- RSS FeedSubscribe
- « Previous PostBook Review - Signs of the Spirit
- Next Post »A La Carte (12/8)
Board (Not Boring) Games
- 12/07/08
- 87
In recent months my family has been discovering (for the kids) or rediscovering (for Aileen and me) a love of board games. We’ve had great fun playing games like Ticket to Ride (an amazing game for the whole family), Lost Cities (a fast and fun strategy game for two adults or older children), and a few of the classics. In the next day or two Aileen and I are going to tackle Carcassonne, by all accounts a classic in its own right. Nick loves to play complicated war games like Axis & Allies and Risk, though he plays by his own rules.
With Christmas fast approaching, we’re looking at getting a few more games to tide us through these long, cold, winter months. I’m guessing there are some people out there who can suggest a few surefire winners for us. We’d prefer either games that the whole family can play (or, at least, age eight or nine and up) or games that Aileen and I can play on our own. We’re not too interesting, at least for now, in games that require four or more people. I’ve been looking at games like Blokus, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico. Can anyone suggest other games that might be worthwhile additions to our collection?
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
This is a guide written
Comments (87)
I’d suggest “Apples & Oranges”. There’s a kid’s version and a grown up version.
Blokus is awesome! My family also loves Scotland Yard, which usually calls for 5+ people, but if one team plays more than one piece it works alright.
“Settlers of Catan” is all win.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan
Check out Board Game Geek (http://boardgamegeek.com/newuser.php) if you haven’t already. Power grid may be a bit intense for kids (or at least, it is the way my friends play it). I like going for “lighter” games like Ra, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, and Shadows over Camelot. If you enjoy horror parody, Betrayal at House on the Hill is also quite entertaining.
The other suggestion is to check out your local comic shop (if you have one remotely nearby). A lot of times they’ll have board game clubs.
“Apples to Apples” is a must have for the whole family. I’ve played it with little kids, high schoolers, and adults, everyone loves it!
My husband is also a huge fan of “Settlers of Catan,” a strategy game. When I was in college a group of friends were addicted to it and played for hours.
My favorite game is Speed Scrabble: http://www.speedscrabble.org/
Carcassone is awesome! Just make sure to score it right (depending on which rules you have, farmers can be tricky. My wife and I still play by the original rules).
PR is a great game. I wish we had a copy right now.
Ticket to Ride…also another great.
I’d second Market Garden’s suggestion of Settlers. Although if you start adding additions/editions/expansion packs, etc…the game goes from a nice 45-75 min play to a couple of hours.
Look into Kill Dr. Lucky (http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/game/257) or Save Dr. Lucky (http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/game/1157) both are good. And you can use your Carcassone meeples!
Also, Atika is good. (http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/game/8051)
If your son (?) like A&A or Risk, check out memoir 44…is is another good one. (http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/game/10630)
I sent a link to your post to a friend who is a big gamer.
We love Settlers of Catan! Speed scrabble and Nerts are winners too.
If you’d like to try something exotic, get ready to be challenged by Go, the simplest yet the most complex two-player board game in the world!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(board_game)
David
We’ve been playing Sorry! in my family since we were young children. It’s a lot of fun, relatively few rules, and has room for the unexpected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorry!_(game)
I’ll second what Wasabi Jane said. There’s a forum on Boardgamegeek dedicated solely to recommendations. Read that for a week or two, and you’re likely to see your own question answered several times over with loads of suggestions. All the games you mentioned in the post are worth having. Blokus is only fun with exactly 4 players, though, in my opinion (unless you get the Trigon edition, which is fun for 3).
Another vote for Settlers! It’s expansion “Castles and Knights” is also great once you get the hang of Settlers. Endless fun, because the game is endlessly re-configurable.
I would second Settlers of Catan (for adults and, possibly, 8-9 year olds, too), Blockus, and Apples to Apples (we play the kids version of this with my wife and I and 9 & 7 year old daughters). Another one that our family likes is Doodle Dice.
I’d like to second or third Settlers of Catan, easily the best board game I’ve played. Especially if you enjoy Risk. I describe it to newbies as Risk meets Monopoly.
Gotta go with Settlers of Catan. There’s a basic set for 2-4 people to start out with, and 3 expansion sets for when you really get addicted :)
Settlers of Catan is fun. Everyone at our church plays that ALL THE TIME at almost any community group function. There is a two person version that my husband and I “developed”, mainly because we are nerdy.
My new favorite game is Farkle. all you need is 6 dice, a pencil and a piece of paper. Its a great game to practice math skills with as well, since there’s a lot of addition and subtration. And there are many versions to choose from. WIkipedia has a ver informative article about the game.
Othello is a great game for 2 players. It’s quick to learn and fun to play.
I can also attest that Apples to Apples and Blokus are great family games. For a change of pace, we also really enjoy the old classic “Pick up Sticks” and Jenga.
I’d go with Settlers too. We have people from church over to play almost every weekend. It’ll take a little bit for an 8 or 9 year old to get the hang of it, but it’s a great game. I was told it’s made by the same people who made Ticket to Ride.
Pandemic sounds like a great game. I just ordered it, along with San Juan, for my wife and I to play. The great thing about Pandemic is that it’s cooperative; instead of playing against each other, you play against the board! It’s sounds like it plays with 2-5 people.
I’ve played Ticket to Ride, Carcasonne and Puerto Rico pretty regularly with a small group of friends. They’re fun. Some others we enjoy are Settlers of Cataan (which is way more fun using the Cities and Knights expansion) and Tigris & Euphrates.
I’ve only played T&E once, but it was interesting.
I haven’t played the other Cataan expansions, but when I looked into them they didn’t seem that interesting.
I also enjoy Scrabble.
Okay, now that I’ve ready the other responses, I feel compelled to register a vote “against” Apples to Apples. It’s an okay “party game”, but if you’re into the strategy aspect…well, there isn’t much. So, for me, it wasn’t that fun.
Tim, my wife and I started playing Ticket to Ride as well as Lost Cities about a year ago. If you haven’t already, you should consider purchasing the 1910 expansion cards for Ticket to Ride or the Switzerland expansion. Both add another wonderful additions as well as new levels of strategy. In addition, they are very economical ways to increase your game options. Ticket to Ride (Europe) is also a fun game.
If you or your family enjoyed Lord of the Rings (books or movies) then I would suggest picking up the board game of the same name. Here is the info on board game geek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823
It is a cooperative game where you are playing “against the game.” Each player chooses a hobbit and the players have to work together to get the ring to Mordor and destroy it. It is fantastic! My wife and I enjoy it immensely. It can play up to 5 but we enjoy it just with two.
Another excellent co-op game that would be good with your family would be Shadows over Camelot, also made by Days of Wonder. In that one you are one of the knights of the round table attempting to defeat the evil threatening the kingdom. Up to 7 can play that one.
Pandemic just recently came out which is another co-op game (1-4 players) where you are trying to defeat the spread of viruses throughout the world. My wife and I just picked that one up and we are looking forward to playing that with family.
If you are looking for a few well-crafted two-player games for you and your wife that work well with more as well, you might try Thurn and Taxis, (also plays well with four) Saint Petersburg, (also plays four) Memoir ‘44, (a great WWII game that is very easy to learn and play) or Agricola which is works really well two player and is the number one rated game on board game geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=game&sortby=rank)
Finally, another game I grabbed through a trade on board game geek is 1960: The making of the President. It is a strictly two-player game where one player plays Nixon and the other Kennedy, where you are trying to gain electoral votes by spreading influence in each state throughout the U.S. through the media and even a debate. It is a very highly rated game that we are eager to try.
Welcome to the hobby! It is a great way for spouses and their families to spend time together. There are also a few games out there that wives might not want to play but that men could really get into.
My buddies and I really enjoy playing Twilight Imperium 3, a long game but it flies by because it is so much fun. It is a 3-6 player galactic conquest game. Great fun.
Enjoy!
I’ve heard Dungeons and Dragons is pretty fun…
But in all seriousness, get a hold of Settlers of Catan. Pure brilliance.
Well, my friends and family and I play games the way that’s most fun for us, so that means adjusting the rules…here are some top picks (we don’t care as much about winning :) )-Loaded Questions (we try to make each other laugh as much as possible; reincorportions makes this one really fun)-Cranium (complicated at first)-Nertz (or as I like to call it ‘Nerds); the more decks the better!-Boggle-Scrabble-Dominoes-Rummikub (sp?); though I’m horrible at it, I think this one is one of my favorites :)-Charades-Clue (LOVED this game as a kid!)-Trivial Pursuit (there are so many versions that are age appropriate/topic specific)
Your son might enjoy a game called “Lionheart,” if he likes strategy games. It’s similar to Stratego in some ways, but I think I liked it a little better.Axis & Allies was one my dad and I enjoyed starting (I think we only ever finished one game due to time), though its complexity makes it fairly time-consuming.
I like to play Cranium. But no will play with me.
I live with Backgammon players.
“Apples to Apples” and “Settlers of Catan” are both excellent games that I had the pleasure of discovering this past year. Others have already mentioned them, so I suppose I’ll just say that I second their suggestion!
Triple Amens on Settlers. A good test of your Christianity! Also you can play Big Boggle (not a board game) with a handicap—have the kids get three-letter words or more, you and the wife 4 or more. Evens out the playing field and helps their spelling. Imaginiff is a hoot! Any Cranium game is great—the commercial for Depends and Cranium is so true—ask my cousin! Rummikub is not a board game, is it? I still like it. Another not-board game—Mancala. I still don’t have the hang of winning, and little kids seem to be very good at it! You can make your own with beans and an egg carton. Have fun with your dear family!
My husband and I knew there had to be something more out there for parents with small children besides “Candyland.” We bought “Maask” (by Blue Orange) last year and really enjoy playing it with our six- and three-year-olds. It’s basically “Memory”…with a twist!
I just ordered “You’ve Been Sentenced!” on the recommendation of a friend. Think of it as “Scrabble” with words instead of letters. I’ll give an opinion after Tuesday (my husband’s birthday). :-)
Our family standard, however, is “Aggravation.” I think there is a commercial version, but we play on a board made by my grandfather. There is currently such a wooden board for sale on Amazon (although it is six-player and we use four), but the price is a JOKE at almost $400! You could make your own for just a few dollars if you know someone with some woodworking tools. “Aggravation” is a perfect combination of logic and luck…ahem…providence. LOL!
I go for “Bang!”. It’s a card game that’s a bit like Mafia.
Everyone has a gun, and can shoot other people if you play a Bang! card. The other person has to play a “Missed!” card, or they get shot and lose health. There are many other kinds of action cards, that do various things.
Each player is either the Sheriff, a deputy, an outlaw, or a renegade—but no one knows who’s who, except that everyone knows who is the Sheriff. The Sheriff & deputies want to kill all the outlaws. The outlaws want to kill the Sheriff. The renegade wants to kill everyone—but has to kill the Sheriff last.
Bang!
I’d recommend Killer Bunnies (a strategy card game great for families and small to large groups).
For your son who likes A&A and Risk I’d recommend Twilight Imperium which is like A&A in space on steroids. It has a board made up of hex tiles that can be rearranged for a different board each game, hundreds of pieces representing 5-10 different unit types, a political aspect, a technology research element and much more. The only downside is that it takes a long time to learn, a long time to play and is best with 6 players.
I see many of my recommendations have already been mentioned, but I’ll throw them out there anyway. We love Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne here and though we haven’t pulled out Lost Cities in a while, my husband and I counted that one a favorite for a long time.
For the whole family: Apples to Apples (Junior version so the kids can join in easily), Incan Gold, Chateau Roquefort, Pick Picknic, Qwirkle, Animal upon Animal
For you & Aileen: Jambo, San Juan, Pandemic (though this is a cooperative game, it completely stresses me out — but in a good way), Thurn & Taxis, Wasabi, and if you like an occasional abstract game, try Hive or Yinsh.
Board Games are Great! Some of the best times here at school = when we get get a group together to eat food and play RISK or STRATEGO.
There is a card game of Settlers of Catan that’s just for two people that my hubby and I love!
Empire Builder is also one of our favorites, and there are many different versions of it, though I’m not sure they have a Canadian version.
Though you didn’t mention wanting games for younger kids, I thought I’d mention Rivers, Road, and Rails. It’s a tile-laying game that is easy enough for young children to play but is interesting enough to keep the adults from losing their minds. :D My son loves it! (He’s six.)
Bananagrams is awesome for the whole family, as is Discombobulation. Bananagrams is similar to Scrabble, but each player makes their own “board” as it were with the tiles, and the object is to use all your letters before the other players. Discombobulation is a riotously fun card game that you just have to experience.
Our church gets together and plays Dutch Blitz which can be very addictive. We’ve played with all ages and little ones can team with adults to play.
Not sure if it is still available, but in the past I have really enjoyed “Shogun”, a Risk-type game set in Japan. I think it is from the same company who made “Axis & Allies”.
I enjoy “Ticket to Ride” as well, and recently played a similar train game called “Railroad Tycoon” (named after the video game, but this one is a board game). It was a lot of fun as well.
Finally, my son really likes playing Monopoly with me. There’s something about seeing dad broke and him with all the money and property at the end, that seems to bond the family. And if you get bored along the way, the battleship piece can ‘shoot’ the other tokens (the poor top hat!).
Axis & Allies and Risk are two of my favorite, but I have been considering a more simplistic one thats out, Strategy. I don’t know how good it is but I may give it a try as I have a 6 and 8 year old sons who are not quite ready for Axis & Allies, though they love Risk, even though I don’t let them win.
We also bought them Battleground, which is so much fun. You get catapults, and other medieval weapons of war, and you each take side of the table and try to destroy the othe player. It is a more involved alternative to sitdown board games, and ALOT of fun! http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=battleground&origkw=Battleground&f=Taxonomy/TRUS/2254197&sr=1
Parcheesi, hands down favorite in our house. Two to four players, ages seven to adult. We even play it with our guests who have limited English, a true testament that anyone can play (and enjoy) it.
We love games here and since I didn’t see these mentioned I’ll add my two cents.Pond Scum: FUN card game using ordinary decks of cards and can be played with any number of players, we play this with even our five year old and just help him a bit.Labyrinth: AWESOME board game (by Ravensburger) that can be played with 2-4 players. Even the youngest can play.Milles Bourne: Fun card game where you are racing through France. OUr youngest plays this with help.Whonoo: Another awesome game by the Cranium foks.Uno Attack: The kids are in stitches with this one!Pirates: This is a trading/strategy game where you build little model sailing ships and then go looking for treasure. This is my three boys current favorite. You can start playing with one pack which is nice, and the mini dice are super cute!Pit: This is the best and most fun game!!! You are trading shares on the market and it’s so loud and crazy and we all disolve into laughter at each session!Hope this helps!
2 German Card games:
6 nimmt
Bohnanza
try germangames.com or germanboardgames.com
Don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned yet, but if you like loud, rowdy, card games with all-at-once competitive trading and a bell to ring, you’ll love Pit! It’s based on the stock market and the goal is to ‘corner the market’. (Our whole family plays it and we all love it ages 10-49)Again - you have to love a little frenzy!
Another vote for Settlers and its wonderful expansion packs.
Settlers is hard to beat. After 7 years and 128 games played, we still love it. We record the winner’s name inside the box lid for a running record of games played with date. Great idea for any game. IF your son likes Risk and Axis and Allies, he will love Settlers, esp. once you work up to Cities and Knights expansion. NOTE: Most of these games are relatively expensive on Amazon. Cheaper elsewhere.
Look as a start for games that have won the Spiel des Jahres - the game award for family games. Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are all previous winners.
boardgamegeek has already been mentioned, it is the best resource for boardgame information albeit from the point of view of people who see board games as their primary hobby. It can also be intimidating to pick a next game out of such a large database however there are plenty of jumping in points.
Also check out kidgameratings.com for age specific recommendations.
Blink (http://www.educationallearninggames.com/blink-card-game.asp)
There are a lot of great suggestions here. So I’m going to add my two cents as well since playing great board games (Euro Board Games) is what I love to play most.
If you like Ticket to Ride, then I would strongly suggest Power Grid as a next step. It can support 6 players, which is unique these days with most games only supporting up to 5.More complicated but excellent games as well are Puerto Rico, along with Agricola and Caylus, and Maharaja. What make these game stand out above most other games is that they do not rely on random luck, either from a dice role or drawing lucky. These are games where you act and react to what is happening around you, and which is why they are great fun to play for a long time.
Settlers is a great game, and even better with the Cities and Knights expansion, but it does rely on dice rolling, which can get frustrating at time.
Today I just learned Pandemic, and as others have mentioned, it is a cooperative game, meaning everyone is working together to win, or else everyone loses. This is fine if you don’t want to compete with others, but it is not going to be my first pick in the future. I like to play to win :)
If you want simple fun card games, go with Bohnanza or Xactica. Neither take long to play.Oh, and one of my favorite games to play is called Hoity Toity, but it is only realy great with 5 people playing.Have fun game playing!
Gipf, Dvonn, Zertz, Tamsk (http://www.gipf.com/ , http://www.riograndegames.com/)
Wordpsot (Front Porch Classics)
Rummikub isn’t really a “board” game per se, but it fits the bill for a fun family game (up to 4 players) for almost any age. We all love that one. We also play a lot of card games like Uno, Phase 10, and Skip-Bo.