31–40 of 64 posts
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11003320
I really enjoy Agricola[0], because there are no elements of chance in the game, only strategy. It's also a little more approachable to people averse to conflict-focused games, because the only victory condition is "everybody has taken all their turns" [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola
Chess
- Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights - Caracassonne - Blokus - Chess - Risk (Luxor, complex maps) - Aquire
Curious why you specify the Cities and Knights expansion?
What I like about it the most is that instead of cities getting a second of a resource, they get a new type of resource that is used to "level up" three categories. These categories have three purposes: an opportunity for a couple victory points for each category, increases the chance of getting the new type of development card, and the most interesting purpose is that it gives you a superpower at level 3. One superpower allows you to power up knights and I can't remember another, but the last allows you to get a resource of your choice whenever you get unlucky on the die roll and don't get a resource. Easily the least fun part of Catan is when the die rolls make it so that you don't get anything, so I love this power that offsets it.
It also adds the concept of knights and barbarians. Knights are a new thing to build, and they need a grain to activate. (There's also a wall that increases the number of cards that can be in your hand before the robber affects it so the expansion adds three new things to use resources for). Barbarians attack every now and then, and the number of active knights will determine whether you win or lose. A loss means that the people with the lowest number of active knights get a city destroyed, while a win means the people with the highest number of active knights either gets a victory point (if one person) or a card (if more than one person tied). Active knights can also be used to move the robber or move or even eliminate another knight in very particular situations.
To add some detail: you roll a second die at the beginning of your turn. There's a half chance the barbarians move closer to attack, and the other three possibilities correspond to the three categories of the new type of resource and link each one with a development card. There are now three types of development cards that have different slants of capabilities. Your level in each category goes from level 1-5. Level 1 grants a development card if the first die is a 1 or 2 and the second die corresponds to the category, level 2 grants a card if the first die is a 1, 2, or 3, and so on.
The last detail is that the first person to level 4 in a category gains a couple victory points and is granted immunity from pirates on a city, but the first person to level 5 in that category can steal it for the rest of the game.
That's pretty much it, as you can see it really is a completely different game from the original.
After hearing about Rithmomachy/Rithmomachia on HN six months ago [1,2], I recently laser-cut a board and set to try it out with. It sounds rather tedious from the description, but actually was pretty enjoyable. A nice feature is that the difficulty is very scalable--once you find a set of rules ([3] is one source), you can decide how many of them to actually follow before starting the game. [1] https://news.ycombina…
Twilight Imperium
Through the Ages
Terra Mystica
Suburbia
7 Wonders
Lords of Waterdeep
I really enjoy Agricola[0], because there are no elements of chance in the game, only strategy. It's also a little more approachable to people averse to conflict-focused games, because the only victory condition is "everybody has taken all their turns" [0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola
If you like Agricola, I recommend Caverna. Sort of a spiritual sequel to the game, and done better in my opinion, which is saying a lot because Agricola was one of my favorites.
Betrayal at House on the Hill: cooperative until it isn't, with a traitor arising halfway through the game. Many novel "haunt" scenarios for replay value.
Coup: Bluffing game, where you have a couple of hidden "role" cards, each role card has some abilities, but you can use the abilities of any role as a bluff, if another player doesn't call you on it.
Netrunner (note, not the new remake, the old out-of-print version): CCG with asymmetric sides, the "runner" trying to break in and the "corporation" trying to defend and advance their agenda.
Ascension: deckbuilding game with a large variety of cards. There are only 1-3 of any given card in the deck; every game tends to turn out differently, and any strategy has to adapt to the available cards.
Dixit: Interesting exercise in description, because you have to hint at the image on your card without being spot-on, so that some but not all players get it. Helps to know the other players.
And if you don't already watch Tabletop, I recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C . (Note: that playlist is sorted in reverse order, for some reason; start at the bottom.)
That's in addition to various tabletop RPGs, which I find even more fun when we can get a group together for them.