Get him Settlers of Catan. Such a great game. I think of it like risk and monopoly together. I'm positive he will like it if he likes those kinds of games.

Ah... board games. That was my childhood. Still play them quite a bit.

I did see Lot Monopoly. And I think another one too? Neat stuff.

I would play Settlers of Catan with my mom all the time. It's a great game! I also have the Seaferers expansion pack!

Settlers is a great game. There are better train-themed games than Ticket to Ride, but the best ones, 18xx games, generally take a lot longer to play than most family games. Some others that I would recommend for introductory boardgamers are Dominion (deck building), Carcassonne (tile placement), and Citadels (role selection and building). My user name on BGG is mgringo, by the way. I chose it when I was playing Diplomacy back in 2003-4 and I wanted to annoy my opponents. I didn't realize that I couldn't change it.

Just started playing Ticket To Ride, and I couldn't stop for six hours. More game suggestions?

I've never played ticket to ride, but I do play lots of board games and i don't feel like doing any work right now, so here are my suggestions:

Settlers - abstract economics. definitely fun the first few times but if you're playing consistently with your friends, you soon find it to be extremely frustrating and luck-dependent. basically one guy always gets the short end of the stick and it sucks to be that guy.

Dominion - abstract economics/deck building. takes a while to learn the cards, but much more strategy than settlers. and you can play your friends on the excellent isotropic server online-- an easier way to learn all the cards

Carcasonne - still haven't gotten sick of this game. it's like settlers but much simpler and no economics. you build the board as you go, so the setup is also really easy. favorite game right now.

Puerto Rico - just getting into this one now. it's like a more complex version of settlers, but with no dice, so much of the luck removed.

Race for the galaxy - deck building. pretty complex and takes a while to learn the rules and cards.

Lost cities - awesome 2 player game that is basically advanced gin rummy with a dumb storyline.

Power Grid is great. It's like Monopoly if Monopoly didn't suck and was fun to play.
Catan is great fun as mentioned. We also really like Carcassone. If you like card games then Dominion is definitely the way to go, so much fun.

@dick_tatertot you have played all those and never Ticket to Ride?! for shame... go get it on your way home tonight, you won't be disappointed.

stratego, best game ever invented.

@frump said:

stratego, best game ever invented.

I'm currently in the process of buying a new set because I got a paint chip on the back of one of the flags, so if we were to play, the flag would be noticeable from the opponents side. Of course, I could just play and never tell my opponent

@dick_tatertot said:

I've never played ticket to ride, but I do play lots of board games and i don't feel like doing any work right now, so here are my suggestions:

Settlers - abstract economics. definitely fun the first few times but if you're playing consistently with your friends, you soon find it to be extremely frustrating and luck-dependent. basically one guy always gets the short end of the stick and it sucks to be that guy.

Dominion - abstract economics/deck building. takes a while to learn the cards, but much more strategy than settlers. and you can play your friends on the excellent isotropic server online-- an easier way to learn all the cards

Carcasonne - still haven't gotten sick of this game. it's like settlers but much simpler and no economics. you build the board as you go, so the setup is also really easy. favorite game right now.

Puerto Rico - just getting into this one now. it's like a more complex version of settlers, but with no dice, so much of the luck removed.

Race for the galaxy - deck building. pretty complex and takes a while to learn the rules and cards.

Lost cities - awesome 2 player game that is basically advanced gin rummy with a dumb storyline.

I'm thinking about ordering Lost Cities, Settlers, Dominion and Carcasonne based on your recommendations. I've had my eye on all of them except Lost Cities. If I like them, I'll probably get Puerto Rico.

Who am I kidding, I might as well get it now.

Just discovered Board Game Geek and I've spent hours looking at games.

Well, it looks like board games and a Dead show are in my future tonight!

DOMINION is the shit. if you're gonna grab that, start with the Dominion: Intrigue base set. everything you need to play, but the replay value is much higher and there's the potential for deeper strategy with Intrigue.

If you want something with a little more flavor, there's a similar new all-in-one-box deckbuilding game called Ascension. the artwork is absolutely amazing, and the gameplay is quicker and a little more explosive than Dominion, though the overall concept is the same (spend resources each turn to get cooler resources you shuffle into your deck and get to use on future turns, kill monsters*, screw up your opponents' plans).

*exclusive to Ascension

mojorisin:

my roommate bought all of these based of boardgamegeek recs. lost cities is 2 player and kind of like a super-advanced version of rock paper scissors.

anyone here play dominion on the isotropic server? if you like the card game i'd highly recommend it. it's so much easier to play when you don't have to keep track of how many +actions, +buys you have and don't have to constantly reshuffle.

i'll have to check out ascension and ticket to ride

@dick_tatertot

So, here's my update. I bought Carcassonne, Dominon, Lost Cities. Lost Cities is so much fun! Basic, yet there is always so much happening.Carcassonne is still haven't developed a strateg, but I enjoy it. My girlfriend does not, so it doesn't get much play.Dominon is cool, definitely an easy intro for deck building games. Once I get bored, I'll probably buy an expansion pack.

Now, I'm on the hunt for new games. I'll probably buy Settlers next.

@mojorisin said:

@dick_tatertot

So, here's my update. I bought Carcassonne, Dominon, Lost Cities. Lost Cities is so much fun! Basic, yet there is always so much happening.Carcassonne is still haven't developed a strateg, but I enjoy it. My girlfriend does not, so it doesn't get much play.Dominon is cool, definitely an easy intro for deck building games. Once I get bored, I'll probably buy an expansion pack.

Now, I'm on the hunt for new games. I'll probably buy Settlers next.

Glad you're enjoying them. I've always found Carcasonne to be most accessible to the ladies, since, you know, it's kind of a cute little world you build. It's also a solid 3-4 person game if you have people over. If you get more into dominion, check out dominion.isotropic.org. But, careful it can be extremely addicting.

You might as well get Settlers if you don't have it-- it will definitely entertain you for a while until you realize there's just too much luck involved.