Always nice when somebody reminds you of an old favorite. I hadn’t thought about that game in 20 years. You’re right. It was awesome.
My <3 is still for AH Advanced Civilization (1991) which has a recent republish/refresh/rename (Western Empires?). It has simple rules and play, like Diplomacy or Risk plus resource/trading mechanics, but is of the archaic “many-players, slow turns, 8+ hour game”-style which nobody has time for besides Twilight Imperium players.
Sorry. Try squishing the names together. :)
Had a lot of fun with this one when I was kid.
Also, another vote for Axis&Allies. The Friday night game for me and my buddies for many years.
I feel an avalanche of crayon railroad game requests coming on…
(I actually quite enjoyed Mayfair’s output. Probably still would if I could find other players.)
Do card games like poker etc. fall into this discussion, or does it have to have an actual board?
How about cribbage? :)
Has a board, and cards, and is an utterly fantastic game.
I loved playing those. It was easy for anybody to pick it up and and as you said, the investment in time for the game is minimal.
Nice try baiting someone to posit MTG.
This is very obscure, but the younger me was a fan of the Canadian Football League (Argoooooooooooos!), and I loved Sports Action Canadian Pro Football. The teams were actual CFL team rosters and the games played very true.
Loved Battlecars when we were young
Nothing better than ramming at top reverse speed because all your armour was gone in front and then getting that lucky dice roll that destroyed your opponent.
How about Ambush!, from John Butterfield in 1983?
I’ve not played it as it is quite difficult to get a hold of, but I see it mentioned all the time as a great solo game. Kind of like a ‘choose your own adventure’ war game.
Need a judges’ ruling whether the Steve Jackson Pocket Box games count: Car Wars, Illuminati, etc.
Squad Leader.
Ogre/GEV.
I’m enjoying peoples’ nostalgia–and would never question anyone’s love for anything–but to reformulate my intended criterion, I would ask: “Would you and a table of typical gamers love playing this game today?”
I played a lot of Car Wars and Illuminati in the early 90s. For me personally, I don’t think these quite rate as truly great games by most standards today. Too clunky, too long. But @triggercut already called them out in his list, so I’m open to hearing how either of you feel they look under today’s lights.
I would “play” the heck out of some Car Wars today, but I am more of the type to spend a week designing 50 vehicles and tinkering with setups, and then only 2 hours playing with buddies. Lucky for me I avoided collectible card deck builders.
Yeah, I tried but probably failed to clarify that Car Wars is great when you hanker for some detail-oriented vehicular combat and are willing to put in the time investment. Circus Maximus is the streamlined “Set it up and go and finish in 45-60 minutes” version.
It is a very good game. Wish I still had my copy!
(Having one of the country’s great early game stores as your playground as a teenager was awesome, btw!)
A lot of people might call Catan the grandfather of modern euro placement games, and that was definitely from the 90s, it just took 15 years to catch on.
Honestly it’s a bit of a joke but I do think games like Scotland Yard have experiences even modern games find hard to replicate.
Arguably Battletech c. 1989-1994 is more a board game than a RPG / dice chucker model selling thing that became the domain of Games Workshop.
A big difference in game design was that other than long-form war games like Risk, board games were generally the design domain of the “family” night games. Some of my fondest childhood gaming memories were playing the old-school version of the game of Life, what with the little pegs in the car and 3D terrain on the game board, and the spinner wheel in the center. But these sorts of games were meant to be completed in an evening and with lots of people playing.
For me it was the Compleat Strategist on 33rd St NYC. It’s still there. :) But I am not. :(