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looking for a board game to just throw out there and go.
i have fond memories of the original warhammer quest...
single player a plus.
im thinking zombicide black plague but id like to open up to something with a little more variety in regards to the bad guys.
any thoughts?

I recommend Massive Darkness 2 - a Zombicide+, cool assymetric characters, plenty of nice models of varied mobs and big monsters, plays well solo (I tried running 2 characters, worked great).

If anything it may actually be too easy, but if that's what you're aiming for, it should be perfect.

Not played them, but there's adaptations of the Resident Evil games.

Massive Darkness has some nice variety in it, and is very accessible. Since it kind of a sandbox if you have many expansions, you can design your own difficulty.
HeroQuest has been re-released, and has an app-driven solo/full coop mode.
We are currently playing Descent: Legends of the Dark (also uses an app). Minis are quite nice and the 3D scenery is incredible.
Lord of the Ring: Journeys into Middle-Earth has multiple difficulties, several expansions... I really like it as well. It also uses an app.
If you can find a copy, both Cursed City and Blackstone Fortress are quite fun for casual play, although my group found the campaigns overstaid their welcome a bit and would have been better if they had been a bit shorter.

There is also Gloomhaven and co of course, amazing games, but definitely not easy (both in complexity and difficulty).

I was really interested in gloomhaven for a while but the prep work seemed overwhelming

Did you check Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion ? It's "Gloomhaven-lite", still difficult to master and using the same mechanics, but it's easier to setup (there are no tiles to assemble, the maps are printed on a booklet). With a good quality insert in the box, it is not so bad to setup (still a very hard game to play, though).

How many players? For 3 or 5 I would recommend Dungeon Saga from Mantic. They have a new fancy one coming out, so you might get the original on ebay for very little.

Here is an old BGG review I did.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1490551/dungeon-saga-review

Gloomhaven is an absolute blast to play, I wish wargames had such excellent, intellectually challenging, satisfying rules...

...but...

...but I wouldn't call it easy, especially as the OP mentions Zombicide as his point of reference.

Just saw there is a huge Black Friday deal on Bardsung by Steamforged Games... This is a game which is supposed to have a quick setup time. It has a decent BGG score, although I'll freely admit I haven't tested it yet.
https://steamforged.com/en-eu/collections/bardsung

I still thing Heroquest is great if "Easy and Fun" is what you're after. It's also not terribly expensive as Dungeon-crawlers go and the components are good quality. It's even more fun if you have a DM that can make tiny tweaks here and there to keep things moving.

My family has played through the whole main quest book and is enjoying it.

Massive Darkness 2 should be a perfect fit for you. I’ll give it another recommendation as above.

My family and I really enjoy Shadows of Brimstone. We’re playing the Gates of Valhalla starter, which is a smaller core game than the original big box starters. Lots of fun. Thematic, easy rules. No one has to be the DM or overlord or whatever. Lots and lots of additional material available if you decide to add to your game.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
My family and I really enjoy Shadows of Brimstone. We’re playing the Gates of Valhalla starter, which is a smaller core game than the original big box starters. Lots of fun. Thematic, easy rules. No one has to be the DM or overlord or whatever. Lots and lots of additional material available if you decide to add to your game.

good call bob.
i was actually interested in SoB at one point but something turned me off about it... i think it was the overall theme.
if the game existed in a much more fantasyesque theme i think id have been much more interested.

I quite like the second edition of Super Dungeon Explore. I have no idea how accessible it is after all the Kickstarter nonsense, but there's a ton of content and the co-op AI is actually rather fun.

I will add, that the core box of Massive Darkness 2 gives you enough demonic models to play the indie wargame Reign in Hell, even with a few other players.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
My family and I really enjoy Shadows of Brimstone. We’re playing the Gates of Valhalla starter, which is a smaller core game than the original big box starters. Lots of fun. Thematic, easy rules. No one has to be the DM or overlord or whatever. Lots and lots of additional material available if you decide to add to your game.

good call bob.
i was actually interested in SoB at one point but something turned me off about it... i think it was the overall theme.
if the game existed in a much more fantasyesque theme i think id have been much more interested.

I also recommend Shadows of Brimstone. They released two new Core boxes last year, that add Conquistador and Viking teams, expanding the Jargono Swamp 'Otherworld' and the Targa Plateau respectively.

Maybe not a firm fantasy side, but adds more options to the previous Old West and Feudal Japan era themes.

I've been a fan since the game came out, and have backed all 4 of the Kickstarters. Hell, full disclosure, I run demos and events for FFP three times a year (their online Roll To Move event, GenCon, and their locally held Dice Fest in October), but it's because I enjoy the game play and incredible mix and match potential.

Some sessions my friends and I play a specific mission, sometimes it's a more general 'you have X objective, good luck' and we see where the exploration tokens and various decks take them.

If you’re looking for a fun and easy dungeon crawler to throw on the table, Massive Darkness 2 might be a good choice. It’s got a lot of variety with different mobs and big monsters, plus it works well for solo play.

I'll throw in a picture from one ofmy MD2 games:



Indeed easy and fun. For my adventures I found it actually too easy, but there's a list of house rules for that:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3068443/difficulty-guide

I use the change that limits characters to just 2 actions and it turned this casual, breezy hack&slash into an actual brain teaser! I like it for my solo games where I'm looking for more of a challenge. I'm also about to start the Heavenfall campaign and looking forward to it, having painted most of the stuff for it, but the final boss (it's huge!)

Goodness gracious, that looks awesome!

5 scenarios in, playing Tidal Blades 2 and... oh my, what a fun game! It draws on my favorites, like Gloomhaven, of course, but also, for example, Warmachine (!), yet takes the Gloomhaven card play to the next level with the idea of playing them on the grid and activating entire rows or columns to form juicy combos. The first scenario was worryingly easy, but now it's a real brain-twister.

Unlike GH, the mission objectives don't involve "Kill Them All." On the contrary, I've already had had to take a break twice during scenario 4 to give myself time to clear my head Running between panels to operate a minigame with moving tiles with wiring, arranging them in specific ways to unlock coded doors, with as few actions as possible, all while constantly fighting spawning enemies who have already severely slashed the heroes...

The manual is excellently written; the game is easy to understand and intuitively designed, enjoyable to play, beautiful and clean. If the level of challenges and uniqueness of scenarios is maintained, it will land in my absolute top and will be returned to.

I really do think the best dungeoncrawler that is easy to play while still feeling like a dungeon crawler, and easy to obtain with the newest reprinting is going to be Heroquest.

Honestly, to me Heroquest is to dungeoncrawling boardgames like Lord of the Rings is to medieval fantasy. Every evolution of a modern "go through a dungeon, smack monsters, obtain loot" traces a line back to it, at least in some part.

Claustrophobia, Hero quest, and Warhammer quest. I guess I need the word Easy defined.

 osirisx69 wrote:
Claustrophobia, Hero quest, and Warhammer quest. I guess I need the word Easy defined.

haha... thats fair. easy = not so many cards that i need a deck box to carry it or an app to keep track of things.

Yup. Hero Quest.

It was The Fatal First Reefer of many a Dakkanaut that trapped us in (a pretty awesome) life of Plastic Crack.

It’s got clear, simple rules, but also a surprising amount of depth. For instance, good positioning is a must, lest your weedy wizard get cornered by rotten little Goblins and get all stabbed to death in a single turn. Traps encourage cautious exploration. And if your players don’t agree to pool their Gold and not horde the best equipment? They can easily leave one or more character not tough enough for later dungeons.

The original was superb, the re-release even more superberest. The models, furniture, board, cards, counters and books are really good quality for a pretty damned reasonable price.

You’ve also a number of similarly high quality expansions, which can be played in pretty much any order. Plus loads and loads of new Hero classes, each with their own perks and drawbacks.

That last point is a real feather in the cap of the new edition, as should a given character meet their doom on an adventure? You’ve a wider choice of replacements.

It’s decent value, it’s accessible, it’s damn near perfect. It’s HeroQuest.

Get your kid hooked, today!

You can also buy Heroquest: First Light at Target from the shelf.