I really wish that more board games had multiple game modes. It's a feature that essentially allows you to have multiple, very similar but very different games in one box, which is awesome!
Two great examples:
SUPERHOT: The Card Game is normally cooperative against the Red Dudes, but there's a mode where you can actually gunfight with each other.
Gem Rush is a point mining game that you can equally play as a competition to be the one with the most points, or a cooperative game to get enough points together before the deck runs out.
More like this, please, designers!
Not to mention that both of the above instantly fix the problem of showing up to a gathering with a game and the consensus between the guests being a total coinflip between "cooperative is too safe and huggy" and "competitive stresses me out" - the one game you brought can do either 😸
@V Scythe is an exceptional board game in its own right, but straight out of the box, comes with both its default competitive mode where each player is vying for the most victory points at the end of the game (made up not just of objectives, but also territory controlled, amount of money, AND how much resources you have left over, with each being worth more or less points based on your tier of popularity in game!), AND a cooperative players vs AI mode!
@Nine I'll keep that in mind! Scythe is one that I just never jumped on because the production quality seemed a little over the top and the playtime was long. But now's one of the best times to check out the digital version in my boredom, so maybe I will!
There are a lot of excellent wargames out there that I could compare to "Risk but better", it's a great time to be a board gamer.
@V Honestly when I figured out that most American boardgames are just absolute trashbollocks, and that there was such a thing as games like Settlers of Catan that was ACTUALLY FUN to play I got a lot more into board games.
I wish I had never heard of Monopoly honestly. I mean, everyone NEEDS to experience it at least once, just to have a grounding of "and here's what a TERRIBLE board game looks like", but only AFTER they've experienced good ones.
@Nine Yeah, Monopoly was literally originally a game called "the landlord game", parodying how capitalism is disgustingly unfair, so it makes sense that it'd be bad and unfun. And it is, lol.
These days, well, I've posted my board game shelf. So, so many amazing games everywhere 😻 It's a crime that, ironically, Monopoly will always be the most popular board game solely because it's drilled into the public consciousness by capitalist marketers, while much smaller publishing companies make all the good games and get ignored by everyone but us nerds.
Also, on the topic of wargames, my favorite board game of all time, period, is a beautifully tight and succinct wargame called The King is Dead. I highly recommend it 
@V Milton Bradley should be destroyed for their crimes honestly.
But yeah, I feel like I've heard of The King Is Dead, but... not actually tried it! I think I'll put that on my list of games to check out!
@V I glibly describe it as "Risk, but if it was actually fun to play", which is... very reductive, and also anything that makes Risk fun to play means it isn't Risk any more. :3 Either way though it's an incredible game that DOES NOT rely on luck. It is extremely strategic, but also really simple to learn despite LOOKING really complex.