Mine is Ludo: A solid 2 to 4 Player board game.
Fun Fact: It causes a war in Hindu Mythology.
Second is Chess because dev abandoned their game.
Go. It’s nobody knows how many thousands of years old, it’s easy as pie and difficult like crazy. The game can’t end in a draw. It’s easy to balance strong and weak players so they can compete with full effort. The equipment is trivial to make with common, cheap household items. Computers got competitive against humans just a couple of years ago (compare to chess where they beat humans in 1997 and ever since).
My absolute favourite is Spirit Island. A co-op game where you work together defending your island and kicking out explorers and settlers. Expanding your presence and getting new powers along the way. Every game with new combinations.
When we got the game we played this more than once every week for over a year. With each game taking 1-3hours with our playstyle. Sometimes longer with four players (but that’s partly because of not actively playing the game then). We play less now only because of moving with the renovation taking too much time.
I love Spirit Island so much.
though usually unless folks are also as into complicated stuff as I am I end up playing horizons of Spirit Island for a simplified experience
Wingspan is really great plus it has stunning visuals too!
Have you tried Wyrmspan? It’s an improved version with Dragons. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/410201/wyrmspan
What makes you say it’s improved over Wingspan? I own both. I like them both separately but I disagree with saying it’s an improved version. For context, I own all of the expansions to Wingspan, play it at least a few times a week with my wife, and it would be my answer to OPs question hands down.
Wyrmspan doesn’t have any expansions so are you saying it’s better than the base game of Wingspan? I could definitely see that argument since there is more strategic diversity in the base game than base Wingspan. However if you include the expansions I think Wingspan mops the floor with Wyrmspan.
Only briefly seen it exist, defo want to try it in the near future. looks awesome 👍
Ticket to Ride. Building out your rail network is so satisfying.
Ahhh Ticket to Rage. My wife’s family is not allowed to play that anymore.
This is mine too. I don’t really like board games, but Ticket to Ride really clicked with me and I had a blast playing it. Will get it for myself but damn it’s expensive (I guess that’s a problem with board games in general, and I do see the value of the investment).
I wanted to like the game, but one game where the other players adopted the ‘backstabbing’ style ruined it for me.
Single favourite is hard to pick.
Casual: I agree, Ludo is GOAT.
Invested: Catan… Maybe Scrabble
Dumb fun: Mad magazine game
Power Grid
Mancala, if that counts.
so many good options on here already so I’ll add one that’s a little more of a dedicated game:
Arkham lcg.
you create a deck that represents the character you will play in a series of approximately eight games where you cooperatively work through Lovecraftian mysteries loaded with interesting stories lore and twists.
has almost a tabletop RPG feel to it if it was converted to a card game, absolutely love it.
Solo: Mage Knight
2 player: Star Trek Fleet Captains
4 player: Shadows of Brimstone
Stupid-fun dice chucker for 4 or 5: Project Elite
That is easy to answer for me.
Mansion of madness
I have played so many rounds with so many different people. The game is complex enough that each round is different. But easy enough to geht people to start with. Easy to play hard to master.
The digital game master via APP is great. I had so many games in which the last player actions decided the game. After some hours of game time. Your actions feel so impactful.
Heroquest.
After being hyped up by the commercial, I was severely disappointed in the broadsword.
Browed Sowed
My wife and I really like Agricola. It’s a farming-based people-placing game created in Germany for 2-4 players (with the base game), but there is an expansion for 5-6 players. We do play with a decent amount of house rules, though.
Dixit is one of my favorites, and very fun to play with a group of people you know well. Sort of like Pictionary with cards instead of drawing, but you try to only get one person to guess correctly.
Small World was my introduction into alternative board games, and still one of my favorites to help introduce new board games to people who have only played Monopoly.
The ones I usually carry around to introduce people to good boardgames are: Hive Portable it can get as complicated as chess, but is really easy to pick up for kids and adults. Carcassonne chill and you can pick and choose expansions Forbidden Island (and its family) it’s a fun cooperative game that’s easy for kids to pick up.
Labyrinth - if you’ve never played it, all the players are moving around a maze collecting items on cards they draw from a deck. Whoever collects them all first wins. You can move as far as you want each turn, but the catch is you first change the maze (the whole board being made of movable tiles), then move your totem. It encouraged complicated spacial reasoning and leaves room for sabotage of other players. Any number of players can play; you can even solitaire it if you want.
