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Dakkanauts I need your help. My girlfriend loves board games and I'd like to grab one or two that will satisfy both of us. I mostly play wargames, so my knowledge of board games outside of the biggest ones is very limited.

Here's the ideal criteria I'd like to meet:

1. Co-operative
2. Fantasy based (she's not much into sci-fi)
3. Fairly simple rules/fast playing
4. Paintable miniatures....this is more of a bonus for me!

I dug around on board game geek for a while, but honestly the search just felt a little too simple for me to narrow it down. I'm probably being a bit picky with all of my criteria, but any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I think something like a dungeon crawler would be great (she loves Lord of the Rings).

Zombicide: Black Plague hits all of your criteria. Its a fun game, easy to pick up with pretty basic game mechanics, the figures are fun and take to paint well, and best of all it is co-operative.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
Zombicide: Black Plague hits all of your criteria. Its a fun game, easy to pick up with pretty basic game mechanics, the figures are fun and take to paint well, and best of all it is co-operative.

Thanks! That was one I was thinking about. What's the game length like? I've never played any of the Zombicides, but hear great things.

Dungeon Saga would tick all of those boxes except co-operative, but you can play in teams against one player.
It's snappy, replayable, and has many different scenarios included.

The D&D boardgames meet those qualifiers, and they're fairly fun as well. Multiple scenarios per game, and the games can be mix and matched, so you can use characters and monsters from one module in another. The figures aren't like, 40k nice, but they're not terrible, and once painted, they'd look pretty decent.

Here's a link so you can see what they look like painted up (from the Castle Ravenloft game)

http://blog.gamesparadise.com.au/ravenloft-painting-guide/

I'd suggest Zombicide Black Plague, Descent and Mice & Mystics.

I've played rather few board games, but of the ones I have played that are closest to your requirements, Descent was probably my favourite. Easy to pick up, co-op, and fantasy, but I can't remember off the top of my head if the models were pre-painted, or just cast in coloured plastic--I have a feeling it's the latter.

Mice and Mystics. Sort of a D & D style story telling game where the players are humans turned to mice. Meets your criteria and is hugely populare with boardgamers.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124708/mice-and-mystics

Mice and Mystics, Dungeon Saga, and Dungeon Fighter (no minis, but co-op and ludicrously fun). If you can handle a good game for a partner, consider Splendor; it's super easy to learn, and my ex gf loved it! She brought it home every time she visited her parents to play. Although she may have only said that to make me happy...
It is a standard competitive game though.

My wife likes Terry Pratchett books, so we got this when we saw it:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1457216/witches-discworld-game-detailed-review
It has co-op and competitive rules,
There are only 4 playing pieces, but there are paintable versions available:
http://shop.microartstudio.com/discworld-boardgame-pawns-discworld-the-witches-p-1004.html

There will probably be similar games and models for whatever your GF is into.

Talisman.

Super Dungeon Explore: The Forgotten King

Great minis, simple rules, fantasy, and both co-op and versus play.

As well as the ones the others have mentioned, 12 Realms might be a good fit too.

 Nydhog wrote:
Talisman.

Not very cooperative!

But certainly fun.

For cooperative games, my wife and I enjoy:

Arkham Horror (No minis in board game, but can be purchased separately. At least, for a while you could. Also, 1920s era and not fantasy. Also, also, neither fast or simple)
Castle Panic (no minis, fantasy, very simple, very fast)
Gears of War (SciFi, but has minis)
Pathfinder Card Game (No minis, but is fantasy)

 Dendarien wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
Zombicide: Black Plague hits all of your criteria. Its a fun game, easy to pick up with pretty basic game mechanics, the figures are fun and take to paint well, and best of all it is co-operative.

Thanks! That was one I was thinking about. What's the game length like? I've never played any of the Zombicides, but hear great things.

I've played more of the modern Zombicide than Black Plague, but my Black Plague games have hit around 45 mins to 1.5 hours depending on the scenario.

There are a variety of different scenarios in the Black Plague rule book so depending on the length of game you want there should be a scenario that caters to your needs. Or you can just make your own scenario up and slay zombies!

Super Dungeon Explore is the one. It has even got cutey Super Deformed character figures.

Shadows over Camelot is a good one too.

Another vote for Shadows over Camelot. Great co-op game with some minis that are pretty darn good.

The D&D adventure games meet all your requirements. The minis are meh ( a few examples of them are in my gallery) but the games are fun. Start with Wrath of Ashardalon, or Temple of Elemental Evil.

Also, Pathfinder Adventure Card Games, has everything but the minis ( which you could buy separately-- Reaper or WizKid-- and use as game pieces) Rise of the Runelords wold be the one to get first.

Am I the only one who read the title "Board games for the girlfriend" and thought that would be a fair swap?

On a more serious note the D&D boardgames (Ravenloft etc) are good for full co-op. Dungeon saga is fun and can be run as co-op using the AI deck (from the Adventurer's Companion IIRC) but probably works better as players vs player (characters vs DM).

Descent - good game, minis to paint

Mansions of madness - problem solving, monster killing fun. Again nice models to paint.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Super Dungeon Explore is the one. It has even got cutey Super Deformed character figures.

Super Dungeon Explore ticks all the boxes, but it might not be the "best" game. I tried playing it with my girlfriend, and after the fist hour, we were nowhere near halfway through, and she got annoyed and hated it. And that wasn't the last time I've seen exasperation on someone's face at the prospect of playing SPM games. Even I find them to be a bit of a labour of love to get through.

Arcadia Quest, on the other hand, is a lot of fun. I've played it a bunch of times with girlfriends, friends, friend's girlfriends... Everyone always enjoys it and wants to play again. The games are quite short, especially with two people, so it's easy to play two or three rounds in an evening.

Magic the Gathering... Sorry, no miniatures, but Magic is a great game to play with your girlfriend. Lots of strategy, lots of fantasy, and almost infinite replay value. It's also quite inexpensive to play casually -- you can pick up a Duel Deck, or two Intro Packs, for less than a box of space marines, and play them against each other for months.

Almost any Fantasy Flight game: just have a look through their Product Page, and see what jumps out. Many of the games use miniatures, and they all tend to be well designed.

Kingzerno wrote:
Mansions of madness - problem solving, monster killing fun. Again nice models to paint.

I love mansions of madness, but I would add that it is quite an ambitious game, it can take about 45 mins just to set up the board. It's kind of half way between a board game and an RPG. So it's not really co-op because one side always needs to play the GM. I've tried playing it head to head, and it was okay, but I think it's more fun with 3-4 people, set the game up before people arrive, and then make an evening of it. Definitely a lot of fun.

Yeah, SDE games run very long, despite all the fanboys saying otherwise. My last game took 4 hours to finish, the last hour of which we were beyond tired of it and just wanted to end it.

It's why I dropped out of Legends.

My girlfriend loves the following so far:

Carcassone
Guilds of Cadwallon
Dead of Winter

Aim high:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/tabid/58/CategoryID/5/ProductID/1/Default.aspx

If you try out Zombicide:Black Plague and like it then there will be time to get in on the Kickstarter for Massive Darkness at the end of this month. It's a more ambitious co-op dungeon crawler game built on an expanded version of the Z:BP rules.

EIDT: I agree with the SDE warnings. The miniatures are great fun, but the gameplay is a slog.

I was in the same boat, I have played 40k for the last almost 17 years now. However, with family, more bills, investing, time constratints, kids, etc, board games have become my go-to. I have found the following board games similar to my miniature hobby of 40k, aos, lotr, wwx, infinity, etc:

Zombicide, Zombicide: black plague, blood rage, descent, dust, shadows of brimstone, dungeon saga, kingdom death

These all have detailed minis, collecting aspect, painting aspect, etc, SoB and kingdom death give you the modelling aspect on top of all the others listed. If you are looking for co-op, the best games are:
#1 zombicide black plague
#2 shadows of brimstone
#3 zombicide

If you are looking for fast, simple, fun, easy rules, etc, I would go with either version of zombicide. There is a reason it is popular even with non-zombie lovers, it is just a great game!

Super Dungeon Explore is long and dull, sadly. Too much dice-rolling, not enough strategy or fun.

It looks like the upcoming Conan minis boardgame will tick all your boxes. If it ever comes out.

Not co-op, but I do recommend Blood Rage. Amazing minis, plays quickly (experienced players will finish a 2-player game in under an hour), great strategic depth, but nobody ever gets knocked out of the game so it's fun right till the end even if you're losing.

Another vote for Talisman, I introduced one of my gaming buddies and his girlfriend to it over the weekend... they already bought the game, a few expansions, and the mobile app so they can play online together while at work.

She is now buying replacement minis from Reaper to paint

Lords of Waterdeep is a game my wife enjoys. great for just two but more fun when you include other friends. it's not cooperative but loads of fun and great replay value.