Best Board Games that I have played

 I can still remember the nights playing games with my family like Monopoly, Life and cards. As I grew older I learned newer and more challenging games, and alway enjoyed playing against new and more challenging opponents. I am listing my favourite games through the years. This is my top ten list.

1. Star Fleet Battle - My all time favourite game

This is a flleet battle system base on the Star Trek Universe. The game has been around for over 25 years. It is one of the most balanced and most versitile games that I have ever played. There are several options available for races, ships, and scenarios. You can have a small ship on ship engagement to a large fleet engagement. There is no real limit to the number of players. It is best to start with the basic rules and build you way up to the full set.

There are several different races available including the basic Federation, Klingon, Romulan which have a large variance in weaponry, and strategy. My friends and I all have our favourite ones and try to best our abilities with each race, but I have played and enjoyed playing all of them.

2. Diplomacy - Ultimate strategy and verbal finesse game

This is based on a pre- world war one map. There are 7 countries to chose from. The game does not use any type of randomness (i.e. dice or cards) so there is nothing but strategy and ability to makes deals with other countires to aid you so that in the end you are on top. The game is labelled the backstabber's game in the fact that the object is to control over half of the cities in the game, and to do so you must eventually attack an ally or two. I don't know how true this is but I heard that this was Henry Kissinger's favourite game.

3. Civilization - Empire Building at it's best

This is the board game long before the Sid Meier's video game. It is an empire building game starting from the stone agae and building an empire of cities and technolgy. Though it is not as complex as the video game the challenge is definitely there and much more fun to play in person with several friends.

4. Empire Builder - Best of the Rail Games

The Empire Builder series has different boards available today. I have played them all. Eurorails has always been my favourite, but the is also North American Rails, British Rails, Nippon Rails, China Rails, India Rails, Aussie Rails, Russian Rails, Lunar Rails, Martian Rails, and even a Fantasy one called Iron Dragon.

You start with an alloted amount of money and build a rail system based on card that are dealt to you. With these card you draw rails between the cities and move a token that represent a train to pickup and drop off commodities between the two cities to make more money to build a bigger rail line and so on. Each game has usually $250, 000 and five major city win requirement. Ever game is fun a challenging.

5. Battlestar Galactica - One of my new Favourites

I just played this game for the first time just a couple weeks ago, but it is very well designed. It gives you the feel for the tv series for which it was based. Each player represent one of the character from the show. There are human and cylon characters in the game but know one but the players themselves know which is which. the object of the game is for the humans to reach Kobol, and the cylons to stop them without being figured out. The cylons can still deter the humans once they are caught but it is much easier if you go undetected.

6. Dominion - Card Deck Builder - Unique and addictive

This is another game that I just started playing recently. This game is a a deck builder game based on victory points. The are several different cards in the game and also several others with some expansions that have come out. Generally you play with 10 sets of these several cards try to get the most victory points before the game is over. With all the different cards availble there is a huge variety of games that can be played.

7. Axis and Allies - World War 2 Combat - Anniversary Edition

I used to play this game years ago and always had a lot of fun. In the last several years there has been several new version available. They even came out with a miniatures version of the game. The original was still my favourite then they came out with the anniversary edition, This version is much more balanced than the first, China being an automous country adds more historical flavour to it as well. If you enjoyed the original this is a must have.

8. Ironclads - Pre 1900s Naval Combat

There are a few wooden ships, and ironclad games out there but Ironclads has always been my favourite. This is another game I have played for years and years. Not as much variance as there is with Starfleet, but all the ships are historically accurate, which again adds flavour to the game. The game is generally quick and fun.

9. Siekrieg - MY friends and I revamped the Rules to make it quicker and more playable

Now, I don't even know if this game is still available, but it is based on world one and two ships. My friends and I generally just play the world war two ones. We have reinacted some historical battles, but usually just try to make an even sided game. Most of the Historical battles were really one-sided. The game at first was really sluggish and dice based, but we stripped it down and made a few of our own charts and now the game can easily be played in an afternoon. It is a miniature based game, which we use the 2400 sizing. We only play a couple times a year because of the length of time it takes to play.

10. Chess - Classic

Well, Chess is the best strategy game bar none. There are games like GO that are just as strategic but having pieces with different movement capabilities makes the game the best ever. BUT there is something to be said about having some randomness involved. If you play against someone that is alot better than you, then you can still win with randomness. I am a good chess player, just not a great one.