Board Game Arena

What games on this site can people recommend that have little to no luck factor to them? I have found myself playing a lot of Just One lately, even though I'm not a huge fan of word association games. The calmness of the game and often lively chat just seem to appeal to me. Most of the games on BGA seem to rely mostly on luck and it's frustrating. Any recommendations for social, preferably cooperative games with no luck factor? Also they should be popular enough that you can actually find a game within a few minutes.

Not Alone has a small element of luck but is mainly an n-level bluffing game, 1 person against everyone else.

The Crew / The Crew: Mission Deep Sea have a significant element of luck, but they're cooperative games where when luck is against you you try to work together to win anyway.

Imhotep has very little luck, but is far from cooperative. Butterfly's luck is mainly up front with the visible public board, although there is a small element of luck in the relatively rare opportunity to draw a random tile. Both of these games are mainly strategy with a heavy element of "Can I rely on the player after me to stop the player after them from taking that nice opportunity?"

Downforce is another interesting game where the luck is up front with the card deal but the game is more about concealing your intentions and timing your opportunities than luck per se.

Many abstract games: chess, checkers, connect four, go, Chinese checkers, reversi, battle of lits, hex, pente, blooms, alveole, strands, yoxi, nxs, oust, finity, ponte del diavolo...

There are some 30-40 pure abstracts on the site so plenty of options. Look for one that fits your playing style.

Most abstract games have no luck involved.

By the way, there's a related, but different, post you might be interested in.

Anyway, I think the following games are good examples of non-abstract games with absolutely no randomness after setup.

• Caylus
• Patchwork
• Niagara
• Homeworlds (if you think it's not abstract)
• Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done
• Russian Railroads / Ultimate Railroads
• Terra Mystica / Gaia Project
• Chicago Express

And if you tolerate a little amount of randomness (such as drawing new quests for each round), there are more strategy-heavy games with just a little randomness factor.

I'm not sure about the "social" part -- all board games are social to some extent, but you might want to find ones suiting your social needs. Anyway, Patchwork is probably what you want to try if you want a "light" game.

Finally, I think Bungle Bros is cooperative and isn't terribly random (most of the times you want to work out a strategy so that no matter what card you draw, you'll not be caught).

ahyangyi wrote: ↑04 December 2022, 19:20I'm not sure about the "social" part -- all board games are social to some extent, but you might want to find ones suiting your social needs. Anyway, Patchwork is probably what you want to try if you want a "light" game.

I assumed that "social" ruled out two-player games, or I would also have included Patchwork.

I would recommend Forbidden Island, Burgle Bros, and Hanabi. They are all cooperative games with little to no luck. Have fun!

There have already been several suggestions to filter games on BGA according to degree of luck (and other categories).
If you are interested in this feature, please vote on https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=46942

schoolio wrote: ↑10 December 2022, 05:39 I would recommend Forbidden Island, Burgle Bros, and Hanabi. They are all cooperative games with little to no luck. Have fun!

Those are based on randomly drawing cards, I wouldn't say there's little luck, although the OP may be happy with them.

The Pure Strategy Group https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=670 ... ublicinfos has a list of games available on BGA with no post-setup randomness. (Many are abstract two-person games, but not all. IME socialness varies wildly with the players. I'm fond of Patchwork and Strands, among others, and would like to play more Caylus and Terra Mystica.)