UKC

For 13 year old boy - very competitive and good at maths (loves monopoly - until he realises he may loose). And he is getting into card games (especially 3 card brag and poker).

Any ideas? Especially ones that have come out in the last 5 years or so?

In reply to mick taylor:

Blokus
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001P06GX4/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_...

Interesting strategy game. The REALLY good thing is that a game only takes 30mins.

In reply to mick taylor:
Yep Blokus is very good - my two teenage sons and 1 really enjoyed it though it doesn't work well with 3. You need 2 or 4 ideally

How about Risk?

In reply to TMM:

Excellent. Like 30 minuters.

For quick hit games we dig out manchala and shut the box - wooden games £5 each from Home Bargains few years ago.

In reply to Babika:

Aye - thought about Risk. Used to really enjoy it - much better than attending lectures.

In reply to mick taylor:

Ticket to Ride
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Days-of-Wonder-DOW-7201/dp/0975277324/ref=sr_1_2?s=...

Quoridor
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigamic-5203-Quoridor-Game/dp/B00001NTXN

Many of the Gigamic games (the people who make Quoridor) are really good.

In reply to mick taylor:

I used to love playing Othello. Another fairly simple game that doesn't take too long to finish. The tagline 'A minute to learn, a lifetime to master' overplays it a bit but the simple rules give surprisingly interesting gameplay.

In reply to mick taylor:

We bought Citadels http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478/citadels after a similar thread recommendation on here. Good fun and quick and easy. Love Letters for the princess is also fun, quick and amusing, easy for those who can count cards! http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129622/love-letter. There are the old favourites of Settlers of Catan http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/settlers-catan and Carcassonne http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne too. So little time, so many board games - perhaps a 13 year old would enjoy the Zombies http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2471/zombies games too !

In reply to mick taylor:

What's wrong with the definitive board game of....















Chess?

In reply to mick taylor:

No shiny chits, or dice, but mostly the chits.

In reply to mick taylor:

no board but Bananagrams can be a good mental work out.

I play it sometimes with a very competitive scrabble player who constantly rearranges all her words at high speed. I find you've got to be quite up for it or it's a struggle to keep up.

Easy to take away with you too.

In reply to mick taylor:

tried the card version of monopoly, Monopoly deal" bit different, very competitive but takes less time per game but no board ( needs 3 players)

In reply to mick taylor:

Rumikub.

It's a great game!

In reply to mick taylor:

Galaxy Trucker!
There's a whole sub-culture of board gamers and loads of really fun themed games come out now. Look up spiel des jahres nominees or watch some episodes of TableTop online

In reply to mick taylor:

Surprised that no one has mentioned Backgammon.

In reply to mick taylor:

Bohnanza is really good, more so for 3+ players

jk

In reply to mick taylor:

Pandemic is an awesome game, and great if you don't like loosing as it's the players Vs the game. There are extensions available too but not gotten round to trying them yet.

In reply to The Lemming:


Chess is for lightweights. Real wo/men play go

In reply to mick taylor:

Any decent board games for adults?

In reply to goldmember:

Twister?

In reply to The Lemming:

Ha! Needs to be clean and a board game!

In reply to goldmember:


Pretty much everything above pop-up-pirate or hungry hippos level. I have been enjoying Memoir 44 of late, a board wargame based on the D-Day landings and Mystery of the Abbey which is like Cluedo crossed with The Name of the Rose but with a lot more things going on. I picked them both up at Waterstones which is damn near the only high street shop that sells proper games these days.

In reply to mick taylor:

My teenage sons really enjoy "Killer Bunnies". http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3699/killer-bunnies-and-quest-magic-carr...

In reply to mick taylor:

Another one for Shut the Box. For something a bit different I'd recommend Perudo. Very good fun!

In reply to mick taylor:

Settlers of Catan is great, not just for geeks although it is mentioned in the Big Bang Theory. I played it this year in Chamonix, only took a few minutes to learn and had us entertained most evenings (with wine) for the rest of the family.

I still like chess, I wish I had learnt Go earlier as I can't get my head around it now...

In reply to mick taylor:

Ticket to ride (there are a range of boards, each one adds something a bit different)
Carcassonne
Settlers of Catan
Lost cities (a good 2 player game, but very quick and easy to learn)
rummukub
coppit
blokus

In reply to mick taylor:

I strongly recommend you look at BoardGame Geek for some reviews etc. You can watch people playing these games on Youtube, so you can get an idea of what you would be buying.

I would suggest you watch some of the games being played on Tabletop: http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop
Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTI7WxFQ_vZpQF-1jKM_JY5r5cQDGBxbH
Season 2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTI7WxFQ_vZrMfNM4r1XIMXq8Cgugothh
Season 3 (in progress): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTI7WxFQ_vZq463SAKZ-Cpo-MdY8lj8nz

Pandemic: Cooperative game to fight spread of global epidemics.

Ticket to Ride: Placing trains to manage rail lines across USA

King Of Tokyo; Dice rolling/push-your-luck game to take over tokyo as Godzilla

Small World: Like risk, but more fun and accessible for children.

Smash Up: Card-based game where each player takes on a couple of "decks" and everyone competes

Agricola: Resource Management - 17th century Farmers

Lords of Waterdeep: Resource management, dungeons and dragons style. (can get IOS version to try, only £5 on ipad)

Carcassonne: Tile-placing, resource management. Great game (can get IOS version to try, only £5 on ipad)

Munchkin: Competative FUN card game where you try to build a dungeon crawling hero while ruining your friends/family's chance to win.

Settlers of Catan: Resource Management, building villages and gathering resources to gain victory points.

In reply to mick taylor:

most of the ones i was going to recomend have already been listed

i'll add... thurn and taxis

boardgamegeek.com is worth a look

my ex started me on carcassone (which has loads of expnasion packsons you can add)
before moving on to most of dsgamers list above

In reply to alexanderjwatts:

Yes, Munchkin is great fun and loads of different versions, expansions and stuff but it is a card game rather than a board game so I wasn't sure if it fulfilled the OPs criteria.

Mick, I thought Carcassonne was out of print but it is now produced by Zman Games, not Rio Grande. You can download the rulebook there to see if it fits your requirements.

http://zmangames.com/product-details.php?id=1092

In reply to mick taylor:

Puerto Rico is pretty fun and challenging at the same time.

In reply to mick taylor:

No mention of Talisman yet? Though I suspect it's long out of production, it fuelled a number of all nighters in my youth. I still have a few old Games Workshop board games as well - from the days when they made games as well as little plastic megachaosorcs and technostormmages (TM).

In reply to mick taylor:

My personal faves:

Settlers of Catan - Great game
Carcasonne - Best with 2 players, but still enjoyable (though slower) with more, especially with expansions
Eight Minute Empire / Eight Minute Empire: Legends - Quick (more like 20 mins, not 8) and fun - a bit like speed-Risk
Pandemic - Good co-op gaming
Hanabi - Good co-op card-gaming
Agricola - Pretty heavyweight and long

In reply to toad:

Yes, another shout for talisman from me.

It got a bit out of hand with the expansion sets, where you could have up to 4 board in play at once... But given that one of the characters was the troll, I'd have thought it would have gone down well here....



Also 'history of the world'- like risk, but good...

'Oh no, not the incas and Aztecs again. Well, that's me stuffed...'

Cheers
Gregor

In reply to toad:

No - Talisman is back in production with Full Flight Games the people who also bought you the holy of chit games the Arkham Horror series http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/. There are not the masses of expansions you can use now though.

I was playing the Fury of Dracula this weekend for the first time in 20 years, ahh Games Workshop back in the days of Battle Royale and Chainsaw Warrior!

In reply to mick taylor:

Cheers all! Extremely helpful. He actually prefers board games to his bloody play station, so he will get a few of these from Santa.

In reply to Bobling:

I still play fury of Dracula periodically - It's good with kids as 3 players gang up on Dracula, so you can drop heavy hints to the sprogs with a clear concience.

I 've got Battle Royal (and Kings and Things, come to that) but I haven't played it in years, though K+T still gets an occasional outing.

In reply to toad:

was it battle royale or blood royale? i seem to remember the latter involved playing a royal dynasty through and entire century, and seemed to take an entire century to play...

never liked kings and things, just too silly even for me

did you ever play superpower- destabilising, organising coups and invading countries while playing sweet and innocent to the united nations- bruce and shona would love it...



gregor

In reply to mick taylor:

Any recommendations for a bigger number of players? Say 6-8 Something challenging but quick to learn and not too "D&D"...

In reply to mick taylor:

One vote against Settlers of Catan. The game is decided at the beginning, and the only thing you can change by strategey is how long you want to drag out the inevitable conclusion.

I think the very best board games take a well known, easy to understand game layout / rule set and manipulate it in a specific way to make things more interesting. Good examples include

Cat Attack (you can move your opponent´s cats and get them into trouble /run over by the car that moves around the edge of the board rather than moving your own cat to steal the fish, milk, and cat food),

Cosmic Encounter (every player draws a card that allows them to bend the rules in a different way, e.g. one may be allowed to move twice every round, the next one to look into their opponents cards, the third one might enslave or remove one opponent piece per round... Since there are many more rule bending cards than players, the mix will be different every time, forcing you to adapt your strategy),

or the ultra classic German Hexentanz (roll dice to move your pieces once around the board and then back into the house. As a complication, all pieces look the same and are only marked at the underside, so keeping track is almost impossible).

Chess, Go, and Backgammon are also great choices!

CB

In reply to iksander:

again, no idea if it's still around (I haven't bought a board game for years, but have a fair stash), but Circus Imperium fits the bill. Bloodthirsty chariot racing - the more the merrier for maximum carnage.

Couple of card games too. Grass was always entertaining, as was Car Wars

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

ah Blood Royale, innit. Haven't played it in decades, though it's in a cupboards somewhere

In reply to toad:


I worked on the development of the Games Workshop version and painted all the Talisman display miniatures for the Nottingham and Derby GW shops. Good game but best with more than two players. Production has now gone over to the USA with Fantasy Flight Games and it has lost all that lovely retro line and wash illustration.

In reply to mick taylor:

Articulate is always fun and on sale at Smythes

In reply to mick taylor:
relevant to thread?

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/27/start-your-own-board-game...

In reply to mick taylor:

I keep meaning to buy this game, the only one I know where a balaclava is part of the play...

http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/

In reply to mick taylor:

To be honest, you can't just play one game - for every good game, there's an occasion to enjoy it. However, here are my opinions on some games:

Go... has to be at the top of the list. Learn to play it as soon as possible and play it for the rest of your life. You can always improve and, thanks to the best handicapping system in the world and the vast hoards of opponents available online, even rank beginners can get a fair match. You can also play it fast or slow. Be forewarned: late night go sessions make for weird dreams.

Carcassonne... is brilliant but complicated and it takes too long. This is a board game for the patient.

Axis and Allies... as also great and also takes too long. A board game for those who want to take the game seriously.

Risk... is a one-armed bandit - purely random - and a waste of time, unless you modify the rules heavily. I wouldn't bother playing it unless you're invited into an experienced group that knows enough to modify the rules correctly.

Munchkin... is a card-game developed to thwart "Rules Lawyers" in other card games like Magic: The Gathering. It is hilarious, fun and whimsical. Beware of rocks.

Settlers of Katan... is a game in which virgin players nearly always win... for no known reason. It is a lot of fun but it does tend to be hard to change the status quo once one player takes the lead. Highly recommended.

Peurto Rico... is reputed to be one of the best games ever printed. I haven't played it so I cannot comment.

In reply to mick taylor:

No-one's mentioned Dominion? Isn't the quickest thing to pick up, but is very good with multiple strategy options and no-one knows who's winning until the end. Even if you don't win it's fun to follow your strategy.
Ticket to ride is good but I've only played it once.
Card games - Euchre.

So you think he's good at maths? Play fizz-buzz with him. My scouts struggle to get past 15!

In reply to mick taylor:

Shit head best card game ever