New to table Top, where to start?

lego

lego

lego

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Now the girlfriend is officially moving in, we're looking to do something different a couple of nights a week. Back in October she got me hobbit the board game for my birthday (Not sure if it counts here, or frowned upon)

We've had a few fun nights playing it, but often find its a game more of chance than skill. So i'm looking to broaden our table top experience, but I haven't a clue where to start.

I would like to try something familiar so there's some some level of understanding (The hobbit helped as she could recognize the characters) But this isn't set in stone.

Also are there games out there that are co-op?

I don't mind if something has a learning curve, as long as its fun.

Not looking to spend a fortune, just something that will give us a nights entertainment.

Thanks in advance
 
Just before I rattle off a bunch of games let me get this right:

You want - 2 player, simple to learn, co-op and competitive? :)

If so I have a bunch of reconsiderations :D

Not familiar with The Hobbit game though so shall be back after some quick research :)
 
Right had a quick look at what you have and the mechanics are fairly commonplace in table top games in general.

For simple 2 - 5 player fun I'd recommend:

Carcassonne - a tile laying game in which you try to build cities/roads/monasteries and manage the farmland that connects them all. Very light, simple worker placement and super easy to learn!

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Tsuro - 2 - 8 players!

Do you remember those awesome puzzles on the back of cereal boxes where you had to get some random character to their favourite prize by tracing the lines? If so this will bring back some nice nostalgia!

The twist is that you get to build the squiggly lines (and travel along them) whilst trying to make your opponent fall off the board. Even more simple than the above suggestion too - lay a tile and then move. Quickly gets competitive and plays very quickly!

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In the co-op line you could do a lot worse than the following 2 games:

Pandemic - 1 - 5 players (with expansions)

Diseases are spreading around the world and it's up to you and the other players to stop them by working together and finding a cure before things get out of hand. Very easy to learn but hard to master and likely to play out differently each time due to the way the virus spreads.

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Castle Panic - 1 - 6 players!

Goblins, Orcs, Trolls and other special monsters are coming out of the forest and are attacking your castle. Work with the other players to stop the horde but be mindful that the title of master slayer is up for grabs - the one with the most points to their name can be a bit smug for a short while afterwards :p

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So there you go - 4 easy to play and highly addictive games of which 3 have expansions. All of these are very much aimed at the beginner level so shouldn't be too over whelming and should whet your appetite for more interesting games a bit further down the line :)

I do apologise for the small fortune you'll be spending shortly though :p
 
Thanks psymonkee, where would you recommend to get them, is it just an ebay jobbie? I shop quite often in Cardiff so if there's anywhere there?
 
It seems in Cardiff you have 2 options:

Rules of Play and Firestorm Games

No experience of either however though. Do go and have a browse and if you have any questions do ask someone - they should be more than happy to help/demo a game if your interested, most shops are :)

Failing that online is fine too:

Gameslore
Board Game Guru
Grimtree Games

and of course big bad Amazon but I prefer to stick to the little guys ;)

I've had good service from all of the above however.
 
I have started playing a few games with my wife (and sometimes our two boys) so we have a few games under our belts.

We played Flashpoint tonight, you are a (co-op) team of fire fighters fighting a fire in a house. You play, the fire plays, next person, fire etc. It (like quite a few games) has an easy or family rule set and then the full rules, which gets you acquainted with the game quickly but you can make it much more challenging.

We also have Forbidden Desert, you are (co-op again) a team of explorers trying to find an ancient civilisation in the desert. It all goes wrong when you chopper crashes and your only hope is to piece together an ancient flying machine by exploring and finding the bits. Again after each of your turns it is the baddie's turn, this time sand!

For more people (my kids love this one) try Galaxy Truckers - build a space ship in a race against time and take it on a test flight, build a better ship for your first adventure, bigger still for you third. The building phase is bit of a free for all jigsaw contest, the flights are based on adventure cards which may be anything from an asteroid field to an abandoned space station to raid or a planet to explore. You make money by delivering goods and loose money by breaking your ship. The game is very tounge in cheek and a lot of fun, my eight year old was in hysterics when a rouge meteor took out the one component which was holding all his engines to his ship, he managed to salvage it and made a few bucks. A note on this one though, we bought the anniversary edition which came with two expansions but it was expensive!

For a bit of competition we have been playing Havana, an odd one to explain, basically it is a card game where you are trying to build building using resources. Better buildings give more points but use more resources or need an architect (you have two specialists helping you each turn).

Boardgamegeek is a website with a whole load of info on all of these games and those suggested by Psymonkee.
 
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I started with

ticket-to-ride-europe.jpg


and then bought

settlers_of_catan.jpg


Both come highly recomended.
 
I've played a few games recently and rate them all:

Pandemic
Seven Wonders
Carson City
Euphoria

However, all of them were with 4 players, I'm not sure how they scale with different numbers.

I'm about to buy Zombicide season 1 and have backed season 3 ... really looking forward to trying this out :D

I'm from Penarth and really like Firestorm Games. Plus they knock 10% off the RRP price :)
 
Watch play through videos by Rahdo or many other people online (personally I prefer his).

All the games in my list are two player and I rate them as good games to play with your misses

I now own:
7 Wonders
Terra Mystica
Among the stars
Love letters
Race for the Galaxy
Lost Cities
Pandemic
Forbidden Desert
Fluxx
Carcassonne
Click to expand...
 
Tsuro is really boring with 2 players. Tsuro of the Seas might be better because of the dragons.

Forbidden Planet / Desert are good with 2 (play 2 characters each)

The DC Deckbuilding games work fine with 2 players - I haven't tried Marvel: Legendary which is similar

The Lord of the Rings card game (FFG) is really complicated to learn, but it is a fun game - has a hundred million (minor exaggeration) expansions too, so it's not going to get boring quickly.

Netrunner is a brilliant 2 player game, but the theme may not be that interesting to her.

Edit: Forgot Alhambra and 7 Wonders - both have a dummy 3rd player and work well with 2
 
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Get down to Rules of Play, they'll tell you all about the games and may even give you a taster. They have event days too and I believe they still do Gaming @ The Gate on Sunday evenings (may be a different venue now) so you can try a bunch of stuff.

I'd agree with all the recommendations here too, especially Tsuro and Carcasonne.

Never been to Firestorm but friends who live in Swindon go there often so it must be good too.

You can probably find a group in your area that get together regularly so you can try other peoples games (not to be confused with swinging)
 
A little late, but Forbidden Island is a good starter for Co-Op. Love Letter is an easy 2-4 player card game, good for guests that don't really play. Ultimate Werewolf: One Night is great if you have some time, and there's a free app to play the relevant audio tracks rather than reading them out the manual.
 
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