Ruining Game Night - the BEST & WORST board games for ANY situation.

0:00 your granny's done herself a Mischief she's got a Dicky hip she can't make it round the garden center so she's bold up at your place with three of her mates and they want to play a board game it's just you and them so what do you bring out this is ruining game night okay so this is a new little experiment for me it's called ruining game night and what I've done is I've asked a bunch of my friends to come up with scenarios things that people might ask for how different different ways that a game night might go and I've created a little deck of cards with those in them I'm going to turn over a card which will give me a scenario or a preference and then I'm going to roll the dice to see what the player count is between one and six players I'm going to make a suggestion for a game that I think would fit that scenario really well and I'm going to make a second suggestion for a game which would ruin game night so the first thing to do is to shuffle up the the deck of of cards and deal out 10 of them so that's my 10 cards I'm going to be using for this particular video I'll probably do more videos in the future with your suggestions for scenarios which I'll mix into the deck so I've got my nice big dice here this is a dice from Rolling realm stoneware games rolling Realms I thought so that's probably the biggest dice I've got so I'd have that one and then here's my my 10 cards so let's make a start we're going to turn over a card from the deck and the card says in the pub so we're looking for a game to play in the pub uh and it's a solo game

1:32 not a big solo game player um and I'm not a big Pub goer either but if I was gonna go to the pub and play a game on my own I would probably opt for a Roland right lights can be played solo right so just a little pad of paper maybe a deck of cards if it was a flip and write perhaps something like cartographers that's got a solo mode doesn't it yeah let's go with that I'd probably go for cartographers what would I not play uh what would ruin game night if I wanted a solo game in the pub uh if I was looking for a nice solitary exercise people coming along and uh and recommending that we play a nice big game of I don't know the resistance that would be the antithesis of a solo game in the pub right next up then get rid of that one we've got five player game and we won a five player game with lots of Miniatures as you know I've got an answer for this straight away because it's a game that I'd love to play more but I never play and that is um I'd like to play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shadows of the past I've got that game it works brilliantly for five players because you got the four turtles all working together or you can of course mix in the other characters like Splinter or Casey um or April but then you're playing one player is the Baddie so essentially it's four players versus one so that would be a great five player game with lots of Miniatures it's really good as well what

3:02 would ruin game night if we were playing a five player game with we wanted a five player game with Miniatures um well let's let's take the the player count right down right so no one's turned up we've only got two players and the person who's come along wants to play Twilight Struggle there we go Twilight Struggle would ruin game night for that particular group so we're going office lunch hour three players ah do you know what I've had good success with an office lunch hours I guess you've got to think where do you work are the people you're playing with are they regular gamers are they new to gaming I've had big success with things like sushi go um Diamond um even dick set although dicks here three maybe I wouldn't go for Dixit at three deermont at three is not great either hmm might be barking up the wrong tree with those I'd go fantasy realms fantasy Realms nice little portable card game simple to teach lots of nice strategy in it I think that would blow new Gamers Minds easily fit it into a lunch hour what would ruin lunchtime for my co-workers something complex three player complex game do you know it doesn't even have to be that complex does it to blow people's minds we have a quick look what's on my shelf that would uh really get people confused let's go with this dragon's gold now that is going to make you lose friends okay that game is the meanest game I

4:34 think I've got this is a game where you have to you you reveal dragon's Treasures um everyone's contributed to try and get those Treasures but then you've got to negotiate who gets how much of the share and if you don't decide it before the timer runs out then nobody gets anything um so so it's lots of very mean negotiation good games for falling out with your co-workers I would say right so that is three of them done we're doing ten today right this game I really really want to win it's got six players really want to win what would I be good at winning at what games do I play most I play bunny Kingdom a lot I play Cracks of queddenberg a lot um these games are games I play at two player because I play them with my wife all the time six player I'd go Evolution I don't know whether I'd win I don't know and six player can run a little long I guess it could be a party game couldn't it something really big I'm quite good at drawing so maybe something like identic that's what I'd go for duplic or identic it's the same game it's a drawing game where you've got this um weird picture and you've got to describe it to the other players and they all have to draw it and then you score points based on whether they've managed to draw your description accurately and so you could use it's a game that you do well at if you're good at drawing and if you're good at describing stuff good at communicating what would be uh what would ruin game

6:05 night if I really wanted to win I was playing with six players it would be power grid right power grid I think that plays with up to six this power could play with six let's have a look yeah power grid plays with six and uh it's quite good with bigger numbers but I'm rubbish at it I really really enjoy it but I'm rubbish at it so if I really wanted to win that would ruin my game night for sure dexterity game for two players oh great oh this is right up my street a dexterity game for two players um I'd go with uh Pitch Out Pitch Out flicking game really good totally overlooked no one knows about Pitch out unless you watch my channel because I talk about it quite a lot um so you're flicking discs they've all got special powers your goal is to knock the enemies sort of leader I can't remember what it's called off the table um using all the special powers on your various discs brilliant game uh dexterity game for two players if you wanted to ruin game night and somebody was looking for dexterity game for two players do I know any bad dexterity games not really I love dexterity games they pretty much always work for me I can't think of any bad dexterity games so if I wanted to ruin game night for somebody with uh who wanted a two-player dexterity game I guess I'd have to go with something really really strategic the exact oppos a bit of a of a

7:36 two-player dexterity game so um again we could put down Twilight's struggle let's go with that what have we got kids six to eight years old not going to make them play Twilight Struggle uh we got five of them five kids six to eight years old it's quite a young age group isn't it um and and and quite variable I think six to eight years you find some kids are quite Advanced at that point some kids could play some of the more adult games other kids couldn't I'd be going cockroach poker five six to eight years old yeah definitely I'd be going cockroach poker I love cockroach poker and it would be perfect at that age the lying the bluffing yeah that's what I'd go with what would really ruin their day what would really ruin game night or maybe what would ruin my day um I could easily imagine a bunch of six to eight year olds asking to play Monopoly that would ruin my day oh on my weekend I wouldn't want to play a five-player game of Monopoly with a bunch of kids that would be hard going but I could easily imagine it'd ask for it because it's everywhere next up then a three-player game which you're gonna play with people with analysis paralysis this is paralysis where people take ages to think about what they're going to do next I'm going to demonstrate this to you now three player game for people with analysis paralysis foreign there you go there's my demonstration of analysis paralysis what I wouldn't play with them I can tell you now what would ruin game night is playing Tikal Tikal

9:07 or Java Mexico any of those so Tikal ruin game night what would I play with them let's play something really fast let's try something where they gotta go fast um three player magic maze isn't very good uh but that's the sort of vibe I want I want something real time um where we're working fast against the clock I'll tell you what let's play Doodle Rush okay this is a bit self-serving because it is my own design but would play a nice three-player game of Doodle Rush that's over in six minutes um you can't be slow works really well with three players frantic drawing guessing yeah that's what I'd go for three player game of Doodle Rush six player game that I could stick in a backpack presumably I'm going to be playing I don't know in an airport in a hotel in a pub no no I'm just going to someone's house there's rock paper Wizard play six player

10:09 yes it does rock paper wizard that's what I'd go for so this is a game where you're trying to compete to get to the front of a sort of a queue to get treasure I suppose and the way you do that is by pointing at people doing different hand gestures all doing that simultaneously and seeing who's pointing at who and which spells with Which special powers happen frantic it's very very silly but it's small really big experience in a in a small box so there we go rock paper wizard would be my game oh what would ruin someone's Day do you know what I really don't like is games like um it's been so many years so this is Harsh because maybe I'd enjoy it now there's a I've changed a lot over the years didn't enjoy killer bunnies played that with a big group at a party once took forever there was nothing to it no strategy it was so silly and oh killer bunnies that would ruin my day if someone brought that along right last one then somebody who's new to gaming or a group that's new to gaming there's three of them I mean this is going to be super predictable really I play I play Ticket to Ride that is very predictable isn't it do I have a less predictable answer it depends whether I wanted them to really if I wanted to kind of evangelize the hobby right ticket right is a great starting point to get people into it if I wasn't so concerned about that if I was happy to just kind of have a nice game and then they're never going to play again oh there's loads of games that I could play in that scenario you know I I could something like pick homino little dice game I don't think

11:41 that's going to introduce anyone to the Hobby and get everyone going oh wow I'm hooked but it'd be a really fun game to play with three people who were new to gaming a little bit of dice rolling what would really ruin game night for three people new to gaming or I've had so many difficult experiences with this awkward experiences with this maybe I probably wouldn't introduce Evolution to a group with who is new to gaming um but I mean you could go so much heavier couldn't you I mean you put power grid in front of somebody um person you know some people that would be fine you know you put Scythe in front of somebody who's new to gaming for some groups that would be totally overwhelming for another group that would be fine so let's go with something super complex the most complex games that I have are dominant species and Poseidon let's go with that Poseidon that's a heavy economic game an introductory 18xx game I'm going to go with that Poseidon from Lookout Spiel to ruin their night okay there we go that is 10 game 10 scenarios what I want you to do is suggest some new scenarios uh to me uh different situations they can be as ridiculous as you like or they can be pretty straightforward to be honest the ones I've had there are pretty mundane aren't they they're pretty day-to-day sort of experiences and I'm gonna mix them into my deck and we'll make we'll go through another 10 on another video hope you enjoyed that uh I did and I will see you on another video all the best oh and please like

13:13 subscribe comment love all that stuff uh and yeah see you next time