Ah, I heard the Thames Murders was the most reliable, didn’t realise the problems with the others were that extensive. Thanks for that.
Same for me, especially for people new to the hobby. There are so many factors involved, the last thing I want to do is recommend a game and then have them walk in expecting it to be the pinnacle of boardgames and bouncing right off it. Even if I don’t massively hype a game up, the idea that I would recommend one game out of the hundreds I’ve played automatically carries some weight of expectation. Every game is arbitrarily pushing tokens around if you can’t get into it.
The more game nights I go to, the more I realise games means completely different things to different people. It just happened that my first regular game night suited my tastes to a tee, and now I can’t find any that I don’t find frustratingly incompatible.
That said, I am very much in the collection side of things compared to many here (~80 big box games and ~30 small box games). I can afford to buy games on a whim, and it’s more about the choice in what to play when the opportunity arises rather than maximum play/cost ratio. If I was to pare my collection down to games I enjoy most, I would lose many of the games I play most. It’s a tough balance to make.
For collecting, the big thing that changed it for me was my other hobbies. I play guitar and have a lot of effects pedals worth £200-400. That’s for a little 30x15cm metal box that makes funny sounds! Suddenly, spending £50 on a game feels negligible, and £150 on a Kickstarter sounds almost reasonable. Before I got into buying pedals, I struggled with the mindset of paying more for a boardgame than a videogame would cost. I know they’re completely different, but psychologically they feel like they should be comparable value.
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I find I can do better with a bit of guidance and constraint. Someone says “I loved Star Realms, are there more games like that?” and I ask them what specific things they liked and didn’t, and eventually we may end up on Aeon’s End or Dominion or whatever.
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Yeah, I much prefer to slowly whittle down what someone likes and doesn’t like. If it’s a friend, I’ll just suggest to play some games together (consciously selecting a range for various elements) and note what they enjoy and don’t enjoy as a process of elimination. I can then bring in more games with elements they enjoy and carry on the process*. People who aren’t hardcore gamers often lack the vocabulary to describe what they enjoy in a game, so it’s helpful to see firsthand their experiences. They may say they don’t like worker placement games, but it’s probably something else in the games they’ve played that they don’t enjoy.
I remember playing Concordia and one player really didn’t like it. After a bit of talking it was clear that they didn’t enjoy games that lack a clear objective to winning from the very beginning. I can see now that learning a game AND not really having a clear destination to winning was too much of a workload for a new gamer.
When someone says “I like Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, and Carcassonne, what should I buy next?”, it’s such a blank canvas!
Openness to just trying things initially is really important. I’d always recommend people just go to a game night, game cafe, or play their friends’ games before buying their own. I had maybe 5 games in my first 18 months of gaming purely because if you’re playing with other people a load you don’t need to own many yourself.
(*The downside of this approach is it needs the others to trust me, as selecting games to see what people like can appear to be me being the one who decides what they want to play, and consequently comes across as me forcing my tastes on someone else.)
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I think this is particularly apposite. Tastes develop and change over time. Trying things, building skills and a lexicon are more important than building a collection.
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It’s not all bad news. The red box also contains two of our favourite cases (and possibly our favourite single moment in boardgaming). A lot of the blue box cases are really interesting as well. I would still recommend them, but with tempered expectations (it would be hard to live up to the standard of the brown box).
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So, full disclosure: I work at a game store (to pay for editing costs for the novels I write), so I get asked this kind of question a lot. I have good bosses that don’t pay me enough to lie to customers and specifically have told me that I don’t have to sell stuff, I have to advise people.
Cool. There’s no such thing as a perfect game. But, if I were going to “build” a 5 game collection, the core of that is getting 5 relatively inexpensive games that are radically different. I can’t say about the pricing globally, but my recommendations are going to be based on Canadian pricing. I would usually recommend reading about the recommendations, but at the end of the day a lot of good gaming is based on Rule of Cool: If it sounds cool to you, that’s probably the one to go with, because a “perfect” game that you never play isn’t anywhere near as good as a flawed game you play a lot.
With all that in mind:
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A solid, well balanced Euro designed to test skill. Puerto Rico is the classic recommendation here, although it is (very) racist, it was a great skill-testing kind of game. Problem here is that traditionally the player who sits to the left of the newest player tends to win (the new player will make a mistake, the more experienced player will capitalize on that mistake), so newer designs tend to incorporate more flexibility and opportunity to “catch up” than Puerto Rico, and therefore I recommend newer options.
Recommendations: Nusfjord, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Suburbia, Great Western Trail, Terra Mystica, Pipeline, Brass Birmingham, Caverna/Feast for Odin.
Downside: Almost all these games are 2-3 hours long, and $60-70 dollars (Caverna and Feast for Odin are much more, and harder recommendations, but if you like Uwe’s games, they are really solid). This category is the one that, if you’re going to skip one, skip it and come back when you’re ready for some heavier, brainier games. -
A light, more random, faster play Euro that you can pull out after dinner or to introduce new players to the hobby. Tonnes of options here, but usually the big hurdle is that you want a game that doesn’t look complicated. Quacks of Quedlingburg is a fantastic, lighter game, but the sheer number of bits and pieces can be overwhelming for people to look at. You want something bright, colourful, simple, but still strategic with a healthy dose of luck… something that when you lose you can chalk up to bad luck rather than bad play. Traditionally, of course, this was the spot for Catan, but that’s a 25-year-old game (older, I think?), and we can do better than that.
Recommendations: Splendor, Sagrada, Kingdomino, Machi Koro, Sushi Go, Unearthed, NMBR 9, Carcassonne, Wingspan
Downsides: There is always the concern that these games have “too much” luck, and you will sometimes lose by no fault of your own. Some people hate that. -
A quick co-operative game. Co-op games are among the hardest to recommend because they fall broadly into two camps: Traditional, turn-based co-op games that are simple and methodical, and non-traditional co-ops. The issue with Traditional turn-based co-op games (think Pandemic) is they are very prone to “The Quarterbacking Problem” (You know what you should do on your turn? This. If you don’t do this we’re all going to lose, it will 100% be your fault… I mean, do whatever you want, man, but if you don’t do this we’re going to lose because of you). If you don’t have a member of your group that is a quarterbacking jerk, then you have a broader pool to draw from. If you do have a jerk like me… I mean, a “quarterbacking jerk”… then there are options, but they tend to be more complicated.
Recommendations, Turn-based: Forbidden Island, Pandemic, Burgle Bros, Spirit Island, Flashpoint, The Captain is Dead
Recommendations, Not turn-based: Magic Maze, 5-Minute Dungeon, Escape the Curse of the Temple, A Tale of Pirates, The Mind
Downsides: Co-op games just aren’t for everyone, regardless of whether they’re turn-based or not. Forbidden Island is inexpensive ($24 at my store), and a great way to test the waters to see if they’re for your group or not. -
A great party game you can pull out for families or large gatherings. Codenames, one of the greatest games ever made by man, is the gold standard here and is one of the very few games I think everyone should own. Also, it’s cheap. But, there are plenty of good options, and if you’re the kind of group that likes to drink a lot or “chemically enhance” your evenings there are lighter, sillier games that aren’t brain burners.
Recommendations: Codenames, Wavelength, Anomia, Jungle Speed, Pictomania, Funemployed, Monikers, Decrypto
Downsides: Usually require a larger group to play with, and sometimes people don’t really want to play a game in a group. Also, these can be dead-on-takeoff if you have 1 player that refuses to learn or play, so be careful about your group when you pull 'em out. -
Traitor and bluffing style games. These are often “the” game that people gravitate towards or away from… one of those “if you like it you LOVE it, but not everyone likes it” kind of things. I still think that due to their general inexpensiveness you should have 1, maybe even 2, of them on hand… at the very least you should look up the rules for Skull and make your own copy (although for $14 you get some beautiful artwork and support the game designers, but nothing wrong with trying it out for free first).
Recommendations: Skull, Coup, One Night Werewolf/Vampire, Saboteur, Cockroach Poker Royal, Sheriff of Nottingham, Spyfall, Mafia de Cuba, A Fake Artist Goes to New York
Downsides: Some people can’t lie. Some people don’t like lying. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes those people are also the ones who like these games the most. Almost always worth a shot.
This list doesn’t include Roll and Writes, although they are a growing and strong category of games (Railroad Ink, Welcome To…, Cartographers, Ganz Schon Clever, Encore), and definitely worth a look if you want a good, quick game you can play with large groups with a heavier luck element… or Fighting-style Games (Small World, El Grande, Cosmic Encounter, King of Tokyo, Tsuro) but those tend to be more polarizing. Oh, or dungeon-delvers (Gloomhaven, Journeys in Middle-Earth, Imperial Assault, Blackstone Fortress, Descent Journeys in the Dark, Mansions of Madness), but those are almost always very complicated for a starting player, plus often staggeringly expensive (Imperial Assault, one of my personal favourites, I can’t recommend in good conscience to anyone who doesn’t have buckets of disposable income).
Anyway! I hope that helps, and if you have any questions, I’m happy to try and answer.
Edit: Corrected the name of a game (“Pirate Tale” is actually “A Tale of Pirates”)
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@Marx you can tell you work in a games shop.
One thing I’d add in place of Quacks is Coloretto, still push your luck, but smaller, quicker and cheaper.
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That’s amazing, thank you!
I love Skull (everyone does in my experience) and for some reason absolutely hate Werewolf (although One Night is better). Will definitely pay the money for Skull.
And you’ve just reminded me how easy it is to get non-gamers to play Forbidden Island and instantly enjoy it. I think a significant subset of my final choices are going to be “games I don’t have a burning need for myself, but are high-fun and not too daunting for non-euro-playing friends”.
I think if my friends group was putting a list together, the first two on it would be TI4 and Cosmic Encounter. But I’m not going to rush into buying 6-hour games until I know I’ll have a group for them (the only one I allowed myself recently was Dune, because I’ve wanted it for years).
I really like Dungeon Crawlers and have Journeys in Middle Earth which is growing on me. I know I will love the hell out of Gloomhaven when I can afford it.
>>Recommendations, Not turn-based:
That’s a great list! I’m also looking at Flatline, and (genuinely) Happy Salmon as a party starter 
Definitely want El Grande and Inis for myself, and Sushi Go Party as just a flat-out great example of doing what it does. Beyond that I’m going to take everyone’s advice keep looking for a while. Those lists of 5-6 games of each type are SUPER USEFUL though, thanks!
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One thing to consider is that whilst you may own a board game collection, it typically requires others to make the most of it. If you have a reliable group of repeat players, then you will ultimately play the games that they enjoy as much as those that appeal to you. So your collection will likely have some games that are other people’s favourites. The upshot of this is that the same holds true for you - you can play games in your friends’ collections without requiring ownership.
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Oh, I like the look of that! Going to aim for Diamant as the first push-your-luck, but given how much I like Lost Cities and other “collect while denying” games I think Coloretto would definitely fit.
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You don’t need to buy TI4. You need to befriend someone who already owns it - much cheaper 
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El Grande is great, but damn difficult to find unless you go with getting the German version and adding translations.
As an alternative, you can’t really go wrong with any of Kramer and Kiesling’s “Masks Trilogy”. Mexica is the most streamlined, but Tikal and Cuzco (formerly Java) have their own charms. Torres is also a similar option, but it’s uglier and fiddlier.
Ethnos is also an excellent (and very cheap) area control option, if you don’t mind the generic fantasy theme.
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Yeah, El Grande and Pax Pamir 2nd are very much on the “In my dreams, keep checking ebay” wishlist as opposed to any realistic one.
And Inis is just nowhere to be found in the UK.
I’m so annoyed I missed Pax Pamir 2nd and Obsession on Kickstarter!
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I’d say Inis and PP2e are more likely to come back into stock as they’re recent and have been highly praised. (Another Kickstarter for PP wouldn’t be surprising - or possibly as an add-on for a related KS.)
El Grande is in that weird space where it’s been OOP for a while and you’re waiting for a publisher to get their act together on realising that they could do well if they invested in a new version with new art and/or a new theme.
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PP2e will be an add on for the upcoming John Company 2e KS - potentially might be orderable alone on the KS. With Werhle going indie, it’s difficult to say when PP2e will be out at retail.
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I saw Ethnos above and this reminds me: I would recommend Iwari. Pricier than Ethnos, but I prefer this one.
If you cant find it, try to find Han, which is the predecessor of Iwari.
It became my go-to light area control, while I end up with some qualms with Ethnos and sold it.
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Ah, looks like Iwari is retail very soon after the KS. Thanks!
Forbidden Island is great, I agree. The art really makes it shine. It also draws you into the “adventure of the game”, rather than just looking at it “meta or mechanics fashion” so to speak.
Another one that’s good for this, that I don’t think has been mentioned yet, is Lords of Waterdeep. Yes, it’s worker placement, but it’s done so well it sort of takes you away from that more meta view of the game mechanics and instead sucks you into the idea of hiring adventurers to sort out all these missions to basically make you Top Lord. Great on an ipad too, if you fancy trying the cheaper electronic version before you take the plunge and get the physical version.
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I’m in a minority but I also think Lords of Waterdeep is amongst the most thematic worker placement games. A lord operating in the shadows and sending agents out to recruit adventurers to fulfil quests to subtly improve your position and fulfil Machiavellian schemes makes about the best sense possible for worker placement.
Also I agree about it’s quality. It’s been so cleanly developed and is so focussed on a straight up Worker Placement that it really achieves what it set out too. As a corner stone or intro I think it might be the best. Especially good with those new to hobby games.
Having said that I personally prefer New Bedford. The expansion is an almost must buy. Maybe the base game has 2 games in it before the expansion is nearly mandatory. For me it is the main WP game I keep. Fast snappy game with well applied random elements to keep tension throughout the game. I no longer own LoW because of New Bedford.
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