Hi, me and my cousins had a good thing going for a long time playing Catan but we are looking to shake things up. We have played Catan regularly for over s year, but find that it’s getting a little stale. We are looking for a game that requires a lot of strategy, planning, teamwork but also betrayal and backstabbing, yet also not take half an hour to set up and dismantle.
In Catan we love that the board changes every game and therefore the strategy, but found that once we got to the castles and knights expansion there was one strategy that beat out all the rest which sort of deflated the fun (first person to get science bonus seemed to win 90% of the time).
Any other board games out there for beginners that don’t take forever to set up and put away? Not huge into role playing, but never say never I guess.
I might recommend Dominion as a great “starter” game that is a totally different feel from Catan but still has the “different every time” setup. Very quick to set up; it’s just cards. No teamwork though.
Something with teamwork and betrayal I would recommend is Dead of Winter. But I’ll be honest betrayal as a mechanic usually doesn’t work for me in general, so I don’t play with those rules when there is an option.
For a teamwork game, one classic is Pandemic, although once you win the game the first time the novelty wears off.
Ah, I think I played dominion years ago and liked it, but forgot the name of it. Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Dominion is a really good shout, once you have leant the basics there is so much variation in strategy depending on the kingdoms chosen.