depends on the group. in a party setting i’d go for something quick like skull, tsuro, or cockroach poker.

if people want something light i’d bring codenames, or coup, or azul.

i love co-op so if everyone was down i’d bring space alert, earthborne rangers, or mind mgmt. maybe even captain sonar if we could get a big enough group.

root, ark nova, or terraforming mars are all great for a board-gaming group but may be a bit heavy to drop on people who just want to hang.

if you really want to scare people you bring high frontier.

Ticket to Ride. Many areas of the planet, but the OG is easy to get in the swing and it’s fun to compete

I wanna play Survive: Escspe from Atlantis again. I have only played it once since I got it. Need 4 players; only 3 people live in my apartment. Gotta get my brother to come over.

Also, not really a board game, but it’d be fun to have a full game of Billion Road going. It’s a video game, but of a kind of board game that is basically Monopoly, but on crack. Your property investments actually make a return every year, and the board is literally all of Japan so there’s a fuckton of shit to own.

Ito is a really fun cooperative game that is perfect for getting to know people better

I’d love to be able to get Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring back to the table… it’s a cinematic spin on Pandemic using the LoTR story. Really amazing game. Oh! Or Western Legends. Another game that is great for emergent stoy for gameplay.

Tsuro - easy to learn and scales well from 2-8 players. There is only one action per turn, so you don’t end up waiting forever with a larger group. That said, the game mechanics aren’t very deep, so it probably won’t be engaging for more than 3 sessions.

Kill Dr. Lucky - the classic game Clue, in reverse. The party guests all have personal motivations to bump off the hapless Dr. Lucky, but have to avoid being seen doing the deed, and the old man always seems to slip away. Easy to pick up, a fun twist for people who have played Clue to death, good for 3-6 players.

Bargain Quest - if your friends are interested in something more complex, this game is a lot of fun. You are a shop owner in a classic fantasy RPG world, trying to attract would-be heroes to buy your wares. You can try to help the heroes by getting them to buy things that will genuinely help them… but at the end of the day, you’re not crazy enough to go fighting monsters yourself, you’re just trying to make a living. And if the hero dies, well… there’s always another nut who thinks they’re on a sacred quest. Technically this can be played with 2, but I think it needs at least 3 to be enjoyable. Slow-deciding players can make this not fun to play, especially with 5-6.

Stone Age
It’s easier to play than it might look at first. Nice balance of tactics and luck (dice rolling). Also options to thwart opponents’ plans. Good fun!
Edit: link for Boardgamegeek

Back in College we played many, Axis and Allies was the main one. My circle of friends played chess, stratego, Backgammon, Othello.

We also did a little Risk. The bitch with Risk is that it takes a really long time.

Now a days the main board games we play are the silly ones like Cards Against Humanity, which we have not played in a long time.

I found this from a trift store earlier this year, photo from online. It’s a weird game by a Finnish gossip magazine, from around 2005. It’s quite difficult and pretty funny. My friend group is mostly too young to remember the questions well, more the fun.

Diamant

A silly, push your luck, cave exploring game.

Only 1 simultaneous choice per player, per exploration tile. Stay exploring, or run out the cave and bank your treasure for the round.

2 minute teach.

Can get shouty.

Daybreak https://www.daybreakgame.org/