Fantasy or sci-fi boardgames with the highest replayability?
Just like the title says. Which game gets your vote? Or if you know of more than one, feel free to list them, and preferably a few details (I'm not familiar with many of them, especially the even slightly recent ones).
I'm going to assume "still available new"; if not, let me know...
Fantasy Heroscape: [wotc] minis based combat on hexes; champions from all times battle it out on different terrain and elevations. Warning! flash heavy! Descent: [Fantasy flight games] Dungeon crawls in 2d/3d.
The best place to get more info on these games are on the manufacturer's websites and boardgamegeek. At fantasy flight games, you can download the instruction manuals.
both doom and descent get my vote because they're like an old game called 'heroquest': you can make your own 'adventures' or 'objectives'.
Mmm... when you say replayability, do you mean your desire to drag them out or the likelihood of playing them? Or do you mean the number of times you can play the game without it getting boring?
Descent definitely gets my vote for replayability, especially combined with the Road to Legend expansion. Fantasy miniatures in a dungeon, with the expansion, you get a full campaign system and overland planning
Twilight Imperium is HUGE fun, but it takes a long time to play (3 - 4 hours minimum and more likely 4-6). Galactic conquest at its best. I hear Supernova is TI Lite - and heard very good things about it but not had a chance to try it yet. Tempted to pick up a copy myself since I have friends who have TI.
Arkham Horror is a Cthulhu (horror) game, so not sure it falls into Fantasy, but huge replayability. Again, lots of time. It's a Fantasy Flight Game.
I've heard lots of good things about Android too - I am tempted to grab that as well. It's a cyberpunk noir detective game - think Bladerunner for theme.
Moving closer to Euro's (so the theme is less apparent, but still sci-fi/fantasy themed).
Race for the Galaxy - card game about galactic conquest. Plays like San Juan but more complicated, huge replayability, but the game is a bit solitare like and while the theme is there, it's not as engrossing as any of the above.
Kingsburg - probably my favourite board fantasy game of last year. It's a politics / development game where players try to influence various characters on a board to help them build their city over 5 years. During winter of each year, you get attacked by a random monster. Again, theme is light, but fun.
Can you tell me more about Arkham Horror? How does it play? Which set do you need to play? Is there a basic set and add-ons or can you play each one alone? Which are the best add-ons/sets?
Some of these do look pretty cool, gotta say. I sort of knew about Descent. Well, a bit. That's still a contender, most definitely. It's good to know there are a goodly number of them as well though. So that even if one of these highly replayable games gets a bit old eventually, or it's been thrashed too much in the short term and needs a break, there are others to trial.
- Warhammer Quest (long OOP though; IMHO by far the best of the "HeroQuest"-style games)
- A Game of Thrones + Expansions (not much fantasy in there, though)
- Roborally (does that count as sci-fi? )
- StarCraft (+ Expansion, I guess, as I do not have the Expansion yet)
- Munchkin ()
Bye
Thanee
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Can you tell me more about Arkham Horror? How does it play? Which set do you need to play? Is there a basic set and add-ons or can you play each one alone? Which are the best add-ons/sets?
Arkham Horror plays quite well. It can play from 1- 8 players, though works best I'd say around 4 to 5. More and it gets too slow (might be my game group though - we have a couple with AP). It's a pure co-operative game where you play on a board of Arkham (the city), moving your investigators across the board to find clues, close gates and fight monsters. It's very Cthulhu like, which means your investigators can go insane and/or die.
You can play the entire game quite well with Arkham Horror the base game without a problem. The expansions do add to it, various debates about which one's you should get. I'd seriously just buy the base game first and then see how much you enjoy it before you expand. I doubt you'd dislike it but...
Of the expansions, I'd say Dunwich Horror (adds a new board) and then King In Yellow and Black Goat are the best.
Some of these do look pretty cool, gotta say. I sort of knew about Descent. Well, a bit. That's still a contender, most definitely. It's good to know there are a goodly number of them as well though. So that even if one of these highly replayable games gets a bit old eventually, or it's been thrashed too much in the short term and needs a break, there are others to trial.
Yup. If you want theme, FFG does Fantasy / Sci-Fiction heavy theme games better than anyone else, hands down. It's their thing. I've yet to play a FFG game that is bad. (WoW is mediocore).
If you want less theme games, there are a ton of other good games but they tend towards Euro's then and/or wargames.
Oooh - i forgot. FRONTIER! Best 2 player sci-fiction miniatureless wargame. My personal favourite of a find, it's basically miniatures without the miniatures - you just use tokens. Really easy to learn and play, the rules are simple and you can get going real fast.
I know 'twas but a typo, however. . . I think it's an awesome word. For those times when a given thing is neither hardcore nor softcore, but still 'core'. Like, middle of the road with a vengeance!
But seriously, thanks for your actual post, and that goes for the other folks too. All very informative. Cheers.
AH's Dune. Nothing else is even close for depth and replayability. Defines 'simple to learn, hard to master'.
I'm enjoying the new(ish) FFG Battlestar Galactica game, but I think the replayability is a little low unless you've consistently got a decent number of players.
If you don't mind eurogames where the theme is kind of an extra just to keep you interested, Dominion has some of the best replayability of any game out there.
AH's Dune. Nothing else is even close for depth and replayability. Defines 'simple to learn, hard to master'.
I read that FFG has the license for the rules but not the setting. They are going to release the same game but Not set on Herbert's planet. I think they are setting it in their own universe for twilight imperium.
By the way FFG is releasing the Conan board game this week. Apparently, it is very similar to their War of the Rings game but this one is for four players instead of two.
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Arkham Horror plays quite well. It can play from 1- 8 players, though works best I'd say around 4 to 5. More and it gets too slow (might be my game group though - we have a couple with AP). It's a pure co-operative game where you play on a board of Arkham (the city), moving your investigators across the board to find clues, close gates and fight monsters. It's very Cthulhu like, which means your investigators can go insane and/or die.
You can play the entire game quite well with Arkham Horror the base game without a problem. The expansions do add to it, various debates about which one's you should get. I'd seriously just buy the base game first and then see how much you enjoy it before you expand. I doubt you'd dislike it but...
Of the expansions, I'd say Dunwich Horror (adds a new board) and then King In Yellow and Black Goat are the best.
Just to chime in with a dissenting opinion, it's worth mentioning that some folks find ARKHAM HORROR to be very, very cumbersome. It falls into that category for me of "Games I really wanted to like but just couldn't." There are tons of decks of different cards, tons of rules, and tons of maintenance and upkeep throughout the game. It's an amazing game, don't get me wrong. But playing it is more like work than fun. I say this as a Cthulhu/Lovecraft fan, a board game fan, and a die-hard horror fan.
Oh, and BTW, for what it's worth, ARKHAM HORROR has little in common with Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in terms of theme. Lovecraft's stories are about ordinary fools who go insane because of the evil they glimpse; ARKHAM HORROR is about a group of investigators who go out killing monsters and taking monster trophies.
Again, I think it's a great game, but you have to really, really want to play it in order for it to be a good experience. If that makes sense.
Oh, and all that is without expansions. Once you start adding expansions, ye gods, it's like playing GURPS with all the Advanced combat rules and detailed terrain miniatures to go with it. But if that's what you're looking for, then God bless ya. But many folks want something less complex in a board game.
This may be helpful to anyone considering ARKHAM HORROR:
As you would expect of anyone who makes a video of themselves reviewing a board game, this guy is painfully geeky. But it's also quite informative, methinks.
Our last gaming weekend (about 40 roleplayers) had a definate winner with board games.
The FFG Battlestar Galactica game was very popular and at times we had two games going at once, works best with 6 players but seemed interesting involving for everyone not just on their turn.
Our last gaming weekend (about 40 roleplayers) had a definate winner with board games.
The FFG Battlestar Galactica game was very popular and at times we had two games going at once, works best with 6 players but seemed interesting involving for everyone not just on their turn.
Second (or is it third) on Roborally! Great game, with numerous expansions. What's not to like about a robot getting shoved into a pit and lasering another robot on the way down? Or making one tiny mistake on setting registers and setting off a chain of calamitous events?
The original Arkham Horror board game is simple and fun. It plays quickly and if you do it cooperatively you can roll back the Doom Track and save Arkham. The second edition is the tres complicated one that is under discussion here. I'm one of those that find the rules rather too cumbersome.
Again, stretching the bounds of "what is fantasy", I would heartily recommend Carcassonne and its numerous expansion sets. Lots and lots and lots of fun.
If by "replayable" you mean the second or seventeeth play-through is as fun as the first, I suppose it meets that definition - but only because the first play-through also sucks nuclear gophers.
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