board game recommendations sought for GenCon demoing!

[Ourph]

Zombies! is really fun and with two people is pretty quick. With more people (we usually play with 4-5) the games last about 1.5-2 hours.

 

[Avatar_V]

I highly recommend 'Ticket to Ride' and 'Roborally'. Neither is particularly new, but they're both a lot of fun and I didn't see them on your list.

Also, for a really quick game, I recommend 'Poison'.

 

[Voadam]

A friend of mine works for TableStar games. I don't do board games but the art he's shown me from the orc wars game is awesome.

http://www.tablestargames.com/

 

[Agamon]

Newer games that are good for demoing:

Yspahan - resource management game
Zoolaretto - zoo sim, a game both adults and kids will ike
Shogun - wargame set in Sengoku Japan
Railroad Tycoon - economics train game (takes up a lot of room)
Imperial - Commodity speculation in imperial Europe. Funner than it sounds

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Zombies! is really fun and with two people is pretty quick. With more people (we usually play with 4-5) the games last about 1.5-2 hours.

How do you manage to get it that short. I find that with 4-5 people zobies can take 4-6 hours and last until some calls "No Mas." When we run it at Gen Con 3-4 is typical and sometimes they go more. The game has no good mechinism to end and in the end stages it is a screw each other nightmare that lasts until someone gives up and lets someone else win.

 

[kenmarable]

Why, Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game, of course! ;-)

I'll second this. Of course, I'm biased since I'll be demoing it each morning at Gen Con. So feel free to stop by and say hi.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

If you want a really quick game for lunchtimes, I love Quixo and Quarto (Quarto is better IMO).

[snip] Carcassone (mostly Hunters & Gatherers these days, which my wife and I play at lunch in about 30 minutes, generally)

OK, I need to ask. My wife got me this for Christmas and I finally had a chance to play it. You can really play a game in 30 minutes? Admitedly we were still learning the rules so it slowed us down some, but we had four players and it took 2 1/2 hours to play. We were surprised since the box stated 30-45 minutes for a game.

Maybe we're doing something wrong, besides thinking too much?

 

[Ourph]

How do you manage to get it that short. I find that with 4-5 people zobies can take 4-6 hours and last until some calls "No Mas." When we run it at Gen Con 3-4 is typical and sometimes they go more. The game has no good mechinism to end and in the end stages it is a screw each other nightmare that lasts until someone gives up and lets someone else win.

We've had a few marathon games where it seemed like it would never end, but most do stay under 2 hours. I think the trick is in laying the tiles. There are certain configurations that make it almost impossible to win by reaching the helipad. Fortunately, we play on a fairly small, round table and the "long game" configurations require a "lopsided" board. Our environment constrains the way we can lay the board pieces, so we tend to make "short game" configurations while playing.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

If you can find my friend and co-worker Adam West . . .

Adam West is your co-worker? Are you on Family Guy? Are you Burt Ward?

As far as board games, Arkham Horror is a lot of run.

 

[Chaldfont]

Adam West is your co-worker? Are you on Family Guy? Are you Burt Ward?

He gets that a lot. We love sending him Family Guy clips from youtube. He actually has a signed photo of Burt Ward as Robin. When the guy asked him who to make it out to and Adam told him, Robin got pissed thinking he was making fun of him.