Settlers of Catan

Chess

Our family plays a game called Tock. We got while visiting friends in canada. Its like Sorry but you use a deck of cards instead of dice and some cards value is position moved while others do different things

Trivial Pursuit

Dungeons and dragons obviously! Do anything you can imagine.

https://youtu.be/ra3yS6NoQ-A

Innovation. Not quite roleplay, but it does feel like building a civilization. It is small so it’s a good starting place. Then if you like it, we can recommend heavier games

One more word of caution: It's more complicated than it looks. Innovation is not a simple game, at all.

It's excellent! But it's unpredictable and obtuse and has a different shape than anything else. You will both feel like you have no idea what you're doing for 3 games or more. That's normal.

Yes, but you have read the post, yes? They aren't boardgames. Everyone here recommending 4x games is completely missing the context

Through the Ages was pretty fun and hit a lot of the notes you mentioned.

Smallworld is a clever little game that embraces the concept of “rise and fall” in a way that is fun and can also be finished in 2-3 hours.

Shout out to Avalon Hills Civ—but you’ll need a full table and a full day, and it’s hard to find (it’s been out of print for 25 years).

Hi,

The standard recommendation for these requests is [[Clash of Cultures - Monumental edition]], which is the reedition of Clash of Cultures including expansions, but is it rules heavy for people inexperienced with boardgames. I'll let others recommend simpler games (but sacrifices on gameplay will have to be made).

I think I focused more on the bits about games being antisocial and too dense for where they are at. Games like Scythe or Clash of Cultures feel too heavy. And I find 7 Wonders or Duel much more abstract in their similarity.

But now I am honestly interested. What suggestions would make more sense for OP?

[[7 Wonders]] is exactly what you are looking for. If you are playing with only 2 players, consider [[7 Wonders Duel]]

I would go for Civilization: A New Dawn, which is an attempt to streamline the other, suepr complicated civilization games (such as the excellent Clash of Cultures, Through the Ages or another licenced Civilization). Bonus points for it having the official licence of the PC video games, so your boyfriend is sure to appreciate it for that already.

New Dawn is still a fairly complex games though - expect like two hours to play - but not overwhelmingly so, unlike the other examples I gave. However, if you're both new to board games in general, a full civilization game is still a tall ask, and expect to spend a lot of time reading the rules and/or watching rules videos.

Just be aware I'd consider this more of a card game than a board game, although some don't really differentiate.

I think 7 Wonders Duel (or the newer version, Duel for Middle-Earth if you're into LotR) is a better first game choice.

Splendor.

Idk about best, but I’m a big fan of Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Monopoly.

Ticket to ride

Catan? No, I have enemies because of that game.

I’m a big fan of Dixit. Every time we play it’s always so different since it’s driven by the type of person playing and the hints given. Have a couple expansions too which adds to the replay ability. Plays up to 6. Camel up is right there too and plays up to 8.

Haven’t heard of that one before. I’ll check it out for sure. Always looking for new party games that have some strategy to them.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.

Fantastic game with a great take on the who-dunnit mechanism, and effortlessly scales up to 12 people.

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I've had it fall flat as well, but when it takes off... holy shit. I think the problem is that some people at a 'party' don't want to play a party game that's also a brain burner.

Easily one of my favourites. Now we've started with our own cards it's become even more fun with in-jokes, and stuff we actually know.

I played the Harry Potter themed version of this with my sister over Christmas. Its definitely a lot harder than it looks!

I never played this game without everyone in the room tearing up with laughter.

what do you guys think about Catan? I have heard a lot about it.

Monopoly…. No rules

Monopoly or Risk is pretty good

Scrabble

Risk

Lots of suggestions for codenames but in my opinion it is a poor game, often unbalanced and long periods of waiting for the person to come up with something which is often impossible.

If there are 4+ players, Decrypto is significantly better while having the same vibe, and your team can work on guessing the opposing teams words while the person is thinking up clues for their turn, so there's no down time.

Werewords is a good game too, it's basically 20 questions with a twist.

My family and I played the Scream card game. One player needs the app - throughout the game, Ghostface phones you.

https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/games-puzzles-and-books/board-games/adult-and-party-board-games/funko-scream-the-game/p/238124

We also played an Agatha Christie inspired card game.

https://www.agathachristie.com/en/games/death-on-the-cards

Beat That! Hues and Clus.

Bird Up.

Hopefully you already have a green suit.

look up "Left,Center,Right", you can play it with quarters or candy! ( a + is that kids can play too, if it is mixed family gathering)

Monikers, everyone loves it and it's always a great time.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong has been a reliable hit. It’s a great time, and we’ve loved it even at 12 players.

Captain Sonar is a little more group-dependent, but can be a riot.

A multi-round team word-guessing game with increasing difficulty, but same words to guess each round. IIRC, first round, you can describe the word in any way you want -- the game even gives a suggestion. In the second, you need to use only one word, and on the third, you cannot speak at all. It's pretty interesting how weird collective associations can develop for some words in just the three rounds.

If you're actually playing as teams I'd say 8+. If you just are sitting around and everyone guessing for the one clue giver than maybe 5. You essentially want 3+ guessing or it doesn't quite flow right.

Skull is a very good game for a group of people trying to be competitive and win, but also want to have a lot of smack talk and shouting and perhaps drinks at the table.

Just One is simple. Every player gets a little dry erase plaquard and a pen. The guesser draws a card face down, doesn't look at it and shows it to the other players. The guesser picks a number between 1 and 5 which corresponds to a word or words on the card numbered 1 to 5. The other players now have to write down a 1 word clue to try to get the guesser to get the word. When they all have their clues, they compare with the other clue gives. All duplicates are eliminated (meaning if 2 people write "red" for Cherry, both are eliminated) and the guesser is shown the rest. If they get it right, the group gets a point. We typically play so that everyone is the guesser twice. The more points you get, the better you did as a team.

Wavelength is more visual, but a the gist is that a clue giver needs to get their team to guess something based on a range given by the game's skinny wheel (info hidden from the team) from a set of opposites, like Useful and Useless. There are way better explanations than this on YouTube.

Agreed. It got the number 1 spot on this top 10 list of party games.

Board games have such a special way of bringing people together that online games just can’t match.

Oof, this reminded me that I want Darkest Night. I really don’t need more boardgames though...

Unicornus Knights sounds fun too, I haven’t heard of it before.

I just tried the solo mode for Azul. I think it’s a good choice for having a solo option but something that can appeal to a wide and young audience and very family friendly. The solo option was quick and super easy to manage. I don’t think I’ll play it solo super often, but it’s a really great option for a quick relaxing solo option that won’t take up the table for too long. Good weeknight solo or family game night.

I posted this on r/boardgames the other day but also thought the solo portion would be fun to discuss here:

See below for the list (for those that hate offsite links):

Family Games

• Dixit
• Kingdomino
• Splendor
• Azul
• Welcome To...
• Dice Forge
• Ticket To Ride: Europe
• Parks
• Quacks Of Quedlinburg
• Kingdom Builder
• Lords Of Waterdeep
• Wingspan
• Carpe Diem

Two-player Games

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Jaipur
• Air, Land & Sea
• Dual Powers: Revolution 1917
• KeyForge: Call Of The Archons
• Schotten Totten
• Star Realms
• Lost Cities
• The Fox In The Forest
• Targi

Solo Games

• Friday
• Mage Knight
• Darkest Night (2nd Edition)
• Nemo’s War (2nd Edition)
• Spirit Island
• Unicornus Knights
• Imperial Settlers