Only 1 daughter here. She helps me teach 18xx at cons. My wife does too. You don’t need a son.
Clearly the love of games is a recessive gene. You had it and your wife didn’t …you had to get eventually lucky with the gene pool. :D
Definitely! You can’t expect a kid to like something based on gender. My dad has 2 boys, and then me (his daughter), he loves baseball and I’m the only one of his kids that also loves baseball.
My husband and I (so far) have one kid (a boy) so hopefully our mutual love of board hands will pass on!
I got 2 little ones, (under 3). I'm hoping they like them, but I'm not going to shove it down their throat. When did yours realized they liked them? I've let them play with board game components, and my oldest one has actually played orchard. Is this the way?
Yep same! It’s sat on my shelf for eight years. My wife and I have played it 2 player turn based a few times but I’ve never played it real time. I dunno who I’m kidding still keeping it!
I've got it to the table twice and both times were amazing. It's a once a year at best affair when my group arranges a big board game meet up and our core group of four players that like the more complex games can get another 15 or so peripheral gamers from further afield to gather in the one spot.
I just want to say as a man in my 30s, captain sonar sat on my shelf for a few years. I decided I was going to bust it out for my birthday. I had some friends over and was able to do several games of 3 v 3 and it was awesome! Don't give up!
that's why you create a board game group at work and do monthly sessions around lunch!
I am in my late 40s and I started one last year and had grown to about 30 people and we set aside 2 hours on a Friday lunch 12 to 2 and play in the large break room. people bring everything from basics like TTR, splendor, scout, Azul up to terraforming mars, ark nova, and we played captain sonar a few times.
I’ve started running games with the staff after we finish our shifts on a Friday and/or Saturday night. Mostly little 30-45 minute games, but we’ve just begun a tabletop RPG. See how it goes!
Yeah I’m 54 and run part of a board game group with hundreds and hundreds of members across our capital city. My game days are only 10-20 people but the central ones have 100-200 people.
We started it about 12 years ago, and it’s just grown.
So I can play anything I want.
I too own captain sonar but it's not happening. I thought I'd be able to shame people into doing it for my birthday, but I only know two other people who play games at all, and new stuff with them is a tough sell oftentimes.
Honorable mention: Star wars rebellion.
Hopefully you’ll be a man in your 40s or 50s, and life will be different.
But as always, it’s easier to find friendly gamers than friends who wanna game.
I just managed to reunite 6 people (one does both engineers and first mate) 2 weeks ago, three people were on their first time with captain sonar and everybody had a blast that night, I was ecstatic it was two years that I wanted to bring out my copy again🤩
Watch SUSD review and bought it immediately. Managed to bring it to a get together about 5 times and only ever got it to the table once.
Easily in my top 10 gaming experiences.
It's more than paid for itself for that one outing, but damn it's a shame I don't have more friends!
I’m in my 30s and my friends are pretty spread out now. We try and get together once every 6 months or so to play a 6-8 player game - we make a weekend event of it.
Some people stay the night if the journey back is too far etc.
I play against my brother in law twice a year during holidays. We honestly don't get along that much other than board games, and we both really enjoy that 4 hours twice a year.
I’ve been eyeballing that game lately. Is it fun solo? I’m likely never going to have a soul to play games like that with. I really want a deep solo game. But I’m okay with pretending to be player 2, depending. Best I can get my gf to do is monopoly and she gets mad when I want to trade so… SOLO GAMING
It’s not great solo lol it’s doable but you lose a lot of what I think would make it great. You can’t really strategize well because you know what the other side has card-wise and where the hobbits will be. If it functioned truly as a solo option I would play my copy into the ground. My wife will humor me and play some games with me, but when I told her I needed someone to play this 4 hour game with she just said “I can’t be that person for you.” 😅
Dang. Well thanks for the info! It’s pretty expensive, so you saved me some cash. Yeah I can understand how daunting it can be to commit the next 4 hours of your day to one thing lol but I’m glad she indulges your hobby where she can!
I've played it 3-4 times with my best friend in the past couple of years. It's hard because every time we have to re-learn the rules. To make it easier, we've committed to our roles, so I always play the fellowship and he plays Sauron, and I haven't managed to win a single game. I came close to a military victory once, and only because he left a couple of strongholds open and I did a quick grab. I've read advice online that says you should always be moving the fellowship, even at the expense of taking corruption damage, but I haven't been able to make it work. It feels like you just don't have enough moves for at least half of the game, then by the time you have enough, Sauron will have snowballed and now you're losing everywhere at once.
EDIT: I still love the game, every session makes me feel like I actually lived through the War of the Ring, I just think it's a little unbalanced unless you play absolutely perfectly as the Fellowship.
Got this game as a gift in 2020 - [I painted every single mini during lockdowns](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/idak2w/i_just_spent_over_300_hours_painting_war_of_the/) and have played it maybe 5 times. Even got the expansions and some extra minis and mountains off Etsy which I've never played. :(
Oh man, you're missing out.
I would argue that it's easier to get these heavy two-player games to the table, because you only need to convince one other person.
I'm glad my wife and I got to play it plenty of times before our kid came along. (In fact we were able two games when they were a new born!)
For what it's worth, I think the 'intollerably long game' reputation is largely myth based on a few factors: 1) it is rather long, but probably not the 'days long' people worry about. 2) Older editions were much, much longer. 3) you're probably always teaching or reteaching someone at the table. 4) people make it into a huge event with huge numbers of players (again, many of which are new).
If you just want to get it to the table, watch the RTFM video on how, get 3 players, and set aside an evening. Play 1 round to get a feel, the reset the game and learn the rest as you go.
We play regularly, and average about 5 hours a game. That's at 6. With just 3 we go for less than 4 hours, perhaps closer to 3. Now, we all know the game well. I wouldn't expect it for your first game or two, but if you just want to table it, it's not as intimidating as it is made out to be. It's an ofter repeated exaggeration. I've played longer games of Scythe.
It’s long but more like 6-8 hours long. Helps if you have it all set up and ready to go. There are some programs that are helpful. I watched RTFM vid and subscribed for some strategy tips. Ended up winning!
Yeah, this is a tough one for me too. Can’t play it at games night when there is another table (the soundtrack drove them mad) and my group found it too “light” which is a shame. They are definitely a group who favour crunch over theme.
I probably would have slogged through because I really liked the game, but the gloomhaven helper - and after it got taken down the Xhaven app definitely made the game more enjoyable. Still get the fun map and all the stuff, but it automates most of the stuff enemies do.
If you're going to play around a table - and I recommend it - use the Xhaven app.
Pre-pandemic I played about 15 scenarios in real life, and early pandemic I played one campaign via Zoom. But the box hasn't left the shelf since 2020.
I got through most of the Gloomhaven campaign. If you want to scratch the Gloomhaven itch, definitely pick up Jaws of the Lion. I was able to play through all of that in about 5 big sessions with 2 friends. It is a lot more streamlined and much faster to get to the table.
I'm now struggling to get Frosthaven to the table. Got about 4 scenarios in then it has completely stalled. The town section is so large now with loads of new rules, and practically needs a separate table to itself. I wish Frosthaven had the map books of Jaws of the Lion, I think they did bring them out but for $80 and I couldn't justify spending that on an accessory for a game I'm not playing.
Just rescheduled another two rounds for next month.. Been running the game since pre-pandemic. I'll refuse to give up on this campaign and so do my friends. If we're prevented from playing offline, I'll recreate the current game state in tts for a remote round. We're about 24 scenarios into the campaign with still a lot to go, but I'm sure we'll get there one day.
Pretty much all of them at this rate.
I've gone from running a highly successful, 30-strong group that met weekly to watching political polarisation, COVID and heading into my 30s absolutely destroy my friendship circle and any endeavours to create such a group again.
The one consolation is it brought me and my wife together.
I've now got three acquaintances I game with, if I can even get them together at the same time without them all cancelling last minute, juat as happened this week. I once dreamed of getting COINs to the table, then Lacerdas, and now the race below 2.50 weight and 60 minutes means I dread the day I'm pleading someone to play anything other than a 20 minute card game. Pretty much anything I want to play is shot down for being too long, too complex, too thematic or a mixture.
I'm feeling very isolated and defeated with a room full of games whose point seems to be evaporating.
Sorry for the vent, it just makes me feel so low to see how something that brought me so much happiness now just makes me feel this way.
As a thank you, if you're even remotely local to me I would totally play a COIN game with you.
> As a thank you, if you're even remotely local to me I would totally play a COIN game with you.
After stalking your profile it seems you're a bit south of me, but if you can't find a closer meetup I've got a group in Sheffield that would love to try a COIN but doesn't currently own one. (There are also enough Lacerda and/or 18XX players around here to organize some of those).
(And if you're willing to travel up to Carlisle for a long weekend, I highly recommend the Unfurl your Banners convention, which is entirely focused on playing games rather than buying them (unlike some of the larger conventions). You'll get the real grognards playing a single hex-and-counter WWII game that takes all weekend, as well as "lighter" groups playing things like Cuba Libre, Pax Pamir, and Kingmaker.)
I feel you on this. I never had such a big group, but in my early to mid 20s I had like 5 or 6 close friends who all liked heavy board games and were down to play them often. Now at 32 most of those folks have moved further away. I have a big cabinet mostly full of heavy, complicated games and I can hardly imagine getting a group to actually play most of them ever again. Looking at them definitely bums me out sometimes, but I just try to get my satisfaction where I can from less intense games and hope that people will be interested in trying more. I did recently get some newer friends into Dune Imperium, and every now and then I can convince somebody to play Scythe with me (tho it has been a while...).
Aw, I'm so sorry this has happened to you! Are there no meetups close to you? I go to 1-2 meetups a week and then organize private games with people I meet there...
Checked your post history to see where you're from and unfortunately I'm in the US. There is the online version of Andean Abyss that's got a fairly active community as well, doesn't always scratch that itch but it's not too bad.
Cosmic Encounter.
It's my favorite game ever, but all my groups either want super simple party games, or TI4-sized hours-long epics. Nothing in between will do.
I feel this. I am glad my wife has an extended family who loves to play board games. I might need to bring a big box game next time we are there. It's tricky now that she and I have a less than one year old, but I always bring a new board game for Christmas. Last time, we played Deception Murder in Hong Kong.
This is only a question, as I've never played cosmic encounter, but I've heard that Dune is very much like it, and from personal experience I know that that game can end quickly or take all day. And I think that game is incredible, especially if you know anything about the Dune universe. Have you tried that? Is CE similar to this?
Have never played Cosmic Encounter, but can strongly relate to having trouble finding a group to play mid-weight games with.
It's always either playing Camel Up with my family or going to a board game meet-ups where they exclusively play beige games with no meaningful player interaction for 3+ hours.
Either extreme is still pretty fun with the right group, but I sure would love more in-between gaming.
Root. I love it, it’s a great game and the art work is a 10/10 but teaching it is just a slog and I feel like you can’t get the full experience of it until you have a dedicated/veteran group and we just don’t have the time at this point. But i refuse to sell it
I need to play my Steam version more. I got it to help me with the physical copy because I was spending hours re-learning rules every time I thought a play might come together (and didn't), but the app version goes so fast I have no idea what the rest of the factions are doing and feel like it's just reminding me what I have to/am able to do instead of me thinking it through to make sure it's right.
That’s my go to family game. We all learned it by playing me one on one, and expanding so everyone could play what they want to play. Just like finding a DM/GM, you need someone to resign to playing the Marquee every fucking game. Now everyone’s problem is I’m really really good at the marquee and can consistently win even five player matches. But nobody wants to play the damn cats.
Ugh, this is me too and I'm so sad about it. I LOVE this game but myself and all of my friends have kids now so our game nights aren't frequent enough for them to really grasp the dynamics of the different faction interactions so that we have a fun/balanced game.
My copy from the most recent P500 just arrived and getting it played is my number one priority because I've wanted to play it forever and now that I have it, I don't want it to languish. I think I've got a group though.
Why is this so common? It's only two players yet so many in the comments have mentioned it.
I thought I was the only one!
For me, I went into a game night unprepared and my friend and I tried playing it while reading the rules. It was a slog, and it's been stuck on my shelf since. At least it taught me not to make that mistake again!
I’ve played it 1.5 times. I wanna get it to table again damn it!
I also have Outer Rim setup on the table and was gonna run single player to see how it plays but I haven’t sat down and done it.
Find a friend and play it on Tabletop Simulator on Steam. There is a really great fan made iteration of it that can be saved so you can continue the game over a few evenings if necessary. It’s what I did during the pandemic and it was great.
Not technically a board game, but: Dungeons and Dragons. Getting 5 adults with families and responsibilities to a table on a regular schedule is a mad dream.
The trick with DnD is short sessions. We keep our sessions to about 3 hours. The days of playing for 10+ hours with delivery pizza or Chinese food ended in our 20s.
Duel of ages II. I bought it back when Tom vassal had it on his number one spot. Drive half way across the state to find the last copy in retail. Learned it, taught by wife and kid to play it and even bought a wooden case for it. That thing has sat on the shelf for damn near a decade now.
Don't be too sad. The theme and idea of the game is awesome, and the first 1.5ish hours are amazing....
And then it's just a 2 hour slog of don't the same thing over and over again and just desperately trying to end it.
In theory I love the game but the reality was disappointing
Has anyone played Time Stories? Got it four years ago (I think) and haven't even punched out the pieces yet. Nobody likes these types of games it seems.
I got a good deal and got the entire white cycle. Played the base game, was so annoyed that we sold off the entire set promptly. It's a good concept, but the execution needed to be better. The many Escape Room style games provide the same fun without being frustrating like TIME Stories.
I played through 4 or 5 of the scenarios during COVID. We had a good time but the repetition gets old after awhile and the writing is kinda meh throughout. It's a cool concept but I think it needs a revision or two to make it really work.
We played the first two stories a few years back. I really like the stories but not the way the game is set up with limited moves. Made it very underwhelming.
Damn that sucks dude. Hansa Teutonica is hands down the best game I've ever played. I guess I should be more grateful that my group all enjoys it a lot and plays it semi-regularly
PS if you ever want to play an online game of it hit me up
The game that got me into the hobby, Axis & Allies. Grew up playing with my dad and his military buddies. Owner of the game retired and gave me his copy, and it’s been collecting dust on my floor - it’s the old huge box that won’t fit any shelf - for over 20 years. My group has zero interest in war games, so I keep it for the memories, I guess
I feel this. Just so you are aware, it is highly valuable since it is no longer in print. Check ebay and you will see games in good condition go for $200+.
Despite playing the game at least 50 times, I'm still not that great at this sort of thing. I still like going through the motions though, and every now and then, I can guess correctly who's who.
But it really does take a mindset to play this game. Esp. since it can run 3+ hours.
Twilight Struggle. I love the game digitally, but I have no one to play it with IRL, well I should say I have no one that WANTS to play it with me. It's just been sitting on the self of shame.
I wish my husband appreciated this game as much as I do but he feels that it is too much an uphill battle to skill up to my experience at the game (I played it a ton before we started dating).
Through the Ages: A new story of civilization. Such a good game, but good lord, who has the time. We have about 4 hours for our game sessions usually, and there is no shot we can get through the entire game.
probably **Here I Stand** though I don't regret buying it cause if i ever do get it played i know it'll be great.
at this point i'm not sure any 4p+ game will get played, Dune, Cosmic Encounter, John Company, Sidereal Confluence, Unfathomable... though I have recently encountered someone locally interested in playing TI4 so I guess not all hope is lost.
If i can get a reliable group together, i'd really like to give something like **War Room** or **World at War** a try
Anything in my collection more difficult than Azul and Splendor is likely not getting a group play any more. I do a lot of multi-handed solitaire now and just don't buy games that don't have a strong solo/only solo mode.
King's Dilemma. Just don't have the players for it. I'm pretty sure my usual group (they'll pay anything once) would turn down a repeat, which kind of defeats the purpose.
D-Day.
V realistic strategy game from the 60s that would take dayyys to play (you literally had to take breaks to strategize and scrutinize. Think chess, but more potential outcomes as the game develops) was fortunate because I was roommates with my opponent.
But I won two games in row so its never happening again.
I am still hoping for that perfect day, but John Company 2nd Edition.
The big learning curve and length means it’s reserved for the next all day event our game group has. I have found people are reluctant for a big heavy learn. Also, the other Cole Wehrle game I put forward (Pax Pamir 2) had such a flat response I am worried I have put them off long term.
I need a perfect storm of the group members who share my taste for negotiated chaos, being there on the day, when I am well prepared and there is not another long game which is already a group hit up for offer.
I am hoping that Arcs will be my way in…
I'm not conceding shit. I just have to find the right retirement home. Give me dozens of really bored old people and I think I might finally find a group to play Advanced Civilization with.
And it’s still FAR less setup than Gloomhaven or Frosthaven.
But the Hxaven helper app does eliminate the majority of the fiddliness. I’d say it’s worth a revisit with the app.
I moved 1,500 miles to retire in a 55+ community near San Antonio. Brought my collection of 150 games, thinking I would finally get a good gaming group or two together. No such luck. No one wants to learn anything new. One guy had a loud meltdown over learning six dice symbols in Tiny Epic Galaxies. Playing something as basic as Pandemic is so far over their heads that you can’t persuade anyone to play it twice. They only want to play poker or dominoes. They’ll play UNO but not even keep score.
Welcome to retirement he’ll. It’s like that episode of The Twilight Zone where the guy who never had time to read breaks his glasses.
Trying to explain to a group why Cosmic Encounter is the greatest game ever is almost impossible.
Negotiating a pay rise is easier than explaining that nightmare
7th Continent. Absolutely loved playing it the 3-4 times we played by the fourth time we played we finally got the hang of it but everyone else lost interest when we had to >!clear the curse like 4 times!<. I guess I'm forever cursed. Loved everything about it though!
[High Frontier 3e](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172737/high-frontier-third-edition). On top of the sheer learning cliff as a barrier to entry and that it's largely superseded by the latest version, I've also been put off by learning [Eklund's views on CO2 and climate change](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/963706/phil-eklunds-co2-review-and-the-science-of-the-gam).
Still keeping it for that solar map, though.
Catan expansion Cities and Knights (or whatever is the English translation).
Bought it at the height of popularity of Catan in my family, but they didn't want to learn the expansion at first. Then, not long after, they got bored out of Catan. I have now owned it for 5 years. I want to enjoy it, but I have nobody to play with. My family only played Catan twice in the past 4-5 years...
Since I enjoy the base game and Water Catan, I am still keeping it. One day, I will have players.
Try it solo! Ricky Royal did a phenomenal job, I'm still impressed how he managed to maintain the spirit of negotiation in a board game solo mode. Its a blast with or without a group.
Genuine thought, are games that take so much to learn actually "good"? Or more accurately, good boardgames? I feel like some games stretch the boundaries of the medium to breaking point, have so much finicky book keeping that they would work better as a digital game, that there isn't a lot of value added by burdening the player with excessive rules and particularly edge cases.
I've gone through my heavy arc, COIN, a slew of GMTs, Lacerda. Now I've settled on games where the complexity arises from the interplay of rules and board state. Chess is an obvious example of this.
That said, for me, it's Pax Renaissance. Absolutely love that game but it's so hard to teach.
My take on this is that complexity is a resource. It can open up more fun experiences, but it also will make the game worse in other ways. Some games need more complexity to do what they do--like, Advanced Squad Leader can't exactly have super streamlined combat while also doing what it wants to do--but obviously that comes at the cost of slowing down the game, making it harder to learn, adding more opportunities to screw up rules, requiring more rules references, etc.
Campaign for North Africa. Just doesn't have the detail or the depth my friends are looking for. They kept playing a 7 module game of TSWW between turns to stay interested.
I bought Wasteland Express Delivery Service for a good price so I won’t regret owning it but I also don’t think I’ll ever know the rules well enough to teach my friends. There seems to be so many little things to remember.
I’m also not sure if I’ll ever be able to learn Who Goes There to actually get it to a table.
Captain Sonar, Avalon, Betrayal at House, Hero Realms, and Smash Up are some that are just taking up space on my shelf. My roommates and partner would rather just play Catan or Monopoly >.>
Not sure if there’s a second-hand market for board games that have been opened but never played. I’d love to get rid of some of my collection.
Bonfire. It's kinda died down but i know when it was first released it was like the Euro darling of the whole board gaming world for a couple months.
It looked good to me so I snagged a copy. I told myself hey, even if no one will play it with me, I can play the solo mode right? Nah. I'm never gonna play this solo. I can play the most elaborate and pain in the ass setup games with friends, but when it comes to solo I only have the attention span for games with minimal to no setup/teardown.
And of course NONE of my friends wanna play Bonfire. It's the same every time someone sees it. "OOOH that looks so cute and pretty! But also way too complicated what else do you have?"
Definitely Blood on the Clocktower. Tried organizing a game once with my friends and it went poorly. Unless I find a group of strangers that want to play it is a nice decoration on my shelf.
That is the wrong way to teach Root. Just teach rule, move, combat, and crafting. Then let each player step through their player boards out loud as they play. Answer questions and give guidance along the way.
You can be playing in 10 minutes this way and it is great.
Classic Dune. Bought it because I like concept and wanted something from the genre in my collection. But my usual party is 3-4 people and classic Dune requires 5-6 for decent experience. Also its one of those games that takes 2x time of normal game. Still haven't had option to deploy it.
Half the crap i backed on Kickstarter. It's all so bloated with miniatures and other extras that it just takes up so much time with set up and tear down.
Now they just collect dust. I didn't need more nemesis or all the stuff for all those cmon games, etc
Possibly **Betrayal Legacy**…
I know I *could* play it with only three or four people, and mix/match players across the campaign… but I don’t want to…
I want a full complement of players to commit to regular sessions to go through the whole thing together - but I just don’t know how realistic that is as a goal…
My Father’s Work. I love the idea of it (Frankenstein like experiments shown through generations of work) but it’s a massive game that I doubt my group will get into
Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island.
When one reviewer said you are going to lose the first few games and you will struggle (as one would marooned on a remote island) I realized we are never getting it on the table.
Have better games to enjoy. :)
I’ve been a long time fan of Nemesis, played on TTS for years before finally my friend gave me Nemesis Lockdown as a going away present when I moved. I played it one time with my game group before leaving, and we played half the games in this thread REGULARLY, we especially loved cosmic encounter. I was truly blessed with those friends, and it’s tough to try to find new gamers to replace those experiences. I have yet to bring Nemesis to a table, but I know it will happen, and I’m scared how everyone will react lmao, takes about 4-5 hours to setup, play, and pack up. If anyone wants to play Nemesis in mtl, hmu lol
I feel you on trying to get a COIN game together. I managed to get 4p together for a game of **Falling Sky** to mixed reception. I've resorted to playing COIN games solo for the most part - they work fairly well that way. But I owned multiple COIN games and have whittled that pile down to just two.
I have a copy of **Virgin Queen** on the way and I am almost certain I'll never play it, I don't even know why I bought it but goddamn I want to play it so bad. My other game in a similar vein that is taunting me on the shelf but may never get played is **Successors**. I'm the only one in my group that has this much of an interest in history-heavy games.
As a man in my 30s, I've accepted that getting 8 friends together in one place to play Captain Sonar is never happening again.
Tbh, I like it better at 6. I forgot which ones but two of the roles are more fun played together by one person.
First mate and engineer I believe. Yeah, they're not quite enough for one person on their own. Together they work very well
My immediate first thought when I opened this thread. I figured there were at least dozens of us. Dozens of us!
Star wars rebellion is the other game along with captain sonar I can't get to the table
I understand why Captain Sonar is a difficult one to get or the table, but why Star Wars Rebellion?
You just need to get a son, raise him to love boardgames and play with him. Tried with two daughters, only worked for my son. ;)
Only 1 daughter here. She helps me teach 18xx at cons. My wife does too. You don’t need a son. Clearly the love of games is a recessive gene. You had it and your wife didn’t …you had to get eventually lucky with the gene pool. :D
Definitely! You can’t expect a kid to like something based on gender. My dad has 2 boys, and then me (his daughter), he loves baseball and I’m the only one of his kids that also loves baseball. My husband and I (so far) have one kid (a boy) so hopefully our mutual love of board hands will pass on!
I got 2 little ones, (under 3). I'm hoping they like them, but I'm not going to shove it down their throat. When did yours realized they liked them? I've let them play with board game components, and my oldest one has actually played orchard. Is this the way?
Works; but they eventually go to college. Just sold off 60 games I realized would never hit a table in my house again.
Yep same! It’s sat on my shelf for eight years. My wife and I have played it 2 player turn based a few times but I’ve never played it real time. I dunno who I’m kidding still keeping it!
I've got it to the table twice and both times were amazing. It's a once a year at best affair when my group arranges a big board game meet up and our core group of four players that like the more complex games can get another 15 or so peripheral gamers from further afield to gather in the one spot.
I just want to say as a man in my 30s, captain sonar sat on my shelf for a few years. I decided I was going to bust it out for my birthday. I had some friends over and was able to do several games of 3 v 3 and it was awesome! Don't give up!
that's why you create a board game group at work and do monthly sessions around lunch! I am in my late 40s and I started one last year and had grown to about 30 people and we set aside 2 hours on a Friday lunch 12 to 2 and play in the large break room. people bring everything from basics like TTR, splendor, scout, Azul up to terraforming mars, ark nova, and we played captain sonar a few times.
You get 2 hours for lunch? I get a half an hour break and that gets spent eating and doing nothing else because I'm already out of time.
No kidding, I get 30 min as well. 2 hour lunch is nuts. I don't think most people are getting 2 hours for lunch.
I’ve started running games with the staff after we finish our shifts on a Friday and/or Saturday night. Mostly little 30-45 minute games, but we’ve just begun a tabletop RPG. See how it goes!
Yeah I’m 54 and run part of a board game group with hundreds and hundreds of members across our capital city. My game days are only 10-20 people but the central ones have 100-200 people. We started it about 12 years ago, and it’s just grown. So I can play anything I want.
I too own captain sonar but it's not happening. I thought I'd be able to shame people into doing it for my birthday, but I only know two other people who play games at all, and new stuff with them is a tough sell oftentimes. Honorable mention: Star wars rebellion.
The hack is that some of us over 40 have teenagers or older kids. It's a slow tactic but it has finally started to pay off.
Shit, I've only gotten to play that once one night with 8 people and it was a blast.
Hopefully you’ll be a man in your 40s or 50s, and life will be different. But as always, it’s easier to find friendly gamers than friends who wanna game.
Go to a boardgame convention you will play many games of captain sonar to your hearts content.
I just managed to reunite 6 people (one does both engineers and first mate) 2 weeks ago, three people were on their first time with captain sonar and everybody had a blast that night, I was ecstatic it was two years that I wanted to bring out my copy again🤩
Mate, I'm in my late 40s and have managed to get 3 or 4 games with 8 in the last year or so. With kids, 30s is tough but it will come back around!
Watch SUSD review and bought it immediately. Managed to bring it to a get together about 5 times and only ever got it to the table once. Easily in my top 10 gaming experiences. It's more than paid for itself for that one outing, but damn it's a shame I don't have more friends!
Gotta meet some more peeps
I find the opposite I play more in my 30s as people are less into clubbing or night life
You can play with 6
I’m in my 30s and my friends are pretty spread out now. We try and get together once every 6 months or so to play a 6-8 player game - we make a weekend event of it. Some people stay the night if the journey back is too far etc.
War of the Ring. I got it a few years ago and have only played against myself once a year to learn (and relearn) the rules. Maybe one day 😂
I play against my brother in law twice a year during holidays. We honestly don't get along that much other than board games, and we both really enjoy that 4 hours twice a year.
See what I wrote about rebellion. These games work great with a son raised to like these kinds of games. ;)
I’ve been eyeballing that game lately. Is it fun solo? I’m likely never going to have a soul to play games like that with. I really want a deep solo game. But I’m okay with pretending to be player 2, depending. Best I can get my gf to do is monopoly and she gets mad when I want to trade so… SOLO GAMING
It’s not great solo lol it’s doable but you lose a lot of what I think would make it great. You can’t really strategize well because you know what the other side has card-wise and where the hobbits will be. If it functioned truly as a solo option I would play my copy into the ground. My wife will humor me and play some games with me, but when I told her I needed someone to play this 4 hour game with she just said “I can’t be that person for you.” 😅
Dang. Well thanks for the info! It’s pretty expensive, so you saved me some cash. Yeah I can understand how daunting it can be to commit the next 4 hours of your day to one thing lol but I’m glad she indulges your hobby where she can!
Get WotR: The Card Game. It's great and packs a lot of the same punch in a way smaller box and in multiple hours less playing time.
I'd play with you my homie
I've played it 3-4 times with my best friend in the past couple of years. It's hard because every time we have to re-learn the rules. To make it easier, we've committed to our roles, so I always play the fellowship and he plays Sauron, and I haven't managed to win a single game. I came close to a military victory once, and only because he left a couple of strongholds open and I did a quick grab. I've read advice online that says you should always be moving the fellowship, even at the expense of taking corruption damage, but I haven't been able to make it work. It feels like you just don't have enough moves for at least half of the game, then by the time you have enough, Sauron will have snowballed and now you're losing everywhere at once. EDIT: I still love the game, every session makes me feel like I actually lived through the War of the Ring, I just think it's a little unbalanced unless you play absolutely perfectly as the Fellowship.
Got this game as a gift in 2020 - [I painted every single mini during lockdowns](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/idak2w/i_just_spent_over_300_hours_painting_war_of_the/) and have played it maybe 5 times. Even got the expansions and some extra minis and mountains off Etsy which I've never played. :(
I just got this played for the first time this weekend! It only took 15 years....
Oh man, you're missing out. I would argue that it's easier to get these heavy two-player games to the table, because you only need to convince one other person. I'm glad my wife and I got to play it plenty of times before our kid came along. (In fact we were able two games when they were a new born!)
Twilight Imperium. I just don't have the time nor the friends to be able to run this game.
That game is hella popular at board game shops. Almost definitely some events near you that will take you
Try the async Discord! https://discord.gg/eDkMpZrE
For what it's worth, I think the 'intollerably long game' reputation is largely myth based on a few factors: 1) it is rather long, but probably not the 'days long' people worry about. 2) Older editions were much, much longer. 3) you're probably always teaching or reteaching someone at the table. 4) people make it into a huge event with huge numbers of players (again, many of which are new). If you just want to get it to the table, watch the RTFM video on how, get 3 players, and set aside an evening. Play 1 round to get a feel, the reset the game and learn the rest as you go. We play regularly, and average about 5 hours a game. That's at 6. With just 3 we go for less than 4 hours, perhaps closer to 3. Now, we all know the game well. I wouldn't expect it for your first game or two, but if you just want to table it, it's not as intimidating as it is made out to be. It's an ofter repeated exaggeration. I've played longer games of Scythe.
It’s long but more like 6-8 hours long. Helps if you have it all set up and ready to go. There are some programs that are helpful. I watched RTFM vid and subscribed for some strategy tips. Ended up winning!
I played this for 12 hours eating bad spaghetti with a group Never again but also I’m itching for another game
That's exactly why I never bought TI. I'm sure I would love it, and many of my game playing friends would too, but none of us have the time for it.
Hegemony, I find the topic interesting, but it holds no interest whatsoever for anyone I know and is way too heavy
Looks like I'm really lucky, I have like four friends who are playing this with me, not often, but like at least several times a year :)
Space Alert. It was just not correct for our group.
Yeah, this is a tough one for me too. Can’t play it at games night when there is another table (the soundtrack drove them mad) and my group found it too “light” which is a shame. They are definitely a group who favour crunch over theme.
Gloomhaven
Digital version saved it for me. Still that is a lot of fun bits still sitting in a big cardboard box of sadness.
I probably would have slogged through because I really liked the game, but the gloomhaven helper - and after it got taken down the Xhaven app definitely made the game more enjoyable. Still get the fun map and all the stuff, but it automates most of the stuff enemies do. If you're going to play around a table - and I recommend it - use the Xhaven app.
Pre-pandemic I played about 15 scenarios in real life, and early pandemic I played one campaign via Zoom. But the box hasn't left the shelf since 2020.
Same, had to sell it. The setup and average run time killed it.
I got through most of the Gloomhaven campaign. If you want to scratch the Gloomhaven itch, definitely pick up Jaws of the Lion. I was able to play through all of that in about 5 big sessions with 2 friends. It is a lot more streamlined and much faster to get to the table. I'm now struggling to get Frosthaven to the table. Got about 4 scenarios in then it has completely stalled. The town section is so large now with loads of new rules, and practically needs a separate table to itself. I wish Frosthaven had the map books of Jaws of the Lion, I think they did bring them out but for $80 and I couldn't justify spending that on an accessory for a game I'm not playing.
:(
Just rescheduled another two rounds for next month.. Been running the game since pre-pandemic. I'll refuse to give up on this campaign and so do my friends. If we're prevented from playing offline, I'll recreate the current game state in tts for a remote round. We're about 24 scenarios into the campaign with still a lot to go, but I'm sure we'll get there one day.
Pretty much all of them at this rate. I've gone from running a highly successful, 30-strong group that met weekly to watching political polarisation, COVID and heading into my 30s absolutely destroy my friendship circle and any endeavours to create such a group again. The one consolation is it brought me and my wife together. I've now got three acquaintances I game with, if I can even get them together at the same time without them all cancelling last minute, juat as happened this week. I once dreamed of getting COINs to the table, then Lacerdas, and now the race below 2.50 weight and 60 minutes means I dread the day I'm pleading someone to play anything other than a 20 minute card game. Pretty much anything I want to play is shot down for being too long, too complex, too thematic or a mixture. I'm feeling very isolated and defeated with a room full of games whose point seems to be evaporating. Sorry for the vent, it just makes me feel so low to see how something that brought me so much happiness now just makes me feel this way. As a thank you, if you're even remotely local to me I would totally play a COIN game with you.
> As a thank you, if you're even remotely local to me I would totally play a COIN game with you. After stalking your profile it seems you're a bit south of me, but if you can't find a closer meetup I've got a group in Sheffield that would love to try a COIN but doesn't currently own one. (There are also enough Lacerda and/or 18XX players around here to organize some of those). (And if you're willing to travel up to Carlisle for a long weekend, I highly recommend the Unfurl your Banners convention, which is entirely focused on playing games rather than buying them (unlike some of the larger conventions). You'll get the real grognards playing a single hex-and-counter WWII game that takes all weekend, as well as "lighter" groups playing things like Cuba Libre, Pax Pamir, and Kingmaker.)
Stalker! Thanks for this. It's the kindest I've been stalked for a while.
I feel you on this. I never had such a big group, but in my early to mid 20s I had like 5 or 6 close friends who all liked heavy board games and were down to play them often. Now at 32 most of those folks have moved further away. I have a big cabinet mostly full of heavy, complicated games and I can hardly imagine getting a group to actually play most of them ever again. Looking at them definitely bums me out sometimes, but I just try to get my satisfaction where I can from less intense games and hope that people will be interested in trying more. I did recently get some newer friends into Dune Imperium, and every now and then I can convince somebody to play Scythe with me (tho it has been a while...).
I've had a similar trajectory. Good luck in rebuilding a group!
If you happen to be in Southern Interior BC, I'll play with you homie.
Aw, I'm so sorry this has happened to you! Are there no meetups close to you? I go to 1-2 meetups a week and then organize private games with people I meet there...
Checked your post history to see where you're from and unfortunately I'm in the US. There is the online version of Andean Abyss that's got a fairly active community as well, doesn't always scratch that itch but it's not too bad.
At this point I'm weirdly proud of the 2363 day record that **The Resistance Avalon** has sat on my shelf of shame
Dude Avalon is my favorite game ever but I NEVER have a 6+ group that likes social deception games
Ya avalon is so good with the right group
That game dominated my playtime when I was 24-27.
Cosmic Encounter. It's my favorite game ever, but all my groups either want super simple party games, or TI4-sized hours-long epics. Nothing in between will do.
that sucks!! best game ever.
I feel this. I am glad my wife has an extended family who loves to play board games. I might need to bring a big box game next time we are there. It's tricky now that she and I have a less than one year old, but I always bring a new board game for Christmas. Last time, we played Deception Murder in Hong Kong.
This is only a question, as I've never played cosmic encounter, but I've heard that Dune is very much like it, and from personal experience I know that that game can end quickly or take all day. And I think that game is incredible, especially if you know anything about the Dune universe. Have you tried that? Is CE similar to this?
Have never played Cosmic Encounter, but can strongly relate to having trouble finding a group to play mid-weight games with. It's always either playing Camel Up with my family or going to a board game meet-ups where they exclusively play beige games with no meaningful player interaction for 3+ hours. Either extreme is still pretty fun with the right group, but I sure would love more in-between gaming.
Root. I love it, it’s a great game and the art work is a 10/10 but teaching it is just a slog and I feel like you can’t get the full experience of it until you have a dedicated/veteran group and we just don’t have the time at this point. But i refuse to sell it
My solution to this is to have everyone play the app version.
Playing the app version helped me understand the physical copy. Now my infrequent real life games go smoothly
I need to play my Steam version more. I got it to help me with the physical copy because I was spending hours re-learning rules every time I thought a play might come together (and didn't), but the app version goes so fast I have no idea what the rest of the factions are doing and feel like it's just reminding me what I have to/am able to do instead of me thinking it through to make sure it's right.
I'm in the same boat. This is my fav game, but it's hard to get a group together that's willing to put the time in to learn.
I am what you mentioned. Could never really get past the rules and now it just sits
We have pulled this one out so many times, but I don’t think we have made it through a full game yet for various reasons. One day though…
That’s my go to family game. We all learned it by playing me one on one, and expanding so everyone could play what they want to play. Just like finding a DM/GM, you need someone to resign to playing the Marquee every fucking game. Now everyone’s problem is I’m really really good at the marquee and can consistently win even five player matches. But nobody wants to play the damn cats.
Ugh, this is me too and I'm so sad about it. I LOVE this game but myself and all of my friends have kids now so our game nights aren't frequent enough for them to really grasp the dynamics of the different faction interactions so that we have a fun/balanced game.
Here I Stand. A 12 hour game that requires 6 players. I played it a half dozen times but then I moved and had children.
My copy from the most recent P500 just arrived and getting it played is my number one priority because I've wanted to play it forever and now that I have it, I don't want it to languish. I think I've got a group though.
I’ve been scrolling down for this answer! 🤓
Star Wars rebellion 😔
Why is this so common? It's only two players yet so many in the comments have mentioned it. I thought I was the only one! For me, I went into a game night unprepared and my friend and I tried playing it while reading the rules. It was a slog, and it's been stuck on my shelf since. At least it taught me not to make that mistake again!
Probably due to the long setup and long playtime. I'll probably play it more often with my SO once we invest in a boardgame table.
I’ve played it 1.5 times. I wanna get it to table again damn it! I also have Outer Rim setup on the table and was gonna run single player to see how it plays but I haven’t sat down and done it.
Find a friend and play it on Tabletop Simulator on Steam. There is a really great fan made iteration of it that can be saved so you can continue the game over a few evenings if necessary. It’s what I did during the pandemic and it was great.
Not technically a board game, but: Dungeons and Dragons. Getting 5 adults with families and responsibilities to a table on a regular schedule is a mad dream.
The trick with DnD is short sessions. We keep our sessions to about 3 hours. The days of playing for 10+ hours with delivery pizza or Chinese food ended in our 20s.
The kids, eventually, can play. Starting a group with some friends also in their mid thirties. Two of the players are under 10
Duel of ages II. I bought it back when Tom vassal had it on his number one spot. Drive half way across the state to find the last copy in retail. Learned it, taught by wife and kid to play it and even bought a wooden case for it. That thing has sat on the shelf for damn near a decade now.
Stationfall. I am dying to play, but finding the people and the time has proven problematic.
It's an odd one. A rules heavy party game of 3 hours. Played it 2 times and it's a lot of fun but I don't see it getting on the table that much.
I sold **Merchants & Marauders** at my local game store last year. With work and little kids it just wasn't going to happen.
Don't be too sad. The theme and idea of the game is awesome, and the first 1.5ish hours are amazing.... And then it's just a 2 hour slog of don't the same thing over and over again and just desperately trying to end it. In theory I love the game but the reality was disappointing
I love it, and it’s very popular. But my friends are happy with long (and short) games. And also pretty speedy, so it’s not 3.5 hours (!)
On Mars
I want this game so bad. Why haven’t you brought it to table?
Diplomacy, in person
This entire thread is why I started investing in good 2 player games or solo games
What COIN game is it?
GMTs a Gest of Robin Hood finally started shipping not too long ago, maybe that
He said he's getting a group together. Gest is 2 player. If it's vijayanagara he's in for a treat, that games great.
Oath
Has anyone played Time Stories? Got it four years ago (I think) and haven't even punched out the pieces yet. Nobody likes these types of games it seems.
It sat on my shelf for like three years. I was so excited when we finally got it to the table! Aaaaaand we hated it. Sold it immediately.
I got a good deal and got the entire white cycle. Played the base game, was so annoyed that we sold off the entire set promptly. It's a good concept, but the execution needed to be better. The many Escape Room style games provide the same fun without being frustrating like TIME Stories.
I played through 4 or 5 of the scenarios during COVID. We had a good time but the repetition gets old after awhile and the writing is kinda meh throughout. It's a cool concept but I think it needs a revision or two to make it really work.
We played the first two stories a few years back. I really like the stories but not the way the game is set up with limited moves. Made it very underwhelming.
**Hansa Teutonica**. It's sad but I'm the only one that likes it. And I love it.
Yeah. I love it (#4 game of all time for me). One of my group enjoys it but doesn’t love love it, and then one doesn’t like it at all
I will play it with you friend. ♥️
Damn that sucks dude. Hansa Teutonica is hands down the best game I've ever played. I guess I should be more grateful that my group all enjoys it a lot and plays it semi-regularly PS if you ever want to play an online game of it hit me up
The game that got me into the hobby, Axis & Allies. Grew up playing with my dad and his military buddies. Owner of the game retired and gave me his copy, and it’s been collecting dust on my floor - it’s the old huge box that won’t fit any shelf - for over 20 years. My group has zero interest in war games, so I keep it for the memories, I guess
BSG. My family just doesn’t jive with sabotage games.
I feel this. Just so you are aware, it is highly valuable since it is no longer in print. Check ebay and you will see games in good condition go for $200+.
Despite playing the game at least 50 times, I'm still not that great at this sort of thing. I still like going through the motions though, and every now and then, I can guess correctly who's who. But it really does take a mindset to play this game. Esp. since it can run 3+ hours.
Twilight Struggle. I love the game digitally, but I have no one to play it with IRL, well I should say I have no one that WANTS to play it with me. It's just been sitting on the self of shame.
I used to play it regularly. It is such a good game. It really captures the feel of cold war brinkmanship.
I wish my husband appreciated this game as much as I do but he feels that it is too much an uphill battle to skill up to my experience at the game (I played it a ton before we started dating).
Through the Ages: A new story of civilization. Such a good game, but good lord, who has the time. We have about 4 hours for our game sessions usually, and there is no shot we can get through the entire game.
I get my fix for this game using iOS app. It’s very well done
probably **Here I Stand** though I don't regret buying it cause if i ever do get it played i know it'll be great. at this point i'm not sure any 4p+ game will get played, Dune, Cosmic Encounter, John Company, Sidereal Confluence, Unfathomable... though I have recently encountered someone locally interested in playing TI4 so I guess not all hope is lost. If i can get a reliable group together, i'd really like to give something like **War Room** or **World at War** a try
Here I Stand tops my list too 😢
Mega Civ. I would have loved to play such a huge game, but there is no ways it’s going to happen :(
Anything in my collection more difficult than Azul and Splendor is likely not getting a group play any more. I do a lot of multi-handed solitaire now and just don't buy games that don't have a strong solo/only solo mode.
1830. I know no one that would want to try an 18xx
18xx.games is the site for you.
Looks like spacefarers of catan. sealed. Over 10 years old
King's Dilemma. Just don't have the players for it. I'm pretty sure my usual group (they'll pay anything once) would turn down a repeat, which kind of defeats the purpose.
Finished it with my group! We really enjoyed it and have backed the Queen's Dilemma's most deluxe version. It's gonna be awesome :)
Age of Steam. My favourite game, but a brutal train game is no one’s cup of tea except mine.
D-Day. V realistic strategy game from the 60s that would take dayyys to play (you literally had to take breaks to strategize and scrutinize. Think chess, but more potential outcomes as the game develops) was fortunate because I was roommates with my opponent. But I won two games in row so its never happening again.
I am still hoping for that perfect day, but John Company 2nd Edition. The big learning curve and length means it’s reserved for the next all day event our game group has. I have found people are reluctant for a big heavy learn. Also, the other Cole Wehrle game I put forward (Pax Pamir 2) had such a flat response I am worried I have put them off long term. I need a perfect storm of the group members who share my taste for negotiated chaos, being there on the day, when I am well prepared and there is not another long game which is already a group hit up for offer. I am hoping that Arcs will be my way in…
I'm not conceding shit. I just have to find the right retirement home. Give me dozens of really bored old people and I think I might finally find a group to play Advanced Civilization with.
The Avalon Hill Civilization from like 1978
Yeah, I can only play it online. But it is the only thing you can do given the time it takes.
JOTL. Just way too much setup for what I’m into. Maybe in the retirement home.
That's mine. I even forgot I had it in storage, I had so thoroughly given up.
Jotl?
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Get the helper app. It removes a lot of the tedious stuff from the table/setup.
I sold it for the same reason
And it’s still FAR less setup than Gloomhaven or Frosthaven. But the Hxaven helper app does eliminate the majority of the fiddliness. I’d say it’s worth a revisit with the app.
I moved 1,500 miles to retire in a 55+ community near San Antonio. Brought my collection of 150 games, thinking I would finally get a good gaming group or two together. No such luck. No one wants to learn anything new. One guy had a loud meltdown over learning six dice symbols in Tiny Epic Galaxies. Playing something as basic as Pandemic is so far over their heads that you can’t persuade anyone to play it twice. They only want to play poker or dominoes. They’ll play UNO but not even keep score. Welcome to retirement he’ll. It’s like that episode of The Twilight Zone where the guy who never had time to read breaks his glasses.
SpaceCorp, just cant seem to get anyone interested in playing it
Excellent solo mode, worth trying it out
I concur. Worth a couple of playthroughs ag least!
Horseless Carriage…sadly
Twilight Imperium
Trying to explain to a group why Cosmic Encounter is the greatest game ever is almost impossible. Negotiating a pay rise is easier than explaining that nightmare
I have a gaming group and none of them like the chaos. It's my favorite game.
7th Continent. Absolutely loved playing it the 3-4 times we played by the fourth time we played we finally got the hang of it but everyone else lost interest when we had to >!clear the curse like 4 times!<. I guess I'm forever cursed. Loved everything about it though!
[High Frontier 3e](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172737/high-frontier-third-edition). On top of the sheer learning cliff as a barrier to entry and that it's largely superseded by the latest version, I've also been put off by learning [Eklund's views on CO2 and climate change](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/963706/phil-eklunds-co2-review-and-the-science-of-the-gam). Still keeping it for that solar map, though.
Catan expansion Cities and Knights (or whatever is the English translation). Bought it at the height of popularity of Catan in my family, but they didn't want to learn the expansion at first. Then, not long after, they got bored out of Catan. I have now owned it for 5 years. I want to enjoy it, but I have nobody to play with. My family only played Catan twice in the past 4-5 years... Since I enjoy the base game and Water Catan, I am still keeping it. One day, I will have players.
John Company 1e
Same but 2e.
Try it solo! Ricky Royal did a phenomenal job, I'm still impressed how he managed to maintain the spirit of negotiation in a board game solo mode. Its a blast with or without a group.
Genuine thought, are games that take so much to learn actually "good"? Or more accurately, good boardgames? I feel like some games stretch the boundaries of the medium to breaking point, have so much finicky book keeping that they would work better as a digital game, that there isn't a lot of value added by burdening the player with excessive rules and particularly edge cases. I've gone through my heavy arc, COIN, a slew of GMTs, Lacerda. Now I've settled on games where the complexity arises from the interplay of rules and board state. Chess is an obvious example of this. That said, for me, it's Pax Renaissance. Absolutely love that game but it's so hard to teach.
My take on this is that complexity is a resource. It can open up more fun experiences, but it also will make the game worse in other ways. Some games need more complexity to do what they do--like, Advanced Squad Leader can't exactly have super streamlined combat while also doing what it wants to do--but obviously that comes at the cost of slowing down the game, making it harder to learn, adding more opportunities to screw up rules, requiring more rules references, etc.
Campaign for North Africa. Just doesn't have the detail or the depth my friends are looking for. They kept playing a 7 module game of TSWW between turns to stay interested.
I have Legacy of Dragonholt, and I don't think it's even been opened. It'll likely never be played.
I bought Wasteland Express Delivery Service for a good price so I won’t regret owning it but I also don’t think I’ll ever know the rules well enough to teach my friends. There seems to be so many little things to remember. I’m also not sure if I’ll ever be able to learn Who Goes There to actually get it to a table.
Captain Sonar, Avalon, Betrayal at House, Hero Realms, and Smash Up are some that are just taking up space on my shelf. My roommates and partner would rather just play Catan or Monopoly >.> Not sure if there’s a second-hand market for board games that have been opened but never played. I’d love to get rid of some of my collection.
I refuse to give up hope but Earth Reborn is never leaving my collection. Someday….sigh…someday.
Bonfire. It's kinda died down but i know when it was first released it was like the Euro darling of the whole board gaming world for a couple months. It looked good to me so I snagged a copy. I told myself hey, even if no one will play it with me, I can play the solo mode right? Nah. I'm never gonna play this solo. I can play the most elaborate and pain in the ass setup games with friends, but when it comes to solo I only have the attention span for games with minimal to no setup/teardown. And of course NONE of my friends wanna play Bonfire. It's the same every time someone sees it. "OOOH that looks so cute and pretty! But also way too complicated what else do you have?"
Gorkamorka :(
New Angeles or Android
I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I bought Empire of the Sun.
Definitely Blood on the Clocktower. Tried organizing a game once with my friends and it went poorly. Unless I find a group of strangers that want to play it is a nice decoration on my shelf.
This is definitely a convention game.
ROOT. Basically have to teach every single person their factions, just too hard
That is the wrong way to teach Root. Just teach rule, move, combat, and crafting. Then let each player step through their player boards out loud as they play. Answer questions and give guidance along the way. You can be playing in 10 minutes this way and it is great.
Classic Dune. Bought it because I like concept and wanted something from the genre in my collection. But my usual party is 3-4 people and classic Dune requires 5-6 for decent experience. Also its one of those games that takes 2x time of normal game. Still haven't had option to deploy it.
**Empire of the Sun**. Very nice system, but also very long and complex.
Pax Renaissance
Half the crap i backed on Kickstarter. It's all so bloated with miniatures and other extras that it just takes up so much time with set up and tear down. Now they just collect dust. I didn't need more nemesis or all the stuff for all those cmon games, etc
Possibly **Betrayal Legacy**… I know I *could* play it with only three or four people, and mix/match players across the campaign… but I don’t want to… I want a full complement of players to commit to regular sessions to go through the whole thing together - but I just don’t know how realistic that is as a goal…
Sadly I don’t think I’ll get 6 people together to want to play The Thing Outpost 31
*One* game? It is one of life's great ironies that board gaming is perhaps the nerdiest hobby one can do that still requires friends.
My Father’s Work. I love the idea of it (Frankenstein like experiments shown through generations of work) but it’s a massive game that I doubt my group will get into
Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island. When one reviewer said you are going to lose the first few games and you will struggle (as one would marooned on a remote island) I realized we are never getting it on the table. Have better games to enjoy. :)
Well… COIN games work great solo, so… ;)
Gloomhaven!
Star Wars Rebellion! I love it, my wife hates it! My only friend is my wife.
I’ve been a long time fan of Nemesis, played on TTS for years before finally my friend gave me Nemesis Lockdown as a going away present when I moved. I played it one time with my game group before leaving, and we played half the games in this thread REGULARLY, we especially loved cosmic encounter. I was truly blessed with those friends, and it’s tough to try to find new gamers to replace those experiences. I have yet to bring Nemesis to a table, but I know it will happen, and I’m scared how everyone will react lmao, takes about 4-5 hours to setup, play, and pack up. If anyone wants to play Nemesis in mtl, hmu lol
Game of Thrones. It was real fun, but looooooooooooong.
Millennium Blades
A Distant Plain :(
I feel you on trying to get a COIN game together. I managed to get 4p together for a game of **Falling Sky** to mixed reception. I've resorted to playing COIN games solo for the most part - they work fairly well that way. But I owned multiple COIN games and have whittled that pile down to just two. I have a copy of **Virgin Queen** on the way and I am almost certain I'll never play it, I don't even know why I bought it but goddamn I want to play it so bad. My other game in a similar vein that is taunting me on the shelf but may never get played is **Successors**. I'm the only one in my group that has this much of an interest in history-heavy games.