Board Game Lingo ... But Way Sillier
No one can deny that I love organically forming stupid expressions. If you’ve ever spent more than five minutes with me, you’d notice. And I really love the ludicrous sayings that grow from playing a specific board game. This list is only the beginning, for there are many more games to discover.
“Makers Make!”
~ Dune: Imperium
Exclaimed by the players when we refresh the spice locations.
“Let’s go swimming!”
~ Abyss
Our super supportive battlecry when someone takes the Explore the Depths action
"Two Chains!"
~ Hickory Dickory
Proudly sung whenever someone climbs the clock by 2 chains.
"Drop your Eyes Where I can See 'em"
~ Spirit Island
This demand is proclaimed when someone’s card play is extremely complicated and I need them to use their oddly shaped reminder tokens.
“Wheat, wood, boxes, bars, bullets, and wine.”
“I tank the wheat.”
~ Raccoon Tycoon
What we call the 6 resources and how we describe when a resource hits the bottom.
“I’m stealing a puppy.”
~ Dog Park
Whenever I switch dogs with the shop. Thematically, it has to be theft. Who the f*ck would be like “I’m done with you Spot. Fiddo helps my engi…I mean, is cuter.”
“I’m Fish Passing”
~ Terraforming Mars
When you take one action and then say “I’m done,” we say you have “passed.” When you take no actions, and are therefore ‘officially passing’ for the generation, I call that ”Fish Passing.”
“Cows go moo”
~ Terraforming Mars
Whenever someone in my group activates livestock, they say “Cows” (There is a cow on the picture). Whenever someone in my group is done with their turn, they say “Go!” So, if the player with livestock is stalling by taking single actions, they say “Cows! Go!” and the next person will inevitably yell “Moo!” without fail.
“Awwww!”
“I feel like I can trust this guy”
“You better do your job!”
~ Terraforming Mars
As you can imagine, I play quite a bit of Terraforming Mars. The first two quotes are said when two certain cards are drawn (Can you guess them?). That third one is our most common threat. During a generation’s draft, if one card must be kept from a certain player (and we don’t want to waste the draft to do it), we hand the cards over and threaten our neighbor to hate-draft the particular card.
“You gonna sh*t in your own cereal?”
~ Coloretto
Whenever you place a card you don’t want in a pile you previously wanted just to f*ck up someone else.
“Wait…that’s the taco? Then what is my taco?!”
~ That's Not a Hat
This isn’t really a catchphrase, but it makes me laugh every time. When a card is flipped during a challenge (Say it’s a taco), at least one person will usually exclaim this as they were positive THEY had the taco.
"Gotta pick the sexy gap”
~ Wits and Wagers
This is what I refer to as the biggest gap between two answers. You’d have to be an idiot not to pick it, right?
“The worst hand ever”
~ Dominion
When you only produce 7 coins on a single turn. You know they are fuming inside.
“Scissoring”
~ Scout
This is the tactic of playing a single card from the middle of your hand. I know it’s in bad taste, but that’s what it looks like when they slide their hand closer together!
“Wrecking your own sh*t”
~ Brass Birmingham
The phrase I use whenever someone spends iron to remove buildings from their board.
“Treeing a tree.”
~ Canopy
The phrase we use when a canopy is added to a forest.
“That sounds like something a werewolf would say”
~ Spyfall
If your answer is ridiculous, I might drop this threat on you.
“Don’t worry about f*ck*ng up, cause I’m just gonna f*ck it up worse.”
~ Bandido
When the player before me is contemplating their move, and I have nothing but terrible cards, I’ll offer up these helpful words.
“A naked ship”
~ Twilight Imperium
When a Warsun or carrier has no fighters, we say it’s naked.
“Jesus, that’s just Everclear!”
“I f*ck*d up and made vodka again!”
“Getting rich off white girls I see.”
“Potatoes!” with an Irish accent.
~ Distilled
If you’ve ever played Distilled, you probably understand where these come from. And since we ALWAYS drink while playing this game, there are more expressions yet to come!
“Are you about to ruin Christmas?”
~ Any Game
If you are about to attack me, or target me, I will threaten you with this.