Board games in which you have to smash your head

As many of you know, the world of board games is very diverse and actively developing. You can find games for almost every taste and temperament, from simple games for companies at parties to hardcore monsters in which games last for hours, from simple card entertainments to wargames that require investing tons of money in creating armies from miniatures and studying rulebooks on hundreds of pages.

In our company, many are fond of desktops and even regularly get together and spend evenings at parties. Therefore, this Friday we decided to take a break from the hardcore code (but not from hardcore) and made for you a selection of board games in which you will have to rack your brains to defeat your opponents. We assigned a level of difficulty to each game. It is subjective and relative, it is possible that some games will seem to you more complex or easier.

Let us make a reservation right away - this collection will not have wargames and collectible card games (CCIs): these genres usually require high costs for finding and buying figures and cards in order to assemble your army or deck. We will consider only those games in which it is enough to buy one box.

And let's start with two monsters, perhaps the most ambitious board games.

Empire Twilight (Twilight Imperium)

Relative complexity : ★★★★★

Epic space strategy. And the “epic” is not an exaggeration: a party for six people can easily last 9-12 hours of pure playing time.

Here you need to manage your interstellar empires, trade with each other, actively engage in diplomacy, jointly adopting various laws that will affect the future course of the game, develop the tree of technologies available to you (each player represents a particular race with its own capabilities), and most importantly, fight !

Fleets of figures of giant spaceships converge on a hefty playing field, and the intensity of passions does not subside throughout the long hours of the game. The game harmoniously uses a variety of mechanics: a technology tree, battle modifier cards, diplomacy, a system of laws, dice when calculating damage in battles.

This is the table of a typical game in Twilight of the Empire:





Yes, this game is not for everyone: the games are interesting and varied, but at the same time very long, and not everyone is ready to spend, without exaggeration, the whole day on the game, and also you need to collect the same company. But the scale, depth and fascination of the game pays for the time spent.

Forbidden Stars

Relative complexity : ★★★★★

This game is not so large-scale, but also belongs to the category of “heavyweights”. A strategic space-themed game, but it was made according to the universe of the most popular desktop warhammer 40,000.



Here, players take turns laying tiles, each time creating a unique playing field, and fight each other for control of star systems. As in “Twilight of Empires”, in “Forbidden Stars” you will also lead the space armada into battle, trying to fulfill your goals (each player has his own). At the same time, a warp storm migrating on the map will interfere with you, breaking the connection between star systems and breaking the plans of naval commanders.

Each turn, players take turns in a closed lay out order cards to the troops, and then play the resulting sequence of orders, which can be of 4 types:

• mobilization - an increase in the army and the construction of buildings on the planets,
  
• planning - adding new cards from the deck,
  
• administration - collecting resources from the planets,
  
• relocation - moving fleets across the playing field.
  

The combat system is also based on cubes.


In principle, this is a game for those who are not ready to spend all day on “Twilight of the Empire”, but at the same time want to compete in a large-scale space strategy.

Lords of Hellas

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

Funny idea: mix alien technology and Greek mythology to get cyborg monsters. There are several ways to win the “Lords of Hellas”: first by killing the right amount of wandering monsters, capturing a certain number of provinces or temples.



You can play as ordinary warriors, also cyborgs, and call on yourself for help heroes, for example, Achilles with a flamethrower built into your hand. Characters can be pumped, raising different skills and equipping them with more powerful weapons. And in the game wonderful big miniatures!

Through Ages

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

When looking at the playing field, this is not at all obvious, but Through the Ages is also referred to the strategy genre.



The basis of game mechanics is maps of technologies, buildings and characters, track counters of culture, science and military force, as well as multi-functional dice chips, indicating the amount of resources and available actions. We collect resources and build wonders of the world. They put the cubes on the farm map - food fell on you, on the military map - the army replenished.

By the way, the mechanism of battles in the game is quite developed, which is not surprising, because people only engaged in the millennia that constantly fought with each other. However, there is no preponderance to the side of the war in Through the Ages, the game is very balanced: if you focus on any one area of ​​development, you will have to immediately solve a bunch of emerging problems, both economic and managerial.

Civilization by Sid Meier's Civilization

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆



Yes, in the world of board games there are adaptations of computer games (there is even a desktop Doom).

Here you can play for one of the six races, and in the same way as in the electronic progenitor, you can win in four ways: military, cultural, economic or technological. The mechanics of constructing a map are curiously made - players start in their home regions and, as the borders of their states expand, gradually “open” the world map, laying out new tile parts. Battles and sciences are made in the form of cards.

Gaia Project

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

At first glance it seems that this is another space strategy, but no - this is a well-thought-out economic game dedicated to the colonization of planetary systems. Players gradually lay out new tiles, creating a new playing space each time. Having chosen one of the 14 races, you need to accumulate resources and expand your possessions, simultaneously completing tasks that will bring additional victory points.



There are seven types of planets in Project Gaia, and each type can be colonized only by some 2 races out of 14. So it’s not at all a fact that the star system you discovered will be useful to you, but it can turn out to be a tidbit for rivals, who will try to take it in hand with all the ensuing consequences. Also available are the mechanics of the development of sciences that expand your opportunities for expansion.

New Angeles

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

The plot is this: in the future, New York became the largest city on the planet. It built a space elevator that can deliver to the moon, and also the most powerful corporations in the world settled here. One of them will go to your management, and you will lead it into a brighter future, gaining power and wealth, while maintaining order in the metropolis.

Inis (Inis)

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

In my opinion, this is one of the most controversial games in the collection. Does it cause either delight or complete misunderstanding, what is it all about? Hot fans of the game argue that it is not revealed in all its glory immediately, but after two or three parties, only then comes the understanding of all the possibilities and beauty of the plan.

In Inish, you need to fight for power in ancient Ireland, laying out a playing field from tiles of very complex shape and placing figures of clans. Who has more figures on the tile, he controls it.

There are three ways to win: to control 6 enemy clans (that is, to ensure their numerical superiority), to be present in 6 regions or to build at least 6 shrines where you are present.



The battles here are very abstract and highly dependent on military maps. By the way, the rules stipulate that, by agreement of the parties, the conflict can not begin at all, or stop butting at any time. Also, draft mechanics are used here - before the start of the round, the players take turns passing each other the action cards handed over to each other in a circle, each time leaving themselves one at a time, thus forming a “hand”. These action cards just allow you to open new map fragments, build shrines, move clans to other regions and gain advantages in battles. So you have to break your head very hard, thinking over what your rivals can do.

Twilight Struggle

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

Have you ever wondered what would happen if at some point of the Cold War another decision was made and the USSR would not have lost as a result? In the duel wargame "Twilight Struggle" you can try to rewrite the course of history - or repeat it - by joining the fight on a huge world map about a meter wide on the side of one of the camps under the leadership of the USA or USSR.



The game consists of 10 rounds, each of which is dedicated to a certain period of time with real historical events. Your goal is to use your action cards on hand to increase your influence in a particular country, right up to the organization of coups. At the same time, a balance must be maintained in the tension of relations and not brought to a nuclear war.

War of the Ring

Relative complexity : ★★★ ☆☆

Dedicated to all fans of Middle-earth. A very large-scale strategy in which up to 4 players clash in the battles between good and evil. The set includes as many as 205 miniature figures, heroes and ordinary warriors, more than 30 types of miniatures.



The game is asymmetric, that is, the alignment of forces and goals between good and evil is different: the former want to destroy the Ring of Power, the latter seek to erase the defending cities from the face of the Earth. The actions of each side during the course are determined by dice rolls. The sides have their own cubes, and not just numerical, but custom, on some faces there are meanings - "jokers". You can also change the situation unfavorable for yourself with the help of event cards. In general, the game is very variable and makes you move very convoluted convolutions.

Detective: A game about modern investigation (Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame)

Relative complexity : ★★ ☆☆☆

This is a story game in which you, as investigators of the Antares National Agency, have to solve five crimes using a variety of tools and solutions. At first, all these matters seem unrelated to each other, but gradually begin to take shape in the overall plot picture (as if not to spoil).



The peculiarity of the game is that it also uses an online component: you can enter the Antares database via the Internet to get information about suspects, witnesses, arrests and court cases.

Star Wars Rebellion (Star Wars: Rebellion)

Relative complexity : ★★★★ ☆

Sorry about space again, but it's still an author’s selection. But about Star Wars.

The game is based on the very warm tube trilogy filmed by George George Lucas. A huge map of star systems will unfold before you, one player will lead the troops of the Empire, the other - the forces of the rebels. The former with the help of space and planetary forces will seek and destroy the rebel base, the latter will try to ignite a civil war in a semi-partisan style.



The authors not only recreated the world of Star Wars, but also introduced characters into the game - characters from the parent trilogy, which have a huge impact on the gameplay. Here you can send a fleet of miniatures to the enemy — there are even Death Stars — and then drop an assault on the planet. The game uses a bunch of cards, some activate the unique skills of the parties and characters, others are used only for battles.

Brass. Lancashire (Brass. Lancashire)

Relative complexity : ★★★★ ☆

This is the only game in the Eurogame genre in the collection, because I don’t like it. Eurogames are a class of games in which there is practically no conflict between players, there are no aggressive actions, but at the same time the players themselves have little interaction with each other. The main events of these thoughtful games are held on personal gaming cards, tablets, where participants collect and exchange all kinds of resources, build something, and solve some problems. They play, so to speak, not with each other, I am close, in parallel. But, in fairness, it is in the games of this genre that you most of all have to intensively calculate the moves and actions.



“Brass. Lancashire ”is a deep economic euro dedicated to the industrial revolution in England in the 18th century. The party consists of two parts: the era of canals from 1770 to 1830, and the era of railways from 1830 to 1870. You will need to build and modernize enterprises, produce goods and develop transport routes. Who will score more victory points by the end of the game, that well done.

A cool video of unpacking two Brass games - Lancashire and Birmingham (the components are, of course, gorgeous):

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This is just a tiny fraction of board games that aren't at all as simple as they might seem, and some don't even try to seem simple. If you are only taking the first steps in this hobby, or even are far from it, then it is better to start with simpler games, the so-called fillers and patigames. And as you get comfortable and want something more complicated and interesting, be sure to look at this list. Surely you will find something to your taste.