Board games and wargames

[WHAM]

I always found board games a fun way to spend time with people, learning something new together and challenging each other in friendly contest in a way that just felt more vivid and personal than video games ever did. Over the years I've accumulated a bit of a collection of various board games from the simple, casual games like Carcassonne, Ex Libris and Tash-Kalar to the moderately complex ones like 1960 - Making of the President and Combat Commander: Europe to the absolutely insane such as Advanced Squad Leader and OCS: Korea - The Forgotten War (the last one of those says it takes 200 hours to play a full game). Personally I've got pretty close to 40 board games currently sitting on my shelves (which probably means things have gotten a bit out of hand and I should be barred from visiting the local board game shop for a while).

Any other board game or wargame hobbyists around? Tell us a bit about your hobby, your favourite board games and board gaming moments. How have you been able to keep the hobby alive in the age of Covid quarantines, or have you resorted to things like Vassal and Tabletop Simulator for your board gaming needs?

Who knows, maybe we'll end up organizing games or even a little tournament some day, if there are enough people interested in the subject matter.


Image: (last game I happened to play and take a picture of) Combat Commander: Europe

[BarbWire]

Hi Wham

As you so rightly say board games are very entertaining. I think, for a lot of people, it's become too much of an effort
to remove them from a dusty cupboard. So much simpler to opt for video gaming. The selection of games you mention
sound well out of my league.  Have you heard of 'Stratego'? I manage to lose at this every time.  Another game I liked
was 'Hero's Quest'  It was a simplistic form of 'Dungeons and Dragons'  I have a friend who would love to play this, but
reading books explaining gameplay and rules was a battle in itself. It sounded far too complicated.

I'm sure your idea will generate a lot of interest and I wish you well. 

[heltenjon]

I'm a board games fan, and I guess I have you solidly beaten when it comes to the sheer number of games on my shelves or in my cupboards. In my childhood, my friends and I used to organize tournaments where we played every game we had, even including tabletop football or ice hockey games and couronne. Then we got points for our placements in the various games, to end up with someone becoming the overall champion.

In my youth, we became more selective, playing mostly Risk, but also different economy games. For some years we had a tradition of playing Monopoly on New Year's Eve, shooting fireworks whenever someone went bankrupt. 

In more recent years, I'm playing poker with some friends once a week, and we often start off the evening with a board game. The group favourite being Settlers of Catan, due to the frankly endless variations one can make. I've found that games that takes more than say, 90 minutes to play, is a bad investment because they get played to seldom. That means me stearing clear of the more advanced tactical games, of the Axis and Allies sort.

Ufortunately, that means I won't that often get to play some of my favourites. One is Junta, where the players control a family in a fictive banana republic, staging coups and assasinations against each other. The goal of the game is to grab the most of the foreign aid and put it safely into a swiss bank account. 

My home country, Norway, unfortunately isn't a great market for board games for adult people. The market is dominated by classics, kids' games and quiz games. I play a lot of games with my kids, so that part is all good, but the choice in tactical board games is limited. I've found that German games, especially award winners, are to my liking. They are often made with graphical symbols, eliminating the need to read a lot of text, and due to German history, the developers have clearly turned their brains to invent games about something other than war.

[WHAM]

Have you heard of 'Stratego'? I manage to lose at this every time.  Another game I liked
was 'Hero's Quest'  It was a simplistic form of 'Dungeons and Dragons'  I have a friend who would love to play this, but
reading books explaining gameplay and rules was a battle in itself. It sounded far too complicated.

I've seen ads for Stratego, but never played it myself. Hero Quest on the other hand is a legend among board games. Sadly, back when it was big in Finland, I was still a little kid and neither understood english nor had a way to own the game. A friends family had a copy, and the older boys seemed really excited to be playing it, though. I just remember it looking really cool!

In my youth, we became more selective, playing mostly Risk, but also different economy games. For some years we had a tradition of playing Monopoly on New Year's Eve, shooting fireworks whenever someone went bankrupt. 

I absolutely love that! I might need to think of a way to incorporate something like that into our games.
My latest purchase is 878 Vikings, which is a game for 4 players. 2 players are vikings raiding and pillaging the English countryside, while 2 other players are Englishmen trying to defend their home. Myself and a local friend of mine are going to play the vikings, since we're both kind of hairy norsemen, while the two english roles will be played by a pair of immigrants from England, so they should feel right at home! 

In more recent years, I'm playing poker with some friends once a week, and we often start off the evening with a board game. The group favourite being Settlers of Catan, due to the frankly endless variations one can make. I've found that games that takes more than say, 90 minutes to play, is a bad investment because they get played to seldom. That means me stearing clear of the more advanced tactical games, of the Axis and Allies sort.

Ufortunately, that means I won't that often get to play some of my favourites. One is Junta, where the players control a family in a fictive banana republic, staging coups and assasinations against each other. The goal of the game is to grab the most of the foreign aid and put it safely into a swiss bank account. 

My home country, Norway, unfortunately isn't a great market for board games for adult people. The market is dominated by classics, kids' games and quiz games. I play a lot of games with my kids, so that part is all good, but the choice in tactical board games is limited. I've found that German games, especially award winners, are to my liking. They are often made with graphical symbols, eliminating the need to read a lot of text, and due to German history, the developers have clearly turned their brains to invent games about something other than war.

I know what you mean here. Longer and more complex games are really difficult to arrange play for, even with just 2 players, let alone 4, 5 or 6! We currently have a tradition of playing board games with a friend of mine every tuesday. Mostly two player games like Twilight Struggle, Clank! in Space, Race for the Galaxy etc, but also occasionally bigger games like War of the Ring. Late last year I actually bought a copy of Axis & Allies, but I've yet to have a chance to play it. I think I need to look into Junta. Never heard of it, but I like the sound of that!

Two or three times a year I try to also arrange a bigger board game event, with five or six people playing something bigger and longer. Last two games were Twilight Imperium and 1830 - Railways and Robber Barons,  both of which can easily take 6 hours to play.

Board games in general have had a bit of a resurgence in Finland over the past five years. There are even dedicated board game cafe's opening up, one even in my home city of Tampere, called Taverna. Pay a few euros to rent a table, get some coffee and snacks or beers if you like, and pick any game off their vast collection to play with friends. It's a good concept, though I still prefer the comfort of my own home when it comes to having friends over to play.

[Stupot]

I’ve always liked board games though I’ve never gotten into the big epic war games or role playing games. Confession: I’ve never even played D&D properly.

I’m more into abstract games and party games, ones that take like 30 minutes a game. My wife and I recently got into games like Azul and Sagrada, and I’m designing one along similar lines in my limited spare time.

I’ve also got a few Oink Games, these little fun games that fit into a small pocket-sized box. The best one is Nine Tiles Panic.

https://oinkgames.com/en/games/analog/nine-tiles-panic/

[WHAM]

My favourite board game Youtube channel has had me intrigued for Oink games for a while now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hcqQZWM5Pk

If you like shorter abstract games, then Tash-Kalar might be a good addition to the collection. Real easy to learn, games take 30-60 minutes (depending mostly on how much time the players spend agonizing over their next move) and it's great fun!

[heltenjon]

I think the main reason Settlers of Catan is my poker party's favourite board game, has to do with that it gives a sense of achievement to everyone. When the game is finished, everyone has expanded from what they started with. It also helps that you need to cooperate with other players - winning without trading is almost impossible.

I own a set of Stratego, but haven't played it all that much. I like the idea of uncovering what your opponent's pieces are hiding. Perhaps I should teach my kids how to play it. 

Another take on that idea is a small and fast game called Quicksand. Basically, noone knows which player has what character/colour, and everyone can move any piece. Then it's a race to the goal area...which means that if you can trick the other players into moving your piece in the right direction, you stand a chance of winning. If they think they know who you are, they will move that piece into quicksand instead.

[Moriya_17]

I've always liked strategy games, but didn't have, for the longest time, anyone to play with, which is why I had gotten used to playing single player video games in the RTS style instead of tabletop wargames.
But years and years after playing Blitzkrieg, Total Annihilation, each Age of Empire game and the Wargame trilogy, I've finally found a group of players with whom I'm playing Battlegroup.
We're playing with the Blitzkrieg and Fall of the Reich rulesets, and I'm working on my 1940 French armored battalion and on my 1945 Soviets.

[WHAM]

Huh, I'd never heard of Battlegroup until today, but looking it up now it seems rather interesting!

[Mandle]

Around 1990 I used to live in a bachelor pad in Chatswood, Sydney, with a guy who is still my friend to this day. It was both our first ventures out from our parents' homes and it was so exciting to just come home from work to our own place!

We had many hours of fun playing Talisman, with the City and Dungeon extensions, and Dark Future, the Mad-Maxish dumbed-down version of Car Wars.

Things got a bit dark after that when I met a girl on a LARP game who brought her fantasies of black magic into our home, but, looking back now, that's just when things got really interesting.

[WHAM]

We had many hours of fun playing Talisman, with the City and Dungeon extensions, and Dark Future, the Mad-Maxish dumbed-down version of Car Wars.

A friend of mine has an old 80's copy of Talisman in Finnish and it's a real fun thing to play. Mostly since none of the Tolkien -style fantasy translations from english to finnish had been standardized, so the names of things and monsters are all over the place, and thus absolutely hilarious.
The expansions were never published in Finnish, so my friend has scanned the English ones, photoshopped their pieces, cards and such with Finnish text, and printed them on cardboard so he can play it with is wife. Very wholesome!

[Creamy]

I think the main reason Settlers of Catan is my poker party's favourite board game, has to do with that it gives a sense of achievement to everyone. When the game is finished, everyone has expanded from what they started with. It also helps that you need to cooperate with other players - winning without trading is almost impossible.

That's a popular one around here. It's strategic but not too complex or overly long, some essential qualities for a good family game.

During the last holiday, we had a good time with Jamaica.
The winner is the player who best balances their position in the race with their success at the side goals. Easy to play with some agenda management.