Mine is Ludo: A solid 2 to 4 Player board game.
Fun Fact: It causes a war in Hindu Mythology.
Second is Chess because dev abandoned their game.
Champions of Midgard - Because Vikings! Its a resource management based game where you go on journeys to fight magical monsters. Its pretty tight and you can play a complete game in one-two hours.
Pandemic - I mostly enjoy this because it is a co-op game. You all fight the disease! That said the game mechanic is pretty fun and can be challenging.
Odin’s Ravens for a quick game, Game of Thrones for a very long and infuriating game of strategy.
That is easy to answer for me.
Mansion of madness
I have played so many rounds with so many different people. The game is complex enough that each round is different. But easy enough to geht people to start with. Easy to play hard to master.
The digital game master via APP is great. I had so many games in which the last player actions decided the game. After some hours of game time. Your actions feel so impactful.
Mysterium among others already mentioned. Very similar core mechanic to dixit, but co-op and some what longer/more expansive.
The ones I usually carry around to introduce people to good boardgames are: Hive Portable it can get as complicated as chess, but is really easy to pick up for kids and adults. Carcassonne chill and you can pick and choose expansions Forbidden Island (and its family) it’s a fun cooperative game that’s easy for kids to pick up.
Cosmic Encounter
No two games are ever the same. So are the attempts to lure people in and out of encounters, and the following betrayels. Great fun.
Love Cosmic, any time people are coming round I try to lure them into a game. Too bad my regular group got derailed by someone buying Gloomhaven
Settlers of Catan and Risk.
I’m a big fan of The Campaign for North Africa, personally.
Dixit is one of my favorites, and very fun to play with a group of people you know well. Sort of like Pictionary with cards instead of drawing, but you try to only get one person to guess correctly.
Small World was my introduction into alternative board games, and still one of my favorites to help introduce new board games to people who have only played Monopoly.
Right now, it is Azul.
I’ve heard good things. Would it be easy for friends to pick up quickly?
I’ve found it rather easy to teach new players.
Backgammon
I like Root, its like an asymmetric Risk.
I treat Chinese checkers with the same reverence and over-seriousness that chess players have towards chess. I’m not especially good at it, but I really enjoy it.
Cameroon. It’s like a mix of air hockey and pool.
I wish I had an actual board still… I only have it via 52 Clubhouse Games on switch. I find it much more fun when you’re actually flicking the pieces with your finger.
I really enjoy Root, but it can end up taking a little while to get through.
