Board Games.

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I have a passion for playing Backgammon and Chess, and Lois & I will often play a board instead of watching the television. Recently Lois & I took up playing Hnefatafl; The Viking Game I bought a set from the Jorvik Viking centre gift shop during our recent visit to York.

We are finding it an enthralling board game, and although we are only beginners our skills are improving. The moves are very simple: every piece on the board has a straight line move the same as a Rook in a game of Chess, and any amount of free squares can be covered in that move. The attackers objective is to block in the King piece to win the game, and the defenders objective is to move the King piece from the centre square to one of the outside corner squares to win the game. Pieces are taken by blocking them on two sides, with the king being blocked so that no other move is possible. It is a simple, and straight forward game, but requires a strategy which we are finding improves along with our experience of the game.

I wiill often use my Chess set to play variant Chess games, such as Knight's Tour and Tourney (the two player version of Knights tour that I developed and have been acknowledge as the inventor of) along with Mahararjia & Sepoys . We also play Othello, Draughts, Ludo, Dominoes, Triominoes, Pass the Pig and several other board games.


I was wondering what are your favourite board games?
 
I love backgammon. I play online a lot, but you can't beat playing on a real board against a proper opponent. I've played in a bar in Greece against some locals and watching them play was an education.
 
DIPLOMACY

Really brill game. Not exactly a family passtime game but brilliant none the less.

The board is Europe in 1900 and each player (7 needed) is a country. The aim is to take over Europe however the twist is that you each start on an equal basis but need a superior force to take over terratory.

You can outwit others by good tactics but mainly you get on by working with other countries- your diplomacy wins you the game. You go off and talk to the other players to make deals and break deals.

NO DICE and you all have written orders of your armies moves revealed at the same time in a move. Rules are there to sort out conflicting moves and counter moves.

A full game can take a good couple of hours to play and there is a thriving on-line game world. An on-line game (a bit like postal chess) can last a few months with a move every few days.

More info here-
http://www.diplom.org/index.py

With no dice it removes the chance element from the game. I usually have a few games on the go at any one time on line.

Think of it perhaps as 7 player chess!
 
Mastermind was fun; it made you think (and guess).

Scotland Yard is clever and enjoyable, especially if you're being 'chased'!

Mousetrap was good, but we just went straight ahead and assembled the mousetrap.

But I enjoyed Cluedo most of all. :wacko:
 

Norm

Guest
There's a lot of good ones above, especially the Viking Board game. I got a set in '92, a date I remember because I was working at the time with the only other person I've found who likes it. I might be a little rusty having not playing in nearly 20 years. :biggrin:

My (12 y.o.) son and I play crib and backgammon quite a lot.

Diplomacy was a great game for university, when there's a bunch of like-minded peeps with too much time on their hands, but I've not been able to get into the online version.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Does draughts count? Blinding sunshine but under an awning of a Greek taverna, glass of retsina at the elbow. I never quite worked out how my eight year old daughter lured me into the trap, but when it came, it really was a blood-bath. Fun stuff.
 
OP
OP
Gareth

Gareth

Guru
About halfway down the page in this link is a delightful and simple downloadable Applet version of the Knights Tour game.

Just save it to your games folder, and then you can play knights tour anytime that you like without having to go on-line :laugh:

Knights Tour Game
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I used to like backgammon and chess but usually played the former because chess was too much like hard work after a night out at the pub with my mates!

You've just reminded me that I bought a Viking game set myself when I visited York about 18 years ago. I haven't seen it for ages - I musts try and work out what I did with it.
 

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
Risk is my favourite. Years gone by we used to play games that lasted weeks
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
4F said:
Risk is my favourite. Years gone by we used to play games that lasted weeks
Oh yes, Risk!

I used to try and dominate Australia and/or South America and spread out from a secure base. It was always a laugh watching my mates trying (and usually failing) to take and defend Russia/Asia!
 
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