About to move into my own place and I'd really like to own a few board games so I can call some friends.
I really have no experience, I think the last board game I played was War and game of life a decade or so ago which I'm not even sure is considered a board game.
Can you guys recommend me some gateway ones? Preferably simpler ones on the party side
Don't really play party games myself but here are my recommendations
Codenames is very simple, very fun, and quick. One of the few party games I'm always willing to play. Up to 8 players split into two teams has a leader from each team giving clues to try and guess the right card that has your teams agent in the field. You could potentially reveal your rivals agent and automatically end your turn, reveal an assassin that loses your team the game and a civilian which ends your turn.
Pandemic is still one of my favorite games for people new to modern board games. Despite this video, there are 3 expansions but anyway. It's very easy to learn and very fun. It's fully co-op too which is something people don't realize. I like to show this game because it gives people a way to learn about roles, working together, and has varying difficulty levels that really make it fun. 1-4 players or 5 with expansions. Each player takes a different role card that gives you different special abilities such as building a free research center anywhere or curing a disease with less cards. There are four diseases that the players are trying to cure before the world is a contaminated mess.
The Quest for El Dorado is an excellent game. It combines deck building and racing in such a great theme. Very easy to learn, variable set up, and great at all player counts especially 2. You draw cards from your deck on your turn, you can use it to move hexes or buy new cards from the card marketplace which can improve your deck. Players can block other players and force you to go around or through a location that requires more from you or maybe you decide to buy cards. It's very easy and takes 5 minutes to learn and teach. Excellent entry level game but something I still bring out for people to play because it's just so fun and quick to set up.
Lords of Waterdeep is a good game but the expansion takes a good game and makes it a great game. I think the base game itself is great for new players and good at showing what a worker placement game is and how they work. You're taking turns, assigning agents, completing quests, hiring party members that can be used for quests or making new buildings. The expansion adds a lot more to do but since you're new I would suggest just the base game itself. It's very easy to learn despite how it looks. If you snag both at a cheap price, more power to you. Great games, I don't play them as much nowadays but I do once in awhile.
Azul is an excellent game for all skill types. It's abstract but basically you're building floor tiles (?) but the puzzle is so much fun. Each player is taking turns getting tiles from these circular cardboard tokens or the factory floor. The trick is, you take all same color tiles from one spot at once and if it doesn't you're going to lose points. I'm doing a bad job of explaining it but seriously watch the video I linked. It's so damn simple and such a clean design. Great game and can easily be found for under $30. Probably the fastest set up time too.
