On a whim we counted our board game collection, which has outgrown available shelf space in the basement: 208. And I'm pretty sure we missed a few that are sitting in a kid's room or on an end table in the living room. Some I've played once and set aside to play again some day. Most we've played multiple times. And one or two I Just Had to Have...and have yet to crack it open (there are reasons for that; we'll get to that in another post).
When the first Stay at Home order hit, the boys and I retreated immediately to the basement, and started our own little mini-COVID GenCon. COVIDCon? SmithCon? BasementCon? Whatever: we played the shit out of some board games.
While I don't get enough questions for a full-fledged FAQ, my most common question is "what games do you recommend?" This is, honestly, a tough question to answer, because the best answer depends on a lot of variables: is the asker a casual gamer? Serious gamer? Never heard of board games? Experienced gamer? Social gamer? Hates games? Party gamer? As such, it's tough to create a generic "here are the games I recommend" list.
But I'm gonna try, because gaming is good for your brains. It can be an escape, a brain workout, or quality family or couple time. It's a block of time you're not thinking about...all of this, whatever this is, and instead, you're thinking about having fun with people you love.
Later, I'll do an update about "games one can play over Zoom," because there are a couple truly great ones. But what this is, is my best attempt at a "best-of" when it comes to giving various friends who've asked me on the Social Medias "what games do you recommend?"
Cooperative Games
Sometimes, the best games to play when times are stressful
and uncertain are cooperative games: players each with a special skill
cooperate against a game board that gets exponentially worse. Some favorites
include: (I’ll skip everyone’s favorite - Pandemic - because....a little to
real right now!)
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| Mysterium |
- Mysterium. Like clue; every player is a psychic trying to figure out who did it, with what, and where. One player is the ghost, desperately trying to tell them
- The Captain is Dead. It’s the last 10 minutes of every Star Trek episode: shit is falling apart. If only you could fix that warp drive in the face of breaking equipment and boarding aliens...
- Magic Maze: every player can move every pawn, but in only 1 direction! You must all cooperate to love all the pawns off a board that grows as you play...without talking
- Forbidden Island/Desert/Sky. The “Forbidden” games are really fun, and each progressively more difficult than its predecessor. Escape a gradually-sinking island, a storm-ravaged desert, or a terrible storm. Bonus: if you complete Forbidden Sky correctly, it lights up!
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| Between Two Cities |
- Between Two Cities: this one is a hybrid. It’s cooperatively competitive. By selecting a rotating series of tiles and placing them in a grid, you are trying to build a “city” with the player on your left and on your right. Your score: your weakest city (to incentivize everyone to build smart)
These games offer competition, but either in a light, funny way, or a way that's semi-cooperative. In other words, these games aren't the usual "someone gets pissed and flips the board" kind of games, because we all have enough stress right now:
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| Azul |
- Terraforming Mars. Everyone is working to ultimately make Mars inhabitable; you’re just trying to do it faster and better than your competitors. Super complex strategy but easy to play. Downside: it’s a little lonely. Sure, 3, 4, or 5 people are playing, but everyone is wrapped up in all your projects and patents, trying to strategically win! It’s a personal favorite though.
- Red Dragon Inn. After the big adventure, everyone is back at the tavern. Every character has unique decks of cards, and you drink, fight, and gamble. Last man standing wins! It’s one of my wife’s favorites. The artwork and cards are just plain funny and special bonus: you can totally make it an actual drinking game!
- Azul. Beautiful, strategic, artsy, tile-laying game. You can burn through several games in an evening.
- Tsuro or Tsuro of the Seas: both are awesome. You lay tiles with paths on them on a board, and move a pawn along the path you’re making. The goal is to keep your pawn on the board and force everyone else’s off by being really clever with you tile/path placement. A unique variant on chess, really. Visually appealing, easy to learn.
We got nothin' but time right now. These games take all weekend. And maybe then some. But god, they're glorious.
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| ...and together, we can rule the galaxy |
- Star Wars Rebellion: Axis and Allies for Star Wars, with a little cat-and-mouse tossed in (the Empire is trying to find the secret Rebel base, the Rebels trying to make the Empire suffer the embarrassment of little defeats and changing alliances). The Empire can still blow up planets, which is fun.
- Rising Sun: it actually only takes about 90min - 2 hrs to play, but it’s just...so big and pretty and the miniatures are so detailed. As fun to look at as play. No die-rolling; everything is skill and strategy.
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| CMON's beautiful Rising Sun |
- I’d mention Twilight Imperium, but you have to be insane to play it. Minimum 8 hours. $150 game. Epic. My friend Joel and I got as far as playing 2 rounds of it just to learn how to play, and that was just to learn how to play the game before the "diplomatic phase" kicks in, which adds more...more-ness.
But I Like Euchre
You're a card player, and like the trick-taking games and pace of Euchre, and maybe you're afraid to learn all these complex multi-page rule sets. Well have I got a game for you.
- Gorus Maximus. One of nicest-guys-on-the-planet is a Canadian game developer we ran into at GenCon about 5 years ago. This game, one of his finest is simple: it’s euchre, but the bower can change mid-hand. Clever and fun and you can play a bunch of hands in a night.
Couples Night
Maybe there's only two of you, or like us, there's a point at which you've forced your kids to bed and want to spend a moment as a couple, remembering all the good times before...them. Try:
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| Tetris-y Patchwork |
- Patchwork. Tetris and tile-drafting. Every round, you buy oddly-shaped "scraps" and build a contiguous "quilt." You're penalized in the end for blank spaces, and with the weird shapes you're dealt, even the best Tetris players are hard-pressed to sew perfection! My wife's favorite game by far.
- Onitama. Itty-bitty chess. Fascinating game. Everyone has a mere 5 pieces, and a series of 6 cards, drawn at random, form the entirety of how both players are allowed to move in a game. But every time you move according to a card, the cards shift around the players, changing your available moves round by round. Just wonderful.
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| Onitama |
But I Like Monopoly
I can't help you.
Well, I can sort of. Try Machi Koro. Brilliant little take on buying, owning, and cashing-in on properties.
I could go on. I didn't include some games I truly love for a few reasons (mostly on complexity), I forgot to include games I love because I have so many I forget some til I see them, and sicne the outbreak I have purchased and played some brand new games that are really wonderful...just don't know yet how or when or why to recommend.
Anyway, discuss, talk, ask away. And play more games.
