Monkeybot

I almost put backgammon, but I rarely play it and don't remember the rules at all. I remember it being really fun, though.

Ensign Steve

Okay, good, so it wasn't just me!

Hedwig

Chess
Trivial Pursuit (I'm good at this game but I put it down mainly because it's fun watching fully grown men throw temper tantrums when they lose )
Monopoly (though friendships have been put on hold because of that game)
Risk
Clue

Sarpedon

Civilization!

Best boardgame ever.

The computer game is loosly based on it. You move your little settling dudes around, try to find enough food, build cities, defend your borders, acquire commodities, trade, and buy technological advances with them, and hope you don't draw the "Civil War" card. It is awesome!

Bookman

I respectfully disagree. It is another game with IMO a fatal flaw. IIRC after each turn, each player moves a counter on a little track representing the advance of their civilization. At certain points, there are barriers (representing the transition from Age to Age, Stone Age to Bronze Age for instance) that can only be crossed by reaching certain thresholds like having so many cities or a particular technology.

The problem is that if you get reach one of these points before you have acheived that condition, you'll get held up. At that point you can not reasonably expect to win. In essence, you get to push cardboard chits around for the next several hours for the entertainment of the eventual winner.

I'll pass.

Bookman

elwoodblues

Just picked this up today, actually (which was what prompted the thread, along with the 'worst board games' thread). I've got a couple friends visiting this weekend; looks like it'll work out pretty well. Very interestingly different gameplay, it seems. Anyone have some pointers? It seems simple, but I can already tell that's deceptive as hell.

Bookman

1) I'm guessing you bought an english language version of the game. Using the English rules, don't underestimate the importance of the farmers. The player with the advantage scoring farmers generally wins the game unless other players have managed to gain a large enough lead completing large cities.

2) This one is obvious, but you want to make sure you can get your followers back. I never place a follower as a thief on a road where both ends are open, no matter how long it is.

3) Play defensively as much as you create scoring opportunities for yourself. With defensive play, you can: surround an opponent controlled incomplete city with tiles that make it difficult to complete the city, use roads to keep opponent's farms small, and place tiles and followers that will allow you to share an opponent's city.

4) The small, two-segment cities only score two points which isn't very attractive. However, if you have a clear farmer advantage in a segment of the board, complete as many of these as you can. For you, they are six points each - 2 now and 4 at the end of the game.

One other thing -- I don't know if this is in the rules, but a convention that we use is to draw your replacement tile immediately after playing...not just before you play it. That gives you an opportunity to think about what you will do with it while the other players are taking their turn.

If you're doing that, play fast! Its an easy game to over-analyze.

Bookman

Chicken Girl

I played it last year when I was visiting the college. Great game.

Thanatoast

Anyone ever play the Avalon Hill game History of the World ?

There was a PC version that came out a few years back, but it blew royally...bad AI.

The board game was alot of fun, where players took control of civilizations during different periods of history (in other words, if you played the Romans in one period, you could end up playing the Byzantines or the Franks in the next). Very simple rules, too.

azidhak

My Faves are: Age of Renaissance, the "follow up" to (ad)civ which is actually better. La Citta: an original city-building game from rio grande games. Battle Cry: The Civil War tactical board game for two players. GREAT! Napoleon in Europe: One of those HUGE games from Eagle Games. Also thumbs up for the original titan, and not least Blood Royale for all the breeding.
Haakon