Newbie Looking for a game

The Running Man · 22 Mar 2018 at 21:02

Hi im kind a new but looking for a board game for me and the mrs to play.

2-4 player some strategy, cards, dice not resident evil 2 style Gore but some humour, black humour or otherwise would be good and some complexity but not a 2 hour game would be ideal.

We've seen Estoril spie game maybe something like that perhaps?

JeditOjanen · 27 Mar 2018 at 12:48

If you can live without dice, Gloom sounds like it may be right up your alley. It's a black humour storytelling card game with mild complexity that plays in about an hour.

heartburnron · 30 Mar 2018 at 21:33

You'd be doing well to get any 'proper' board game that can be played in under 2 hours I think. I play Talisman a lot with my daughter which is a fantastic game although it's is perhaps more chance than strategy and whilst games can last for up to 6 hours, we just take pictures of the board and our play areas so that we can set the game up again the next night and carry on from where we left off.

No1newts · 31 Mar 2018 at 00:08

Zombicide? A little light on strategy perhaps but it is strategic in its own right.

JeditOjanen · 3 Apr 2018 at 01:33

heartburnron said:
You'd be doing well to get any 'proper' board game that can be played in under 2 hours I think. I play Talisman a lot with my daughter which is a fantastic game although it's is perhaps more chance than strategy and whilst games can last for up to 6 hours, we just take pictures of the board and our play areas so that we can set the game up again the next night and carry on from where we left off.

What? No. Over two hours is long for a "proper" board game. There's a few epics like The Colonists which can take up to eight hours, but most modern games take around 30 minutes per player tops.

Psymonkee · 3 Apr 2018 at 23:36

Lighter games for 2 in strategy:

Patchwork - make 'quilts' from tetris like pieces but you need to balance that against time/cost and of course what your opponent does.
Kingdomino - Tile laying strategy as you look to expand the kingdom around your castle. Also plays up to 4
Jaipur - Card based trading/wheeling & dealing type set up as you buy things from the market but have to balance that against hand limit/time.
Azul - recently back in stock in the UK and selling fast. Tile drafting and placement with scoring based on orthogonally adjacent tiles.

None of these really feature any dark humour though so may not suit.

Could always try the classic co-op in Pandemic - save the world from 4 viruses by controlling a team of scientists looking for cures.

I'll think of more overnight but that should get you started. Gloom as suggested is a good look for dark humour but doesn't play well at 2 imo.

Daftbrown · 4 Jun 2018 at 09:58

Ha. I was considering starting a thread of my own and then found this one, similar to my own search. I don't really know board games but my girlfriend does. I'm a heavy metal kind of a bloke, the dark side of life

, and was looking for something dark humoured to play with the girlfriend so something that works two-player. I've played Gloom with her, decent enough with a couple of pints in the pub but wondered if there was anything else "heavy metal", "dark" and gloomy I could play with her? Nothing with a tome of rules though please.

JeditOjanen · 4 Jun 2018 at 12:40

Lunch Money. It suffers a bit from the card actions not being printed on the cards, so you have to learn them, but most of them are quite simple. The theme is essentially playground fights ... to the death, with sledgehammers.

Daftbrown · 4 Jun 2018 at 15:33

JeditOjanen said:
Lunch Money. It suffers a bit from the card actions not being printed on the cards, so you have to learn them, but most of them are quite simple. The theme is essentially playground fights ... to the death, with sledgehammers.

OK, thank you.

It has been ordered. I will return with feedback... (could be a while yet

).

bsoltan · 4 Jun 2018 at 15:34

For something easy to transport Fluxx is fun and comes in many different themes: http://www.looneylabs.com/games/fluxx
There are a lot of games based around Cthulhu mythos if that takes your fancy. Plenty around zombies too.

Pandemic might be worth checking out, not heavy metal or gloomy but has a certain darkness about it with the world getting infected.

BGG's Advanced Search is pretty decent, have a tweak of some of the options: https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame

Daftbrown · 5 Jun 2018 at 10:52

bsoltan said:
For something easy to transport Fluxx is fun and comes in many different themes: http://www.looneylabs.com/games/fluxx
There are a lot of games based around Cthulhu mythos if that takes your fancy. Plenty around zombies too.

Pandemic might be worth checking out, not heavy metal or gloomy but has a certain darkness about it with the world getting infected.

BGG's Advanced Search is pretty decent, have a tweak of some of the options: https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame

Thank you.

I've ordered a set of the Cthulu Fluxx cards. My girlfriend and I had played the Pirate one during one of our earlier dates. I particularly enjoyed the rule that made her have to address me as Captain

. That said, I'm often reluctant initially as I know that I'm at a distinct disadvantage having not played many such games! I fear losing disastrously but only one way to learn I suppose.

The name of it escapes me but a recent train journey playing a Snap card game variant (multiple images on each card, a guaranteed match but differing image sizes makes seeing the match more difficult) had us having to verbally declare matches such as "fire" and "bomb" among other things in the carriage. It gets intense and voices become raised... silly fun

Secondly, I have joined BGG as I am hoping to pick-up a used copy of the Eldritch Horror board-game through the member's market there. That type of game would be my first experience of its type, and I'm quite excited.

Whether or not I need board-games to be another field for me to sink more money than I do time in to, as with video games, is another thing!

JeditOjanen · 5 Jun 2018 at 13:00

Daftbrown said:
The name of it escapes me but a recent train journey playing a Snap card game variant (multiple images on each card, a guaranteed match but differing image sizes makes seeing the match more difficult) had us having to verbally declare matches such as "fire" and "bomb" among other things in the carriage. It gets intense and voices become raised... silly fun

That's Dobble.

Welcome to BGG, but don't fall into the acquisition trap. A lot of new gamers discover just how much is out there and go a bit wild with excitement. They end up spending far more on games than they should, and do it at the time when they also know the least about the hobby and what is good. They can end up with a bunch of duds and get soured on it.

(I probably also spend too much, but I never buy anything sight unseen and if possible without thorough research. Most of the games I flip these days are "new hotness" games from Spiel; these games usually sell out Thursday or early Friday, so you almost have to take a chance on them or wait for retail. I consider it a "bring something new and exciting home for my friends" tax.)

Daftbrown · 5 Jun 2018 at 13:21

JeditOjanen said:
That's Dobble.

Welcome to BGG, but don't fall into the acquisition trap. A lot of new gamers discover just how much is out there and go a bit wild with excitement. They end up spending far more on games than they should, and do it at the time when they also know the least about the hobby and what is good. They can end up with a bunch of duds and get soured on it.

(I probably also spend too much, but I never buy anything sight unseen and if possible without thorough research. Most of the games I flip these days are "new hotness" games from Spiel; these games usually sell out Thursday or early Friday, so you almost have to take a chance on them or wait for retail. I consider it a "bring something new and exciting home for my friends" tax.)

It is Dobble, yes!

Oh yes, I can see the acquisition trap there - but I have enough XP to avoid... for now

Lunch Money (recommended by someone off of a forum - probably a dud

)
Cthulu Fluxx
Eldritch Horror

I'm done for now...

Thanks to all for your input and guidance.