I have always liked Board Games.
The key to board games is having someone to play them with you, but not just anyone they need to be a; of the same level of interest (many a time I've played games where people are more interested in the tv), b; of the same level of ability (not nice in thrashing someone or being thrashed). Growing up there have been various groups of people whom I have played with.
For various reasons I did not keep any of the games I had growing up, but in later life I started collecting board games, originally focusing on the ones I had played growing up, but then any which looked interesting or which were in one of the themes I was interested in (see below). I picked most of them up from car boot sales originally (and later on from eBay). I have all of games mentioned below.
What makes a good board game? In my opinion, it should not be based too much on luck, it should be as much skill based as possible. A game should not be too long and it should not be too tedious or repetitive. Games should not be too complicated, but they must be interesting. A game must have variety each time it is played otherwise it becomes boring.
Most of the time there was only 2 of us playing, so games had to work well for 2 players.
I have marked my favourite games with an *.
Quite obscurely, one of the first more serious games I remember playing is The Battle of Little Big Horn. A friend who lived a few doors away, Julian Ellis, had this game and I remember us playing it during the summer holidays.
The following are games which I played with various family members, mainly my brother Nigel:
It's A Knock Out - based on the tv show, consisting mainly of a series of activities.
Treasure of the Pharaohs - this is a haunted house clone.
* Carpet Golf - not really a board game as it has no board and is laid out on the floor. It is a very good golf game, can be laid out to form endless layouts (we even used all sorts of other stuff as obstacles). We played this a lot.
The London Game (I have 2 version of this game) - I liked this game, it's quite simple to play, but works well.
The Great Game of Britain - this is similar to The London Game
Up Periscope - this is quite a simple game, variation on battleships. It did suffer from equipment malfunction sometimes. I only have a poor copy of the.
Tank Battle - a nice simple war game for 2 players.
Colditz - a classic game, very good. It does take a bit of time and is not brilliant as a 2 player game, and no one ever wanted to be the Germans.
I played a lot of board games with my good friend Dominic Edwards:
* Risk - is one of my favourites which we played a lot. I was fairly good at it. It is a classic war game, but has a heavy element of luck. I have 4 versions of this game. There are also some themed versions (I have various Lord of the Rings versions and expansions).
* Subbuteo Cricket - is another game we played a lot. It's technically not a board game. It is a good attempt at simulating real cricket.
Kingmaker - is a more involved game. It is the first 'serious' game I played and it was very good, although it did take time to play. It's a conquest game all around the war of the roses.
Hotel - is a variation on the classic Monopoly. I liked it more than Monopoly as it is a bit more fun.
Dealer's Choice - is a very good car dealing game.
Campaign - is another simple war game in the same class as Risk, but it's not as fun, a bit long winded in fact.
Buccaneer - is more of a traditional fun board game about pirates. This was a good game to play.
Railroader - is an older gamer game about rail development in America. This is not one we played much.
Note: We also played the classic Scrabble a lot.
At school there was a board games club at lunchtimes. The games I remember from it are:
Scoop - a great little newspaper game which was fun.
L'attaque - is one of my favourite games, it's 2 player and very strategic. This was the main game at the club and there was a league, I was good at this game and won the league one year, winning games against some 6th form nerds. There are a lot of variations of this game and i have a seperate blog entry on it.
* Dover Patrol - is a naval themed version of L'attaque, which we had at the club and I played it a lot. It is my favourite of all the variations.
From the board games club at school a few of us formed a small group to play games a bit more seriously after school (a teacher, Mr Hughes was part of our group). These are some of the games we played (which I now have copies of):
* Middle Earth War of the Ring - this is my favourite game of all time. It is based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings book (my favourite book) and it started my Tolkien collection (I will go into my Tolkien board game collection in another blog). The game is a hex based game and a great representation of the book. It was better with a few rule adaptations we made.
* Diplomacy - is also a brilliant game. It is pure strategy, there is no luck involved at all. We played it a lot. I was very good at This game.
War At Sea - this is the first serious war game I played. It is very good but quite small in scope.
Note: The group also made its own hex game based on the WWII battle of the Atlantic. It was actually quite good.
I had a very brief foray into the Dungeons and Dragons world when a few people from work had a go at Runequest. I liked playing this game, but it took a lot of time.
My board game collection consists of the above games I played and the following games I have also picked up (mostly from car boot sales).
Fantasy themed games (I love fantasy books and anything fantasy):
The Sorcerer's Cave
Stratego Legends (and expansion Celestial Vengeance) - see above
Swords and Wizardry - see above
Masters of the Universe
Dragon Strike
(The Classic) Dungeon
Dragonlance (and expansion Mage Stones)
Hero Quest (and expansions Kelley's Keep, Return of the Witch Lord)
Advanced Hero Quest
Legend of Zagor
Quest for the Aragon
The Willow Game
Note: I also have a lot of Tolkien, and some Pratchett, board games which will be detailed in a separate blog entry.
Horse Racing themed games (I'm interested in these because I work in the industry):
Escalado
First Past The Post
The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game
Let's Go Racing
And They're Off
Totopoly
jackpot
Retro Computer Games themed games (I love retro computer games, see separate blog entry):
Frogger
Q*bert
Donkey Kong
Pac-Man
Zaxxon
Defender
Golf themed games (I'm not sure why really, probably because I loved Carpet Golf):
Carpet Golf
Match-Play Golf
Gopher Greens
TV Shows themed games (again I'm not sure why, but I picked up a few in this category):
Dad's Army
Kojak
Celebrity Squares
It's A Knock Out
Family Fortunes
Power Rangers
Bionic Crisis (The Six Million Dollar Man)
Masters of the Universe
Others:
Twixt
Game of Dracula
Poleconomy
Ratrace
Solarquest
Scilly Gold
Airways
Taxi
Atmosfear (and 3 expansions)
Masterpiece
Hollywood
Orient Express
Spy Ring
The Battle of Waterloo
Bermuda Triangle
Battle of Britain
The Fastest Gun
