Looking for family board game suggestions
18-Nov-22 1:52pm
#1 Scott
We've always been a big board game family, but I think we're overdue for some upgrades to our collection. When the kids were younger, we played a lot of Candyland, Sorry, Battleship, Guess Who, Monopoly Jr, more simple games like that. As they got older, we started incorporating other games like Clue, Monopoly, Pictionary, Tabboo, Boggle, and Tetris Link. Now that they're almost teens, I'm looking for something a little more advanced, but I'm overwhelmed by the number of options. I hear a lot about Settlers of Catan, but I've never actually played it myself. My impression is that it's fairly technical, with a high learning curve. I'm more interested in games with lower learning curves, and not too complicated or technical, but still more advanced than the basic games we've been playing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
#1 Scott
We've always been a big board game family, but I think we're overdue for some upgrades to our collection. When the kids were younger, we played a lot of Candyland, Sorry, Battleship, Guess Who, Monopoly Jr, more simple games like that. As they got older, we started incorporating other games like Clue, Monopoly, Pictionary, Tabboo, Boggle, and Tetris Link. Now that they're almost teens, I'm looking for something a little more advanced, but I'm overwhelmed by the number of options. I hear a lot about Settlers of Catan, but I've never actually played it myself. My impression is that it's fairly technical, with a high learning curve. I'm more interested in games with lower learning curves, and not too complicated or technical, but still more advanced than the basic games we've been playing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
18-Nov-22 1:59pm
#2 Scott
Well, maybe Catan isn't as technical as I thought, the age range says 10+. I'm strongly considering getting this for one of my kids as a Christmas gift. Is this a good version?
https://www.amazon.c...
#2 Scott
Well, maybe Catan isn't as technical as I thought, the age range says 10+. I'm strongly considering getting this for one of my kids as a Christmas gift. Is this a good version?
https://www.amazon.c...
18-Nov-22 2:00pm
#3 Sun
Catan is pretty easy
Ticket to Ride is also good and easy
King of Tokyo
Potion Explosion
Sheriff of Nottingham
Space Base
Sushi Go Party
Tiny Towns
Those are my suggestions based on your criteria of "lower learning criteria" but more advanced than your typical Hasbro, old school board games.
#3 Sun
Catan is pretty easy
Ticket to Ride is also good and easy
King of Tokyo
Potion Explosion
Sheriff of Nottingham
Space Base
Sushi Go Party
Tiny Towns
Those are my suggestions based on your criteria of "lower learning criteria" but more advanced than your typical Hasbro, old school board games.
18-Nov-22 2:02pm
#4 Sun
For Catan, if you ever want to play more than 4 players, I would get the original version. The 5-6 player extension is a separate purchase however. And you can expand it with other expansions that add complexity to the game.
#4 Sun
For Catan, if you ever want to play more than 4 players, I would get the original version. The 5-6 player extension is a separate purchase however. And you can expand it with other expansions that add complexity to the game.
18-Nov-22 2:06pm
#5 Scott
Thanks for all of the suggestions, I'll start looking into those!
Sun wrote:
For Catan, if you ever want to play more than 4 players, I would get the original version. The 5-6 player extension is a separate purchase however. And you can expand it with other expansions that add complexity to the game.
So I would need to buy this version:
https://www.amazon.c...
AND the 5-6 player Extension?
#5 Scott
Thanks for all of the suggestions, I'll start looking into those!
Sun wrote:
For Catan, if you ever want to play more than 4 players, I would get the original version. The 5-6 player extension is a separate purchase however. And you can expand it with other expansions that add complexity to the game.
So I would need to buy this version:
https://www.amazon.c...
AND the 5-6 player Extension?
18-Nov-22 2:13pm
#6 SwiftJAB
Catan and Risk are classics. Azul is also pretty good. If you're looking to have some simple fun, Quelf is something I recommend. You might also consider getting into some card games as well like Exploding Kittens and Fluxx
#6 SwiftJAB
Catan and Risk are classics. Azul is also pretty good. If you're looking to have some simple fun, Quelf is something I recommend. You might also consider getting into some card games as well like Exploding Kittens and Fluxx
18-Nov-22 2:27pm
#7 nonamesleft
SwiftJAB wrote:
Catan and Risk are classics. Azul is also pretty good. If you're looking to have some simple fun, Quelf is something I recommend. You might also consider getting into some card games as well like Exploding Kittens and FluxxCame here to say Settlers of Catan. But Azul is good fun too. Very low learning curve for Azul. It's strategic, but easy to learn.
#7 nonamesleft
SwiftJAB wrote:
Catan and Risk are classics. Azul is also pretty good. If you're looking to have some simple fun, Quelf is something I recommend. You might also consider getting into some card games as well like Exploding Kittens and FluxxCame here to say Settlers of Catan. But Azul is good fun too. Very low learning curve for Azul. It's strategic, but easy to learn.
18-Nov-22 2:31pm
#8 nonamesleft
Quacks of Quedlinburg is fun, imo, but there is some learning involved. But once you get the hang of it, it's fairly fast paced and fun.
#8 nonamesleft
Quacks of Quedlinburg is fun, imo, but there is some learning involved. But once you get the hang of it, it's fairly fast paced and fun.
18-Nov-22 2:41pm
#9 benstylus
Ticket to Ride and King of Tokyo are excellent next level choices. Ticket to Ride works well for varying player counts, King of Tokyo really only shines with 4 or more.
I would say Potion Explosion is just a small step in complexity above those two.
Small World fits in that small step category too, and it scales really well from 2 to 5 players.
Carcassonne is another oldie but also a goodie, and I strongly prefer it to Catan. Technically plays up to 5 I believe, but feels pretty random with that many. Better with 2 or 3.
For a level slightly beyond those, Concordia is one of my favorites (if you can get past dat box art), and it plays pretty well at all player counts.
#9 benstylus
Ticket to Ride and King of Tokyo are excellent next level choices. Ticket to Ride works well for varying player counts, King of Tokyo really only shines with 4 or more.
I would say Potion Explosion is just a small step in complexity above those two.
Small World fits in that small step category too, and it scales really well from 2 to 5 players.
Carcassonne is another oldie but also a goodie, and I strongly prefer it to Catan. Technically plays up to 5 I believe, but feels pretty random with that many. Better with 2 or 3.
For a level slightly beyond those, Concordia is one of my favorites (if you can get past dat box art), and it plays pretty well at all player counts.
18-Nov-22 2:46pm
#10 langev
Check out Mexican Train Dominoes. It may not be "advanced" enough, but it is fun!
https://www.amazon.c...
#10 langev
Check out Mexican Train Dominoes. It may not be "advanced" enough, but it is fun!
https://www.amazon.c...
18-Nov-22 2:56pm
#11 rayzor6
There are a LOT of options these days. This is the hobby that I have been engrossed in for going on 9 years now.
For Catan...it's not *that* complicated but ultimately, I think it's a bit overrated in present day. Still a classic, still earned it's place as a well known game. However for me: the game is almost determined as soon as everyone places their pieces and becomes all about gaming the trade aspect of it. I could go on and on about it, but ultimately: there are better games out there.
Board games, like video games have come a LONG way in improvements. Now, there are different games for whatever it is that you want to accomplish. From the very simple to the very complex. From racing games, to efficiency engines, to negotiation, to Risk like 'dudes on a map' fighting games, card dueling games, cooperative games (where it is you against the game itself), social deduction and many more.
Sun has some great suggestions there. Let me add some and msg me if you want any questions answered. I could seriously talk about board games non stop so I'd be enjoying any conversation about it!
Stone Age (a very entry level euro style game that is STILL one of my favorites of all time)
Quacks of Quedlinberg (push your luck game where you have ingredients that you add to a bag and pull into your cauldron board. If you pull out too many white cherry bomb tokens, your pot explodes and you can only get points OR buy more ingredients for the next round rather than both. Has a good catchup mechanic so if someone falls behind; they get a big advantage to keep them in the game. You play over 8 rounds)
Ticket to Ride. Instead of Catan, THIS game is the one that is the must own. I've never had anyone play this and not LOVE it. Very simple but a blast to play.
Carcassonne: this is the other 'famous' game that is about laying tiles. It's good, but some people really love it. Start out by NOT playing the farmers if you get this.
No Thanks: a simple card game where you either take a card or play a chip. The cards are from 3-35. You remove 9 cards from the deck and flip the top one over. The first player either takes it or plays one of their chips that lets them skip. The chips are -1 points, which is good because you want the lowest score in this game. You play until the deck is out...then add up the value of the cards and subtract the number of chips you have for your score. The twist is that runs ONLY count the LOWEST card. So if you have the 30, 31, 32 and 34: you are only going to have 30 points. You can use this against someone to make them pay more chips and then you take it with a pile of chips on top! Simple but fun.
For Sale: in the same catagory as "No Thanks". You start with some money and are bidding for properties with the value of 1-30. The "1" is a cardboard box...and the "30" is a space station. You put 4 cards out and then auction. The first person out, gets half their money back and takes the LOWEST numbered card. The one who wins will get the highest card out of the 4, but pays their full bid. Once you have auctioned off all the properties; the 2nd half of the game starts where you use THOSE same properties to blind bid for 4 random checks that come out...valued ZERO to $15k. The lowest property offered in the blind bid takes the smallest check and so forth. Another simple and short one, but a blast to play!
There are a ton more, but I'll mention one more: Clank! A Deck Building Adventure. This one has one of my favorite mechanics in it: deck building. This is where you get some starter cards and buy more in a 'market' to add to your deck. Once you run out of cards, you shuffle the old cards and new together...and draw back up. But in Clank, you are going into a dungeon to get treasure. You use your cards to move and for added powers. If you make too much noise (or "clank") from using some of the cards: you add your color cubes to a bag. The dragon in the dungeon can be awakened and you will get dealt damage by drawing out of the bag the cubes you put in. So if you make a bunch of noise, you COULD take a lot of damage until the dragon goes back to sleep. It's an awesome game and not too complicated.
One last thing: YouTube has a TON of stuff. If you want help learning the games, "Watch It Played" is one of the best teachers online. "The Dice Tower" is also great for information on gaming when you are looking for new things.
#11 rayzor6
There are a LOT of options these days. This is the hobby that I have been engrossed in for going on 9 years now.
For Catan...it's not *that* complicated but ultimately, I think it's a bit overrated in present day. Still a classic, still earned it's place as a well known game. However for me: the game is almost determined as soon as everyone places their pieces and becomes all about gaming the trade aspect of it. I could go on and on about it, but ultimately: there are better games out there.
Board games, like video games have come a LONG way in improvements. Now, there are different games for whatever it is that you want to accomplish. From the very simple to the very complex. From racing games, to efficiency engines, to negotiation, to Risk like 'dudes on a map' fighting games, card dueling games, cooperative games (where it is you against the game itself), social deduction and many more.
Sun has some great suggestions there. Let me add some and msg me if you want any questions answered. I could seriously talk about board games non stop so I'd be enjoying any conversation about it!
Stone Age (a very entry level euro style game that is STILL one of my favorites of all time)
Quacks of Quedlinberg (push your luck game where you have ingredients that you add to a bag and pull into your cauldron board. If you pull out too many white cherry bomb tokens, your pot explodes and you can only get points OR buy more ingredients for the next round rather than both. Has a good catchup mechanic so if someone falls behind; they get a big advantage to keep them in the game. You play over 8 rounds)
Ticket to Ride. Instead of Catan, THIS game is the one that is the must own. I've never had anyone play this and not LOVE it. Very simple but a blast to play.
Carcassonne: this is the other 'famous' game that is about laying tiles. It's good, but some people really love it. Start out by NOT playing the farmers if you get this.
No Thanks: a simple card game where you either take a card or play a chip. The cards are from 3-35. You remove 9 cards from the deck and flip the top one over. The first player either takes it or plays one of their chips that lets them skip. The chips are -1 points, which is good because you want the lowest score in this game. You play until the deck is out...then add up the value of the cards and subtract the number of chips you have for your score. The twist is that runs ONLY count the LOWEST card. So if you have the 30, 31, 32 and 34: you are only going to have 30 points. You can use this against someone to make them pay more chips and then you take it with a pile of chips on top! Simple but fun.
For Sale: in the same catagory as "No Thanks". You start with some money and are bidding for properties with the value of 1-30. The "1" is a cardboard box...and the "30" is a space station. You put 4 cards out and then auction. The first person out, gets half their money back and takes the LOWEST numbered card. The one who wins will get the highest card out of the 4, but pays their full bid. Once you have auctioned off all the properties; the 2nd half of the game starts where you use THOSE same properties to blind bid for 4 random checks that come out...valued ZERO to $15k. The lowest property offered in the blind bid takes the smallest check and so forth. Another simple and short one, but a blast to play!
There are a ton more, but I'll mention one more: Clank! A Deck Building Adventure. This one has one of my favorite mechanics in it: deck building. This is where you get some starter cards and buy more in a 'market' to add to your deck. Once you run out of cards, you shuffle the old cards and new together...and draw back up. But in Clank, you are going into a dungeon to get treasure. You use your cards to move and for added powers. If you make too much noise (or "clank") from using some of the cards: you add your color cubes to a bag. The dragon in the dungeon can be awakened and you will get dealt damage by drawing out of the bag the cubes you put in. So if you make a bunch of noise, you COULD take a lot of damage until the dragon goes back to sleep. It's an awesome game and not too complicated.
One last thing: YouTube has a TON of stuff. If you want help learning the games, "Watch It Played" is one of the best teachers online. "The Dice Tower" is also great for information on gaming when you are looking for new things.
18-Nov-22 3:10pm
#12 KCPenguins
Do they like card games? A deck of cards is cheap and doesn't take up space. We used to play Michigan Rummy for m&ms or pennies (supplied by the parent). Kids also liked Chase the Ace (again quarters supplied by parents) and Spoons.
Aside from that... these were some favorites growing up that are still fun today:
Uno
Mille Bornes
Pit
Yahtzee
Sequence
Scategories
#12 KCPenguins
Do they like card games? A deck of cards is cheap and doesn't take up space. We used to play Michigan Rummy for m&ms or pennies (supplied by the parent). Kids also liked Chase the Ace (again quarters supplied by parents) and Spoons.
Aside from that... these were some favorites growing up that are still fun today:
Uno
Mille Bornes
Pit
Yahtzee
Sequence
Scategories
18-Nov-22 3:21pm
#13 benstylus
How big is your family and what age range? They might help with more suggestions
#13 benstylus
How big is your family and what age range? They might help with more suggestions
18-Nov-22 3:25pm
#14 Scott
There are 4 of us, kids are 11 and 12, going on 12 and 13 soon.
Thanks for all of the input so far everyone.
#14 Scott
There are 4 of us, kids are 11 and 12, going on 12 and 13 soon.
Thanks for all of the input so far everyone.
18-Nov-22 4:11pm
#15 benstylus
More suggestions then:
Blokus
Century Spice Road (or Golem Edition, whichever theme suits your fancy)
Lords of Waterdeep
Dice City
Flamecraft
Wingspan
Castles of Burgundy
#15 benstylus
More suggestions then:
Blokus
Century Spice Road (or Golem Edition, whichever theme suits your fancy)
Lords of Waterdeep
Dice City
Flamecraft
Wingspan
Castles of Burgundy
18-Nov-22 4:18pm
#16 benstylus
Also, some places I order from that generally have pretty good pricing:
Miniaturemarket.com
Cardhaus.com
Gamenerdz.com
Used to order quite a bit from CoolStuffInc.com but they are often out of stock on the games I want when I think about buying them.
#16 benstylus
Also, some places I order from that generally have pretty good pricing:
Miniaturemarket.com
Cardhaus.com
Gamenerdz.com
Used to order quite a bit from CoolStuffInc.com but they are often out of stock on the games I want when I think about buying them.
19-Nov-22 7:42am
#17 KCPenguins
https://slickdeals.n...
Target is having half off select board games tomorrow. Catan is one of them.
#17 KCPenguins
https://slickdeals.n...
Target is having half off select board games tomorrow. Catan is one of them.
21-Nov-22 1:30am
#18 Sun
Yes, that’s the right version of Catan.
Quacks is a good family game as well and easy to teach and learn.
Flamecraft is new but also great.
#18 Sun
Yes, that’s the right version of Catan.
Quacks is a good family game as well and easy to teach and learn.
Flamecraft is new but also great.
28-Nov-22 11:29am
#19 benstylus
@Scott
Board games on sale at Amazon
https://m.gametz.com...
Lots of stuff mentioned in this thread are in the sale, and some of them are also on the 3 for 2 sale so you could potentially save a ridiculous amount off retail for some of these
#19 benstylus
@Scott
Board games on sale at Amazon
https://m.gametz.com...
Lots of stuff mentioned in this thread are in the sale, and some of them are also on the 3 for 2 sale so you could potentially save a ridiculous amount off retail for some of these
28-Nov-22 11:41am
#20 akfa
Is it worth getting Ticket to Ride: First Journey if two of the players will be 8 years old? Or better to just go for the full Ticket to Ride? Kind of want something that's fun but doesn't take 45-60 mins. 20-30 mins would be great due to attention spans.
#20 akfa
Is it worth getting Ticket to Ride: First Journey if two of the players will be 8 years old? Or better to just go for the full Ticket to Ride? Kind of want something that's fun but doesn't take 45-60 mins. 20-30 mins would be great due to attention spans.
28-Nov-22 12:39pm
#21 benstylus
You could try that or one of the new small ones like Ticket to Ride San Francisco that is supposed to be 15 minutes.
#21 benstylus
You could try that or one of the new small ones like Ticket to Ride San Francisco that is supposed to be 15 minutes.
Looking for family board game suggestions