I promised you a board game and that was no lie.
I really enjoy playing board games. Over the past several years I’ve become absolutely fascinated with extra geeky and slightly strategic games like Munchkin (and all of its expansions), Carcassonne (and all of its expansions), Settlers of Catan (and all of its expansions), along with numerous others and one that I’d been eying like a slathering idiot until my SO decided to treat me to it a couple of years ago:
The marvelous folks at Days of Wonder (also known for Ticket to Ride, which I have SHAMEFULLY not played yet) have made a sprawling board game of epic proportions that utilizes teamwork, patience, and turn by turn play with the wickedly evil element of having one player be the traitor (the game can be played without this aspect; I advise this for beginners; the game is difficult enough in itself without wondering whether someone is WORKING AGAINST ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK), who can ruin the game at the worse moments. Players get to be Knights of the Round Table (each has a different game-aiding ability) defending a Camelot besieged by Picts and Saxons, running several quests (Holy Grail, Excalibur), as they try to successfully defeat the mighty dragon before forces overwhelm the castle walls and everyone dies of exhaustion. The key to success: everyone must work together to ensure victory. It’s a collaboration to defeat the game, rather than a competition to destroy (errm, beat) the other players. The game forces players to be noble and act for the good of the group (hence why the traitor is so evil).
As if that wasn’t bad enough (I’m not convinced I’m doing a proper job of describing just how insane this game can get), there’s an expansion!
It features Merlin, another traitor (argh), and EVEN MORE Knights of the Round Table, which is awesome because everyone always wants to be the same damn knight and I don’t know how adding more solves the problem, aside from variety in selection and the opportunity for even more people to play and grumble about how they don’t get to be Arthur or Gawaine…
Anyway. There’s yet another expansion (I don’t have this or Merlin’s Company and desperately crave both):
Purely for aesthetic purposes, A Company of Knights is just a box with hand-painted game pieces inside. It’s gorgeous.
A bit of warning: these games, depending on where you find them, don’t run cheap. Even Amazon lists them around $40, but specialty stores are known to double that. You might feel a pain in your wallet, but surely, after one attempt to play this game you’ll be so utterly taken with a gamut of emotions so difficult to distinguish one from the other that you’ll keep cajoling your friends into playing because damnit, you either love this game or you hate it (or, you know, you hate your friend, the TRAITOR), but the bottom line is: you’ll want to keep playing.
Also: gameplay may go for at least a couple of hours. Although, if you’re familiar with Settler’s of Catan or any of the other games I mentioned above, you are quite familiar with the cost involved, both monetary and time-wise as well as psychological.*
*Erika makes no factual claims to support actual costs involved in pre-, post-, or during gameplay.
Hi Erika, I’ve been interested in finding board games to play. Most of the best require more than 2 players, but it’s just me and the spousal unit at home. These sound very interesting, but clearly benefit from having a sizable crew to play, and the games are deep, and require some commitment to learn. We bought a Risk 2210 game because it has a 2-player mode… well hmm I should make a blog post about that. (short answer: avoid.)
Who do you play with? Good playmates I’d think are important to the game experience. I’d like to hear your suggestions for 2-person board games. (For board games for adults, I couldn’t think of anything other than Stratego.) I might go over to our local game store and see what they’ve got, and whether they have game nights.
Speaking of medievally board games, have you played Domaine?
All of the games I mention here do unfortunately require more than two people to get the full effect. Aside from Munchkin and perhaps Carcassonne, the rulebooks are very thick! There is even one expansion for Settlers of Catan that I haven’t even attempted to integrate into the main game because I’m still so confused over the rules (Traders and Barbarians, if you are interested).
Ah, Risk is a game I avoid playing at all costs anyway. I joke about these games provoking the best and worst out of players, but honestly: these are all very enjoyable games. I’ve learned the hard way that Risk tends to do nothing but bring out the bad in people! Competition can be an ugly thing sometimes and I’d rather leave those games to the truly dedicated (if I can’t laugh at myself or others while playing, it’s just not fun anymore).
I play with my brother, my boyfriend (when he is visiting), and a group of friends, whomever we can get together that’s interested in playing. Unfortunately many of them have moved away and it’s been some time since I’ve played any board game (we enjoy things like Monopoly, Life, Scattegories, Apples to Apples, etc…). It’s hard finding good folks to play with, and by that I mean exactly what you said: good playmates. The players set up the environment and mood as much as the game does.
Hmm Let me think about 2 player games. I believe there is a card game version of one of these games. I also have a card game I didn’t mention here, but I have yet to play. Mostly that’s because it requires 3 players at least for the game dynamic to work properly. The only two-player game I can really think of is a castle game I purchased at a Renaissance Faire a few years ago… It’s a space dominating game like Go only not nearly as sophisticated and with large wooden castle pieces.
I’ll check the name and see if I can find a link for you. 
I have not played Domaine! I’ve been limited to what the nearest game store has. Strangely enough, our local B&N has begun carrying games like Settlers, Carcassonne and Munchkin at an incredibly marked up price, but it’s at least encouraging to see these games gain popularity enough to work their way into a more public market. Domaine looks like incredible fun, though! I’ll have to look for it.