Christian Link
United States
Basalt
Colorado
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The new 51st State is non-backstabby.
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Alfred Wallace
United States
State College
Pennsylvania
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I endorse the sentiment that if Settlers is too confrontational for your group, you're best off with competitive solitaire games (Take it Easy) or cooperative games. (And there are great games in both categories!) (One vs. Many games might also work--Garibaldi: La Trafila, say--with one player explicitly facing off against everyone else cooperating. An idea.) Almost anything else is going to have confrontation eventually, even if not "back-stabbing" in its classic Diplomacy sense.
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fellonmyhead wrote:
I'm afraid I have to disagree with these.
While it is not necessary to play them in a vicious manner, if you have one shark in with a bunch of fish, it can be upsetting to the fish. Like in Power Grid, you might need 7 coal to fire your plants. If the shark can, he might buy the 7 remaining coal, leaving you unable to get any.
Caylus can be very nasty with regard to positioning of the Provost.
Agricola can be very nasty with people taking things they don't need (like 6 sheep when they have no pastures) just to keep you from getting them.
Le Havre can be very nasty in a similar way to Agricola, as you can put your dude in a building someone else wants to use and just leave it there.
These are all great, great strategy games, but they do have the potential for pretty nasty fights.
As for actual recommendations, Alhambra or Notre Dame could work, as they feel like multi-player solitaire. There is competition, but it's pretty indirect.
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Johannes Sjolte
Denmark
Copenhagen
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I will sugest Dominion - It's a very good game. There is a little luck in what cards you draw, but the player with the best strategy almost always win in the end.
Most of the cards don't effect the other players. A few cards do, but they affect all the other player at the same time, so you can't backstab a specific player. At the same time it easy to exclude cards that you don't like.
If I should say something negative about Dominion it would be that you really want to get some of the expansions after playing the base game for a while, so it will easily end up being more expensive than the average game.
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Joe Baptist
United States
California
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History of the World is a "combat light" strategy game. What battles there are are more to slow down the active player than anything else. It is out of print, but you may be able to find a copy and try it out.
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Dan Bradshaw
United States
Southington
Connecticut
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devvee wrote: I suggest 'Race for the Galaxy'. In this game you don't directly harm your opponents, but you try to figure out their strategies somewhat and try to use their actions to your advantage.
In a similar vein, check out Glory to Rome (there are direct attacks with the Legionaire, but he's not used very often) or 51st State.
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Michael B. Hansen
Denmark
Odense N
"duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck" Ralph Wiggum .....
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Blue Moon City
Some say that this is more tactical in nature than strategic, i am not sure i agree. Of course you can plan a strategy and try to succeed with it.
It has a small amount of co-op but there will still be one winner in the end.
It plays quick. Strategy/Tactis are accessible but still something you have to work at. Repeated plays will improve your game.
It works well with 2-4
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Craig Liken
New Zealand
Christchurch
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I would have thought that something like Notre Dame might suit the OPs requirements. More of an efficiiency game than anything with not any real opportunity to "backstab" or attack opponents.
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Selah Fairport
United States
Allen
Texas
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Lost Cities: The Board Game
I like LCtbg because it's rarely directly antagonistic (except who can reach the bonus artifacts first, but you could play that every player earns a credit for landing on that space).
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Kelly Bass
United States
Venice
California
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The Princes of Florence
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Marco Arnaudo
United States
Bloomington
Indiana
"My spoon is too big!"
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Most deck-building games feel like each player is playing his/her own solitaire game at the same time and the player who does that better is the winner. Dominion, Thunderstone, etc. Little to no interaction results in little to no mutual back-stabbing. Tons of strategy, resource and risk management.
Cooperative games also clearly fit the bill: everyone loses or wins together with the other players. Back-stabbing is absolutely unthinkable.
Defenders of the Realm, Yggdrasil, Star Trek: Expeditions, Arkham Horror, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Red November, Pandemic, etc.
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benny t
Australia
Melbourne
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Indeed, Imperial can get really nasty and intense, I strongly dislike
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Jeremy Fridy
United States
Kent
Ohio
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jimicapone wrote: My friends told me a story of a Diplomacy game that ended with the table getting flipped. True story. What an evil game.
Pencil stabbings, and pulling players apart... Diplomacy is almost a full contact sport.
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Eric A Martin
United States
St Petersburg
Florida
Help us get Ship Miniatures on Kickstarter! Deadline Feb 10th
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Dune
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Joe V
United States
Pennsylvania
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I would propose Alhambra for the same reason that I refuse to play it. The game feels SOOOO much like multi-player solitaire. If anything bad happens players can only take 10% of the blame for it at any given time and the rest goes to the luck of the draw. When I was playing my first game of Alhambra I came to this realization and this, on top of the fact that I was getting shoddy luck, PLUS the fact that the other players were taking my lack of success for poor understanding of the game and were trying to lecture me in very condescending tones, I began saying "Haha, take that nobody!" every time I put a tile down. This was done much to the chagrin of my fellow players who viewed Alhambra as the sacred cow of games. I was essentially whizzing on their sacred cow. Was it classy? No. Did it pass the time way better? Heck yeah. If you want a game where you can't "screw each other over" and where player-player in-game interaction is at a minimum (if existent at all) then Alhambra is the game for you. If you lead a really exciting life full of daring and adventure and you play board games to relax and be bored out of your mind, then sit down and enjoy a nice, soothing game of Alhambra
Another one might be Puerty Rico? Because there your interactions in-game are also pretty minimal. Although your OP made it sound like you guys aren't really into hard-core Euro games...
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Joe V
United States
Pennsylvania
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MMMMmmmm Shai-Hulud! Yeah Dune is pretty much the exact opposite of everything the OP wants haha.
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u_2_guy wrote: some of the people i game with don't like confrontation either and end up turtling
Never heard that one before, but I know exactly what you're talking about.
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