"Gateway "Family" Euro-games for Newbie Night?" Topic

Our assistant pastor at our church runs our small couples Sunday school class and recently asked me if I would like to host a games night at our house. We could play some games other than the basic Milton Bradley fare or the cheesy couples "how well do you know your spouse" games that are out there. (We all "suffered" through the latter at his house the other month, which is why he asked me--the resident "gamer"--to take over!) This might also become a monthly event.

My wife and I said that would be great, but the only game I own like this is Ticket to Ride, which I love. My wife likes Apples to Apples. I'd like some additional variety.

So what Euro-style games do you all suggest as good, easy, fairly quick, and so on for several people? Note we are a conservative church group, so no scantily clad women, foul language, horror, and so on is right out. Any genre other than horror is fine. Board or card games also fine.

I would recommend looking around on
boardgamegeek.com

Settlers of Catan and Carcassone might be 2 games to look into.

Both of them are avaible in the US as far as I know.

Settlers of Catan and Carcassone might be 2 games to look into.

these get my vote too

Buyword.

Niagara is surprisingly good.

Tsuro.

These games are all pretty fast playing, too.
-Kle.

Carcasonne -- there are several variations…

Sword & Skull -- vaguely Monopoly-like pirate fun

Most of the rest I know are pretty geeky (Munchkin Cthulhu, anyone?)

Pirate's Cove, if you're not looking at too much time. There's only 12 rounds, and it would only take a long time if you had lots of battles.

Mystery of the Abbey, if your folks like the Clue sorts of games.

Shadows over Camelot is collaborative, unless you play with a traitor (which you don't have to do). If you chose this one, 'evil' is run by everyone, so you have to choose your dark moves carefully or you'll screw up the light side.

I enjoyed playing Settlers of Catan well enough the only time I did it, but I'm not sure I'll rush right out and buy it. It does have several expansions to let you increase the number of players.

Pity about no horror, as Arkham Horror is a very good cooperative game.

You'd know your group best, but you could look into some of the "Munchkin" series of card games. "Space Munchkin" or the one that spoof's Spy Movies gives everyone a common frame of reference. However, the "win by any means" may not be the right "message" for your group.

I would avoid Euro Rails or the others as they take entirely too long.

The card game, Flux, might be a good one to look into as well.

Wyatt

I second Flux.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Diplomacy

Flux is a great game, as is Falling

Lost Civilisations is superb, and there's an approved 4 player variant. Think the rules are on boardgame geek.

Ticket To Ride and Alhambra are perfect gateway games. I've run games with those two titles for really different non-gamer groups and haven't had a single 'failure' yet.