Tag Archives: board games

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My family enjoys board games and we've been playing them nearly daily for months while we've been home during the pandemic. My son is 10 and my daughter is 8. My husband and I are in our 40s. ;-) Here are a few of our favorites. (Affiliate links are included in this post.)

 

Our Newest Game

I'd heard Trash Pandas recommended over and over again so it was on my board game wish list. My son ended up picking it out for my daughter as a Hanukkah gift. She opened it up Thursday evening and we played our first game. It's a fast-paced card came that was easy to learn and fun to play. There's a bit of a press-your-luck aspect to the die rolling. And while many of our current favorites are loooong games, this one is about 20 minutes which feels refreshingly fast.

 

The Cutest War Game Ever and My Daughter's Favorite

In early November, I gave my husband Root. I hadn't heard of it and found it on his wish list. We all love it. My daughter likes it because "it is cute and fun." It's been dubbed the cutest war game ever. Each faction of animals (Bird, Cat, Mouse, and Raccoon) has their own unique game play which makes for a myriad of combinations of play for 2, 3, or 4-player games (or even more and up to 6 players with the Riverfolk expansion which we just got but haven't played yet).

 

Favorite Long Game

If you're looking for a great strategy game that'll take a couple (or more?) hours, Terraforming Mars is a great one! It was originally recommended to my by Christa Watson and we loved it from the start. There's so much going on in this great strategic game and we've added the Prelude and Hellas & Elysium expansions for even more fun. It's all about making Mars inhabitable by raising the temperature, increasing the oxygen level, and adding oceans.

 

Most Nostalgic Game

I recently bust out Rummikub which I started playing in high school with my best friend's family. Similar to the card game Rummy, it's all about building melds of tiles as well as manipulating the board to open new places to play your tiles.

 

The One Everyone Loves

Splendor is a game that I was introduced to by friends years ago. I loved it immediately and have in turn introduced many friends to it, many of whom have bought their own copy. It has easy mechanics, making it  but great strategy and plays in about 30 minutes making it short enough for a rematch or two in an evening. The Cities of Splendor expansion adds four twists to the standard game play.

 

Favorite Card Game

Before I met my husband I was introduced to Bohnanza. It's great with a bigger group and I don't really enjoy the two-player version. I have fond memories of playing with my extended family at the holidays. I introduced my kids to it a few months ago since they are old enough to handle the barter aspect of the game now. We have played so many 3-, and 4-player games in the past few months. And my kids will settle for the two-player version so they have played a couple times without me. This bean game has great graphics that make me smile.

 

My Son's Favorite

My son's current favorite is Tiny Epic Quest. He says he actually like all of the Tiny Epic games. I have to agree. There's so much great strategy and interest packed into a small box. In Tiny Epic Quest you are moving around the kingdom to explore temples, fight goblins, and learn spells. Our most recent game took almost 2 hours, so it's a long one.

 

A Great Solitaire Game

Another one that goes back to high school with my best friend's family is the card game Set. It's great as a rambunctious competitive game, but my daughter really enjoys it as a solitaire game. And playing solo is a great way at improving one's skills for a competitive game.

 

Here's a glimpse of the entire collections. The shelves just went up this week. I'm always looking for game recommendations if you'd like to share in the comments and I'm happy to answer any questions about the ones we own.

 

Thanks to my kiddos for helping with this post and for endless gaming hours with me. :-) I'm participating in Cheryl's 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge. Check out my 2018 favorite board games, too.

What's your favorite board game?

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One of the things I like to do when I'm not sewing is to play board games. We have a few family favorites so I thought I'd share them with you. Worth noting, my kids are 6 and 8 years old and have been playing board games for years. Often if my youngest doesn't want to play solo, she teams up with one of us to play. Worth noting, all of these games play well as 2-player games.

In no particular order...

Pandemic: We love this one where players work cooperatively to eradicate four diseases across the map. The games is always different depending on which combination of roles players take on and what special powers they take on (like Quarantine Specialist, stopping the spread of disease in an area).

Tiny Epic Galaxies: We just got this game. It comes in a small box but it's packed full of good stuff. Each player has a card and tokens to mark their level and resources. The deck of planet cards introduce a variety of potential actions to help in acquiring planets. Plus, little rocket tokens for moving around!

Fluxx: There are many versions, but at the heart of it is a simple card game. Draw one, play one. Oh, until the rules change. Or the goal changes. Or what actions you can take change. You're in a constant state of flux until someone meets the requirements of the moment to win. As you can imagine sometimes this is quick and sometimes the game is a little more drawn out.

Just Desserts: This card game has been enjoyed by many in our house. It's a fast-paced card game that's all about feeding the customers the type of dessert they desire. (There are also Coffee and Bacon expansion pack.) Warning: you may have dessert cravings following the game.

Power Grid: Also new to us, this one is pretty involved and lengthy (2+ hours). We're still really getting to know this one, but we enjoy it. It took a few games to get the hang of all the rules, but there's real good strategy around purchasing power plants, buying the supplies to run them, and building in cities to power. More focus is needed as there are many different phases in each round and order of play changes often.

Catan Junior: Settlers of Catan is a great one for older players, but my favorite game with the kids when they were younger was Catan Junior. The mechanics were not too complicated, but the game still offered lots of strategy. And pirate themed!

Qwirkle: Easy to play, it's a little like scrabble with no letters. Tiles have shapes of a particular color (note: color blind players will need assistance or adaptation of game pieces). No reading required.

Splendor: Beautiful graphics and chips as "gems" (the monetary units of the game). Once again this is a game with easy mechanics, but a lot of room for strategy. We've yet to introduce this game to someone who didn't enjoy it.

If you try any of these out, let me know what you think. And I'd love to hear what board games your family enjoys!