We play a lot of board games while on vacation, but it's been sort of particular on what games have found major success.

Here have been games that we've ended up playing a lot of:
1. 7 Wonders. By far our most played game, it involves strategy, the concurrently playing mechanic works nicely, it never feels too much like any individual player is "out of it,"
2. Ticket to Ride. We don't play this one any more because we overplayed it, but it was a good match.
3. Castles of Mad King Ludwig. In particular my wife likes this game.
4. Dominion. We've had fun with this, but even with 4 players it really moves too slowly.
5. Five Tribes. Inexplicably doesn't have five players.

We've played a lot of games that have been enjoyable but haven't really caught on like Smallworld.


Types of games that won't work:
1. Cooperative games. If the game ever risks having a quarterback, it won't work, with or without a traitor.
2. Thematic games (games that rely on their theme, story telling, etc. to make the game fun.)
3. "Silly" games like party games. It has to have some element of strategy.
4. Games that last longer than 2 hours, and it'd preferably be 60 or fewer minutes though it's not required.
5. Non-repeatable games. Likely goes along with thematic
6. Preferably no games with shifting alliances. I don't want to hear my father and his brother try and convince us to gang up on the other the entire game (e.g. no cosmic encounter).

I've thought about adding a worker placement game, but not sure that's the best road to go down.

Maybe Kingsburg? It's light, it's sort-of-worker-placementy but you use dice as the 'workers' you're placing and you need them to add up to whatever you're getting, and you can have a strategy from the start (or after your first die rolls at least) you're planning to work towards while changing it around based on what dice you get and what other people are going for, around 90 minutes long. I vaguely remember that some people really like the expansion or only like the game with the expansion or something like that but I've forgotten what it adds and I'm sure someone else around here has an opinion on that.

I'd recommend Trains too since it's basically Dominion smashed together with Ticket to Ride, but it only does 4 people.

[Gammagooey]

Libertalia too....

oh also this is great too as far as light and strategic goes

[xRECKONERx]

Maybe Kingsburg? It's light, it's sort-of-worker-placementy but you use dice as the 'workers' you're placing and you need them to add up to whatever you're getting, and you can have a strategy from the start (or after your first die rolls at least) you're planning to work towards while changing it around based on what dice you get and what other people are going for, around 90 minutes long. I vaguely remember that some people really like the expansion or only like the game with the expansion or something like that but I've forgotten what it adds and I'm sure someone else around here has an opinion on that.

Kingsburg is a great choice though I do think I wouldn't play it without the expansion nowadays?

But if you haven't played it, I think it would work

[PJ.]

Lords of waterdeep would be totally fine. Might need the expansion to be good with 5 tho

[GreyICE]

Try Concordia - https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos ... concordia/

[Chickadee]

Lords of waterdeep would be totally fine. Might need the expansion to be good with 5 tho

Base will play 5. But the expansion is more interesting.

[hitogoroshi]

Seems big enough probably? Only played Galaxy Trucker once and many years ago, but I'm not sure if the older people would love the real time nature (as I recall it)

Yup, that table would work. It is real time, but the app has a turned based "points" variant (where you get points on your turn to take parts or flip up new ones) and it looks like folks on BGG have written the rules out explicitly, so that would be an option.

Kingsburg is a great choice though I do think I wouldn't play it without the expansion nowadays?

It's worth noting that the most important part of the expansion (soldier tokens) is also trivial to proxy with playing cards or any sort of small bits of paper. As long as you do that you can get plenty of mileage out of just base.

[imaginality]

Maybe Vegas Showdown, zoraster? It plays pretty well with five, and it seems to tick your other boxes too. Competitive, replayable, some strategy, and the auction mechanic works well for making it competitive without much scope for allegiances or kingmakers. The theme is just flavour, it doesn't detract from the replayability.

[penguin_alien]

Just popping in to say that Board Game uPick: The Expansion Pack went into sign-ups in the Mini Theme queue here if anyone's interested.

[DeathNote]

What board game podcasts are out there? Anything good? I know of Wills show but was curious to see what style of podcast works for a boardgame theme.

[PJ.]

thedicetower has a podcast and a lot of their contributors also have podcasts

[Chickadee]

1p podcast is good. A friend of mine does it. He reviews 1 player games, and occasionally talks about other games as well. Tonight we played a demo copy of a game he was sent to review. It was an alright game, nothing grand. I think it was called Hotshot.

[GreyICE]

https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/

[PJ.]

Forgot about shut up and sit down. Their YouTube stuff is real good.

[pablito]

lld bring that game that allowed me to bully pablito next time and ill be a very happy boy

Shadow Hunters?

Yes. and no.

[PJ.]

Played Corleone's Empire tonight it's pretty damn good.

[DeathNote]

How many people is too many people for a boardgame podcast?