Two recommendations that I didn't hear. But now that I'm thinking about it, they are card games. The first is Citadels, where you take on a character that has a power and try to out-manuever the other characters. Each round you can take on a new character, trying to build building your city faster than everyone else.

The second is called Bohnanza, where the players are farmers competing for cash crops. Fun and quick, with a hysterical trading mechanic.

Speaking of trading, it took me awhile but I figured out when you mentioned a "traitor" mechanic, you weren't talking about a "trader" mechanic. Good ep. gents!

I often find winning a board game a let down (Talisman anyone?) even in games like Catan or Puerto Rico. I'm making my little utopia and then somebody goes and ends the game.

Playing is more fun than winning.

Oooooh.

Very good as a go-to game for gamers when there are six or seven and they don't want to split into two tables. (If you have the set with the expansion, however, consider removing the original Wizard and replacing him with the Sorceror [or whatever the new #3 is called]. MUCH more balanced.)


Also a fine game from Uwe Rosenberg, and a radically simple departure from his normal resume of Agricola and Le Havre.

(I own both of these.)

I've been introducing some of my high level students to the joys that are board games. Started off with Catan and now have moved over to Endevour. Great game actually, though I can see it getting a bit repetitive. Abso freaking lutely beautiful production values though. That is one PRETTY game.

My big problem is that if I buy games from Amazon.jp, they're almost always in Japanese, so, I have to find games with no in-game text so I can use them in class. Sigh. Or pay out the ass and wait like two months for delivery from the States. If it manages to come at all. Bloody shipping for games is not exactly reliable.

In the market for a new game. Does Carcasonne have much in game language?

...What do you mean by that? I'm just totally confused my that sentence because it has been a long day.

(Side note: I do not enjoy playing Carcassonne very much anymore because of one summer when our family played it every day for two weeks straight.)

He teaches English in Japan so having Japanese text does him more harm than good

It has essentially zero in-game language. The rules need to be translated for any given language, but once that's done, you're set. No card text or anything like that. It's just laying tiles, placing meeples, and counting for scores.

Carcassonne is text-free, and even number-free as far as printing on tiles. All the decisions the game requires can be made in public (with even discussion among the players, if you're open to considering advice that may benefit the offerer as much as the offeree). It should be ideal for a game to play across a language barrier, just as Blokus is.

BTW, here are the expansions, grouped into my review categories:

MUST GET:

Inns & Cathedrals (gives materials for sixth player, and the inimitable Big Meeple)

Very good:

Traders & Builders
Abbey and Mayor

Okay:

King & Scout
Count of Carcassonne
Cult, Siege and Creativity
Bridges, Castles and Bazaars

AVOID:

The Tower
Wheel of Fortune
Catapult
Princess and the Dragon

Good episode, but I think you missed one good reason for board games. In our groups we use them as a pressure relief valve for GMs who are close to burning out (me, usually). They're great for when you get the RPG group together but the GM isn't up to running that night. They've saved our bacon more than once.

Now, a few more recommendations, as I love me some good board games.

First up is Shadows Over Camelot, a crackerjack game from Days of Wonder. It's a co-op game with a twist. You all play knights of the round table, but one of you is secretly a traitor. You send your guys out on quests that earn you white swords. The good guys win if there are more white swords than black on the round table (the table has to be filled up).

The traitor, on the other hand, is trying to subtly screw you over. Eventually you try to identify the traitor, and if you end up being right his card gets flipped and he continues to screw with you.

Very fun game that gets a lot of table talk going. Lends itself to at least a bit of roleplaying as well.

Second is Small World, a game I like to call the bastard child of Catan and Risk. You take turns picking out race and trait combination and try to take over as much of the board as you can. Combat is simple (2 bits +1 bit for every piece of cardboard on a space) and it runs quick.

Where it gets fun is when you run out of available tokens to conquer more regions. You can put your race into decline and then next turn pick a new race and start the whole thing over again. Tons of fun and you can certainly make short term alliances and the like.

One thing that really makes it interesting is if you use to actually create the history of a game world before you play in an RPG. You get an idea of what races flourish and died off and which ones are still around. Totally a fun way to do some quick setting creation.

Thirdly, the Game of Thrones board game from Fantasy Flight is utterly fantastic. Its based on the novels of the same name and does an absolutely excellent job of replicating the backstabbing and battles that go on within the books.

It's horribly hard to really explain, but suffice it to say that you can get a ton of roleplaying out of this game. That and it really lends itself well to making alliances (and breaking them as key points) and with the proper expansions will play up to six people. It really shines with five players, though. Totally recommended.

And as a final aside, the new WotC board games are totally awesome. Pat was right on the money when he suggested that they're close to how 4e plays. Great gateway games if you want to get a group into 4e.