Help me get a new board game!

[gtmtnbiker]

I have to say that I did enjoy Risk when I was a teenager as well as those games from Avalon Hill but I don't care for them anymore. I put it in the same category as Life, Monopoly.

Another game to consider is Double-12 dominoes. It's like a deck of cards where there are so many different games you can play. One popular game is Mexican Train. Another one popular with kids is Chicken Foot.

[fastbilly1]

From what you described, I think an ideal game for you would be Nexus Ops. Its alittle meatier than Risk, with some diplomacy, alot of strategy, and is not terribly difficult to learn. Sadly it is out of print and often goes for alot more than it is worth. Keep an eye out for it though, you can find it for cheap.

Risk 2210, with the expansions, is also a decent choice - though it really needs 4 players.

Cosmic Encounter is ok 4 player, but awesome 6. 3 player I would pass on.

If you ever want to play an epic game of diplomacy that takes a long time - Twilight Imperium 3rd edition. It is the only game I have ever played that made me feel like I was actually part of an interstellar conflict.

[mjmjr25]

I had never heard of Nexus Ops, looks very nice -

On a side not, searching for Nexus Ops on amazon brings up 4 choices, 1 of which is this

[pakopako]

Cosmic Encounter is old and was probably in Beta-testing. Several races (the Machine, that card-snaring one) are just too powerful to use period. aaron suggested Blokus, which I liked better than Set (deck-based card game about pattern recognition; slap the pattern before someone else does), but because the number of pieces are so limited, people can master it quick.

Try Robo-Rally instead. Each player creates a "batch file" or "robot script" that all run at once. Decide carefully as once you RUN your list of commands, you cannot change it until next turn! Hopefully by then your robot wasn't pushed into one of the board's death traps by another player. (Warning, lots of spare parts in the game.) If you like this, try VS-mode in Faselei! on the NeoGeo Pocket.

I personally like St.Petersburg; it is a very balanced game, but it's best played with exactly 4 players. Four players take turns buying peasants, buildings, aristocrats and upgrades. Each player gets their turn to pick first among each category and must balance buying peasants (who generate income faster, but not points) with buying buildings (who generate points faster, but not income).

The Red Dragon Inn from Slugfest has plenty of expansions (though not as much as, say, Chez Geek) and is good fun for awhile as players pick one of the available classes (and has their own balance of cards) and must try to either out-drink, out-fight, out-swindle, or just plain out-last their fellow adventurers. Everyone has a Health Count, a Gold Meter, and an Alcohol Tolerance and is out of the game when one of these bottoms out.

Carcassonne is a good, fast-paced tile-placement game. Each tile can either start or continue a road /field /castle. Points are given to the player who finishes building a road or castle. No tile hoarding and make sure you play on a big picnic spread or something in case you have to move the city around. Some of the expansions are nice (abbeys, builders, farmers, resources, etc.) -- just don't go overboard.

Settlers of Catan is pretty good, especially with the expansions in play. Players must decide where to build cities (and roads and ship routes) along a randomly generated board of tiles. Each tile has a randomly placed die-value. When anyone rolls that value, all players who have a settlement there gets a resources -- even if the roller gets squat. This gives plenty of replay value as resources plentiful (given a "7" to roll) in one game might be non-existent in another. (And you must rely on bartering with players or buy from the banker.)

If you like CCGs, but don't care for their price, try Dominion. It is a non-collect-able card game. Sorta like Munchkin, but much much bigger.

Some other quick games include FLUXX (just do what the cards say), Quiddler (good for word junkies), and there's always betting games with regular cards, like Hearts, Spades or Wizard (you need 4 jokers and 4 "rules of bridge" cards).

And my friends' standby: Puerto Rico. Perfect for 3-5 players.

[J T]

On a side not, searching for Nexus Ops on amazon brings up 4 choices, 1 of which is this

I'm good at that game.

[galaxy_ranger]

Age of Conan

I just got into this recently. The game mechanics are more complex than major board games like Risk, Catan, etc, but once you have em down the game is really fun. I found it especially appealing because of how interesting I find the Conan universe. But if you're not a Conan fan, I don't think you would have the same experience.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2784 ... board-game