By: Blaze Aldrich | April 3, 2024
10 Classic Board Games that Suck Now (And 10 Replacements for them)
There's something about the nostalgia of playing our favorite childhood board games. This could include board games like Monopoly or Risk, but after the nostalgia wears off and the 6 hours of playing, we realize these games are not that great. Most classic board games are driven by mindless dice rolls and luck. Now some of the board games on this list don't totally suck, but I would like to offer you 10 alternative board games that rely less on luck and provide a better, seamless board gaming experience.
10. From Monopoly To Suburbia
Monopoly is definitely the OG of board games. We all enjoyed the concept of buying property and building our empires. As a result, crushing our competitors in a grueling 10 hour game. Well, a great board game replacement for Monopoly is Suburbia. In Suburbia you are strategically buying and placing stores, neighborhoods, airports, etc. to increase your income & population for your city. Where Monopoly relies on a lot of luck from dice rolling, Suburbia relies more on your skill to masterfully build a city without going broke. Another plus about Suburbia is that the game play does not last an eternity, 60-90 minutes tops.
9. From Catan To Everdell
Wow! What can I say about Catan, its a gateway board game for a lot of people that start to immerse themselves into modern board games. Now there's nothing inherently bad about Catan, but eventually after you have played it a million times, you have to evolve into other games. What we loved about Catan was the resource collecting and using those resources to buy stuff. Everdell does just that, plus more! In Everdell you use your little cute creatures to collect resources like twigs, berries, pebbles etc. in order to buy/build certain cards. In Catan actions are limited, but with Everdell, there are a ton of choices to make. In addition, there's no lucky dice rolling. As you can already tell, I don't like dice rolls dictating who wins or loses.
8. From Risk To Root
Risk was one of my favorite childhood board games because I liked the idea of world domination haha. There is a great amount of strategy in Risk, but the best strategy of all time can't overcome bad dice rolling. To avoid this pitfall, try out the board game Root. Root is also an area control board game within the forest. Every player plays with different animals that have their own abilities and winning objectives. This Asymmetric board game does have battle dice rolling which granted was another reason we loved Risk, but in Root bad dice rolls can be minimized. Going from Risk to Root can be bit of a challenge since its a little more complicated, but once you get the hang of the board game its totally worth it.
7. From Scrabble To Hardback
Scrabble is still an amazing board game that stands the test of time. The only lousy element of Scrabble was players are not really rewarded for the unique and large words they create. The board game was less about making words and more about making points. With Hardback deck building game, you are rewarded for the amazing words you construct. Based on your words, you can buy better cards, gain points, and bonuses. If you can only make a 3 letter word, you'll end up getting less of all those benefits. Lastly, its a deck builder, which is one of my favorite board game mechanics. If you love Scrabble, you will definitely enjoy Hardback!
6. From Ticket To Ride To Brass: Birmingham
Ticket To Ride is similar to Catan, where its a gateway board game that starts your addiction for modern gaming. Again, Ticket To Ride is not a terrible game, but after some time the fun wears off. We all really enjoy building railway networks from one end of the country to the other. Ultimately creating as much points as possible. To enhance this gaming experience, you should give Brass: Birmingham a shot. Not only are you building networks such as railways & canals, but you're developing different industries to gain points & income. In addition, you can utilize other peoples' networks to benefit yourself, but in return benefits the other players as well. This adds a whole new dimension of gaming and strategy that is so enjoyable.
5. From Pandemic To Nemesis
Pandemic is a challenging cooperative game where you are trying to save the world from a deathly pandemic, imagine that! Once you get the hang of the mechanics and how to win, the board game becomes plain and boring. So! Lets increase the difficulty and unpredictability with Nemesis. Nemesis is a board game on another level because there's more mechanics and gaming going on. The Nemesis board game is a semi-cooperative game where you are working "together" to kill aliens, fix the ship, and direct the ship to earth. I put together in quotations because you can purposely kill other players, blow up the ship and escape in space pods leaving everyone else for dead. Accomplishing all those things without dying and accomplishing your object is very difficult. In many instances, everyone dies and no one wins. So Enjoy!
4. From Carcassonne To Cascadia
When Carcassonne board game first game out, it produced the laying down tiles mechanism which was revolutionary at the time. Looking back at the game play, pulling random tiles and forcing to play a certain way is no better than lucky dice rolls. In contrast, Cascadia board game allows you to pick from several tiles and animals alleviating luck and allowing players to be more methodical about their choices. You can put down tiles of the same landscape, or different animal patterns to help plan for your next couple moves. Depending on what you do, the more points you might have the potential to earn. Cascadia is a pretty simple board game that's easy to pick up and excellent for a chill game night.
3. From Chess To Santorini
Chess is still heavily played today with massive tournaments to crown the most highly skilled players. Chess is definitely a 100% skill based game with each board game piece having specific abilities. If you enjoy Chess and want to try something new, I would recommend Santorini board game. Santorini is a 3-D like chess board game where every move is meaningful. On your turn you move 1 space then build or use your special ability. The object of the board game is to get your worker to the 3rd level of the building to win. Easier said then done, but when you do, checkmate!
2. From Dominion To Clank Legacy
Dominion deck building board game is another one of my favorites that got me excited about this hobby. Also Dominion has additional expansions that expand the game play and mechanics. Only negative thing about Dominion is when you figure out the main way to win (every time), it ruins the game. Clank specifically Clank Legacy is a deck building board game that amplifies a normal deck builder. In Clank Legacy, you utilize your cards to move throughout the dungeon, killing creatures, and trying to avoid the deadly dragon to collect artifacts. Since its a Legacy board game, the board and cards of the game continually are changed and modified. Playing this game has been one of my most memorable and most fun gaming experience I have ever had! Good News for me! Clank Legacy 2 was just on Kickstarter.
1. From Yahtzee To That's Pretty Clever
I've talked a lot of crap about dice rolling throughout this post, so those who love rolling dice just to roll dice I saved this one for you. Astonishingly, I played a lot of Yahtzee as a kid and really enjoyed trying to get the highest combinations or getting multiple Yahtzees. That's Pretty Clever takes dice rolling and creating combinations to a whole new level. With this game not only do you get to use your dice but you also get to use your opponents dice. You have to be very strategic about how you utilize your dice because 1 dice can get you multiple bonuses. Best part about this game is how cheap it is compared to all the other board games I mentioned.
Conclusion
I still cherish most of these classic board games that I spoke about, but I prefer their replacements and other board games much more. I am curious to know if you have any replacement board games for these classics? Let me know what board games that other people should try out. Or you can also let me that I am totally wrong and the board games I mentioned are trash. In that case, let me know what board games are superior to my replacements. Happy Gaming!
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