Good Evening

Thought I’d test the water with this subject...

prompted by Pembsexile saying his wife tells him off for not reading the rules of board games. Are there any avid “ board game “ players out there amongst our community?

We enjoy board games as a family and play often, however Covid has limited this and I have looked out for more two player games recently.

Tonight we played our first trial game of my most recent acquisition, “ Carcasonne”

Any takers on this subject?

Phil in Northampton

Our biggest challenge is returning the board game to its rightful place in the board game cupboard. It's rammed.

We play in fits and starts, though we've recently been playing a word game called Bananagrams (imagine playing Scrabble minus the board while dosed up on amphetamines).

I bought a couple of two player cooperatives during lockdown. They both had decent reviews but neither really grabbed us so we haven't played them much.

Mysterium is a sort of Cluedo. One player gives the other coded clues to the details of the murder.

Forbidden Desert - all players are stranded and need to work together to survive.

Anyway. Time for work. Sniff.

Good Evening Jon

I don’t know the games you mentioned however one sound similar to the well reviewed game, “ Codewords” which we enjoy.
Original Scrabble is still a time honoured favourite, however wife wins more than I do.

How about keeping close to home... football games. Football fans if not necessarily board game fans must have dabbled here!

Wembley was a childhood favourite, but simplistic for the older person I am now. I look back with nostalgia at the coloured dice which had 0’s on them, very novel!
Soccerama was another, progressing up the leagues and into Europe.
League Champoinship I think but can’t recall much about it.

Any other footy games?

I’ll save the horse racing ones for later!

Phil in Northampton

Codewords hasn't taken off in our house. I played it with a group of friends and it was ace so I ordered one for myself but somehow we find it frustrating. Grey matter deficiency, maybe,

Soccerama - I never came to terms with having to not win a game in order to progress in the European Cup (by drawing you advanced one square, meaning you'd subsequently dodge a "get knocked out" square further along the board).

When my boy was a teenager I went on a spate of reacquiring board games I'd played as a teen. It was a shock, in some cases, how bad they were.

Colditz recreated the turgid monotony of being stuck in a prisoner of war camp for years on end, aimlessly wandering the courtyard, dodging into rooms in search of rope and wire cutters etc.

Eventually either a POW would play a staff car card or one of the players would have to go home for his tea. Rubbish game. I can't believe I bought that thing twice.

Totopoly was alright. I liked the dual aspect of training your horses followed by the big race. I felt the "broken blood vessel" square should have encouraged riders to take a longer, wider course around the final bend rather than the easier, tighter bend, but coming up with rule adaptations was part of the fun of playing.

Good evening!

Totopoly is a favourite here too, seldom played however. Perhaps the racing theme is too specific for non racing fans.
Never owned Colditz when younger, mates had it when we were about 14. Don’t think anyone really got to grips with the rules, probably too complex for us at that age.
A really old nostalgic favourite was a game called “Go” I think by Waddingtons. Travel around the world collecting souvenirs. In the days before the Euro, the fascination was having all different currencies from all the different countries, Francs, Marks, dDollars, Yen as nd many more. It also gave some good geographical knowledge. Probably on my a all top top ten list!

Phil in Northampton

phil_in_npton wrote:Good evening!

Totopoly is a favourite here too, seldom played however. Perhaps the racing theme is too specific for non racing fans.
Never owned Colditz when younger, mates had it when we were about 14. Don’t think anyone really got to grips with the rules, probably too complex for us at that age.
A really old nostalgic favourite was a game called “Go” I think by Waddingtons. Travel around the world collecting souvenirs. In the days before the Euro, the fascination was having all different currencies from all the different countries, Francs, Marks, dDollars, Yen as nd many more. It also gave some good geographical knowledge. Probably on my a all top top ten list!

Phil in Northampton

I remember 'Travel Go'!!! My fave as a child, that and the 'Game of Life'.

“Game of Life”! Fantastic fun piling kids and cats and dogs into that little car!

I never had “Mousetrap” a big childhood disappointment!

P in N

Used to love the football board game ‘Kick off’ as a kid.
I still enjoy playing Risk.

Exile 1976 wrote:Used to love the football board game ‘Kick off’ as a kid.
I still enjoy playing Risk.

Love Risk. My view, purely subjective, it's the best board game ever.

You just cannot beat Trivial Pursuit, or it’s variations. It was those variations that I meant when I said I don’t read the rules of board games. Thought I didn’t need to. It is the variation that I got caught out on by Mrs P, and my kids, and one of my grandkids.

Risk is really crap for the risk-averse among us..
[raises hand nervously]

Trivial Pursuit is a bit stodgy, which in my opinion makes it inferior to Articulate.

Talking of stodgy games, my son and I occasionally play Axis and Allies. It took us a long time to get to grips with the rules, but it can be a good game, played out over a day or three.

Not strictly a board game but as a family (kids 19,18, 13, 9) we love Linkee as well.

Again not really a board game but can remember playing Escalado in early 70s I think which was a horse racing game.
A long strip of fabric clamped at both ends to the dining table with 6 lead made horses of different colours and a wooden box with a crank handle.
Handle was turned and it vibrated the fabric causing the horses to move down the track to the finish line.
We played for hours with my Mam and Dad and my 3 brothers betting pennies
Sounds crap now but really enjoyed it all them years ago