Saturday discussion post: board games (72/365)

[white_hart]

We have been watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, which is very good even if you know as little about chess as I do.

I don't really like any board games (other than possibly Trivial Pursuit). I never find that they manage to hold my interest, and they tend to stifle other conversation. I know lots of people who really enjoy them, though. So tell me, if you like playing board games, what do you enjoy about them? What kinds do you play? Or are you like me and don't like them?

Comments

[jinty]

I am not bothered / not keen on board games and I leave R to play them with the kids. That said there are some other board-game-adjacent things that I enjoy, like Timeline. This is a card game you lay out on a table or biggish space, each player starting off with 4 or 5 cards plus one in the middle to start everyone going. The cards each have events on them, like ‘Pompeii erupts’ or ‘Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone’ and you have to put one of the cards in your hand either earlier or later than other cards on the table (the year / answer is on the back of the card). So it starts off easy, and there are some cards that are always easy (eg dinosaurs are basically earlier than almost anything else in the deck). But then it gets to be a case of remembering or working out, did Jane Austen write Pride & Prejudice before or after the Taj Mahal was built? That sort of thing. You may happen to know the century that the Taj Mahal was built, which makes it easy, but what about if you had the year when the Brighton Pavilion was built, instead?

[white_hart]

That does sound like quite good fun!

[antisoppist]

I want this game. Except that the child who would also adore it is now doing history at university.

It is a great game!

[jinty]

Might be worth getting for times when said kid is visiting, esp if you have any tradition of playing games eg at Christmas? It’s small, doesn’t take up much room so easier to have around than big board games, also it plays quickly. There are lots of different packs which are generally combinable, so it’s flexible too. I bought a pack a couple of years ago, brought it into the office and played it there, about three people immediately went out and bought their own for christmas family entertainment :-)