There are a couple of good looking board/miniature cross over games which have been released lately:

Super Dungeon Explore whick looks pretty hilarious & appears to be retailing for around £60.

Puppet wars which again, looks pretty fun & quick and looks to cost a similar amount.

I'll be holding off until they've been out for a little longer to see how they've gone down.

Mustn't forget my favorite little game at the moment (actually my favorite game at the moment) Dominion - it's bloody marvelous!


Anyone got any recomendations for funky games which last about an hour for 2-4 players?

Dwarf King's Hold
Bugman's
Condottiere
Carcassonne
Formula de
Chaos in the Old World

Wednesday folks swear by
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3931/mare-nostrum
, 4 people kind of *risk* like game, *but* resources are allocated by a card trading/blackmailing middle phase 9based on what resources conquered territory produces) that makes the game a bit more engaging. you can gain god favours.. and ships and monuments that provide boosts in a heroes of might and magic way, collecting 4 wins the game, or 1 hand owning the big structure (taking a fluke hand mid game) wins it outright)
(I merge this with another which is like matt's Condottiere in my mind though..far too many map of y olde world games floating around in my head)

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world
A tiny game where the fun is 2 fold, you generate the armies by mix and matching words to armies..
So X the Ys, Furious(X) Elves(Y) drunken (x) Vampires(Y)
Each race has its own effects along with words..so 2 rules unique per player.. you then conquer a board.. as you go along your army must over reach itself.. at which point it becomes a dying race (much easier to conquer) and you respawn as a second race ..territory claimed by both races whole lifespan= victory points..The key tactic being when your rich enough to declare your first army on decline and start the second its the baton pass thats vital to competing the rest is just fun.
That was quite fun..

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3791 ... ng-empires
you have a table with 20 planets on, and your aim is to power level your fleet..and conquer the universe.. this can be done several ways... but primarily planet to planet movement is based on whether your good at flicking a draughts peice across a tabel to stop in another planets orbit to put a flag down or not. You power level by planeting a flag..reverseing the planet token and secretly memorising what it makes.. you then combine this with other planets to upgrade your ships (draughts and army men)


http://boardgamegeek.com/image/162506/colossal-arena
A card game reliant on placing bets throughout multiple small card offs. (Not great but ok)

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21654/iliad
A game I surprised them by instantly being able to play well, its basically a poker bluff game but with some elephants and siege catapults thrown in for rules bending and fluff.. I was told its not avilaible anywhere but it appears to be in lots of indies still for around 16£.

Anything to do with Command and Colours makes me wet, although I prefer
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6222 ... apoleonics
to ancients, memoir 44 or battlelore.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4872 ... -frontiers
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-of-tokyo
Are two games I'm not a massive fan of but are acceptable.. they are like tactical warfare yahtzee.
(If I can remember any others from the passed fews months shall edit after this)

I think the world would be saved if everyone just played more space crusade and space hulk..less options pre game less opportunity for parents/overthinking to do the game for you.

EDIT1
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58281/summoner-wars
Chess with cards, races have special powers, elves can do weird stuff, dwarves can build walls (fake warriors).. undead can multiply but only from the discard (/dead) pile not from the draw pile..
You can buy 2 sets and play 4 player battle chess (downside..after buying first game you have to splash out and buy the other decks (undead etc) to make a decent game of it).

Woah, Chaos in the old world looks pretty sexy!
Carcassonne looks good, but I don't like the number of add ons!
Mare nostrum looks pretty good, is it really that different from risk?
Youi keep going on about Command & Colours Napoleonics - can you borrow it for a week or two?
Oh, and formula DE - WTF?

Formula 1 but with little plastic cars, dice and a track - Formula De....SIMPLES!

Great fun

Not that I'm self centred or anything( ) but I thought formula DE was about me
Furious(X) Elves(Y) drunken (x) Vampires(Y)
XYXY= Dark eldar.
I had been meaning to type stuff like tiny(x) giants(Y) but it just popped out.

Things ready to run at mine with a chunk of reading
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2285/dark-future
with a few more tiles (cough) space hulk.

You don't need the add-ons for Carcassonne. You certainly don't need them all. We've got a couple but have only ever tried the one.

Chaos in the Old World is brilliant. At first the Khorne player will win but as the other players figure out how there power plays things get really interesting. We've never had a player win with an outright easy victory - all games have been relly close and down to the last turn.

I picked up the Skaven expansion pack while at Maelstrom on the weekend so we can now have 5 players

Card games from back in the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shithead_%28card_game%29
You might remember it from secondary school,
3 face down random cards, 3 on top.. a hand a draw pile a discard pile and a dead pile.. 10s clear 2s are wild etc etc.
2-5 players..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spit_%28card_game%29
2 player aggressive patience with a slam down at the end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummy
3s and 4s sets and runs, although recently I started playing the US version with 'deadwood' where you have 10 cards (the remaining 3 equal your score at the end of each round so you can't just treat them as easy spares)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_%28card_game%29
How many variations??? Requires 3-5 people due to rotation of player being the point of the action cards. Played it last night for a chuckle, realised I'd always confused it with rummikub in my memories)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon
I seem to have found a secret stash of people who are devoted fans of backgammon, (mostly people who dislike the pure math power of frog and broodqueens ability at chess and othello) Its been an age since I played but recently its come up in 6 different conversations.. (I've never used the stakes dice)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_maid_%28card_game%29
Standard deck chuck a queen, then bluff out the pairs.. (Haven't played in ages but since its mostly used as a way to work out whose buying beer I figure I ought to relearn it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_fish
(cluedo evil intuitive memory game requiring 3+ players to work IMO)


Bunch more odd ones here
http://www.pagat.com/class/index.html

killmaimburn wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon
I seem to have found a secret stash of people who are devoted fans of backgammon, (mostly people who dislike the pure math power of frog and broodqueens ability at chess and othello) Its been an age since I played but recently its come up in 6 different conversations.. (I've never used the stakes dice)

Add +1

I was so happy last time I came back from the fatherland that I had a 100% record (in first-to-5 matches)