What made you unhappy today?

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm sorry dude.  That must really suck.

[HuDaFuK]

Got my first ever big MOT bill yesterday. It was all stuff I've known for a few years was coming, but still sucks having to pay a good two thirds of the value of the car to get it fixed.

[Wysps]

I know nothing of board games, but bought several for my family to try out together after a few hours of research.  Well, one of the games that cost $100+ is apparently only meant to be played once    I had no idea these types of games existed.  So now I'm scrambling to buy extra pieces and stickers to have a shot at getting more than one playthrough out of it.

[Kradan]

Oof, that sucks

[Wysps]

  I may just put it in a closet somewhere and not come back to it until we've had experience with other games.  Maybe then we can actually have a good chance of playing it and not mess it up from the get go.

[[cancerblack]]

Generally, the big expensive ones are for people very deep into the hobby, while "family fun" type stuff will be a lot cheaper. Not all of the expensive ones are like you described, but almost all of them are overly complex or gimmicky for anyone who isn't a heavy consumer of the medium.

Some reccs, based on what I've played and where we are:

Simple/Affordable:
Pandemic, Catan, most card/deck based games

Simple/Pricey (usually due to having tons of very nice figurines):
Cthulhu Wars, Talisman, Bloodbowl

Complex/Affordable:
Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps, Dungeon Saga, Warhammer: Underworlds

Complex/Pricey (but pretty great if you get into it):
DooM, Twilight Imperium, Necromunda

[Wysps]

Just the adults are playing, so we're trying out the harder stuff - but the only experience we have are with the "family fun" games, so we may as well be children LOL.  I think my in laws may have some experience with Magic, but we're trying to stay away from money pits (no offense to those that like Magic).

Here's our list (our household and my sibling's):
Mice and Mystics
Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Gloomhaven
Agricola
and...
DOOM 

I was also looking at Everdell or Spirit Island, since only three of the ones above are ours (and frankly, Doom is more for my personal Doom collection than anything else).  But looking at your list, Bloodbowl looks freakin hilarious, so I may need to watch a playthrough of that!

[[cancerblack]]

Bloodbowl is constant laughs in my experience. If you're not averse to some more advanced assembly for the figures, do look into the Aliens one. I'm pretty sure all the BB figures are snap-fit (but unassembled), so you just trim them off the frames and click 'em together, while I believe the Aliens figures are simple (1-4 pieces generally) but require glue - someone can correct me if I'm wrong here.

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm trying to find a non-Warhammer sci-fi minis game. Infinity was what some of my group play, but just still seems too steeped in fantasy.

[[cancerblack]]

Infinity is probably the best you'll do in 28-32mm, everything else with any real availability tends even deeper towards space opera/science fantasy.

Of course, once you get away from that scale, your options open up a lot - but your hand is held a lot less by mini-agnostic systems you'll have to find your own pieces for, rather than being presented with a full range of toys.

For the best of both worlds, I'd advise checking out Dropzone Commander and Dropfleet Commander, which are both in-print, have complete official model ranges and were very tight rulesets last I played.

[Corporal Hicks]

I did look at Dropzone, but seemed like they didn't really have any regular new releases?

[Dachande]

I'm trying to find a non-Warhammer sci-fi minis game. Infinity was what some of my group play, but just still seems too steeped in fantasy.

Is Star wars: Legion too fantasy? You could always just use the troops and vehicles and ignore the heroes

[[cancerblack]]

I did look at Dropzone, but seemed like they didn't really have any regular new releases?

Both games were bought by a new company a couple years back and they've been re-releasing everything. Often with more stuff for roughly the same price.

But I'm going to let you in on a secret - a tabletop game with a complete range of miniatures and no releases to speak of beyond occasional rules tweaks is exactly what you want. If there's regular new content, you'll get an ever shifting metagame around what's good "this season" to keep you buying indefinitely. If a game is static but still published, that's the sweet spot to collect an army and not be bled for something new every few months because some of your old models now suck in general or can't compete with the new gimmick piece.

Is Star wars: Legion too fantasy? You could always just use the troops and vehicles and ignore the heroes

I would assume so, since Infinity is like, a lot less fantasy-ish than SW.

[TheGreenSolution]

My friend lost his job today. That made me not happy. We like to collect sci-fi stuff, but that cost money. Oh well, I guess he will find another job. He is good with poeople.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I resent everything and it leads to me accomplishing nothing.