Board Games You May Enjoy

You asked us what board games we like, so here are some recommendations! Links below.
MATT / unnamedculprit | TOM / tomscottgo
Amazon UK affiliate links to the games:
Sushi Go: amzn.to/2p8S2FH
Sushi Go Party: amzn.to/2ogqelz
Exploding Kittens: amzn.to/2nR1gdA
Captain Sonar: amzn.to/2nkNpvZ
Catan: amzn.to/2oQrOsk
Niagara: amzn.to/2o4W1nw
Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes: keeptalkinggame.com
Spaceteam: spaceteam.ca/
Draughts board game cafe, London: www.draughtslondon.com/

[@hummingmostbird]

"Catan... won't result in entirely seething family resentment" You are clearly playing wrong

[@koohikoo]

not as bad as monopoly

[@jonahnichols2158]

Worse

[@TT-fy6hk]

I still wont play it with my bf after almost 10 years.. it was situation where he took down my piece, and didn't help him win but someone else did..

[@yf-n7710]

​@@koohikoo At least there's a reasonable way you can quit in Monopoly.

[@EightThreeEight]

@@yf-n7710 At least Catan doesn't last for several hours, combined with mandatory player elimination.

[@bachaddict]

The correct quote is "I've got wood for sheep!"

[@daniwalmsley611]

Has anybody got wood for my sheep

[@huantian]

"Nobody want's your stupid sheep!"

[@lucarr1041]

@@huantian It's even better in German, when the word for "would you like" sounds exactly like the word for "wool". and it's always wool (or occasionally wheat or stone)

[@Jamie_kemp]

@@lucarr1041 What word is that? Relatively bad German speaker here, I would usually say 'Möchtest du...'

[@lucarr1041]

@@Jamie_kemp "wollen", which I think more correctly translates as "do you want", I'm just used to using the polite form in English

[@ericvilas]

5:45 "it's technically meant to be wool but everyone says sheep" It is also supposed to be "lumber", "ore", and "grain" but everyone says "wood", "rocks", and "wheat", respectively. ...except for when I played it with my family - we said "logs" and, I shit you not, "mountain". The exchanges were hilarious.

[@djsalad5752]

I call it “gluten”

[@jurbos2271]

My mom once offered to trade sheep for wool...

[@mattandtom]

Thanks for all the suggestions about the squiggly line game, looks like it was a home made version of Tsuro we used to play round a friend's! --Matt

[@qwertyman1511]

pin this message?

[@Brumock]

What no Dnd?

[@Fishysua]

The "Squiggly line game" is Tsuro

[@Zomgltd]

I was going to say it could be Tsuro or it's variant, "Tsuro of the seas"

[@Babarudra]

are you two talking to each other again?

[@IH8YH]

Squiggly Line game could be TSURO or TSURO OF THE SEAS

[@FoxDren]

he said celtic so more likely tara

[@rosiefay7283]

Trax? Tantrix?

[@dseray9494]

Possibly something similar to carcassonne

[@freescape08]

There's a single player game with the same mechanic called tantrix.

[@sabinrawr]

Tsuro is the one I found. I watched Wil Wheaton and friends play it on Geek & Sundry's TableTop.

[@shadowfan982]

Carcasonne is one I would recommend as a gateway game

[@adamj1367]

Absolutely. I like Hunters and Gatherers.

[@Heidar95]

Hey Matt and Tom, is there any way to convince you that 1-2 sessions of the Citation Needed team playing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a good idea? I know it isn't exactly in the spirit of any of your channels to be playing games and recording it but I feel like the game is enough of a clusterfuck for the four of you to possibly get together in a skype-style call and have a good time.

[@Jigkuro]

This would be both a terrific video I very much want to see (and others too, probably), and comparably much easier to create than CN. At the easiest a fire-and-forget layout of the bomb view main screen and a little pic-in-pic of the advisers, needing barely any editing.

[@TheLegoPerson]

As much as I would like to see that, I can't see Tom doing a gaming-style video unless he comes up with a very unique twist on the genre, just because he tends to avoid having his personality or the talents' personalities being the main draw of the video. With Citation Needed, people can enjoy it for the game or for the cast. Just my two cents, though, who knows!

[@stumbling]

TheLegoPerson, yes I was just thinking, "How would Tom make that unique, though?"

[@mattandtom]

Happy Easter everyone! It's far too late to get any of these to help stave off the seething family resentment of Monopoly. -- Tom

[@SamSpendla]

Is the game you're talking about at 6:15 called Tsuro?

[@GABRIELFILMSTUDIOS]

Thanks and to you too! (But I actually do _like_ Monopoly)

[@faeoori]

Matt and Tom the one that you couldn't find reminds me of the dragons of the wind game

[@viridiscoyote7038]

Matt and Tom Try out 'Khet' if you get the chance. It's chess with lasers.

[@Mike_Hogsheart]

I brought "Alhambra" with me for the Easter weekend this time and our family had a blast with it. Another great game, that is perhaps not suited for family gatherings, would be "Battlestar Galactica". As someone who didn't watch the show, it is still my favorite board game of all time. The best game mechanics I have ever seen in a board game and the theme is very fitting as well.

[@samm4510]

Someone needs to make that Captain Sonar into a computer game. It would be so good because then only the radio operators could hear the other team.

[@numberbird23]

Royal Game of Ur!

[@sjwimmel]

Another recommendation: Love Letter. It's a really simple idea, you have one card, when it's your turn you pick one card and then choose which of the two to play. But because there are 8 different cards, each with a different effect, most turns have interesting choices.

[@twixerclawford]

Keep talking and nobody explodes is the best party game of all time

[@kiefac]

Sythe Twixer It's better for people who don't know what's happening. I read the manual before I even got the game and remembered a good portion of it, and would specifically say things like "U-H-H-H" when I was the defuser. Not much replayability unless you get a lot of workshop addons

[@Nixitur]

+kiefac - I highly disagree with that assessment. When I played it with a friend over VoIP, we always switched sides, so we both got a good grasp of the manual fairly quickly. I don't feel like that made the game in any way worse, though. Rather, it turned it into a different game. Bumbling about where neither side knows what the other is seeing seems to be the main way people play it, but I personally never found it that fun. It was mostly frustrating. But when both sides know what's going on, the game still manages to be extremely tough. It basically becomes a game of creating a code language to communicate as efficiently as possible and of time management. Mixing these two styles is probably a bad idea, though. A team of experts where only one person has played the game before would quickly be extremely boring for the rest.

[@clawhammr666]

Jackbox games are also good

[@peterroder4781]

I think the "squiggly line game" was Tsuro.

[@FoxDren]

he said celtic, so thinking more tara

[@bolton368]

Maths Gear: How to play Tantrix

[@RainaRamsay]

I'm pretty sure it is

[@BIargityBlarg]

Is the Celtic Knot-ty board game Tsuro?

[@Chayat0freak]

Yes, that sounds like what he's describing. It's Japanese rather than Celtic, that might have been what stumped Tom's Google fu

[@Evanna11LilyLuna]

yeah was thinking that as well

[@Bigfoot42]

Most likely. Tsuro & Tsuro of the Seas are the biggest games with that mechanic. I played a smaller release called Knots that used it in the late 90s, and I'm sure there other games.

[@Reuben.Hesser]

could it be labyrinth? it sounds fairly similar to what matt was saying

[@The97gtrs]

Pretty sure its Tsuro or Tsuro of the Seas. There's another game with actual celtic knots though, that I can't remember the name of (but I remember it being a real boring title).

[@Nixitur]

Hang on, Dominion of all games has complicated rules? I don't think I've ever heard that before. You draw five cards, you play one card, you get to buy one more card with the money on hand, discard all your cards and play goes to the next player. That's basically it. Everything else is printed on the cards and easily understood. Like, +1 Card means you get to draw a card. +1 Action means you get another action and so on. That's already the bulk of all Dominion cards and the rest is also extremely clear. And your goal is to get points from buying point cards. That's basically Dominion's rules in a nutshell. By comparison, Captain Sonar is incredibly complex because you have not one ruleset, but one for every role on each team.

[@Dysan72]

His point wasn't that the rules themselves were complicated. It's the interaction of the cards that can be complicated and having played before and knowing how the cards interact is a HUGE advantage.

[@Krossfyre]

@@Dysan72 Yeah, Dominion's my favourite game but it's hard to deny that it's not super beginner friendly due to the depth of strategy. Deck building games all tend to be that way. Although, once you've played one it tends to help in playing others, though it still takes many games of any deckbuilder to start to grasp the unique strategy of each one.

[@callumdisney]

It's great how this channel can literally be anything from elaborate explainations of how you made a video, to a massive prank you once pulled, to "these are some cool board games". It's beautiful

[@TheEndZ0ne]

Settlers of Catan In my house always devolves into sheep puns.

[@ThePhoenixpaw]

So, no jokes about getting wood for some seed?

[@cabe_bedlam]

Captain Sonar FTW. The computer version of this is Artemis Bridge Sim.

[@GeniusLad32]

Ticket To Ride is excellent as well as Europe and UK expansions. The mobile versions are also excellent and cheap. Edinburgh has a brilliant board game café called Noughts and Coffees. They have loads of games.

[@IAmTheBeckett]

GeniusLad32 Birmingham has a great one called Cakes and Ladders. And can vouch on behalf of the Ticket to Ride app too. It does drain the battery on your phone though.

[@lulusinner]

Southampton has a non profit board games cafe called board in the city. and there is a recently opened one in Watford, Hertfordshire called d20

[@darineyt]

There's a café in Exeter too, which got going via Kickstarter, called Board.

[@whuzzzup]

I assume, I'd need friends for board games, yes? :/

[@OrigamiMarie]

That's a nice thing about board-gaming cafes and game shops that have gaming nights: you can often show up and play with other random people.

[@dappercuttlefish9557]

whuzzzup Get Tabletop Simulator and play with random strangers! Also, bonus, after you buy it you can play all kinds of games without dropping more money.

[@jarethking1]

Some tabletop games have single player variants which can work nicely when other players aren't available. Plus there are one or two that are designed as solo only, like "Friday".

[@ScofieTwo]

just buy the friends expansion pack

[@morrigansbestcrow]

OrigamiMarie generally yes but there are some fantastic games which can be played solo!! Can i recommend Arkham horror the card game?

[@Littlejoys24]

Dixit is definitely my favourite board game. I'm a fan of one night, quoridor and bananagrams too

[@jarethking1]

Olivia Unwin Bananagrams is a superb game!

[@benbradley_123]

OMG I love One Night Ultimate Werewolf! (I assume that is what you mean by One Night?)

[@ShadowDrakken]

Flux is extremely strategic if you play with the right folk. I've never heard of a game going to the point of attrition, and the group I play with plays deep strategy. I typically hold on to between 2 and 3 winning flops in my hand and can quickly reorganize if one of my flops gets stolen. But then, I tend to play all board/card games fairly aggressively too, not intentionally, it's just how my mind puts pieces together.

[@fejfo6559]

Tom's face at 0:30 is just perfect.

[@MissingPixieSticks]

Bananagrams is a favourite in our family as a simple but pretty effective game for a lot of people

[@Marianopiano]

Omg I miss bananagrams so much! It's such a great game, and you can play it with anybody (because most people I know don't want to bother with the rules of scrabble sadly)

[@darklightuk2]

Catan - always has the gag ' I have wood for sheep' (atleast in the numerous gaming groups/clubs I've attended)

[@spengu64]

Small world is a great game, played few times this year, setup time takes almost as long as the game so that's a minus. Also saboteur is a fun "bluffing" game.

[@hattiesimpson8166]

I also strongly recommend Codenames, it is amazing and when my extended family meets up we have full on tournaments

[@Marianopiano]

Codenames is my personal favourite and it gets hilarious really fast when you're playing with the right people:D

[@TheCheck999]

captain sonar is great . I played with a board game mad friend who bought us captain and sailor hats.

[@LadyLiveLol]

While we were playing Settlers, I traded my boyfriend some bricks for a cup of tea with milk. He brought me a cup of coffe, with a teabag. No milk. Didn't get the bricks.

[@sarahpennington6350]

Thanks for mentioning board game cafes! Never heard of them but just found out there's one about half an hour away from me. Excited to go.

[@Joshlama]

we did keep talking as a team building at work. it was very fun and it got people thinking more about communication

[@Aaron-uf8lv]

there's also a simpler version of captain sonar which is just called sonar, you can play it with 4 people

[@etourdie]

6:12 I also don't know what it's called, but I know it was played on that one online show where Will Wheaton plays board games with his friends. I know it was in one of their party game videos, and I think it was in the video where they also played that one zombie dice game

[@PSpurgeonCubFan]

Exploding Kittens: Your New Years story was the best endorsement. Exactly what I needed to hear, and precisely why I'm ordering it online right now

[@torgranael]

Great thing about playing Catan in Australia. Lot's of New Zealand jokes about getting wood for your sheep.

[@nickgrumski873]

I would love to see you guys play board games as a show or park bench

[@JadeNeoma]

Coup, coup is my absolute fav game. The base rules can be explained in about 5 minutes. But you also get a cheat sheet of what all the cards do. Its basically a more complex version of uno. You can also play it without buying it just using a standard deck of cards.

[@MichaelMoore99]

I've played a few hexagonal versions of that "squiggly tile game" and they're pretty fun.

[@5amisntlate]

i really enjoy globblers and goblets, or as i call it, carrots and blue carrots - it's naughts and crosses but slightly more interesting, and with no way to draw. So you have naughts and crosses, but both of you have 6 pieces - 2 small, 2 medium, and 2 large, and a piece that's bigger than another can be placed on top, and you can move pieces already on the board. What makes it difficult is, say, you have orange, orange, blue, but underneath the blue is an orange. If the blue player decides to move their piece, they reveal the orange and orange wins, so you have to remember what's underneath every single piece.

[@laurenjones8803]

I just played Captain Sonar a few weeks ago and it was a blast! Also really enjoy sushi go, cant wait to check out the bomb one!

[@Archonicenergy]

Can you do a video of Matt & Tom (or even the whole citation needed crew) playing Keep talking and no-one explodes? Please.

[@nameredacted725]

I actually really like Dominion, but I appreciated your recommendations. Captain Sonar sounds good fun; I'd not heard of that before.

[@abracadabra8501]

Exploding Kittens is a great game, glad it turned up on here!

[@ankdoeslego9731]

Two of my favourite board games!

[@darkwitch777]

One board game I like is Tokaido. I find its such a calm game, where you're encouraged to take your time and simply enjoy the elements of the game. You can be competitive with it, of course. But compared to other games it's relaxing to play and quite refreshing.

[@shroob8389]

Coup is the best hidden role game I’ve ever played and you will love it.

[@isabellamorris7902]

My favourite games are Sheriff of Nottingham and Linkee - both excellent party games, rules are easy to explain (so they're both very open to any and all players). Captain Sonar sounds like a cross between Battleship, FTL and that caravan you did that one time.

[@simonramsbottom1956]

If you like Tsuro, I would recommend Metro. Basically same premise except you get multiple pieces. Feels less mean when you take someone off the board as they have pieces left to play.

[@bioLarzen]

I've had the same experience with Exploding Kitten. Everyone around me loves it - and I just cannot get to like it. And you just explained why: I feel like I play the game throiugh, and then someething happens... and it does not really matter how or what I play, my chances are basically the same. It just gets boring real soon.

[@jonasplays4303]

Resistance is a game that will always cause arguments, it involves lying, bluffing, concealing and manipulating information. It's basically a game where a team of spies (Known to each other, anonymous to the others) try to cause missions to fail. The rules are really simple and it's really difficult to master.

[@Woodie-xq1ew]

a good game is carcassone which is about building towns and roads and you get different ammounts of points for the size of your road/town/ect. it starts quite simple then can get very complicated and tactical with more experienced players and expansion packs

[@fishduck123]

Carcasonne is a great game - a bit like the squiggly line one with tiles except you have to bulid/claim castles for points

[@blackoak4978]

A buddy of mine just recently recommend that Sonar game, though I think they only played with 4 ppl

[@xsuperduperspoonx]

Guys, your videos are very entertaining. Grateful for your content.

[@skyclaw]

I play Catan with a group several of whom started playing before the English edition was released; consequently, we use the German words for some stuff, including Dörfer (villages), Städte (cities), Entwicklungen (development cards) and so on.

[@Onetrueginge]

A minor note to add, Sushi Go Party isn't really an expansion, it's sort of "expandalone" or sequal. In that I mean that (almost) everything in Sushi Go is in Party, , so if you both then the base game is redundant.

[@noizeuk]

That ending wipe was smooth AF Matt

[@Reece983]

Tom, Matt and coffee in the morning is a good pretty morning

[@aquasmashau]

Ticket to Ride (Europe) anyone?

[@mellonmarshall]

yes please

[@THB192]

aquasmashau I played the US version, and I REALLY want europe.

[@Jigkuro]

Crayon Rails!

[@1998tkhri]

Same as Josh Barrett!

[@patrickgaudart203]

aquasmashau rails and sails is the best

[@Socken1255]

Also a fan of Captain Sonar, although I had no idea it was called that, I only knew it as "the submarine game"

[@gxrlboi]

I saw you at Léon in Victoria Station the other day, Tom! Didn't come say hi as you were deep in conversation with someone (may have been Matt but I couldn't tell), but it was awesome to spot you in the wild! You're taller than I imagined. Love your videos :D

[@TheRealBobHickman]

I heartily recommend Love Letter. Really simple, but great game for 2-4 players. (Works best with 4). There are some variant themed versions with rule tweaks too, but the standard version is great.

[@SoulSukkur]

I've been going to dnd sessions recently. that's pretty fun.

[@fuzzy4461]

I absolutely love captain sonar, would recommend

[@rizzmonster2695]

I would love to see you play captain sonar with all your best mates. bet that would be quite the video

[@mrchom]

If you like simple, Tom, then I heartily recommend a copy of For Sale. Bid on 28-30 properties over a 5-ish rounds of auctions, then use the properties to claim cheques in the second half. Basically turbo monopoly in 20 minutes with 60 cards and some cardboard coins.

[@BoterBug]

Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game has a similar conveyer belt board mechanic that sounds like what you were saying Niagara has. Good stuff. Thanks for the recommendations!

[@bob_._.]

The version of the squiggly-line game I had (in the States) was called Psyche-paths.

[@chelsey8737]

Captain sonar sounds really neat. I like that one

[@tobitoes1052]

Catan is great. A right bastard to get a hold of these days but it's really good if you can find one

[@wefyb2]

Also Cosmic Encounter, I would highly recommend!

[@BirdSpyAustralia]

Dominion is a great game that I've only just recently started playing, yes it takes time to workout the cards and what they do but I can now win against a mate that has been playing it for years.

[@danielthebingham]

One good place for board games is Thirsty Meeples in Oxford (UK). You just give them an idea of what sort of game you'd like and they bring out 2 or 3 games (or at least they did when I went 2 1/2 years ago) that you can play while you enjoy a drink. You can also buy any game you come across. Directions to get there: what3words - daily.tower.thanks actual directions - go to gloucester green market (near to Worcester college) and just look at the name of the shops around the market square

[@sabaducia]

Captain Sonar sounds frantic but cool. Also more recommendations: Pandemic, Splendor, 7 Wonders, Love Letter, and my personal party favourite The Resistance.

[@elisam.r.9960]

In spite of the timing, I second Pandemic. 🙂

[@mirensummers7633]

A good game, similar to the one Matt was talking about but couldn't remember the name of, is Labyrinth. The rules are simple so you can explain it easily, and like Niagara, if you're playing with adults, you can start to get more tactical with your moves

[@DavidB773]

There's a board game Cafe in Copenhagen called Bastard Cafe, that I have been meaning to go to.

[@akumasan42]

I highly recommend Cosmic Encounters if you haven't played it. it's a really fun colonization and diplomacy game, not too heavy if you don't want heavy, but has options to ramp up and so many expansions if that's what you're into. comes with a ton of variety in the standard edition that you aren't likely to run out of new scenarios for a long long time even in the base game.

[@rmsgrey]

I've not played Captain Sonar, but it does sound like it's in the same vein as Space Cadets (which I've also not played) and Space Cadets: Dice Duel, which I have played - it's pretty similar to how Captain Sonar was described except that everyone's constantly rolling dice in order to do their thing (Space Cadets has different roles tackling different puzzles in order to do their stuff)...

[@ImperialJustinian]

Ah, Board Game Cafes. Nottingham managed to somehow luck out and end up with two of them. I still haven't gotten around to visiting either yet.

[@DarthVaderin]

You should also try Hanabi, it is a card game you play together and everybody plays till the end. So it's good when you want to avoid conflicts and not have bored people waiting for you to finish.

[@andrewpackham8236]

6:13 One version of the squiggly line game is called Tantrix, its great fun!

[@dappercuttlefish9557]

I know a lot of these from Tabletop. Other recommendations are Betrayal at House on the Hill, Bang!, and a combination roleplaying game and tabletop game Dread.

[@crepuscularwintersky]

The squiggly line game sounds like it is basically the same as Robo Rally, which is one of my favorite games. Try it!

[@AerFixus]

Captain Sonar is awesome. And if I could add a game to the list: Tak. It's like Chess and Go had a kid. Easy to pick up, hard to master. (and the pieces are simple enough that you can make them yourself or sometimes even re-purpose other game pieces for them)

[@microchoc]

my recommendation Carcassonne w/ rivers

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Carcassonne is a great game! It combines luck with skill in an way that kids still can play and have a chance at winning, but it also takes quite a bit of strategy if you're playing with a few people who've played before. I also enjoy macchiavelli immensely. That one is (for me at least) a good combination of luck, skill, strategy and knowing your opponents well enough to be able to guess the choices they'll make, or know their former strategies. My sister always goes for the merchant if she can, so if that one is no longer in the deck I play as the murderer or thief and kill or rob the merchant. Which makes her change her strategy, which forces me to do the same etc. So much fun. :)

[@ferncat1397]

Carcassonne and hive are two of my favourites :D carcassonne, you have to place tiles drawn from a deck on the table in jigsaw fashion to build roads, castles and rivers. Whoever finishes a feature gets to keep it. The player with the most claimed tiles wins. I can't tell if it's mostly luck or strategy, but I keep trying...hive is another tile placing game. Each tile is hexagonal and you have to move your bugs to surround your opponent's queen and protect your own, each bug moves differently

[@AnnekeOosterink]

I think Carcassonne is a good mix between luck and skill. It's simple enough that kids stand a chance of winning, but can get complicated fast if someone is building a giant meadow by connecting all of their 500 farmers together.

[@TheArtistOfKuroo]

Captain Sonar sounds like it has a very similar team mechanic to the PC game Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator, which I heartily recommend.

[@rae_diant]

the Celtic knot y game you described kinda made me think of Carcassonne

[@tyrealhsm]

Pedantic point: Sushi Go Party isn't an expansion, its a sequel or v2 of Sushi Go as it contains all the cards in Sushi Go plus some others.

[@queenofdramatech]

Now I have to get Capt sonar!

[@Hsquared]

Another fun game that is only slightly complex is machi koro but you need to buy the harbor expansion because the base game is too basic. It's lovely, up to 5 people, you build a city of a bunch of cards which are buildings and earn tons of money until you can buy everything. It's fun and it is surprisingly easy to clean up because the back of each pile of cards is different

[@edwardlane1255]

captan sonar is great - I'd add space alert if you're including compute assist

[@BuffaloEdward]

The game Matt was trying to describe is Tsuro. Fun list, although Niagara was the only one I wasn't already familiar with. Actually, apart from Sushi Go and that, I already own every one. I'd like to reiterate the recommendation for Captain Sonar. The strict 8 player requirement is a bit of a bummer, but assuming you can get the needed players together, it is the most fun hour you can have on a tabletop.

[@Andy001z]

Great suggestions guys

[@TheDiggster13]

New game I got in kickstarter, 5 minute dungeon is great, if a little hard to get past level 3 of

[@not_a_generic_name6183]

Munchkin and fluxx are my favorites

[@zyrota4295]

Big recommendation for any who likes puzzle games 'Exit the game' is brilliant it's an escape room style board game but it can only be played once. If you use a photocopier you can give the game to someone else when your done.

[@Luro91]

If you like Sushi Go you should check out 7 Wonders. It is a little bit more advanced but also a drafting game. 7 Wonders Duels is the 2 player version and is one of the best 2 player games I know.

[@guyhuguenin6992]

Evolution Climate is also a very interesting boardgame, where you evolve animals and try to survive.

[@dankless80]

tsuro or tsuro of the sea for the squiggly line game, fantastic game :)