Octopus Overlords

I'll second Yellowking's suggestions of the Forbidden Island/Desert games, those are both very good and I'll also concur with his preference of Forbidden Desert. It's more challenging, and I think more fun in the long run.

Some others I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Coup - Plays up to 6, or up to 10 with the Reformation expansion. Short social bluffing/deduction game that is somewhat group-dependent. Some people just don't "get it", but when they do it's fantastic.

For Sale - another shorter auction/bidding game. Round 1 has players bidding with a finite amount of money to collect a set of properties, in round 2 you use those properties to "bid" for large cash payouts. Plays 20-30 minutes and up to 6 players.

Two other bigger/longer board games:

Splendor - this was a big hit this past year, players build up a gem-based economic engine, then start scoring points. Turns are very quick so little downtime, and the rules are pretty simple. Plays 4.

Black Fleet - this one is pretty new but is one of our recent favorites. Players control their own merchant ship and pirate ship, and collectively control two Navy ships. Merchants deliver goods, pirates attack merchants, and Navy ships attack pirates. The object of the game is to collect cash to pay for development cards, which slowly grant each player unique abilities. Everything is card-based, so you play movement cards to move your ships and fortune cards to break the rules. The slow growth of variable player powers is what makes the game, and your strategy is completely different each game based on the cards you get. Really liking this one, also plays 4.

Flash Point -- a firefighter themed cooperative game that is superior to Pandemic.

Alien Frontiers -- a very well designed game about using dice as resources to send colonists to control a planet.

King of Tokyo -- a fast dice rolling press your luck game that keeps everyone involved.

Small World -- a territory control game based around knowing when to fold and start over.

Haven't seen Smash Up mentioned. Card game that is easy to learn where you mix two factions together (such as Robot Ninjas!) and compete to claim territory for victory points. Only for up to 4 players, though.

Zarathud wrote:Flash Point -- a firefighter themed cooperative game that is superior to Pandemic.

That makes two people I know who prefer Flash Point (counting me).

coopasonic wrote:

Zarathud wrote:Flash Point -- a firefighter themed cooperative game that is superior to Pandemic.

That makes two people I know who prefer Flash Point (counting me).

I also find it superior to pandemic. Much less alpha player problem. I like the pandemic theme better though.

I like the ease of play. There's a lot less overhead to get a game started and keep it going without all the deck reshuffling.

Pandemic definitely has easier setup and play that is elegantly designed.

Flash Point has theme and emergent stories -- which goes a long way in my game groups.

Love Letters and Hanabi were hits. Trains was appreciated but not a huge hit.

Illness and cooking kept the gaming time broken up but in general no one really wanted to sit down with a game that took thought and focus.

Boudreaux wrote: ↑Wed Dec 17, 2014 5:49 pmBlack Fleet - this one is pretty new but is one of our recent favorites. Players control their own merchant ship and pirate ship, and collectively control two Navy ships. Merchants deliver goods, pirates attack merchants, and Navy ships attack pirates. The object of the game is to collect cash to pay for development cards, which slowly grant each player unique abilities. Everything is card-based, so you play movement cards to move your ships and fortune cards to break the rules. The slow growth of variable player powers is what makes the game, and your strategy is completely different each game based on the cards you get. Really liking this one, also plays 4.

I played this for the first time tonight at a friend's house. Pretty light, extremely interactive, really fun.