Ben Pack had some words to say about a board game that was both extremely time-consuming and complex on a recent Bombcast. He also sort of put a lot of modern board games under that same banner of being too complex and long to play. Which to be fair; does apply to some of modern board games that come out. Which brings me to making this, because board games, like video games, have a wide variety of experiences that cater to different wants and needs and I feel like I should at least point out the cooler games that people should certainly check out.
First off, let's talk about a couple of games that function well in a party setting:
Codenames is a word game by Vlaada Chvatil where two teams have to race to pick out words that belong to their own team from a grid under the guidance of their spymaster. The catch to this is that the spymaster can only use single word clues and has to guide their teammates around their opponents words. Makes you feel super smart when you manage to connect multiple words to a single word clue.
Spyfall is a social deduction game where players are at a location with a Spy who has no idea where he is. The goal of the players is to find out who in the group is a spy, and the spy's is to find out where he is. You do this by acting like you're all doing a drug deal and probing each other for info by asking the most vague non-”yes or no” answer questions. It's can be extremely funny with a good group and it plays in 8 minutes. It also has a sequel that's capable of supporting up to 12 players.
Coup is a bluffing game where you are given two roles that grant you things that you can do, but you can say you're a role you don't have. Other player can call you out on your bluff and ruin your day. Extremely quick to play and recommended for anyone who has enjoyed Avalon.
The next few games I'm going to list out are board games that I think people who have limited experiences with board games could comprehend and enjoy on a dedicated board game night without too much problem.
Hanabi is like Solitaire that you collectively play with a group of people. The catch? You each can't see your own cards and have to give clues to one another only on the color or number on their cards. Very portable and simple to play.
Space Alert is a cooperative game by Vlaada Chvatil about you and up to four buddies flying in space in a spaceship built by people who decided to cut costs. It's a extremely tense and fun real-time board game experience about communicating with your friends to make sure to wiggle the mouse of the computer so that the power on your low-rent space ship doesn't go off. I recommend this a whole lot, even if you don't have a ton of experience with board games
Carcassonne is an extremely easy to pick up and play game about getting the most points by laying down tiles to make cities, farms, roads in France(or whatever else there's some other flavors of this game). It's simple to play, but has a ton of depth to it.
Dominion is the progenitor for a significant amount of the Deck building genre of board games. Which means that it's a card game where you create your own deck as you play by buying from a central market. The cards themselves are very simple to play and it's pretty easy to learn. There are also a ton of expansions to the game to add even more replayability.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is all about building the best dumb castle, where the bathroom is only reachable by going through the basement to get to the Garden that has a nice view of a brick wall belonging to your living room. It's fairly easy to set up and play, with a decent hint of puzzle and strategy to the way you build your castle.
Remember Risk? Well, Risk Legacy is just like your regular old Risk game, but with a twist : The board will permanently change every time you finish a game and over time you will unlock new features to the game as you play it. Also takes considerably less time to play than a normal game of Risk.
Mysterium is a mystery game where a “ghost” player gives players acting as psychic detectives clues in the form of abstract art pieces to figure out a culprit. It's a good easy-to-play social game as you try to help out your fellow detectives derive the meaning from their clues.
Kemet is Ancient Egyptian Risk, except without random combat. Also, you can lead your armies with a Giant Scorpion and be the coolest Egyptian god ever. If you can play Risk, you can play this.
These last games are now just me recommending out some based on various things:
If you like deck builders you might like tableau builders (which are all about building an array of parts to score points) of which I have a couple:
7 Wonders is a drafting game where you pass around packs of cards to build your wonder and parts of your tableau. Very good. Uniquely plays up to 7 players at no real cost to time taken.
Race for the Galaxy is probably up there as one of the timeless incredible board games. What makes it so unique and good is that each turn of the game is played simultaneously. As each player picks one of 5 Roles that has an action tied to it and then each player go through all of the selected roles. With you getting a bonus in the role that you selected. Also, has a Dice-based version called Roll For The Galaxy that's also good.
Millennium Blades is a card game about simulating playing as a Pro Collectable Card Game player of a fictional CCG called Millennium Blades which is then abstracted into forming a tableau of cards. Brain hurt? If not, then this game is good for you. It's actually somewhat less complicated than it seems if you have experience playing Magic the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! However, it is somewhat time-consuming to play.
If you want more Co-Op experiences here's a couple of games:
Pandemic is a board game about going around the world curing diseases with your friends. It's a solid co-op experience where you strategize how to best find the cure for all the diseases. Also has a Legacy version predictably called Pandemic Legacy
Tragedy Looper is what happens when you take a time traveling detective story and distill it through a board game. More specifically, Tragedy Looper is a game of deduction through a logic puzzle where 3 protagonists face off against a player playing as the “Mastermind” to break a Groundhog Day scenario ending with some problem (like a key person dying) . Where it gets really cool is that the players at the beginning have extremely limited knowledge of what's going to play out and must make use of their power to go back to the start of the scenario with the knowledge they learned from previous loops.
It's an incredible game about bluffing and deduction. It can bit rules heavy and will take a couple of hours to play depending on the players so keep that in mind.
Additionally if you want more deck-builders like Dominion here's a couple more deck-builders:
Valley of the Kings
An egyptian themed deck-builder where you collect sets of egyptian items to be put into your tomb. The main thing is that you can only purchase card in a limited market at the base of a “pyramid”. It's an extremely solid game.
Eminent Domain
Eminent Domain is what you get when you fuse Dominion with Race for the Galaxy and the end result is a sort of a hybrid deck/tableau builder. It's a solid unique deck-builder. However, I highly recommend you also get the Escalation expansion if you enjoy the base game as it's the thing that takes it from a good game to an amazing one.
