Just five games

Barnes said,

...we're all reducing our collections to five or less games not ever buying new ones again.

Which games would you pick if you had to reduce your collection to five or less games? Expansions count as part of the original game for purposes of this discussion. Your list might not be just your top five, if your top five are similar, as you may want to keep some variety in your downsized collection.

Mine:

1. Arkham Horror. With all the expansions, this game has huge replay value. It also covers my solitaire and co-op needs.

2. The Hills Rise Wild. I don't have the painting skills or army-building skills to get into serious miniatures stuff, so this violent little skirmish game is all I need. It's got action, humor, Cthulhu mythos, tactics and exploration.

EDIT: I was originally just thinking of boardgames, but I didn't specify that. So counting in CCGs, PC games, card games, and RPGs, the only change to my list would be to bump BSG in favor of...

3. Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (fka Jyhad). Magic was innovative, but V:tes is Garfield's best game. He successfully translated the thematically-rich World of Darkness into a great multiplayer CCG with an excellent combat system, a neat political aspect, and heavy player interaction. By limiting players to getting VP only for ousting the player on their left, it solves in one clean stroke a lot of the potential problems found in multiplayer games. I've been playing this game at least monthly for nearly 15 years now.

4. Acquire. The vast majority of the games that I like involve dude-killing, but I was raised to play Acquire by my dad, who taught me the game around the time I was learning to read. Clean, simple rules with a good mix of strategy and some randomness. It's the only Euro kind of game that I am willing to play these days.

5. Divine Right. Most war games trade away too much playability for simulation accuracy, but Divine Right offers an epic-scale, multi-player wargame in a fantasy setting. The intermediate rules are just right, with a fair amount of strategy and a decent baseline level of simulation. There are plenty of optional advanced rules, so many that players can customize each game with a given mixture of advanced rules, creating excellent replay value. I suspect that I would replace Divine Right with Twilight Imperium if I ever get to try it, but for now, Divine Right is good enough.

EDIT: Bumped off my list of five, due to balance issues: Battlestar Galactica. Though it does seem potentially unbalanced, BSG is rich in theme, tension, conflict, and lots of interaction.

1. SETTLERS OF CATAN
2. DUNE
3. COSMIC ENCOUNTER
4. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
5. CIVILIZATION

Almost theres:

MAGIC REALM
TALISMAN
ARKHAM HORROR
UP FRONT
TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

This list would be different from week to week (except TOI, TI3, and Carrom).

Well, if I had to...

1/ Tide of Iron
2/ Carrom
3/ Twilight Imperium
4/ Ca$h and Gun$ (non-gamers/parties)
5/ Arkham Horror

My Almosts...

Doom
Power Grid (sue me)
Mr. Jack
Last Night on Earth
Cosmic Encounter

I will never do this, I may in fact choose to cut off a leg first!

Your leg for suggesting it that is.

1. Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage

2. Dune

3. Twilight Struggle

4. Titan

5. Cosmic Encounter

You "almost there" fuckers, fuck yourselves. Grab some balls (preferably yer own!) and make a stand!

Of the stuff sitting on my shelf?

1/ Cosmic Encounter
2/ Wiz-War
3/ Twilight Struggle
4/ Imperial
5/ ... ... fuck it, i'm buying a new game for the fifth slot.

Everything else I wouldn't miss much. My kid would be mad if I got rid of stuff like Sorry Sliders and Tier auf Tier, though. I guess he better get his own five.

My copy of Napoleon's Triumph should be sitting in a box on my porch right now, we'll see if that can fill the slot.

Eh...you know what? I'd probably toss out BSG and put OGRE up there instead...I've got to have at least one wargame.

I'll take that big ol box of MAGIC:THE GATHERING cards.

Lemme see, ARKHAM HORROR will be there, I've got the goods there--frigging years of entertainment.

TWILIGHT IMPERIUM for the role-based-powers niche.

WIN PLACE & SHOW for the party people in the place to be. (My name is Jeb Kwali).

I'll take a RAGE deck too. It's 6 suits of 15 with some extras. I can play a SHITLOAD of games with that thing.

1. Advanced Squad Leader. An "end of days" game if ever there was one.
2. Magic Realm. Ready for the Apocalypse.
3. The Republic of Rome. Sic Transit...
4. Twilight Imperium. Interregnum filler.
5. Commands & Colors: Ancients. Expansions for a lifetime.

I can't do this. Choosing between games is too difficult.

1. War of the Ring
2. Twilight Struggle
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition
5. Ra


Shit, five is impossible. 10 is doable.

6. Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit
7. Descent
8. Runebound
9. Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel
10. Fury of Dracula

- BSG
- Arkham Horror
- Age of Steam (I gotta have a train game, Silverton misses out 'cos no one would play it with me)
- Fortress America (heads off Warrior Knights and Shogun)
- War of the Ring (2-p option heading off Star Wars:TQG and Memoir-44)

Won't be doing many short sessions by the look of it

My main selection criteria would be replayability and accessibility.


1. Arkham Horror plus all expansions - makes it in due to the large amount of variety the expansions provide.
2. Twilight Struggle - fills the two player spot
3. Shadow Hunters - in for the large group game
4. Cosmic Encounter - never the same game twice
5. Heroscape + expansions - to play with my son Max when he's old enough


Almosts:

Descent, Here I Stand, Railroad Tycoon, Combat Commander + expansions, Paths of Glory (lost out on the two player spot to TS), Epic Duels (same), Divine Right, Capes & Cowls, Struggle of Empires, Twilight Imperium, War of the Ring, Civilization.

Thanks god all the miniature games and card games (CCGs and LCGs) are safe from this culling (and Blood Bowl counts as a miniature game).

Mad Dog wrote:

Wah wah wah

Ken B. wrote:

I'm a pretty little princess

MAN UP FELLAS!


My initial thoughts are:
1. Magic
2. Settlers
3. Twilight Imperium 3
4. Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition
5. deck of playing cards

I'll sleep on it, but I'm pretty sure that's what it'll be.

1. War of the Ring -- wins out over Twilight Struggle just because I have played that one so much.

2. Magic Realm -- only five games, well I guess my group can get their shit together and learn MR (and I can play by myself).

3. Titan -- epic game.

4. Arkham Horror -- including Innsmouth expansion (so I will pretend like it is already out. The replayability is just too good).

5. Cosmic Encounter -- fast, fun, and different everytime.

Just got Merchant of Venus, I don't know if that would make the cut yet or not.

I might consider a RPG or a pack of standard playing cards for their versatility, but from what we typically consider "these games of ours":

1. Cosmic - wow, this is on nearly everyone's list! No need to justify.
2. Tigris and Euphrates - fills the need for something chin-scratchy, intense and head-to-head yet scalable (and I don't like 100% pure, overanalyzed strategy games such as Chess)
3. Escape From Atlantis - 2-4 player bloody madness. Runner up: Dungeonquest. I could very well change my mind next week, but I played some hilariously fun EfA games the other day. It's a nice departure from the standard fantasy theme anyway.
4. Arkham Horror, with every expansion, narrowly beating out GW Talisman 2nd Ed. with every expansion - only enough room for one of these and I haven't played AH 300 times.
5. Magic Realm - I almost threw this one aside for something I can actually play often, but I just can't do that to my baby.