A relatively new one, Behext! It's a card game where each player is a wizard (with asymmetrical cards) passes a hex around and when it lands where someone doesn't have the cards to keep moving it, the person is Behext and they lose Willpower, which is part of the scoring mechanism how the game is decided. Players can acquire new cards, the hex can be modified in different ways and even split into multiple hexes that can get passed around to different wizards and when you unlock the full game rules, it's great chaotic fun. The box says the game plays up to five, but it's actually six and the more the merrier, because the more players you have the more spell cards get drawn and the more variety of elements come in to play. Someone mentioned Cosmic Encounter and Chinatown, and I'll second both of those. Two of my favorite games of all-time.
Right now, we've been playing the new Ra, Welcome To, Jamaica, and Parade when we have 5 or 6. Not Alone gets mention, but I'm usually the creature b/c no one else wants to. And finally we love love love So Clover, which gets played once a game night regardless of the number of players.
Welcome To is amazing for large crowds. Sorta like a more complex version of Bingo. I love Detective Club. I don't think that's Social Deduction. In the same light I think the Dixit style of games are all great for a larger player count, Mysterium, Obscurio, Stella... All of those are really fun.
1. Scythe 2. QE 3. Captain Sonar 4. Not Alone 5. Fuji Flush 6. Decrypto 7. Cursed Court 8. Modern Art 9. Hansa Teutonica 10. Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia P.S. personally, since we often play with five people, I can recommend two older titles: Agricola (1-5 ppl) Classic version from 2007, still our evergreen for 5 ppl, and Saboteur 2 (2-12 ppl) Easy to start, so fun with 5-6 players.
A few of my favorites at 5+ that I haven't seen mentioned yet are Camel Up, Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest, and Ready Set Bet. I guess Ready Set Bet falls under the heading of "party games", but like Decrypto, it's so good it deserves to be mentioned anyway.
Architects of the Western Kingdom plays very well at five and if you use the Artisans expansion it plays well at 6 also. We finished a 6 player game in under an hour and a half!
This is a fantastic video. Your knowledge of games is impressive, and your communication is both clear and concise. I really think its challenging to do both, so kudos to you!
Hard to avoid party-type games for 5+, but at the top of my head in no particular order (more partyesque games at the end): Heat Pedal to the Metal (Or flamme rouge with expansion) Forgotten Waters Eclipse Second Dawn Feed the Kraken A Game of Thrones The Board Game Long Shot The Dice Game 7 Wonders Charterstone Mosaic: A Story of Civilization Project Elite King of Tokyo: Dark Edition The Reckoners Camel Up 2nd Ed Wavelength Skull Ready Set Bet Cockroach Poker Royal Bang! Probably forgot some I haven't played in a while.
Great list! One we’ve been playing and enjoying lately is Long Shot. It’s fun with a lot of players because the horses can be moved more times with concessions.
Can't agree more. Long Shot the Dice Game has become my new favorite gateway game. Can play it at any player count. I have even played it at 2 and it works so well
I'm still fairly new to the hobby, but a few of my favorite 5+ player games are Five Minute Dungeon, Take 5 (aka 6 Nimmt), Sushi Go Party, and Flamme Rouge with the Peloton expansion. The thing about high player count games is that it's hard to keep that many people's full attention for a lengthy teach or long turns. All four I mentioned are quick to teach and have simultaneous gameplay, which makes getting into the game and staying in the game easy and fun.
Shoutout for Euphoria! It's one of our favorites but doesn't seem to be mentioned as often as it should be. It has engaging artwork and humor in the theme. It's on the lighter side for eurogames but still plenty of strategy. Fun to play and not too long. Agree with your recommendation.
Great list! The first games that came to mind for me were Blood on the Clocktower, Monikers and Cosmic Encounter. Some other great games are 7 Wonders Architects, Ethnos and Chinatown.
We love Decrypto. But it is definitely the game that is the most difficult to explain, at least compared to the complexity of the game, which is not that high. If you see what I mean…
Excellent list! Some others that have been hits with 5 or 6 for me: Planet Unknown, Quacks of Quedlinburg (1st expansion needed), It's a Wonderful World, Long Shot the Dice Game, Smartphone Inc., and Steampunk Rally.
A really good game working great for 2 to 9 players is Stationfall. Great theme. Great artwork and components. And its really a fun gameplay. You should try it out.
This is a great list, and I'm excited to see what others recommend. We are a family of five, so you would think we would have more games that are good at 5+ players, but outside of party or co-op games they're kind of hard to find. Most of the games we own that say they play up to 5 are really better with 4 or fewer. The biggest downfall of most 5 player games in our house is turn length. A game has to be able to keep my 8yo's attention during four other turns before it gets back around to her, and that's hard to do. She can play Root or Wingspan at 2 or 3 players, but at 5 you're lucky to have her attention for half the game. Here are some that work for us: * Ticket to Ride Asia - you play in teams of two where you share some of your destination tickets (but not all) and your train cards * Drafting games like 7 Wonders, Sushi Go Party, or Draftosaurus are great because everyone takes their turn simultaneously * Turing Machine says only 4 players on the box, but it can easily be played with 5
I recently facilitated a game of Two Rooms and a Boom with a group of 22 teens, many of whom had no familiarity with modern board games. It was a blast and they were raving about it afterwards, lol.
7 Wonders. Century: Spice Road. Parks. Blood Rage (with the 5th player expansion). Alien Frontiers (with 5th player expansion). Libertalia. Earth. Foundations of Rome. There's a lot of excellent 5-player games out there. But good list and video. I was hesitant on the #1 being Euphoria because it seemed broken in parts when I played it, but I didn't use the expansion to "fix" the original rules. So I'm glad you mentioned that so I can look for it. Thanks!
Battlestar Galatica is a fantastic game for 5+. I feel it plays best at 8. All the expansions are amazing too, I believe it is out of print now though. Think closest thing now is unfathomable, but I haven’t tired that.
So I totally agree with the chaotic nature of Captain Sonar, and it's not my favorite of the games you mentioned (I really like Not Alone and Euphoria ), but the fast to slow play is not as unbalanced as it may first appear, because the radar operator who listens for the other captain can more easily find the other ship if they say more so you can actually do some pretty sneaky stuff to wait and win which has been popular with one of my groups. This strategy is only viable with a really good radar operator, otherwise you lose that advantage, and it benefits from being on a less restrictive or super restrictive map. The less restrictive maps benefit from the need for more information to find the other ship, while the more restrictive actually forces your opponent to surface more often, which can really help you find them.
Fun list! If you haven't tried it yet, Deception Murder in Hong Kong is my favorite social deduction game, though you need I believe at least 6 to play. I also hear good things about Feed the Kraken.
Not sure if you two have tried it yet but Veiled Fate from IV Studious is amazing at 5+ players. This game took over our house when we got our copy. You control 1 of 9 Gods and are trying to get them to score the most points. On your turn you can move any god, so it’s strategic deduction of figuring out how to get your God the most points and also figure out what gods the other plays are controlling to stop them from scoring. 1-5 players is fun, but 6+ is where it really takes off. You play in teams with 6+, so on top of everything you’re trying to figure out who your teammate is.
This came at a great time because it sounds like we may have 5 for game night tonight. 10 of my favorite 5 or more player games (in no real order): Ethnos Rise of Augustus Century (Spice Road/Golem Edition) Xia Earth Space Base Foundations of Rome Flamecraft Planted Lords of Waterdeep
One of my favorite games for 5+ is The Captain Is Dead, which is a cooperative game where the players are the surviving crew members in your favorite sci-fi show, only this episode has gone so badly that The Captain Is Dead, the Jump Core is offline, and the ship is damaged. Players have to repair the Jump Core so they can escape the hostile aliens that are attacking them, while keeping enough of the ship intact that they don't die first. Others include The Resistance (social deduction), Codenames (party), Just One (party), and the card game Wizard (or Oh Hell, which Wizard is based on), which is a trick-taking game where you have to make your bid exactly (overtricks and undertricks are penalized the same).
It seems like Euros are afraid and the five player count and it is unfortunate. My #1 reason for buying expansions is to unlock that fifth player. I hope more games in the future embrace the five player experience. Hansa is an excellent example of how to execute at this count. I would recommend First Empires, excellent at five players with fast turns and dynamic area control. I was sleeping on Euphoria, will be checking that out. As always another terrific video! Thanks!
Add another vote from me for Battlestar Galactica. It’s just okay at 2-4, but at 5+ players it comes alive and magic happens. It has the best betrayal and hidden information mechanics I’ve ever seen, and the theme integration is fantastic. The way it goes from hectic team-bonding co-op game to cruel asymmetrical war game in an instant is incredible. Well well worth the effort to find it, even if you don’t care about the show. It’s the *only* large group game we’ll play now. Nothing else is this much fun with a large group.
I have a recommendation if you're thinking of One Night Ultimate Werewolf: One Night Revolution is a reimplementation (with the Indie Board and Games scifi dystopia theme they used for Resistance and their version of Coup), which is a bit cleaner than One Night Ultimate Werewolf and easier to handle logistically. The difference is that each player's role and allegiance are separate; you're on the blue or red team, and your role card is separate (and often has different rules if you're blue or red), but the important part is that because of this, the night phase is so much simpler when everyone just goes in table order. You don't have to keep secret whose turn it is, the player can just move everything around on the table and it doesn't matter. It removes the order that things "happen" in ONUW (this role always goes before this), but I'm not sure if that's that different from having the information of what order the players went in. A bit different, but simpler in implementation.
When I was playing Captain Sonar more regularly, I had two house rules. First, we always played "casual real time", where captains (usually me and the 2nd most experienced player) agree to move at a leisurely pace. I'm not even sure that moving faster by talking faster is actually good though, even if your team can keep up, but we never played enough to know that for sure. The second house rule was "BE NICE TO RADIO OPERATORS". That is, treat the opposing radio operator just as you would a teammate - if they get lost, allow them to retrace their steps and correct errors. I usually did this by the radio operator working backwards through the orders until any errors are fixed, usually during a stop in the action. Don't be cutthroat, because cutthroat Captain Sonar is not fun; it's just a mess.
I enjoy playing Planet Unknown with 6 players. Also the classic Lords of Waterdeep is great with the expansions and can become very chaotic. Endeavor: Age of Sail, PowerGrid,..ect. There are some great meaty Euros that play well at higher player counts.
Hansa Teutanica is great! A lot of older Euros are very interactive like this. I would say that the newer trend for Euros are to not be as interactive. Another great, great Euro that you guys should try is Taj Mahal. I like it a lot at 5 players. Scythe with 5+ players sounds horrible though lol. Sorry not sorry.
One of the hardest player counts to satisfy. In the past my game group was always 3 players, and I always had an issue, now that great 3 player games are a dime a dozen, my game group is now 5.
Five or more players is an easy count, IMO, but a lot of the games are older: * Medici - Pure perceived-value auction, fast play, good interaction * Condottiere - Excellent area-control bluffing game. I have the original version; it looks like they've changed it over the years, so I can't comment as much on later versions. * Medieval Merchant - Excellent at all player counts from 2-6, tight, playable in under an hour (but 90 minutes is more typical). * Web of Power - Area control with two overlapping "areas" and playing to control both webs at the same time. * 7 Wonders - Well-known for obvious reasons. * Empires of the Middle Ages - The longest game on the list, this (in its full campaign version) lasts for 134 turns and covers the history of Europe from Charlemagne to the fall of Constantinople. Most groups would probably not be interested, but for the right group this is unmatched. * Citadels - Hidden role game that I've always found enjoyable * Ticket to Ride (and Europe) - Five players is the tightest, nastiest version. * Legend of the Five Rings CCG - Nominally a very complex two-player experience, the game was designed with multi-player games in mind and it shines in that arena. Five player is (IMO) the best. * Space Base - Good at all player counts, but the game plays differently at each. * 6 Nimmt - Easy teach, very fast play. Good for a filler at the beginning or end of the session * Great Dalmuti - Slightly silly game of shifting fortunes. In each game/hand, your objective is to become the Great Dalmuti, but any improvement in your position is a win and any decline a loss. * Advanced Civilization - Has the reputation of being very long, but if you have experienced players and strictly limit trade periods, probably a four hour game. Excellent area control and negotiation game. Honorable Mention: Falling - Real-time card game. One player is the dealer in each game and this is really dependent on having a good dealer. Plays in about 5-7 minutes, frenetic, and interesting decisions.
Thanks for the video! It would have been a bit more fun and useful if you did 10 "Card Games" for 5 or more and a separate vid for 10 Board Games for 5 or more. In which case I'd definitely put Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Concordia, Orleans, The Princes of Florence (shout out to the upcoming reprint!), Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, and Caylus 1303 as some easy fun go to picks. For card games, For Sale, Incan Gold, PUSH, High Society and Hanabi. Cheers!
Lots of great party style or social deduction games: Feed the Kraken (best at 8+), Anomia, Sounds Fishy, Sushi Go Party, Telestrations, to name but a few. Haven't listened to your list of games outside of these types of games. Keen to hear what you've got to say. My family group of 6 often play Scythe and King of Tokyo.
Captain Sonar is fantastic, especially if you have some submarine sound effects playing in the background. It is chaotic but you have more fun the more you lean into roleplaying it. Also I wouldn't let people pick roles, you have to make sure a person with a loud voice is Captain.
Twilight Imperium is the King of 5+ player games. Yes, you need to set aside a *minimum* of an hour per player, but no other game comes close to the epic feel and natural story that comes from each game. HIGHLY recommended at 6. 😊
@@nihlify you did notice I bolded *minimum*? Yes, it often goes over, especially with new players, but it *is* possible to keep it to an hour per player. :)
I have been having a lot of beers and boardgames nights lately and often get 5 or 6 people out, sometimes more! I try to play one meatier game first up and then a lot of more entertaining games afterwards as the beers begin moving through the system. Some of those are bordering on party games but none that I would really outright call party games. I do love one on your list, Modern Art but it only plays 5 - everything I will mention here is for 6+. I generally kick off with a meatier, fun game that is still fairly easy to learn as some of the people who come to these events have little knowledge about boardgames. Games like Libertalia - winds of galecrest, Sidereal Confluence, Sub Terra or Cosmic Encounter (with expansion) kick things off then I have a wider range of fun games that work great with a lot of players which we play afterwards. Games like Skull, Cockroach Poker, Incan Gold (aka Diamant), Ready Set Bet, Deception - Murder in Hong Kong, Tortuga 1669, Good Critters, 6 Nimmt, Coup or Camel Up. I am sure there are some I have forgotten but these ones jump to mind.
I have also had a ton of fun with Shogun, Dominant Species, Cthulhu Wars, Heat, Francis Drake, The Great Wall, Rococo, Battle for Rokugan, Ra, Pax Pamir 2e, and Rising Sun.
Great list! I play a lot of games with 5, My list would be... Scythe, Steam Watchers, & Lords of Hellas (5th player exp). These 3 are all territory control, Scythe is a lot more about resource management while Lords of Hellas is a lot more about combat and Steam Watchers is in between the two. Kingdom Builder (5th player exp) & Iwari. These 2 are easy to pick up (slightly more complex than something like Ticket to Ride) and play fairly quickly. They are basically, place things down based on cards you get and score points with them. Red Rising & Libertalia. While quite different from eachother, they play about the same gametime and are about as easy to teach as one another. Steamworks. A hidden gem of a game, can play up to 5 it's a fun engine builder but would only really suggest this with 5 if half the table already knows the game otherwise it might take a tad long. The Great Wall (5th player expansion). Can play cooperatively or competitively, Awaken Realm's 'eurogame' it's honestly an amazing game. The coop mode is quite difficult to beat. Does take quite a while to play with 5 players. Veiled Fate. This can play up to a higher player count. This one has a lot of hidden information and deduction, this game actually does better at higher player counts (4+) in my opinion.
This video was honestly perfect because I was looking for games at higher player counts that were not party games because I'm not really a party game kinda person 😂.
Wow you just came out with this video and next weekend will be our first time hosting 5 players! I really want to try Scythe at 5 (have only played up to 3), and I am very glad Euphoria was on your list! We played it at 2 and felt it lacked something... I will also probably bring out Long Shot the dice game - should be good fun. Great video as always - thanks!!
Heat: Pedal to the Metal and Twilight Imperium 4 are CRAZY good games. Seriously, those are probably in my Top 3 of the hundreds of games I've played, love them so much. And both play best at 6!
Always liked Cosmic Encounters and Cyclades at specifically 5 players. King's Dilemma has a more limited number of plays, but it was truly excellent with 5 players, can't recommend it enough.
My collection is mostly small games and card games, because i like going to my friends and surprise them with a wide variety of fun. And it’s always challenging to chose games for 6 up to 8 or more players, but i do have these options: Point Salad, 6 Nimmt, Goodcritters, Hidden Leaders, Code Names, Shit Happens, Spicy, King of Tokyo, My Gold Mine, Colt Super Express, Miaui, Parade…enjoy hunting them out :)
Ra, Princess of Florence, Caylus 1303, 7 wonders, Sushi Go, Broom Service, Mission: Red Planet, Eclipse, Twilight In., Game of Thrones, Mare Nostrum, Cyclades,
Captain Sonar is great but I only really like it at 8 players. I’ve only played it real-time and could see where first-time players would benefit from turn-based but with experienced captains, the real-time chaos really shines. With experienced players, 6/7 works okay but it’s more fun to let everyone handle one role and not need to manage 2 (if only for thematic reasons).
Great list! Some I have never even heard of on here. I would add Architects of the West Kingdom, Cat in the Box, 7 Wonders, Atlantis Rising 2nd Ed., Ticket to Ride(especially with Asia map pack for 2v2v2), and Welcome To.
I’m with Naveen on Captain Sonar - I played with a group who had a habit of yelling Stop! And then spending 30 seconds confirming what they were doing before declaring. Kinda ruined it for me because I felt it destroyed the momentum of the other team because they dutifully stopped and waited. Didn’t feel right but maybe just needed the right group for it Great list though, there’s a bunch to look out for!
One of my favorite games to play with 5+ players is Nuns on the Run. It's 'Hide and Seek' the boardgame, and since we play mostly simultaneously, the game length is not as badly affected with large player numbers. It's an oldie, but a goodie!
Some of my favorite games at 5+ players are Lords of Waterdeep Vindication Jamaica Skull King Quacks of Quedlinburg Great Split Cryptid First Rat Millennium Blades
Some of the the games that pops up in my head right now: Wingspan considering everyone knows how to play , plays well at 5. Ready Set Bet even though its a party game deserves a mention. Istanbul with expansion Medici Blood Rage (Expansion adds a 5th player)
We have a mainly 5 player group so we have played a lot of games at 5 that others would not consider a good experience (and we are now realising that we have to choose which games carfeully despite them tecnhically being 5 player). The best are probably Dune (the calssic), Battle Star Galatica, King's Dilema, Quacks....
Wow! your list surprises me. I like QE and Modern Art, but I would call them party games. Like them both though. And love Just One! and I like Euphoria too. never can get it to the table though. This was a fun list to make because some of my favorite games, I like best at 5. Here are my top 15 games that I prefer at 5 players. Ethnos Ecos: First Continent Libertalia (original Edition) Artemis Odyssey (previously Ad Astra) Ares Expedition Space Base Quacks of Quedlinburg Architects of the West Kingdom Between two Cities Camel Up Sheriff of Nottingham Mission: Red Planet Revolution 7 Wonders Here are a few that I prefer at 4, but will play at 5. \ Wingspan Bumuntu Picture Perfect (w 5-6 Player expansion) Everdell Expeditions Alhambra Foundations of Rome Red Rising Hanabi And lastly the one game that prefer at 6 or more - Really shines at 8 players - Cosmic Encounter.
I played Captain Sonar once, but the game never got finished. Halfway through the game, the other team realized that their navigator (whatever the role is called, but whoever is in charge of movement) had reversed East & West.
Caverna: The Cave Farmers and space base both play great and better with more players, you can play both with 2 people but the more you get the more fun it becomes
I really like Space Base at 5 players. Simultaneous turns means no downtime, plus at higher player counts you actually get most of your resources on other players turns, which is fun!
How is it simultaneous turns? I think u mean u get something every turn. . Ur right this game is good because different player counts requires adjustment of strategy and plays differently
Should be a compilation of content creators trying to explain Decrypto - such a good game but giving an overview is so hard! For me Camel Up, Chinatown, For Sale, Heat, Jamaica, Libertalia, Modern Art, Space Base
Decrypto is so good! Another bidding game that is fun with 5 is Ra. Also Mission Red Planet, Cartographers, Istanbul, and 7 Wonders Architects would be a some games I would recommend for 5.
Great video, guys. So elated that Fuji Flush made onto your list. That one is in Hall of Fame for my family. Also, thanks for showing me QE. I had a great time with that one. Two games I would add: El Grande and Medici. I apologize for bringing up hard to find games those two are so good.
LOL - I've never played Decrypto but your explanation absolutely made sense first time. It made me laugh that you kept repeating your explanation over and over again. :D (Definitely sounds like a party game too...!!)
When the gang’s all here we play our “Kings Dilemma” game, Feed the Kraken, Ready set Bet, Sheriff of Nottingham, and sometimes Cosmic Encounter with the player count upgrade Forgot Dead of Winter
As other people mentioned, Dune and John Company are great at their maximum player count, though both are long games. Out of titles not mentioned in the comments, I would single out Age of Steam, which doesn’t have complicated rules but is very engaging. Of course, this is assuming you are using a map that accommodates that number of players, as there are tons of maps for Age of Steam at various player counts, though most have counts of 4-6 or 3-5 players. Quite often, that game is better at the highest player count a map allows.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on all these. Scythe is one of my favorite games. I was lucky enough to play the Fenris campaign at 5-players with all the base game factions. I do prefer the increased interaction at higher player counts, and I'm glad that we had both lake factions in the campaign instead of just one faction having sole reign of the lakes. I really like Not Alone, too, and want to get it to the table more when I'm able to get larger groups together. Most of my game nights are 3-4 players, but yeah, I think at least 5 is best. I was introduced to Fuji Flush at a public game night a few months ago. It was a great game to end the night. Wild and quick. I've actually played most of these games, though the others were mostly just once and many were some years ago. I'd like to try Hansa and Euphoria again. Good to know that there were issues with the latter and that they're addressed in the expansion.
Not Alone is our family favorite and feels like a small party game. Works best at 4 or more players. Get the first expansion for more fun location abilities.
John Company 2E, Rising Sun, Cthulhu Wars, Stationfall, Skull, Eclipse 2E, TI4. Probably more I’m not thinking of. I often have 5+ at a game night and if we have 5 or 6 I try to not split the group into separate games.
I know it is hurt by being out of print, but El Grande will forever be one of the best Euros at 5. On the non-Euro side, Cosmic Encounter. Power Grid, Endeavor, Cyclades, Forgotten Waters are others to consider as well..
With a family of 6, I am always looking for the under an hour and easy to learn games for 5+ players. Added Fuji Flush and Modern Art to the wishlist. As for my go to 5 player games: Foundations of Rome Challengers Ready Set Bet Ethnos Space Base 7 Wonders (wish this one would actually get played more) 7 Wonders Architects (hoping this will lead to more plays for one above) Downforce Istanbul (wish this one would actually get played more) Point Salad Push No Thanks
Great list! When ever I do have the higher player counts, it always ends up having to be a party game of which I am not a big fan (other than codenames). It's good to know of these. I'm definitely going to look into Euphoria bit more.
