1841

Looks like I’ve got a solid group who want to board-game 1-2 times per month.

So throw out your recommendations for best 5-player boardgame
(card-only games not applicable as one guy hates them)

1842

I still love El Grande for five players, after all these years. Galaxy Trucker (you need the expansion, though). Space Alert.

1843

Maybe he’s never played a good one, and sees them all as trick-taking games? I say this because Race for the Galaxy is card-only, and a really great game. Though it does need at least the first expansion to be playable with 5 players.

5 player, huh? Railways of the World, perhaps (formerly known as “Railroad Tycoon”)?

1844

Lots and lots of games work with five players. That’s not really enough to narrow things down by – probably half the BGG top 100 would fit your criteria.

As for the card thing, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the dude is just irrationally attached to boards. My son views “card games” and “board games” as totally distinct entities, so that Dominion and Magic and poker and Hill 218 are all the same thing while Catan and Memoir 44 and chess are something else altogether.

1845

I thought the components were terrible and was the real reason I sold it off. Warped boards and tiny, cheap cardboard character tokens you couldn’t tell apart really annoyed me and slowed down the game. I know some folks like Tom Vasel pimped them out in various ways to making them easier to distinguish, but I’ve got so many games that I don’t have the time to fool around with one. They’re suppose to fix these problems in the redesign.

1846

Yes, that was one of the selling points with my wife, as she was really impressed with how it captured the flavor of the movie.

No, sufficiently abstract violence doesn’t bother them. I haven’t tried Citadels out on them yet, but I’m pretty sure they’d see it for what it is, a rule preventing another player from taking an action. I have a copy of Citadels, but it hasn’t hit the table because I had other games I was more interested in introducing.

Well, there’s your gateway. First few rounds “Oh, look, she’s lost her turn”, gradually escalating to “OH YOU DISEMBOWELED ME HORRIBLY” once you’ve got them hooked on the game. According to the media, that’s how desensitization works, so you just have to pull back before they shoot up their workplaces.

My favorite 5 person game is Battlestar Galactica, with the sympathizer replaced by a real cylon. Just the right pacing and ambiguity for the bluffing and betrayal to take place. A close second would be Citadels, but it’s definitely missing a board.

1847

I won’t disagree with that. The warped platters are terrible (though unlike some other people, I actually kind of like the computer art work on them). I understand your point about the character tokens, but they do not bother me that much - I can usually figure it out pretty quickly by a quick check of the corner of the character cards (which matches the symbol on the token).

I also know what you mean about making it better. There is some really beautiful stuff out there (basing the tokens on wooden blocks, expanding the mapboard and token sizes, etc.). But those people apparently have a hundred hours or so of free time (plus a $100 or so for the components) to update the game. I don’t really want to do it that badly.

1848

Is trading looked down upon in qt3? Because I’d love to trade away some games that go unplayed.

1849

Is there a way to use the BGG database x qt3 guild@bgg to set this up? I’m not sure that I’m willing to say goodbye even to my storage unit games, but it would help a lot if we could lay things out using the existing collections.

1850

Huh, I didn’t even know there was a qt3 guild!

1851

Shazam! Lutes started it not too long ago. And apparently in “browse collections” trades and everything are displayed. Not a lot there at the moment, but I expect most people just need a reason.

1852

They are college-age Fantasy RPG’ers. The one who hates card games - I asked him about it and he said he got really burned out on Magic the Gathering ad came to despise card games due to this. Personally, I’ve never played CCG’s so I can’t relate.

I have Railroad Tycooon (from Eagle Games), Ticket to Ride, Axis and Allies (my favorite) but they won’t give them a spin. Their only interests are Fantasy, Sci-fi, or Medieval themed games.

Small World has been a big hit!

1853

Don’t forget to buy our microbadge too!

1854

Yes, yes, yes! El Grande is a great five player game and easy to teach as well.

I also highly suggest Steam, Traders of Genoa/Genoa (with the right people since it is a game of pure negotiations), and Imperial

Edit: I didn’t see that you already had Railroad Tycoon; while I do think Steam is a much tighter game then RRT, Steam really isn’t worth buying if you already have RRT. And that your gaming friends do not really like non-themed games.

1855

See I disagree. Steam has a ‘family’ game mode that is great for introducing people to the AoE style of game play. Of course if you are under budget/spouse pressure not to buy too much, then yes, AoE is probably better in the long run. But both games are in my library (I’m budget pressured but that doesn’t stop me from buying games!).

1856

5 Player games that work well with my crowd:

  • Ra: best boardgame ever.
  • Evo: hard to find, out of print?
  • Shogun: the Wallenstein remake with a Japanese theme, balancing evlconomics and warfare is great!
  • Agricola: I haven’t got into this yet, but many love it.
  • Caylus: a Euro gamer’s Euro.
  • Puerto Rico: no list is complete without this classic.

There you go, some ideas to work with.

1857

Some great five player games:

A Brief History of the World
Shogun
Rails of Europe
Cyclades
Fury of Dracula
Imperial
Age of Empires 3
Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga
Mare Nostrum
Arkham Horror
Pitch Car
The World Cup Game (hard to find, but the best large group party game I have ever played)
Small World (specifically with the event card deck for some needed chaos)

All of these work wonderfully with five.

1858

5 person Space Alert is a lot of fun – plus you can definitely get through 2 games in an hour, which is rarity and perfect for a lunch session.

5 person Battlestar Galactica is my favorite # of players for that game, and is my favorite 5 player boardgame overall. But you really need a full afternoon for it – it’s easily a 3+ hour game.

1859

I’ll second Agricola, fantastic 5-player game. Puerto Rico is a great game, but it gets almost too cutthroat with 5 because the number of available buildings doesn’t scale.

5 is perfect for BS:G or Arkham Horror and probably is my favorite number for Citadels as well.

1860

To give you some idea of the units…

http://tleaves.com/images/fog/CCN-player-aid.pdf

This doesn’t really cover the tactical changes to the game, which include infantry being able to form squares when attacked by cavalry, and combined arms attacks with artillery.