La Boca: players having rotating teams of two where you are working against the clock to build a 'building' using 3d tetris style pieces where each of you has one elevation/blue print to follow.
Carcassonne: Area control game though tile laying.
King of Tokyo: dice rolling game - who can stay king of tokyo the longest. It's a bit push your luck.
Avalon: 7 minimum needed. Players divided into two teams except those on the good team don't know who at the table is on their side. The bad team know who their team mates are. Object for good - to select team mates to go on missions (play a pass/fail card) so the mission is 'passed'. Object for bad - to pose as good, get selected and then sabotage missions. Sabateurs remain in hiding as no one know who played which card into the mission. Lots of fun.
Pandemic: Cooperative game where players work to contain 4 outbreaks before they become a full blown pandemic.
Loveletter: A very quick game aiming to be the last one standing with the highest ranking card, or to eliminate everyone else.
Codenames: Codemasters give one word clues to get their team mates to identify which of the 16 words on the board are on the codemasters grid - a race between 2 teams to find all the words first.
Settlers of Catan - officially the Greatest Boardgame Ever
Carcassonne, KoT, Pandemic are also good.
I prefer One Night Werewolf to Avallon for social deduction. You can play lots of games and keep a tally of who ends up on winning team the most.
Tho on the subject of Avallon, Ive always wanted to find someone to play Avallon Hill’s Rise and Decline of the Third Reich - the most complex boardgame in history - with me, but I gave up on that many years ago.
King's Gambit is a riot. Not aware than any serious GM has ever favoured it as an opening but I play it all the time. When it works against strong players it's comedy.
We used to have a game called Totopoly. Monopoly for horses. You'd train up plastic horses in their stables and then flip the board over for the big race.
Trivia fact - In the game of Totopoly the horses use the names of the winners of the Lincolnshire Handicap between the years 1926–37. The race, which was first run at Lincoln Racecourse in 1853, is now (with occasional exceptions) run at Doncaster Racecourse.
Lincoln Winners 1926: King Of Clubs 1927: Priory Park 1928: Dark Warrior 1929: Elton 1930: Leonidas 1931: Knight Error 1932: Jerome Fandor 1933: Dorigen 1934: Play On 1935: Flamenco 1936: Over Coat 1937: Marmaduke Jinks
Board Game Numbers
Black Heavy Weights Inside Draw 1 Dark Warrior 2 Flamenco 3 Dorigen
Red Heavy Weights Outside Draw 4 Marmaduke Jinks 5 Leonidas 6 Over Coat
Yellow Light Weights Inside Draw 7 Play On 8 Priory Park 9 Knight Error
Blue Light Weights Outside Draw 10 King Of Clubs 11 Jerome Fandor 12 Elton
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Throw throw burrito has the power of monopoly to bring chaos and resentment to the table, but it does it much more quickly and violently
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Herd mentality is very easy, fun and covers all ages.
We also like Chameleon but younger players are likely to struggle if they are the chameleon.
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Oooh we need all of the ones mentioned here. Our go to is Monopoly which ends with at least one child crying so would be good to avoid that this year.
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Ticket to ride is a nice length game and doesn’t lead to fights.
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Ticket to ride
Rummikub
Boggle
Upwords
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The trick with monopoly is realising that the first one out is actually the winner. Jail isn't so bad either.
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There's lots of games beyond what you see in the big stores.
Go here: https://boardgamegeek.com or search on youtube for game reviews.
Off the top of my head:
La Boca: players having rotating teams of two where you are working against the clock to build a 'building' using 3d tetris style pieces where each of you has one elevation/blue print to follow.
Carcassonne: Area control game though tile laying.
King of Tokyo: dice rolling game - who can stay king of tokyo the longest. It's a bit push your luck.
Avalon: 7 minimum needed. Players divided into two teams except those on the good team don't know who at the table is on their side. The bad team know who their team mates are. Object for good - to select team mates to go on missions (play a pass/fail card) so the mission is 'passed'. Object for bad - to pose as good, get selected and then sabotage missions. Sabateurs remain in hiding as no one know who played which card into the mission. Lots of fun.
Pandemic: Cooperative game where players work to contain 4 outbreaks before they become a full blown pandemic.
Loveletter: A very quick game aiming to be the last one standing with the highest ranking card, or to eliminate everyone else.
Codenames: Codemasters give one word clues to get their team mates to identify which of the 16 words on the board are on the codemasters grid - a race between 2 teams to find all the words first.
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Some good suggestions here. Thanks
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Uno
Scrabble
Sequence
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This year perhaps an attacking King's gambit to wrong foot my brother. He will checkmate me in about four moves. I beat him once but oh how I studied.
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Settlers of Catan - officially the Greatest Boardgame Ever
Carcassonne, KoT, Pandemic are also good.
I prefer One Night Werewolf to Avallon for social deduction. You can play lots of games and keep a tally of who ends up on winning team the most.
Tho on the subject of Avallon, Ive always wanted to find someone to play Avallon Hill’s Rise and Decline of the Third Reich - the most complex boardgame in history - with me, but I gave up on that many years ago.
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Monopoly go the card game is brilliant
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Linkee very good. A cerebral workout for lateral thinkers. Kids version is great, too.
Cards Against Humanity: pant-wettingly funny but you need deviant participants or risk MASSIVELY offending your guests.
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Scrabble
Boggle
Not board games but cheat and old maid are good value. Let your children’s natural dishonesty shine through
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King's Gambit is a riot. Not aware than any serious GM has ever favoured it as an opening but I play it all the time. When it works against strong players it's comedy.
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Pandemic: Cooperative game where players work to contain 4 outbreaks before they become a full blown pandemic.
I am guessing not a favourite in the Johnson or Hancock household
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The Really Nasty Horse Racing game
You'll have bigger fights than Monopoly
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We used to have a game called Totopoly. Monopoly for horses. You'd train up plastic horses in their stables and then flip the board over for the big race.
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relive gap year vibes with shithead
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Trivia fact - In the game of Totopoly the horses use the names of the winners of the Lincolnshire Handicap between the years 1926–37. The race, which was first run at Lincoln Racecourse in 1853, is now (with occasional exceptions) run at Doncaster Racecourse.
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Lincoln Winners
1926: King Of Clubs
1927: Priory Park
1928: Dark Warrior
1929: Elton
1930: Leonidas
1931: Knight Error
1932: Jerome Fandor
1933: Dorigen
1934: Play On
1935: Flamenco
1936: Over Coat
1937: Marmaduke Jinks
Board Game Numbers
Black Heavy Weights Inside Draw
1 Dark Warrior
2 Flamenco
3 Dorigen
Red Heavy Weights Outside Draw
4 Marmaduke Jinks
5 Leonidas
6 Over Coat
Yellow Light Weights Inside Draw
7 Play On
8 Priory Park
9 Knight Error
Blue Light Weights Outside Draw
10 King Of Clubs
11 Jerome Fandor
12 Elton
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