Board games that take forever to play.

[Basara_549]

Play with smarter friends.  :deviousgrin:

Yeah - it was not uncommon to "run the table" with any of the people playing (playing the version where a right answer allows you to immediately go again) with any of my gaming friends, by someone in the first round. And, this was with previously unused card sets. Gamers - especially when each of us in the group was a gamemaster of decent experience - tend to be veritable storehouses of trivial data.

The only card set that ever stumped us was the sports one.

[pandiculator]

Whenever I play Monopoly, it turns into a 5 hour or longer ordeal. Two people? 5? Doesn't matter. Something about that game...

:brood: It's the dice, I swear it...

[ergeheilalt]

The longest game I've played was 5 player Risk 2210 after we decided the 5 turn rule was stupid.

I went down to spend a week with friends in San Diego. All my old High School D&D/Boardgame buddies came over. We played well into the night until we all passed out. Then got up the next morning around 9 and played until 6 when our chick friends came over and told us we smelled of dog. We all showered and then went out for the rest of the night and didn't touch the game for the rest of the time I was down there.

We tried Axis And Allies once but by the time we got the board set up, we decided to go network the computers and play diablo 2.

[Settembrini]

We tried Axis And Allies once but by the time we got the board set up, we decided to go network the computers and play diablo 2.

You are a gamer, are you?

[Witkih]

Sick.

[Weekly]

Another Advanced Civ. lover here ! True, due to its length and the number of players required (5 at least, in my experience), getting a game running is murder. I only manage to pull it off once or twice a year.
Last one was two weeks ago. We had 8 players, the Western Expansion Map, the works. It was a blast ! Naturally we didn't 'finish' it but, thanks to Advanced Civ victory conditions, we were able to count points anyway and calculate everybody's rank, so no frustration.
One of the things I like the most with Advanced Civ is how easy it is to learn. As usual half the players were newbies, most of them casual gamer : none of them had any trouble learning the progressive mechanics, and they all had fun !

For frustrated Napelonic players, I recommend Phalanx's Age of Napoleon : two players, 3 hours games and very satisfying historical feel. An easy sell to casual boardgamers, also.

[Aos]

Like a couple of others here, I was defeated by axis and allies before we really even got started.

[Gabriel]

Federation and Empire

The last time anyone and I attempted to play, we had a three day weekend.  My friend was going to crash at my place the whole time.  We were going to game the whole weekend long.

So, Friday night, he arrives.  We immediately start setting the game up.

Round about 4AM, we were tired and decided to crash.  Bright and early at noon the next day, we started again.

Taking normal food breaks, and occasionally stopping to play Atari to relieve the tedium, it took us the rest of the day to get things completely set up.  So, we decided that Sunday and Monday would be absolutely full of starship warfare.

I forget the details after that, but we got through about 4 turns in two days.  At 10PM on Monday, we quit.  From that point forward, whenever our game group was pressed for time, the tradition was to suggest a game of Federation & Empire.

[Nicephorus]

Federation and Empire

Over the last few years, they've added a few add-ons with a bunch of chrome that don't add much to the game but make it more complicated and slower.  

It was already a game where accounts of people making it to near the end were so rare as to be legends.

I like some of the concepts but have become disgusted with the direction it has taken.  That and half of the people on it's messageboard are self-important cry babies.

[S. John Ross]

Civ was a blast, especially with the Advanced expansion set.

Still my favorite marathon boardgame ... and in my Top 5 all-time boardgames. I agree that the Advanced Civ expansion improved it vastly; I also like AH's second add-on (the Western Expansion Map), which adjusted the balance nicely to bring Africa a little more much-needed love.

I've got a complete Avalon Hill set; I've been searching for a while for a copy of the original [British, IIRC] game AH licensed the core box from. When I used to represent AH at conventions, I ran a buttload of Civ demo games ... It says something about the quality of a game (and the difficulty of getting a group together on normal-people schedules) when you get overflow tables for a game that takes 6-10 hours to complete

[Settembrini]

Have I mentioned Empires in Arms already? That`s the mother lode! A Bonanza of Strategy, Diplomacy and Roleplay and the fucking coolest battle system evar.

[Nicephorus]

Have I mentioned Empires in Arms already? That`s the mother lode! A Bonanza of Strategy, Diplomacy and Roleplay and the fucking coolest battle system evar.

I'd love to have a computerized version of that.  Wargame AIs generally suck so it'd probably have to be multiplayer only.  But that's ok, I just want the something to calculate all the supply losses/costs, battle results, incomes, track training times, and all the other things that get in the way of the strategy and diplomacy.  Plus, not having a board laid out for months on end.

[Settembrini]

http://www.matrixgames.com/games/game.asp?gid=285
still waiting for it

[KrakaJak]

Ummmm
Longest games I've played...
 
Axis & Allies is a Long Ass Game! LAG!
 
The other game that takes a LOOOOONG time to play...effing Car Wars!
 
I think this game took the four people playing it 4+ hours to make cars. The actual game itself took less than a a half hour. It's like the curse of Steve Jackson Games.

[damster25]

monopoly took me 5 days one time!!!!!!!!!