h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've only ever played Mahjong against the computer, with it playing three of the four hands. On the computer the wall building is all done by the computer instantly and you hardly notice it.

Up market Lego then?

Sorry?

All about building walls .

Mahjong is a game of skill and chance similar to the card game rummy.

As a kid building the wall was an integral part of the whole thing.

When I'm playing against the computer, I play a card every 2 seconds or so and a typical round of Mahjong lasts less than a minute, so I wouldn't like to have to stop to build a wall.

I suspect you *are missing the whole ambeince thing Gnomon

The only boardgame I really play nowadays is Blood Bowl.

When I was still living with my parents we had all the usual games (Monopoly, Cluedo, etc) but I can't play them anymore having been put off by the fact that my brother is such a bloody cheat (he'd get in a strop if he couldn't be the banker in Monopoly and guess what... he sould palm off notes from the tray when he thought nobody was looking).

I've only played Monopoly once since leaving home, a game which I call the Reign of Terror. By the end I owned three-quarters of the board and was taking properties in leiu of rent because nobody else had any money. That was the first time I'd ever won... hell, it was the first time I hadn't been bankrupted first.

I spent hours playing Monopoly when I lived at home; I always played banker because it was the only way I could ensure that my brother didn’t cheat - although as he kept a stash of ‘spare’ monopoly money that he’d removed from the game tucked between two pieces of wood that made up the swivel joint on the table he always started off at an advantage – I still usually won though. Apart from the times he called our excitable Springer Spaniel into the room so that the board would accidentally get knocked over.

We never resorted to violence though, honest.

Master B has been banned from ever playing Uno ever again after indulging in a soaked shouting match with various members of his bridge club after we went out to dinner with them one night.

Has anyone ever suffered the jaw clenching boredom of Parcheesi? One game took us four hours to finish after the board was very effectively blocked by my Grandmother’s geriatric boyfriend one Christmas.

Go, Risk and Diplomacy are lengthy difficult games which can try anyone's patience. However, Monopoly Now that is one game that I I have 20 versions to date, and hope to amass more as the occassion arises. I will play it any time. My longest version of the game was when I was at college and we combined a french and english version. It meant that there were a number of routes that a player could take, and double the properties that could be purchased. The game lasted a total of 27 hours over 2 days, and yes I won. There is a great deal of skill and strategy in the game, and certain areas like the oranges and reds (especially Vine Street and Trafalgar Square on the UK version) that give the best returns.
Another game (although not a board game) that can take a long time to set up or learn is Mah Jong, but is well worth the effort. The main problem is finding other like-minded peole who can play the game.

We bought the Luxembourg edition of Monopoly when we lived there, and varied the rules so that if we didn't understand an instruction from the Chance or Community Chest, then the bank paid you whatever amount was shown.

I was inspired by the "name that tune in 2 notes" thread to dig out Notability - now there's a great family game!

>>Master B has been banned from ever playing Uno ever again after indulging in a soaked shouting match with various members of his bridge club after we went out to dinner with them one night.<<

Yes, that's more or less my story too. I think I threw the cards at someone in a fit of petulance.

Not a board game per se, but as a kid I always wanted 'Buckeroo'. Every christmas the advert would come on, the brightly painted cheerful horse, the plethora of interesting items to hook onto it, the joyful looks on all the family memebers as they played. I never got it, ever, not in all the years I asked. Much later on in life I mentioned this to wife and she bought it for me for christmas as a *joke*. It is cr*p. Even my kids hated it. Rubbish. Plastic Rubbish.

As for proper Board Games, there can be only one. Risk. Everything else is just mockery.

Risk isn't the worst game I ever played. But it must be pretty close to the worst. Mind you, it was a bit more bearable with our modified map and rules: we added Antarctica as a continent and had routes to it from each of the three southern continents, so you couldn't entrench yourself in Australia. I believe they've changed the rules of Risk now to make it finish in less than five hours.

The worst ever was called "Blast Off". It was all about getting yourself into space, and there was a board with various orbits around the earth shown on it. But you were supposed to move the moon every go and we kept on forgetting.

Mr G,

There is a fantastic free PC version of Risk called 'Conquest', play against the pc or online, either way the games are much much snappier and quicker. Plus, if you fancy it, you can download an editor, and create your own Risk worlds and maps. Well worth looking at...

www.windowsgames.co.uk/conquest.html

I reckon it could even convert your Risk doubting self

No-one's yet mentioned Trvial Pursuit


My favourite games - ie the ones I usually win at - are Taboo and Scattergories

People refuse to play me at Trivial Pursuit these days.

B

Ah, Trivial Pursuit, I remember those days... I retired undefeated more than 15 years ago now

Trivial Pursuit - nobody wants to play with me anymore
And I'm bored to death playing Monopoly with the boys - I loved it as a child, and it's still my original set, but three palyers are not enough. Settlers of Catan is quite nice, especially the version in space The s are a bit broken by now, but who cares