[BattleMonkey]

Anyone happen to get a copy or play Battles of Napoleon Lion & Bear? Shit sold out fast, waiting for reprint especially since the first edition had lot of card printing errors.

[Sasquatch]

Long time Board Game thread lurker.

Someone earlier was looking for good games with 7-8, I thought I'd suggest this one. Nuns on the Run

It could be compared to the Fury of Dracula, but in reverse. One player plays the nuns who are searching for the novices. The novices are the other remaining players and have a specific goal on the board that they must reach, and return to their chambers without being caught by the nuns.

This really is like hide-and-seek the board game. One fun aspect of it is that you only know where your character and the nuns are at any given time. When we demo'd this at GenCon, the nun player walked out of a hallway and spotted three of us all in a fairly small area. None of us had any idea we were near another player. We all ran off in different directions to avoid being caught. The theme is a little strange, but it's a fun game with a group of people, and different from a lot of the other games that play a slightly larger group.

[Drey1082]

Look, one fight at a time. We need to get Power Grid off of the runner-up list first, then you can worry about whatever silly little games you prefer. :p

I'm a big power grid fan myself. Not a game to start out with, but up there with Agricola as a good next step game.

[Magicked]

I'm thinking about getting a large, epic game like Game of Thrones or Twilight Imperium. Any thoughts on these? I do have a group capable of more difficult and time-consuming games.

[BattleMonkey]

Twilight Imperium is great with lot of optional rules that can mix it up later down the line.

Never was a fan of Game of Thrones, not sure why though.

[SCHUEY F1]

Great job on the thread!

I'm curious to see what the new Civilization game is going to be like.

[Magicked]

Twilight Imperium is great with lot of optional rules that can mix it up later down the line. Never was a fan of Game of Thrones, not sure why though.

Yea, I'm leaning towards TI. I'll still probably end up with both eventually.

TI: Shattered Empire is supposed to be a really good addition, right?

[AstroLad]

I'm curious to see what the new Civilization game is going to be like.

I am so stoked for this. Fantasy Flight+Civ, how can you go wrong?


Real pretty. But 3 hours is really pushing it length-wise for my group.

[BattleMonkey]

Yea, I'm leaning towards TI. I'll still probably end up with both eventually. TI: Shattered Empire is supposed to be a really good addition, right?

Shattered Empire main addition is the extra races. It also adds more gameplay options as you have an alternate way to play the game, as well as a bunch of optional rules you can add in as you feel. Original TI also has a bunch of optional rules, expansion added some more. They can be fun to add in when you want things to be a little different.

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I am also a big fan of Twilight Imperium. Sounds like you are already prepared for it, but make sure you have a decent amount of time set aside because the games can be long. I would also recommend getting the expansion or at least printing off something to replace the Imperial Strategy card from the base game.

[Magicked]

Cool. Thanks for the suggestions.

Also, Civ looks awesome.

[StoOgE]

I am so stoked for this. Fantasy Flight+Civ, how can you go wrong? Real pretty. But 3 hours is really pushing it length-wise for my group.

Did they leave religion and corporations in this one?

Stupid Civ 5

It could be fun, but I don't want to have to keep up with a tech tree. Though I Could imagine interaction being really really high in the game if done right.

[BattleMonkey]

Cool. Thanks for the suggestions. Also, Civ looks awesome.

If you and your friends like Starcraft, I would probably recommend the board game as well. The game is similar to Twilight Imperium but with a Starcraft setting, and it focuses more on aggressive play. TI can take a long time because of alot of slow defensive play and political aspects, Starcraft is very similar game but basically no room to sit around and no politics.

[SCHUEY F1]

I am so stoked for this. Fantasy Flight+Civ, how can you go wrong? Real pretty. But 3 hours is really pushing it length-wise for my group.

Could probably handle 3 hours. I hope the rule set is not too complicated so if I was not to play it for a bit that the rules would come back to me quickly.

[Screaming_Gremlin]

If you and your friends like Starcraft, I would probably recommend the board game as well. The game is similar to Twilight Imperium but with a Starcraft setting, and it focuses more on aggressive play. TI can take a long time because of alot of slow defensive play and political aspects, Starcraft is very similar game but basically no room to sit around and no politics.

Starcraft is also really fun. It is a quicker pace game since you have to be aggressive and attack if you want to get the points to win (the expansion in TI also encourages more aggressive play and reduces the amount of turtling). I also like the card based combat a bit more than the dice based combat of TI. On the other hand it is lacking the political and diplomatic aspects which I think add a lot to TI.

[platypotamus]

Hurray for a new thread and lots of new board game gaf posters! Great OP, AstroLad!

Somewhat surprised to be seeing good things about Back to the Future: The Card Game, which just came out, on BGG. Interested to see how that turns out.

I played this a bit at PAX. I'm probably either the best or the worst person to possibly comment on it (huge BttF fan, and made a Chrononauts Java implementation for my senior project in college, with AI and stuff).

It plays a lot like Chrononauts. If you played that, imagine that without the artifact win condition, and with a streamlined timeline (no paradoxes/patching, ripples just flip based on linchpins).

The timeline is very tied up into the movies, nicely. It's interesting in that there's at least one backwards ripple (if Doc dies to the Libyans in 1985, he never becomes a blacksmith in the old west). The items are all cool movie tie in stuff, and some are multipurpose. There's some combos between items, time machines, and the timeline even.

You play as some character related to the series, but not any of the main characters. I was Marty McFly III. I THINK all the characters are from the generation after BttF II's kids, but I'm not positive.

The biggest bummer with the game is that with no distracting goals, everyone is mucking with the timeline constantly, and there's a lot of linchpin flipping back and forth and back and forth... the game stalls big time. Our game took nearly an hour.

I probably won't pick it up, but wouldn't turn down a game if someone else has it and offers.

[StoOgE]

Could probably handle 3 hours. I hope the rule set is not too complicated so if I was not to play it for a bit that the rules would come back to me quickly.

It looks like there are 4 victory tracks..

economic, cultural, technology and military. So while it is a simplified version of the PC game it means there has to be

1) battle mechanic of some sort.
2) buidling mechanic for cultural centers
3) some kind of economic engine
4) technology tree

And I'm sure all of this is going to be on top of resource management of growth/wealth/science/etc as well as some sort of technology/sphere of influence mechanic to denote who controls what land.

And it is a Fantasy Flight game.

My money is going to be on extremely complicated.

[Suairyu]

It could be fun, but I don't want to have to keep up with a tech tree. Though I Could imagine interaction being really really high in the game if done right.

Reading a development blog for it, instead of a tech tree it has a tech pyramid. You need two technologies on one level to be able to obtain technologies on the next level and so on. The game it is closest to is Civ Revolution, but it borrows concepts from III, IV and V. So a lean version suitable for board-game play but with PC-version flavour. Whether or not that works is another matter.

[GDJustin]

I have purchase paralysis. Def. about to pull the trigger on a new game, but I don't know which one :lol

The biggest problem is that I don't have the budget to make $100+ board game purchases from Cool Stuff Incorporated. I have to buy games one at a time. But on Amazon many games are still very pricey.

Maybe I'll just pick up Bohnanza. It's cheapish on Amazon.

[cubicle47b]

I started playing board games again early this year and have put together a decent collection so far:

Settlers of Catan
Ticket to Ride: Marklin
Battlestar Galactica
Agricola
Puerto Rico
A Game of Thrones (+Clash of Kings/Storm of Swords)

[platypotamus]

I'm not sure why everyone is so hyped on the new Civ board game. The old one isn't very good (it's on my trade list on BGG if anyone wants it!), and you've already got Through the Ages, which I've been thinking about making my first 10 rated game over on BGG. I mean, I'm willing to give this game a shot, but I can't imagine it being as good as Through the Ages, I really can't.

Anyway, since everyone's all Civ-ed out, here's five reasons you should check out Through the Ages:

1. The Timestream - As you play, cards from the appropriate age are used to populate the timestream. These are things you can use actions to acquire, and could be new leaders, techs, actions, or wonders. They are shuffled each game, and when they show up in the timestream has dramatic effect as to their efficacy. Even the really powerful cards (Michaelangelo is a ridiculous culture leader) might be near worthless if they come at a bad time in the timestream.

2. Tough Choices - You cannot possibly (even come close) to doing everything you want to do with your civ in this game. Some aspects of your civ are going to fall behind of others, the economy is just balanced this way. Want to improve production? You're falling behind on research, or culture, or military. Or you don't have enough food to feed the people working in production. Or you have a shitty government. You can't possibly do it all, and due to the timestream above, and other factors, each game your choices will be different.

3. Interaction - Even in a 2player game (no diplomacy options, since there's only two players), there's a lot of interactivity. Militarily, you can directly attack other players. Worse? You can pay extra actions to grab something far ahead on the timestream, because otherwise, an opponent would get it. You can totally force the player to change the direction their civ is going in, just because they can't afford to fall too far behind in X (whether X is research, military, culture...). At the same time, your plans for next turn go out the window immediately they try to settle a new colony (and you end up "winning" the colony by sacrificing some of your military, which is now very weak).

4. Multiple Viable Paths - While your Civ will be lacking somehow at the end of the game, you can still end up kicking ass over all. I've seen the winner of the game still be mining Iron (rather than coal or oil). I've seen the winner come from a massive deficit by essentially ignoring culture to build up their infrastructure, and then switch gears. I've seen an entire game go with essentially zero military build up.

5. Corruption Done Right - You cannot be a hoarder in this game. If your civ has a bunch of standing wealth sitting around, you lose some of it to corruption. This (coupled with a well thought out economic system) works first as a nice negative feedback loop, preventing a runaway lead. It also forces you into some of those tough choices above. Building a wonder requires a bit of hoarding. You may really want the (usually significant!) advantage of a wonder, but is it worth corruption eating up some of your resources? You may really need a larger army, but you can't really grow it without corruption/famine... unless you demolish a temple or a library...?

6. BONUS SIXTH REASON: EVENTS - Aside from the timestream, there's also event cards. You play one of these into a small stack at the start of your turn. In doing this, you are seeding the future events pile. You won't know when exactly this event will come up, but it WILL come up. It can be anything from a new colony to settle to a bonus/penalty to the civ strongest/weakest in some area. Ooh, a new colony just showed up, should you bid for it? You really want it, but not quite as much as the colony YOU put in the event list, and that'll come up in a few turns. Can you go for both? Can you bid some more military just to raise the price on your opponent(s), but without winning? Or worse... you put a card in there that gives a big bonus to the player with the biggest military... and bidding on this colony puts you in danger of losing that bonus to an opponent. Is the colony's bonus worth it?


*WHEW*

Anyway, this game is amazing.

[AstroLad]

I'm not sure why everyone is so hyped on the new Civ board game. The old one isn't very good (it's on my trade list on BGG if anyone wants it!), and you've already got Through the Ages, which I've been thinking about making my first 10 rated game over on BGG. I mean, I'm willing to give this game a shot, but I can't imagine it being as good as Through the Ages, I really can't.

But this new one has absolutely nothing to do with the 2002 release! Also the Civ and Fantasy Flight names carry a lot of weight. It's definitely between this and Through the Ages for me. Probably wind up getting Through the Ages first just because Civ is a good six months off though.

[Magicked]

How does one join the BGG guild?

[AstroLad]

How does one join the BGG guild?

I submitted a request but they have to approve it so I'll post when/if that goes through. BGG needs a serious Steve Jobsing. I just noticed that there IS such a thing as Geekbuddies but I didn't even know about it until now nor was I notified that people added me.

[Neverfade]

I'm thinking about getting a large, epic game like Game of Thrones or Twilight Imperium. Any thoughts on these? I do have a group capable of more difficult and time-consuming games.

Game of Thrones is awesome. BattleMonkey is just a heathen :p

Twilight Imperium is awesome too.

Both games need expansions to fix the shitty parts though.

[Magicked]

I submitted a request but they have to approve it so I'll post when/if that goes through. BGG needs a serious Steve Jobsing. I just noticed that there IS such a thing as Geekbuddies but I didn't even know about it until now nor was I notified that people added me.

Yea, the site is somewhat of a mess, but mostly functional. :P

Game of Thrones is awesome. BattleMonkey is just a heathen :p Twilight Imperium is awesome too. Both games need expansions to fix the shitty parts though.

Glad I get both sides of the story. :D

I just need to stop looking at BGG now. My collection is rather small currently and I'm so tempted to buy a ton of games (that I shouldn't spend money on right now).

[StoOgE]

Actually joined a local gaming group tonight out of frustration for not being able to get my real friends to play.

They meet at a local pub/pizza place every Tuesday and play a different game.

I'm going in two weeks to play Shadows over Camelot. I have no fucking idea how to play it, so I guess I better get to reading FAQs over at BGG.

I would go next week but they are playing Formula D and I fucking hate Formula D.

[deadbeef]

What purpose does a BGG guild serve? Also, AstroLad did you say you added a Solo section in the OP? Am I just overlooking it?

[StoOgE]

What purpose does a BGG guild serve? Also, AstroLad did you say you added a Solo section in the OP? Am I just overlooking it?

It isn't a full section. It's under the online play. Basically for AI routines you can play against by yourself on a computer.

[AstroLad]

What purpose does a BGG guild serve? Also, AstroLad did you say you added a Solo section in the OP? Am I just overlooking it?

Easy access to all gaffers while on BGG. It can't hurt right? :lol Might come even more into play when a bunch of us are at bgg.con.

If you mean solitaire games, wasn't really planning on doing a solitaire section as I don't have much experience in that area.

[XiaNaphryz]

I'm not sure why everyone is so hyped on the new Civ board game. The old one isn't very good (it's on my trade list on BGG if anyone wants it!), and you've already got Through the Ages, which I've been thinking about making my first 10 rated game over on BGG. I mean, I'm willing to give this game a shot, but I can't imagine it being as good as Through the Ages, I really can't. Anyway, since everyone's all Civ-ed out, here's five reasons you should check out Through the Ages: 1. The Timestream - As you play, cards from the appropriate age are used to populate the timestream. These are things you can use actions to acquire, and could be new leaders, techs, actions, or wonders. They are shuffled each game, and when they show up in the timestream has dramatic effect as to their efficacy. Even the really powerful cards (Michaelangelo is a ridiculous culture leader) might be near worthless if they come at a bad time in the timestream. 2. Tough Choices - You cannot possibly (even come close) to doing everything you want to do with your civ in this game. Some aspects of your civ are going to fall behind of others, the economy is just balanced this way. Want to improve production? You're falling behind on research, or culture, or military. Or you don't have enough food to feed the people working in production. Or you have a shitty government. You can't possibly do it all, and due to the timestream above, and other factors, each game your choices will be different. 3. Interaction - Even in a 2player game (no diplomacy options, since there's only two players), there's a lot of interactivity. Militarily, you can directly attack other players. Worse? You can pay extra actions to grab something far ahead on the timestream, because otherwise, an opponent would get it. You can totally force the player to change the direction their civ is going in, just because they can't afford to fall too far behind in X (whether X is research, military, culture...). At the same time, your plans for next turn go out the window immediately they try to settle a new colony (and you end up "winning" the colony by sacrificing some of your military, which is now very weak). 4. Multiple Viable Paths - While your Civ will be lacking somehow at the end of the game, you can still end up kicking ass over all. I've seen the winner of the game still be mining Iron (rather than coal or oil). I've seen the winner come from a massive deficit by essentially ignoring culture to build up their infrastructure, and then switch gears. I've seen an entire game go with essentially zero military build up. 5. Corruption Done Right - You cannot be a hoarder in this game. If your civ has a bunch of standing wealth sitting around, you lose some of it to corruption. This (coupled with a well thought out economic system) works first as a nice negative feedback loop, preventing a runaway lead. It also forces you into some of those tough choices above. Building a wonder requires a bit of hoarding. You may really want the (usually significant!) advantage of a wonder, but is it worth corruption eating up some of your resources? You may really need a larger army, but you can't really grow it without corruption/famine... unless you demolish a temple or a library...? 6. BONUS SIXTH REASON: EVENTS - Aside from the timestream, there's also event cards. You play one of these into a small stack at the start of your turn. In doing this, you are seeding the future events pile. You won't know when exactly this event will come up, but it WILL come up. It can be anything from a new colony to settle to a bonus/penalty to the civ strongest/weakest in some area. Ooh, a new colony just showed up, should you bid for it? You really want it, but not quite as much as the colony YOU put in the event list, and that'll come up in a few turns. Can you go for both? Can you bid some more military just to raise the price on your opponent(s), but without winning? Or worse... you put a card in there that gives a big bonus to the player with the biggest military... and bidding on this colony puts you in danger of losing that bonus to an opponent. Is the colony's bonus worth it? *WHEW* Anyway, this game is amazing.

This man is enlightened.

That said, I'm still super hyped for Civ 5 and will be putting up the official thread for it next week.

[MichaelBD]

I am also a big fan of Twilight Imperium. Sounds like you are already prepared for it, but make sure you have a decent amount of time set aside because the games can be long. I would also recommend getting the expansion or at least printing off something to replace the Imperial Strategy card from the base game.

I have my third "official" TI game coming up this weekend. For the other two it took about 10 hours total including setup, breakdown, and lunch. We played with the same group of four both times (and the same group again this time).

I bought the SE expansion because the consensus on BGG is that you really need it to correct some issues with the base set. Both times we used a mix of the old and new strategy cards. I think this time I want to try just the new set and see how that goes.

It's a blast if you can get people to commit to the time it takes to play. Growing up on Star Trek and Star Wars, TI is the game I had been wanting to play for as long as I can remember.

[Big B]

I think I'm starting to get into boardgames - just added 30 to my amazon wishlist.

I played Pandemic at a friend's house and got bored of it after an hour. Is it supposed to be that easy? we win everytime and it's like a walk in the park.

Starting to sour on Catan after playing the official online version for a week. I lose every single time. :(

Also, on topic of card games, I really like Fluxx. it's probably not hardcore but are there other nonsensical card games like that?

Has anyone heard of a card game called Bashi Fen or Looking for Friends? I saw some people play it at a party and it looked absolutely crazy. they also told me they added leveling up rules. the descriptions on the site are impossible to understand and I can't find asians walking around to ask them to demonstrate the game. Wiki link here.

[deadbeef]

I think I'm starting to get into boardgames - just added 30 to my amazon wishlist. I played Pandemic at a friend's house and got bored of it after an hour. Is it supposed to be that easy? we win everytime and it's like a walk in the park. Starting to sour on Catan after playing the official online version for a week. I lose every single time. :( Also, on topic of card games, I really like Fluxx. it's probably not hardcore but are there other nonsensical card games like that? Has anyone heard of a card game called Bashi Fen or Looking for Friends? I saw some people play it at a party and it looked absolutely crazy. they also told me they added leveling up rules. the descriptions on the site are impossible to understand and I can't find asians walking around to ask them to demonstrate the game. Wiki link here.

The review on BGG said it was pretty difficult to win. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/...-with-pandemic

Were you playing on Easy or Normal level?

[XiaNaphryz]

I think I'm starting to get into boardgames - just added 30 to my amazon wishlist. I played Pandemic at a friend's house and got bored of it after an hour. Is it supposed to be that easy? we win everytime and it's like a walk in the park.

Are you sure you're playing it correctly? Our gaming group have played it a lot and our overall winning % is probably around the 50% mark (we mainly play on normal difficulty with max players).

[AstroLad]

Yeah Pandemic is generally at least a decent challenge to win, and that's just on Normal difficulty. Maybe you're playing it wrong? This seems to happen a lot with co-op games for some reason. Or just bump up the difficulty which is the other easy solution. Check out this thread: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/...ommon-mistakes

[Cyan]

Easy access to all gaffers while on BGG. It can't hurt right? :lol Might come even more into play when a bunch of us are at bgg.con. If you mean solitaire games, wasn't really planning on doing a solitaire section as I don't have much experience in that area.

I have an account over there, but I forget what it is...

Edit:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/wsean

[Neverfade]

I think I'm starting to get into boardgames - just added 30 to my amazon wishlist. I played Pandemic at a friend's house and got bored of it after an hour. Is it supposed to be that easy? we win everytime and it's like a walk in the park. Starting to sour on Catan after playing the official online version for a week. I lose every single time. :( Also, on topic of card games, I really like Fluxx. it's probably not hardcore but are there other nonsensical card games like that? Has anyone heard of a card game called Bashi Fen or Looking for Friends? I saw some people play it at a party and it looked absolutely crazy. they also told me they added leveling up rules. the descriptions on the site are impossible to understand and I can't find asians walking around to ask them to demonstrate the game. Wiki link here.

To answer your card games question:

Check out the Back to the Future cardgame. Same folks make it, it's easily accessible, am it's cheap.

Also, if you read and like Penny Arcade, the Penny Arcade card game is quick silly fun.

No Thanks! Is the penultimate short silly game with rules that take literally 30-45 seconds to explain.

When you're ready to be a real boy, Glory to Rome will be waiting. Its moreso difficult to learn than the previous games but not as bad as Race for the Galaxy, while offering a similar vibe (but not to the point of replacing it, I gladly own both) and actual interaction/take that mechanics.

[Justin]

For the people who were interested in Arkham Horror here is a link to the 2 hour tutorial that I was talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJrM7...yer_embedded#!

[StoOgE]

Are you sure you're playing it correctly? Our gaming group have played it a lot and our overall winning % is probably around the 50% mark (we mainly play on normal difficulty with max players).

My guesses for where Pandemic goes wrong (and makes it too easy)..

1) You only draw two cards at the end of your turn. You don't get to use one of our 4 moves to draw cards.

2) You only stop infecting cities of a certain disease if you have eradicated the disease, not if you cure it.

3) you can only exchange cards if both players are in the city on the card.

I have seen friends fuck this game up in each of the following ways and it makes the game really easy.

Also, try ditching the scientist and the medic if you want to make the game unfuckingpossibly hard with all 6 epidemic cards in the deck.

[Neverfade]

Also, If anyone wants Arkham Horror, Caylus, Power Grid, or Colosseum, I'm trying to get these bad boys out the door. They all have a single play (except AH) and all are in top condition. They're just not my style. Make me an offer.

[paranoidfortean]

Trying to get into board games with my friends. Think about trying Zombies!!! but then again, we'll probably just end up yelling at Reach all night.

[Brettison]

What's a good board game just for TWO people? I'd like to get something that just the GF and I can play. Sure it can scale for more than 2, but I want something that plays well with just 2 people, is rather noob friendly, and something that isn't a huge crazy initial cost investment. Most of the games I see seem to be made for a larger group.

[Volodja]

My guesses for where Pandemic goes wrong (and makes it too easy).. 1) You only draw two cards at the end of your turn. You don't get to use one of our 4 moves to draw cards. 2) You only stop infecting cities of a certain disease if you have eradicated the disease, not if you cure it. 3) you can only exchange cards if both players are in the city on the card. I have seen friends fuck this game up in each of the following ways and it makes the game really easy. Also, try ditching the scientist and the medic if you want to make the game unfuckingpossibly hard with all 6 epidemic cards in the deck.

The scientist?
He didn't seem that useful in my games.
Now, the researcher and the medic were pretty much required.
Also some kind of movement booster like the Logistics or the Operations expert was vital most of the times.

[Justin]

Trying to get into board games with my friends. Think about trying Zombies!!! but then again, we'll probably just end up yelling at Reach all night.

I havent played Zombies but from eveything I hear it is pretty bad. Get Last Night on Earth instead.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2...he-zombie-game

[XiaNaphryz]

What's a good board game just for TWO people? I'd like to get something that just the GF and I can play. Sure it can scale for more than 2, but I want something that plays well with just 2 people, is rather noob friendly, and something that isn't a huge crazy initial cost investment. Most of the games I see seem to be made for a larger group.

From the OP, I'd suggest Lost Cities, Mr. Jack, or Battle Line for good beginner 2p only games. If you can handle something more complex, I highly suggest 1960.

[Volodja]

Trying to get into board games with my friends. Think about trying Zombies!!! but then again, we'll probably just end up yelling at Reach all night.

I hate Zombies!!!
I find it boring, until you find the heliport it's pretty much an aimless wondering around to maybe collect stuff that doesn't add that much (or to kill zombies...eh), the combat doesn't help because it's really not exciting at all and the events are most of the times a way to hinder the possibilities of your rivals slowing the game down even more and keeping it from ending.
In the end every time we try it, it degenerates in everyone nuking to hell one poor selected victim or delving without bullets in the military base to see if we can unleash the modified zombies using our bare hands. And even then we only keep on playing it because we forgot to bring something better with us.

[AstroLad]

What's a good board game just for TWO people? I'd like to get something that just the GF and I can play. Sure it can scale for more than 2, but I want something that plays well with just 2 people, is rather noob friendly, and something that isn't a huge crazy initial cost investment. Most of the games I see seem to be made for a larger group.

I rarely do this but -- check the OP!

[GDJustin]

What's a good board game just for TWO people? I'd like to get something that just the GF and I can play. Sure it can scale for more than 2, but I want something that plays well with just 2 people, is rather noob friendly, and something that isn't a huge crazy initial cost investment. Most of the games I see seem to be made for a larger group.

First off, there is a section of the OP dedicated to 2P wife/girlfriend play. :p

Second off, read this: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklis...nd-spouse-reco

Third, I think I can help. I play board games *mostly* with my wife, but *occasionally* with others. So we need games that work well with 2, but also scale up nicely. A tough challenge! So far we've really enjoyed:

- Lost Cities (2P only)
- Caracassone
- Dominion
- Pandemic (co-op)

All four meet your criteria and are noob-friendly. If you're worried about your GF being turned off by a "nerdy" fantasy theme, start with Lost Cities. That's what I did.

I persoally haven't played the titles below, but they're well-regarded on GAF and on BoardGameGeek:

- The Settles of Catan Card Game
- Alhambra
- Balloon Cup

[Staccat0]

I'm tempted to hit up BGG Con (My friend who games [The one who bought me Pandemic] lives near where its held and I live in Austin) but that price is pretty prohibitive. Will they eventually have single day passes or something?

I played Pandemic at a friend's house and got bored of it after an hour. Is it supposed to be that easy? we win everytime and it's like a walk in the park.

no offense intended, but I would assume you are doing something wrong. My wife and I can consistently win 2 player games, but only after some practice/bad games. 3 or 4 player games are fucking tough just by the nature of the mechanics. Skill only helps so much...
Its easy to do a lot of stuff wrong. A lot of the rules are pretty harsh and counter-intuitive. Like only being able to trade cards while both players are in the city written on the card...