On the Polish market it seems to be some kind of renaissance of board
games. Shop shelves are full of both the new ones and the older
titles. We are no longer condemned to the Monopoly series (of course
I am not implying that it was bad) and we can reach for almost every
possible board game that was released worldwide. Not to mention some
of our own creators like Portal Games.
Today I am going to present to you some board games titles that are worth mentioning. For someone who likes board games and has some titles it might not be anything new, but maybe you are thinking about getting a new one. And maybe some of these titles can appeal to you.
Today I am going to present to you some board games titles that are worth mentioning. For someone who likes board games and has some titles it might not be anything new, but maybe you are thinking about getting a new one. And maybe some of these titles can appeal to you.
Bear in mind that they are in somehow random order.
The Settlers of Catan
For
some it is not very surprising that this game is on my list. In my
personal opinion, it's the title that brought popularity to board games in Poland. This
game,
which originated from Germany,
was released back in 1995 but is still one of best-selling
games. Players
take the role of settlers of
a newly
found island – Catan. They have to manage their colonies by
expanding it and collecting natural resources. Each player has
to place new cities and roads in
order to collect resources. Of course there is
more than one player, trade takes an
important part in expanding your
colony. The goal of the game is to achieve 10 points
(usually) which are earned during the
play. The game involves a
lot of
strategy, but it
is easy to begin to play. While
mastering it might take a lot of time, it's still one of the games
that I would recommend it
to someone who is new to board
games.
Cthulhu series
This
is another top position from the world of board games. Speaking about
the
whole Cthulhu series is difficult as
it involves a lot of different games. What I wanted to present is the
series that involves Arkham Horror, Mansion of Madness, Elder Sign
and Call of Cthulhu. These games are much more complex than Catan and
their average playtime can span from 2 up to 4 hours. They are also
much more similar to 'paper' RPGs where one of the player takes the
role of game master. I am not going to
describe its
complex mechanics here, but if you are interested, there are tons of
materials about these games. I strongly recommend this series to
more hardcore players.
Pandemic series
Pandemic
is one of best-selling games of last few years, and it is obvious for
anyone who played the game at least once. It's one of my personal
favorites. The game, which I play regularly. It takes some other way
than other popular games, it's not a game in which you compete
against other players but you have to cooperate with them. In
Pandemic up to 4 players take a role of one of available specialists
and work with other players toward victory. The goal of the game is
to discover cure for each of 4 diseases which threaten the world. If
that is not enough for you, the game has 3 expansions (so far) which
can totally change the way game is played. I highly recommend this
title.
Legacy type games
Legacy
type games are the ones in which player's
actions permanently change the way a game looks and is played.
Decisions made in one game can, and will, change the way the next
game is played. It's rather an unorthodox approach to the topic as
when all choices available are made, the game loses its charm. I
actually own two legacy type games, one
being Risk Legacy (picture above) and still
boxed Pandemic Legacy. After playing Risk Legacy for some time,
I would say it's worth trying.
Last
but not least is another position which do not depict one game, but
many games based on the same universe. Of course it's Neuroshima,
which is also made in Poland by Portal Games. And one of their best
releases is Neuroshima: Hex. Another simple game that is very hard to
master, especially the way it relies on skills and knowledge of the
game. In this game each player takes command over one of available
armies and tries to eliminate other players by destroying their
headquarters while defending his or her own. Taking into account that
this game has a number of distinguished armies,
it makes the space for strategic thinking. If you like competitive
games that take 30-45 minutes for each play, it's my choice.
I
hope you enjoyed this humble choice of just a few great board games
that are available today. Maybe you know some other good titles that
are worth recommending?
Comments
On the other hand, there are some games that are totally overrated in my opinion. Have you ever played Talisman? This game is kind of legendary, and I was SOOOO disappointed when I played it! It's just like "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" mentioned by Cezary, only with fancy graphics. Your abilities and strategy doesn't count - my mother played with me and my brother once and although she's a complete novice in the field, she had so much luck she finished the game in few rounds and won.
I can at least share a couple of interesting games I know:
X-com is based on a very popular strategic computer game where you and the enemies (aliens) move on separate rounds. You and other players are a team and the board game is connected to the app on your computer or phone and the AI decides how your opponents move against you and other players.
Star Wars Armada is a cool game for every Star Wars fan and for people who like starship figurines.
Timeline is not a board game per se but it's a very interesting little card game which I find highly enjoyable. You get a set of cards with historical events and have to set them in proper order. The first person to get rid of all their cards wins.
I haven't played any other version of Monopoly but the basic one, so I shouldn't judge, but I think they created them just for the money. On the other hand, sometimes it's fun to see how people "customised" the game, for example adapting it to various fandoms, like The Beatles or Harry Potter.
By the way, did you know the original idea of the game was created by Elizabeth Magie in 1903, to show problems of the contemporary economy and criticise capitalism? However, her idea was stolen, patented by Parker Brothers and became probably the best known game in the world, but promoting the very opposite of the intended goal: to win, you have to bankrupt everyone else. You can read more about the history of the game [here].
My favourite board gae is Arkham Horror, which you have mentioned, based on H. P. Lovecraft's stories. It's really long (the first time I played, the game took over 9 hours) and you have really slim chance of winning. You fight against the Old Ones, ancient and terrible monsters... or something. You basically choose how to die :D I heartily recommend it to everyone.
I know it's not a board game, but it's still "physical": Cards Against Humanity. It's so wonderfully politically incorrect and offensive xD I absolutely love it.
Unfortunatelly I don’t give you a new position, because I completely don’t know it.
the only game we play together is Rummikub, this game is a lot of fun.
the idea of this game "Tiles are shuffled together and either placed into a bag or spread out face down across the table. Each player draws and reveals one tile. The player whose tile has the highest number value will start the game. Tiles are returned to the pool, and players collect 14 random tiles and arrange them on their racks. Play begins with the starting player and proceeds in a clockwise (for modern variants) direction".
Recently I've been to Warsaw book fair and in the meantime there was also some kind of "board game fair" and with my friends we've tried a game about re-building Warsaw. Shame it was so expensive because the game itself was quite fun.
I've also tried The Game of Thrones board game. That one was intense, we've spent 5 hours on it and still had one round left but I really enjoyed it.
I just love games of any kind so much but board games and card games are the best when you have at least 4 people - with less I'd rather play a video game ;)
I really want to try Pandemic - I like the fact, that it's cooperation :) I must check it out. Can you say something more about it? How long is a gameplay? How many people can play?
My personal favourites are Dixit, Tabu (not quite a board game but also 'analog' game with a board :D Sooo much fun!) and Kolejka :)
Pandemic - you presented it here, I am glad, because I didn't know it was so popular!
Dixit - each player has six cards on hand (some cards are designed very well!) and one of the players chooses a card and tells a sentence or an expression related to one of the cards. Then this player puts his card on the table (face down) and the rest of the players choose one card from theirs to match the sentence/expression. Then the players have to decide which card was the one chosen originally.
Graffiti - each turn one player leaves the room while others choose a card with a phrase. They have one minute to draw some clues on separate boards to help the other player to identify the secret word. They shuffle their drawings and the returning person has to guess what was the phrase, tell which drawing was the most helpful and match the drawings with the rest of the players.
Taboo - people are divided into two teams and players take turns describing a word or a phrase to the remaining members of their team and they cannot use certain words to describe it (for example when you are describing word "Earth", you cannot use the word "planet").
I hope there are more board games for me out there because it is a very good way to spend time with friends and family and it is a good conversation starter:)
Thanks for sharing the article about Monopoly, amazing! I have never heart about it before! ;o
I enjoyed reading the article very much. It has been a long time since I played a board game. When I was younger, I like propably everyone else played chińczyk, and other classic games. Last Year I played a game simillar game to Settlers of Catan and enjoyed it very much. Maybe its time to get back to the board games and see what is new. I will definatelly try the pandemic since it looks interesting.