# Fantasy or sci-fi boardgames with the highest replayability?



## Aus_Snow (Feb 19, 2009)

Just like the title says. Which game gets your vote? Or if you know of more than one, feel free to list them, and preferably a few details (I'm not familiar with many of them, especially the even slightly recent ones).

Thanks in advance.


----------



## jephlewis (Feb 20, 2009)

I'm going to assume "still available new"; if not, let me know...

Fantasy
Heroscape: [wotc] minis based combat on hexes; champions from all times battle it out on different terrain and elevations.
Warning! flash heavy! Descent: [Fantasy flight games] Dungeon crawls in 2d/3d.

Sci-fi
Warning! flash heavy! Doom: [Fantasy flight games] based on "doom 3" the video game

The best place to get more info on these games are on the manufacturer's websites and boardgamegeek. At fantasy flight games, you can download the instruction manuals.


both doom and descent get my vote because they're like an old game called 'heroquest': you can make your own 'adventures' or 'objectives'.

Heroscape is just PRETTY


----------



## scitadel (Feb 20, 2009)

Mmm... when you say replayability, do you mean your desire to drag them out or the likelihood of playing them? Or do you mean the number of times you can play the game without it getting boring?

Descent definitely gets my vote for replayability, especially combined with the Road to Legend expansion.  Fantasy miniatures in a dungeon, with the expansion, you get a full campaign system and overland planning

Twilight Imperium is HUGE fun, but it takes a long time to play (3 - 4 hours minimum and more likely 4-6).  Galactic conquest at its best. I hear Supernova is TI Lite - and heard very good things about it but not had a chance to try it yet.  Tempted to pick up a copy myself since I have friends who have TI.

Arkham Horror is a Cthulhu (horror) game, so not sure it falls into Fantasy, but huge replayability. Again, lots of time. It's a Fantasy Flight Game.

I've heard lots of good things about Android too - I am tempted to grab that as well. It's a cyberpunk noir detective game - think Bladerunner for theme.

Moving closer to Euro's (so the theme is less apparent, but still sci-fi/fantasy themed).

Race for the Galaxy - card game about galactic conquest. Plays like San Juan but more complicated, huge replayability, but the game is a bit solitare like and while the theme is there, it's not as engrossing as any of the above.

Kingsburg - probably my favourite board fantasy game of last year.  It's a politics / development game where players try to influence various characters on a board to help them build their city over 5 years.  During winter of each year, you get attacked by a random monster. Again, theme is light, but fun.


----------



## Thanael (Feb 20, 2009)

Can you tell me more about Arkham Horror? How does it play? Which set do you need to play? Is there a basic set and add-ons or can you play each one alone?  Which are the best add-ons/sets?


----------



## Aus_Snow (Feb 20, 2009)

Huh. Go go Fantasy Flight, eh?

Some of these do look pretty cool, gotta say. I sort of knew about Descent. Well, a bit. That's still a contender, most definitely. It's good to know there are a goodly number of them as well though. So that even if one of these highly replayable games gets a bit old eventually, or it's been thrashed too much in the short term and needs a break, there are others to trial.


----------



## Thanee (Feb 20, 2009)

FFG makes very, very good boardgames, yes.

Some, that I think do have a high replayability:

- Warhammer Quest (long OOP though; IMHO by far the best of the "HeroQuest"-style games)
- A Game of Thrones + Expansions (not much fantasy in there, though)
- Roborally (does that count as sci-fi? )
- StarCraft (+ Expansion, I guess, as I do not have the Expansion yet)
- Munchkin D)

Bye
Thanee


----------



## scitadel (Feb 21, 2009)

Thanael said:


> Can you tell me more about Arkham Horror? How does it play? Which set do you need to play? Is there a basic set and add-ons or can you play each one alone?  Which are the best add-ons/sets?




Arkham Horror plays quite well. It can play from 1- 8 players, though works best I'd say around 4 to 5. More and it gets too slow (might be my game group though - we have a couple with AP).  It's a pure co-operative game where you play on a board of Arkham (the city), moving your investigators across the board to find clues, close gates and fight monsters.  It's very Cthulhu like, which means your investigators can go insane and/or die.

You can play the entire game quite well with Arkham Horror the base game without a problem.  The expansions do add to it, various debates about which one's you should get.  I'd seriously just buy the base game first and then see how much you enjoy it before you expand.  I doubt you'd dislike it but...

Of the expansions, I'd say Dunwich Horror (adds a new board) and then King In Yellow and Black Goat are the best.


----------



## scitadel (Feb 21, 2009)

Aus_Snow said:


> Huh. Go go Fantasy Flight, eh?
> 
> Some of these do look pretty cool, gotta say. I sort of knew about Descent. Well, a bit. That's still a contender, most definitely. It's good to know there are a goodly number of them as well though. So that even if one of these highly replayable games gets a bit old eventually, or it's been thrashed too much in the short term and needs a break, there are others to trial.




Yup. If you want theme, FFG does Fantasy / Sci-Fiction heavy theme games better than anyone else, hands down.  It's their thing.  I've yet to play a FFG game that is bad. (WoW is mediocore).

If you want less theme games, there are a ton of other good games but they tend towards Euro's then and/or wargames.

Oooh - i forgot. FRONTIER! Best 2 player sci-fiction miniatureless wargame. My personal favourite of a find, it's basically miniatures without the miniatures - you just use tokens. Really easy to learn and play, the rules are simple and you can get going real fast.


----------



## Aus_Snow (Feb 21, 2009)

scitadel said:


> WoW is mediocore



Hehe.

I know 'twas but a typo, however. . . I think it's an awesome word. For those times when a given thing is neither hardcore nor softcore, but still 'core'.  Like, middle of the road with a vengeance! 

But seriously, thanks for your actual post, and that goes for the other folks too. All very informative. Cheers.


----------



## Desert Hare (Feb 25, 2009)

Talisman.


----------



## Rodrigo Istalindir (Feb 27, 2009)

AH's Dune.  Nothing else is even close for depth and replayability.  Defines 'simple to learn, hard to master'.

I'm enjoying the new(ish) FFG Battlestar Galactica game, but I think the replayability is a little low unless you've consistently got a decent number of players.


----------



## Cadfan (Mar 1, 2009)

Robo Rally.

If you don't mind eurogames where the theme is kind of an extra just to keep you interested, Dominion has some of the best replayability of any game out there.


----------



## Hypersmurf (Mar 3, 2009)

Rodrigo Istalindir said:


> AH's Dune.  Nothing else is even close for depth and replayability.




Just don't try with three players.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





-Hyp.


----------



## bolen (Mar 11, 2009)

Rodrigo Istalindir said:


> AH's Dune.  Nothing else is even close for depth and replayability.  Defines 'simple to learn, hard to master'.



I read that FFG has the license for the rules but not the setting.  They are going to release the same game but Not set on Herbert's planet.  I think they are setting it in their own universe for twilight imperium.

By the way FFG is releasing the Conan board game this week.  Apparently, it is very similar to their War of the Rings game but this one is for four players instead of two.


----------



## Andre (Mar 11, 2009)

Hypersmurf said:


> Just don't try with three players.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




It's been 20 years, but I remember playing Dune many times, usually with 3 players, and I don't remember any problems. What are you referring to?


----------



## Simon Atavax (Mar 12, 2009)

scitadel said:


> Arkham Horror plays quite well. It can play from 1- 8 players, though works best I'd say around 4 to 5. More and it gets too slow (might be my game group though - we have a couple with AP). It's a pure co-operative game where you play on a board of Arkham (the city), moving your investigators across the board to find clues, close gates and fight monsters. It's very Cthulhu like, which means your investigators can go insane and/or die.
> 
> You can play the entire game quite well with Arkham Horror the base game without a problem. The expansions do add to it, various debates about which one's you should get. I'd seriously just buy the base game first and then see how much you enjoy it before you expand. I doubt you'd dislike it but...
> 
> Of the expansions, I'd say Dunwich Horror (adds a new board) and then King In Yellow and Black Goat are the best.




Just to chime in with a dissenting opinion, it's worth mentioning that some folks find ARKHAM HORROR to be very, very cumbersome. It falls into that category for me of "Games I really wanted to like but just couldn't." There are tons of decks of different cards, tons of rules, and tons of maintenance and upkeep throughout the game. It's an amazing game, don't get me wrong. But playing it is more like work than fun. I say this as a Cthulhu/Lovecraft fan, a board game fan, and a die-hard horror fan.

Oh, and BTW, for what it's worth, ARKHAM HORROR has little in common with Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in terms of theme. Lovecraft's stories are about ordinary fools who go insane because of the evil they glimpse; ARKHAM HORROR is about a group of investigators who go out killing monsters and taking monster trophies. 

Again, I think it's a great game, but you have to really, really want to play it in order for it to be a good experience. If that makes sense. 

Oh, and all that is without expansions.  Once you start adding expansions, ye gods, it's like playing GURPS with all the Advanced combat rules and detailed terrain miniatures to go with it.  But if that's what you're looking for, then God bless ya.  But many folks want something less complex in a board game. 

This may be helpful to anyone considering ARKHAM HORROR:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0urRy-Kbs[/ame]
As you would expect of anyone who makes a video of themselves reviewing a board game, this guy is painfully geeky.  But it's also quite informative, methinks.


----------



## Aran Thule (Mar 24, 2009)

Our last gaming weekend (about 40 roleplayers) had a definate winner with board games.
The FFG Battlestar Galactica game was very popular and at times we had two games going at once, works best with 6 players but seemed interesting involving for everyone not just on their turn.


----------



## the8bitdeity (Mar 24, 2009)

Aran Thule said:


> Our last gaming weekend (about 40 roleplayers) had a definate winner with board games.
> The FFG Battlestar Galactica game was very popular and at times we had two games going at once, works best with 6 players but seemed interesting involving for everyone not just on their turn.




BSG board game is AWSOME!


----------



## Varianor Abroad (Mar 26, 2009)

Second (or is it third) on Roborally! Great game, with numerous expansions. What's not to like about a robot getting shoved into a pit and lasering another robot on the way down? Or making one tiny mistake on setting registers and setting off a chain of calamitous events?

The original Arkham Horror board game is simple and fun. It plays quickly and if you do it cooperatively you can roll back the Doom Track and save Arkham. The second edition is the tres complicated one that is under discussion here. I'm one of those that find the rules rather too cumbersome.

Again, stretching the bounds of "what is fantasy", I would heartily recommend Carcassonne and its numerous expansion sets. Lots and lots and lots of fun.

Carcassonne (board game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


----------



## jeffh (Mar 29, 2009)

Desert Hare said:


> Talisman.




If by "replayable" you mean the second or seventeeth play-through is as fun as the first, I suppose it meets that definition - but only because the first play-through _also_ sucks nuclear gophers.


----------



## DonTadow (Mar 31, 2009)

A few games I"d recommend that I haven't seen mentioned

1. Cutthroat CAvern- This is my favorite dungeon themed game in sometime.  You and 3+ friends control heroes fighting monster or encounters.  However, u don't trust each othe rtoo much and so the point of the game is to A. defeat the obstacle, B. backstab your friends but not soo much that you don't complete the obstacles.  The mechanics are card driven not dice driven, which push a little more strategy in the game. 

2. Under the Shadow of the dragon and Return of Heroes, both of these games use the same euro style mechanics as you move from area to area. However, again no dice and randomness is done with a grab bag and a little player choice.  

3. Hunting Party - Another dungeon themed game where each player controls a party of adventures.  As the game goes on, you recruit players, fight obstacles and try to solve the prophesy (process of elimination style).  

4. Tomb - This game has been played a few times with my group.  You start off by drafting your party in the inn and go into the randomly created dungeon.  The creators put a lot o time into making the different NPCs very different.  Its never the same game twice.  

Also be on the lookout, Small Worlds is suppose to be good, its a fantasy war game.  War o the Thrones, the exalted board game, is also pretty good. 

Scifi wise, someone mentioned Twilight and said 3-4 hours... more like 6 to 8 hours with a full table.  It's fun, but too often the winner can be seen an hour or so before it ends.  Races of Galaxy was also mentioned as was its solitair problem.  The best scifi themed game to come around in the last few years is Galaxy Trucker.  You and your friends are space haulers working for a crappy company that refuses to provide ships.  Instead the game starts off with a race to build the most complete, and durable space ship first.  The players are given a single timer. After you race to builda ship that can withstand the upcoming obstacles (which are randomly drawn from the deck but available to look at when you're building your ship, of course because you're racing with others to get the right parts, it can be time consuming) , you send the ship into space, facing the obstacles.  Very rarely does any ship get to its destination in tact, as you fight pirates, astroids, smugglers and other space hazzards.  There's also an expansion that adds a 5th player and personal screw you decks for players.


----------



## Hairfoot (Apr 12, 2009)

Talisman.  Ignore the haters.


----------



## Aus_Snow (Apr 17, 2009)

Hairfoot said:


> Talisman.  Ignore the haters.



Hm. What's the upside(s), and why are there so many haters? Er, if there are. . .


----------



## bolen (May 26, 2009)

Thanael said:


> Can you tell me more about Arkham Horror? How does it play? Which set do you need to play? Is there a basic set and add-ons or can you play each one alone?  Which are the best add-ons/sets?




the base set has more then enough to keep you busy.


----------



## Sebby (Jun 24, 2009)

Aus_Snow said:


> Hm. What's the upside(s), and why are there so many haters? Er, if there are. . .




There are. Probably because Talisman is glorified snakes & ladders. Played it once. I'd eat my left arm to get that hour back and do something else with it.


----------



## Sabathius42 (Jun 24, 2009)

Talisman is fun if you just want something to occupy your time while you sit around a table and kibbitz with the buddies, drink beers, and not use your brain.

If you want something with actual strategy and tactics....Talisman is not that game.

I think there is a place for both kinds of games, but it helps to know which kind of game is which.

That is why I don't care for the game Arkham Horror.  Its very similar to Talisman in that you wander around a board and draw cards and fight monsters but very unsimilar in that you don't get to turn off your brain for the gameplay portion, which ruins the whole point of that style of game (for me anyway).

DS


----------



## heirodule (Jun 25, 2009)

Star Fleet Battles?


----------



## Mercutio01 (Jul 6, 2009)

Reported for spam.


----------



## Elephant (Jul 7, 2009)

Um, reported WHAT for spam?


----------



## Tenniel (Jul 8, 2009)

Fantasy: Wiz War, lots of multi-player treasure-stealing spell-slinging fun, although it is a knock-out game.

Sci-Fi (well historical/modern.. but with Sci-Fi elements): Nuclear War, also a knock out game.

I usually do like multi-player games that knock out players... but these games are so fun they transcend this game design disadvantage.

I like Space Crusade, the one made under Milton Bradley (not the GW version) as a SciFi battle game.  Heroscape is a great (if not the ultimate) fantasy/sci-fi battle game.

Talisman is lots of good fun.  I hate to say it, but the GW 3rd edition is probably the best version (though the art isn't the best).  I want a computer version or better a console version.​


----------



## Mercutio01 (Jul 8, 2009)

Elephant said:


> Um, reported WHAT for spam?



There was a spam post that must have been removed after I reported it.  But my post was left behind.  No worries.


----------



## Orius (Jul 8, 2009)

HeroQuest was good, lots of replay value, and easy to use, unfortunately it's been out of print for a very long time.


----------



## Varianor Abroad (Jul 14, 2009)

London Underground (which I'm informed is very similar to Paris Metro). A fun (not as short as they say) game that one's brilliant geek friends can still manipulate to trap you many stations away from victory.


----------



## Holy Bovine (Jul 14, 2009)

Sebby said:


> There are. Probably because Talisman is glorified snakes & ladders. Played it once. I'd eat my left arm to get that hour back and do something else with it.




An hour?!  What did you just play the first turn? 

Seriously, my friends and I have recently been playing Descent: Journeys in the Dark with the Road to Legend expansion and have been enjoying it immensely.  The RtL expansion basically turns it into a campaign-style RPG with a lot of replay value thanks to different BBEGs, Plot cards and dozens of items, skills and monsters.


----------



## Sebby (Aug 26, 2009)

Holy Bovine said:


> An hour?!  What did you just play the first turn?



Possible. S'all blurry now...  To be honest, it might have been an hour, or maybe three? Time seemed to have been frozen.


(Pardon the very late answer/thread resurrect, but e-mail notification never worked with my account.)


----------



## Holy Bovine (Aug 26, 2009)

Sebby said:


> Possible. S'all blurry now...  To be honest, it might have been an hour, or maybe three? Time seemed to have been frozen.
> 
> 
> (Pardon the very late answer/thread resurrect, but e-mail notification never worked with my account.)




  No problem.  better than the reply I got a few months ago for a post I made over a year before :/  i seem to be the thread killer anyways - I post in a thread and it ends a few posts (at most) later.


----------



## John Crichton (Aug 26, 2009)

Simon Atavax said:


> Just to chime in with a dissenting opinion, it's worth mentioning that some folks find ARKHAM HORROR to be very, very cumbersome. It falls into that category for me of "Games I really wanted to like but just couldn't." There are tons of decks of different cards, tons of rules, and tons of maintenance and upkeep throughout the game. It's an amazing game, don't get me wrong. But playing it is more like work than fun. I say this as a Cthulhu/Lovecraft fan, a board game fan, and a die-hard horror fan.



I can see how one could view the game as such if not taught by an experienced player.  I do think you are laying it on a bit thick as it sounds like complex boardgames are simply not your thing, which is fine.  With a game of this size and scope of course the first bunch of playthroughs are going to be choppy when walking through the rules.  There will be a learning curve.  But that shouldn't stop the fun from happening unless the players do that themselves.  At its core, the game is actually pretty simple but due to some poor wording in the instructions and on some of the cards a few complexities are present.  Luckily there are tons of resources (many already linked in this thread) that clear up these rules gaffs and even more fan-made documents to speed up play and answer FAQ-type disputes.

As for the upkeep and maintenance, it is a step below Magic: The Gathering and D&D 3e/4e.  Those phases are present but usually you are just flipping over cards and keeping track of modifiers that are in one of two places (the environment cards and the Ancient One's card).  So if those two games are not up your alley as far as complexity goes, Arkham Horror probably won't be either.



Simon Atavax said:


> Oh, and BTW, for what it's worth, ARKHAM HORROR has little in common with Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in terms of theme. Lovecraft's stories are about ordinary fools who go insane because of the evil they glimpse; ARKHAM HORROR is about a group of investigators who go out killing monsters and taking monster trophies.



One can look at it that way or they can view it like the Call of Cthulhu RPG where your investigator is there to prevent horrible things from happening but has an equal chance of being devoured or going insane or surviving to see another adventure.  Whatever works for each group or individual is the way to go.  One could play the game more an RPG with characters playing more to their own goals and motivations and the game (especially with the expansions) lets that happen with ease.



Simon Atavax said:


> Oh, and all that is without expansions.  Once you start adding expansions, ye gods, it's like playing GURPS with all the Advanced combat rules and detailed terrain miniatures to go with it.



This statement is blowing the additional (and purely optional) rules modifications and game element additions *way *out of proportion.  The expansions add more options typically in the form of cards, making decks bigger and adding to the pool of Ancient Ones/Investigators.  They also offer more options in the ways of board spaces (new towns to explore based on the Mythos!) and upping the difficulty level for more experienced players.  The core game is MORE than enough to keep players going for dozens of sessions.  I probably played about 30+ games before even cracking open the expansion because we kept getting our butts kicked and didn't want to add more fuel to the fire.

So, er, yeah ... I wouldn't even glance at the expansions until one was very well acquainted with the regular game.  It is also worth mentioning that many of the cards (and there are many of them) don't come into play every game session.



Simon Atavax said:


> This may be helpful to anyone considering ARKHAM HORROR:
> YouTube - Arkham Horror video review



Not a bad intro to the basics!  What no video can capture is the feel of the game as you progress through it.  The dread around every corner and the elation of making a critical skill check at just the right moment.  Or the crushing feeling of failure as the Ancient One awakens and you haven't the right resources to drive it away...

To finish up my post I'll just say that Arkham Horror offers the most replayability of any game boardgame I've ever encountered and answers well the first poster's question about these kinds of games.  It falls under fantasy, sub-genre: horror.  And it can be played solo, which is also a huge bonus in my book as that is a great way to learn the rules.


----------

