- Less than $30
- 3-6 players
- Playing time: 30 minutes or less
- Mildly strategic or cognitively stimulating. Nothing too intense or competitive (or offensive)
Only idea I've been able to come up with so far is Love Letter. Thanks!
Metro is a tile-laying game by Dirk Henn, who also designed Alhambra and some other well-regarded Queen games. It plays 2-6 and scales well -- I've played it at 2 and I've played it at 6 -- though some point out it may be more strategic at lower player counts, esp. at 2.
The rules are simple -- either play the one tile you have or draw a tile and play that instead. The tiles represent tracks on the Paris Metro and you need to play it so its tracks fit with the tracks on the tiles next to it. You're trying to build routes, the longer the better, since you get a point for each tile that your route takes, including ones you loop through. Routes that end at the central power-station have their score doubled. That's basically it.
The game can be played casually. Some people do make it thinkier, which would raise the playing-time -- if you have such people around, you may have to nudge them to play faster -- i.e. set a 30-second timer for them or the like.
There is also a newer edition of the game, also on sale at MM for $22 [2], that comes with 4 expansions, including a stock expansion -- you don't own a railroad if you play with it, you have 4 cards representing stock in up to 4 railroads and depending on how well those railroads do, you get points at the end. There are 3 other expansions that do other things. This edition is a tad less charming in that it replaces the wooden train pieces with cardboard ones, though in both the pieces just sit on the side of the board, indicating that a train route is unfinished and are removed to indicate that a line is done.
Interesting that the newer edition has only 6 copies left while the original has 20+, meaning they have a lot. On the other hand, I watched a Tom Vasel review [3] earlier today where he basically said the expansions are not really necessary, that the base game is sufficient.
Miniature Market is in the midst of a sale now, which should last till 11/26, and will have another one later this week. They do order-holds, so you can rack up a few orders to get to $100 for free shipping or at least to get a few games shipped together. So you might find some other things too, for the office or yourself.
[0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/559/metro
[1] https://www.miniaturemarket.com/qng60159.html
[2] https://www.miniaturemarket.com/qng10241.html
[3] https://boardgamegeek.com/video/147901/metro/metro-review-do...
Codenames -- 2-8, though I think you need 4 min. Under $20. Highly-ranked, highly-popular team vs. team word game. There are multiple versions, including one using pictures, instead of words, one for Marvel, one for Harry Potter, etc. But the base game is fine. Has a strong social component, as one person gives clues about certain words that appear in a grid of word-cards and their team has to guess which words they are being clued about; wrong words may give the other team an advantage, etc.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames
Sushi Go Party: $18.38 @Amazon plays 2 - 8 Highly-ranked and fast card-drafting game. As opposed to the original Sushi Go, it plays more players and lets you create a different deck of cards for every game (i.e. using different foods). Comes in a nice tin.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192291/sushi-go-party
King of Tokyo: plays 2 - 6 ($30 and change on Amazon). It's a yahtzee-mechanic dice-chucker where each player is a Godzilla-style monster in or out of Tokyo. It's also by Richard Garfield. This one is a well-known game in gaming circles, with expansions and so on. Comes with large, custom dice.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo
Treasure Hunter plays 2 - 6 ($27-ish on Amazon, though it may go down as Amazon has a history of discounting Queen games during this season -- last year it hit $12.50) Card-drafting game by Richard Garfield (who did another card-drafting game called Magic: The Gathering :-) ). It's in a Ticket To Ride sized box, as it has a board and tokens in addition to cards. Fairly light, despite all the components.
And here are a few others -- mostly card games:
Parade: plays 2-6, $19.91 @Amzn, $16.99 @Miniature Market. It's a light card game with an Alice in Wonderland theme; it's pretty well-regarded.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56692/parade
For Sale: plays 3-6, either around $30 on Amazon for the regular box or around $16 for the deck-of-cards box "travel edition" which has thinner tokens and the rules printed on cards. The game is a well-known filler in gaming circles.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172/sale
Fantasy Realms: plays 3-6, $19.99 @ Amazon -- light card game
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223040/fantasy-realms
Cheaty Mages: plays 3-6 $16.47 @Amazon -- small-box, light card game
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38194/cheaty-mages
Age of War: plays 2-6, small, light dice game by ace-designer Reiner Knizia (though this isn't one of his classics). $11.76 @ Amazon.