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Coffee Table Games
Phil Taylor
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Games that look good set out on your coffee table. Must have "chunky" bits preferably wooden or brightly colored, with a high piece density. This list was "lifted" from two discussions on spielfrieks. Thanks to Scott Nicholson and Mark Johnson for the idea,
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Posted Mon Jul 28, 2003 3:14 am
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1. Board Game: Cathedral [Average Rating:6.57 Overall Rank:641]
Phil Taylor
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Most votes
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2. Board Game: Quarto! [Average Rating:6.86 Overall Rank:422]
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3. Board Game: Saturn [Average Rating:6.70 Overall Rank:1674]
Phil Taylor
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4. Board Game: Batik [Average Rating:6.10 Overall Rank:2261]
Phil Taylor
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Gary Heidenreich
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I wanted to put this one out, but because their is no bottom on this game, when I would pick it up to play, all the pieces would tumble out.

5. Board Game: Ido [Average Rating:5.83 Overall Rank:3006]
Phil Taylor
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Art deco
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Sandra Snan
Well, kinda... but as a de stijl geek, I don't like Ido. (Chalk it up as a case of "so close, but yet so far".)
6. Board Game: Medina [Average Rating:7.13 Overall Rank:224]
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Colored wood!
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7. Board Game: Quoridor [Average Rating:6.83 Overall Rank:440]
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8. Board Game: Dread Pirate [Average Rating:5.12 Overall Rank:5200]
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9. Board Game: Cityscape [Average Rating:6.28 Overall Rank:1746]
Phil Taylor
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10. Board Game: Arbos [Average Rating:6.22 Overall Rank:1973]
Phil Taylor
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11. Board Game: Villa Paletti [Average Rating:6.59 Overall Rank:584]
Phil Taylor
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12. Board Game: Terrain Game [Average Rating:5.00 Unranked]
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13. Board Game: Charlemagne [Average Rating:6.44 Unranked]
Phil Taylor
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14. Board Game: Pueblo [Average Rating:6.93 Overall Rank:329]
Phil Taylor
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15. Board Game: Sahara [Average Rating:5.71 Overall Rank:3870]
Phil Taylor
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16. Board Game: Cabale [Average Rating:6.30 Overall Rank:2166]
Phil Taylor
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17. Board Game: Caprice [Average Rating:5.90 Overall Rank:3268]
Phil Taylor
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18. Board Game: Siesta [Average Rating:6.28 Overall Rank:1752]
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19. Board Game: 90 Grad [Average Rating:6.09 Unranked]
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20. Board Game: Quixo [Average Rating:6.01 Overall Rank:2490]
Phil Taylor
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21. Board Game: The Game of Y [Average Rating:7.39 Overall Rank:1723]
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David Bush
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040506070809
Hm, I'll have to take a picture of my vinyl board for submission here; better than no picture at all. It's a great game, although the grid might be a bit small at just 93 points. Very similar to Hex. It would be a much better game if only more people played it- the typical catch-22 for abstracts.
22. Board Game: Pylos [Average Rating:6.48 Overall Rank:1158]
Phil Taylor
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23. Board Game: Terrace [Average Rating:6.41 Overall Rank:1368]
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24. Board Game: Aztec [Average Rating:7.00 Overall Rank:2374]
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25. Board Game: Psyche-Paths [Average Rating:6.88 Overall Rank:2366]
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11 comments [Hide]
Peter Loop
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My 2 cents worth, of what is missing.
The Goldsieber Wood games: Cabale, Caprice, Siesta.
90 grande (Holzinsel has many other wood games http://www.holzinsel.de/ ), most of the Kadon stuff, like The game of Y, Several Gigamic titles, like Gobbler (Note Gigamic also publishes larger versions of their game which look better on coffee tables.

If some plastic is OK Abalone & Kuba look first rate. Kaliko is one of the best looking games out there.

More places to look: http://www.gerhards-holzwaren.de/ or http://www.holzbrettspiele.de/ German publishers of wooden abstract games.

Crokinole can't forget.

And someone will have to help me here, there is a Wood version of Twixt published in Austria, that looks great, but I've lost the pointer.

On my coffee table. A game not list on the geek, Bollox ( http://www.abstractstrategy.com/bollox.html).

Next we need the "Coffee table game of coffee table games", by that other Krammer (Kosmo Krammer):D
David Bush
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This might be the Twixt link Peter Loop was talking about:

http://www.toy-net.ch/felsberger/spiele.htm

It's a lousy photo of the board, and not a very complimentary photo of Alex Randolph either, but it's a very classy set, wood framed stainless steel (or some other metal) surface with indents for marbles and rods. Probably about $300 US dollars not counting shipping.

If you hang out on eBay long enough, you may find hand crafted wood game sets for sale. There were some very nice 11x11 wood Hex sets there some years ago.

Of course there are also very classy looking Go and Shogi table top sets, also in the $300 price range, if not considerably higher. You could probably get a decent set for $100, though.
Paul Boos
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Great Geek list! :cool:

I would recommend adding Axiom to the list - I just got this one in and it looks fabulous (I got the older '88 edition). Also, Hive might be one to consider - the photos I have seen of it look wonderful. Two others I haven't played, but look beautiful are Taino and Proteus.

Question - Can you get English rules for FlippEx mentioned by Peter Loop?


Andrew Adey
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Go, shogi, and a nice Chess set should be here, in my humble opinion.

Nice list - I`ll look out for some of them.
Darlene Hochgreve
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Octiles deserves a spot, and yes, it's allllll wood!
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