Just five games

Advanced Squad Leader -- expansions and replay value galore. Glad to see ASL is mentioned by others here.

War of the Ring -- great for 2 players, still fun for 3 or 4. Plus the expansion is great.

Combat Commander -- the expansions (and the fun factor) get it on this list.

Struggle of Empires -- for multiplayer goodness for 3-7 players.

Now number five... geez, this is hard.

I choose... Fury of Arkham Galactica! No? Don't wuss out? Okay, okay...
Battlestar Galactica

1. World in Flames
2. Twilight Imperium
3. Magic Realm
4. Arkham Horror
5. War of the Ring

And I have played #4 once and never played any of the other games on my list.

Not that hard! I keep my collection trim as it is.

1. Heroscape
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Cosmic Encounter
4. Dominion (with 3++ expansions)
5. Agricola

I'm... not in trouble here, am I?

- Ticket To Ride (Because it can be played with just about ANYBODY, and it's still enjoyable)

- Power Grid (Because its intuitive, strategic, and with the expansions, it has a good dose of variety)

- Battlestar Galactica (Because no game I've ever played has such a great combination of strong theme, great interaction, and good mechanics)

- Cosmic Encounter (Because that game is completely and totally different everytime it gets played)

- The Settlers of Catan (Because the base game has the perfect balance of luck, strategy, and interaction, something that hasn't yet been equaled in Euros yet)

I have to point out that these games aren't necessarily my Top 5 games, just the ones which I can play infinitely.

UP FRONT
BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA
FIELDS OF FIRE
BLOOD BOWL (Only have other players with teams are available.)
MAGIC REALM (Neither own nor played it, but I guess it would make a good apocalypse game.)

Exchange D&D for BLOOD BOWL if we can choose a whole role-playing system and all books associated with it.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Eh...you know what? I'd probably toss out BSG and put OGRE up there instead...I've got to have at least one wargame.

Pfft ... you can probably play Ogre only with a piece of paper and a pen.

My top five are games that may not be the objectively best, but my family will play them and I like them.

1. Hive: the kids take it with them camping and to any other situation where they might have free time, like waiting in airports.
2. Cards. Lately we've been playing Sticheln.
3. Daytona 500. I love the drafting and cutting people off at the choke points
4. Santiago. Nobody will play it with me, but a four player game can be a vicious good time.
5. Command and Colors Ancients. It has war elephants. Why isn't there a Lord of the Rings version of this yet?

1. Settlers of Catan: The base game can be played with almost anyone and the expansions provide pretty different experiences. (Now that I think of it, Catan's expansions change the game more dramatically than the expansions of any other game I know.)
2. Steam: Great economics game with many interesting expansions.
3. Eldritch Horror: I definitely want a coop and an adventure game, so Eldritch Horror is just perfect.
4. Civilization: Even though I've played it only twice and it wouldn't get to the table more than once a year, even with only five games in the collection, spending your whole day with friends on this behemoth is simply a memorable event.
5. Magic: A cube for drafting and a few casual decks for quick duels and commander.

A deck of cards is definitely a good idea, but I don't know a household or pub without one. Around here you can probably find one in every car. I wouldn't count it as part of my boardgames collection. The same for classic games like chess or backgammon.

1. Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
2. Sentinels of the Multiverse
3. Cosmic Encounter
4. The Settlers of Catan
5. Mansions of Madness

Descent 2nd ed. is my favorite game, but D&D should keep me happy and cover all of my high fantasy gaming needs.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and actually it's not very hard for me at this point in time. In fact, I don't really know what fifth game I would choose.

Android: Netrunner
Steam: Rails to Riches
Cosmic Encounter
March of the Ants

Let me explain this a bit.

Netrunner is enough of a hobby on its own and enough of what I like in games that I just like to play it all the time. I don't get tired of it, it's always interesting and challenging and fun and even now that I barely play it I know I want to keep it around forever.

Steam is my favourite economic game and it pushes hard against every other game in the genre. It's one of the best train games and train games are the best economic games. And given the choice between it and, say, 1825 and Steam, I'll take Steam. I don't mind having 2 or 3 or 5 train games, but if I had to choose, I know which ones wouldn't make it.

I used to think that Cosmic Encounter was fun, but not that interesting. Well, now it's one of my favourite games and it has a ton of stuff that makes it a collection mainstay: Endless replayability, no need to be in a certain mood to play, can be played with anyone and is always fun. It's a negotiation game and I feel it satiates my need for them to some degree. And it's multiplayer, for a slight higher player count which helps.

March of the Ants seems, so far, the best in its genre. It's a game I would just like to play a lot.

As for the fifth slot, I'm not sure. I like Dune, but I lived without Dune for years and I've only played it twice. It's also somewhat similar to Cosmic and requires more player expertise. I like Terraforming Mars and I've played it a ton solo, but I admit that it's not that special of a game and I could play video games instead.

If I were to add video games, I would remove March of the Ants to make room for a music game, probably either Beatmania or Pump it Up. For the second I would normally jump to Team Fortress 2 but the introduction of random matchmaking just killed the game dead. There's no longer any sense of community nor a possibility of matching up with minimally reasonable players so the game just sucks. So I would stick to OpenTTD which has been a favourite of mine for my whole life.

1. Elder Sign
- Always able to get this on the table
- 1-4 co/op
- Dice
- Fucktons of expansions

2. Heroscape
- Arguably the perfect board game
- So much content you’d spend thousands
- Evergreen AF

3. Zooloretto
- Can always get it to the table
- Evergreen AF
- Many expansions of varying utility

4. Stone Age
- Evergreen AF
- one of my favorite games
- NSC 4 life

5. Red November
- More fun than Pandanic
- Evergreen AF
- Would be rad to Pimp out

Schweig! wrote: I have to point out that these games aren't necessarily my Top 5 games, just the ones which I can play infinitely.

UP FRONT
BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA
FIELDS OF FIRE
BLOOD BOWL (Only have other players with teams are available.)
MAGIC REALM (Neither own nor played it, but I guess it would make a good apocalypse game.)

Exchange D&D for BLOOD BOWL if we can choose a whole role-playing system and all books associated with it.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Eh...you know what? I'd probably toss out BSG and put OGRE up there instead...I've got to have at least one wargame.

Pfft ... you can probably play Ogre only with a piece of paper and a pen.

I miss Schweig! btw. Hope he's doing well.

Southernman wrote: - BSG
- Arkham Horror
- Age of Steam (I gotta have a train game, Silverton misses out 'cos no one would play it with me)
- Fortress America (heads off Warrior Knights and Shogun)
- War of the Ring (2-p option heading off Star Wars:TQG and Memoir-44)

Won't be doing many short sessions by the look of it

Nine years later ....
BSG (Even though I struggle to get enough people to play it these days this will not be going anywhere)
Fortress America (Still my fun light wargame)
Runewars (DoaM option)
Eldritch Horror (The Arkham, co-op, die horribly option)
Tide of Iron (2-player option, X-Wing is probably a better game but I prefer a bit of meat in the five games I have to keep, WotR just nosed out)

My nine-years-later list:

1 - Cosmic Encounter - Still haven't played anything I like more. It's actually proven to be a really solid game for people who don't usually play a lot of other games. That surprises me a little, but then again it doesn't really. Cosmic Encounter still manages to defy a lot of conventions that most gamers rely on.

2 - Talisman - I've learned that I don't really like a lot of adventure games, because they aren't as much fun as Talisman. It's the ultimate roleplay experience, oddly amoral and treasure-focused like old-school D&D, and suitably epic in its scale.

3 - Tigris & Euphrates - My favorite Euro game, and easily one of the most fascinating civ-type games out there. Yes, it's a civ game, albeit a really unusual one. Still wilder and more unconventional than just about anything that came after. I could do this just about any time.

4 - Duel of Ages II - This has moved way up for me over the last year, as I've dug more into the Codex and played with an eye toward the game's depth. It's a thin candy coating of goofy over a surprisingly crunchy center, and the more one can appreciate that the more one can enjoy it. This is my favorite EPIC game, the kind of thing you set aside time to play and where you need to cultivate your group to appreciate it. I love the quasi-roleplay, tactical gameplay.

5 - Wiz-War - When I reviewed the game years ago I referred to this game as a collection workhorse. It's the kind of game where you end up playing because it's just a little easier to get to the table than more ambitious designs, and before you know it it's one of your favorite games.

Mad Dog wrote: I can't do this. Choosing between games is too difficult.

9 years later this is still true.

I've already consolidated my collection to 20 games before, so this is easy.

#1 Wiz-War. This would be the one trashy title I cannot live without. No need to proselytize here.

#2 Survive! Brilliant game that has been a long time fave and works with nearly everyone.

#3 YINSH. Gotta have a good abstract, and while it could be a toss up between this and Hive if I were forced to choose, this plays easier yet can be pretty complex with equal opponents. YINSH edges it out.

That's it. I don't have two other games I can't get by without.