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OT - Recomendations for modern board games

johnwhitfield

johnwhitfield

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John Whitfield
Christmas is always a time of year when I end up buying new board games. There's something wholesome about having the kids playing a board game rather than buggering off on their laptops for the whole day. My daughter's keen on introducing the concept of "family fun night" once a week where TV, computers and pins are banned for the evening, so I'm looking for a range of games we can try.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for games that would occupy a 12/13 year old and also an 8 year old. It's a tricky one as the age gap makes a lot of more complex games unsuccessful and simpler games don't hold my son's attention. Spelling based games or Maths games don't really work. Much as Bananagrams or Dingbats are fun Becca struggles with them.

This year we had some success with Exploding Kittens (but I don't know how long the novelty value will last for) and Scotland Yard.

I'd love to be able to play the 1980s version of Civilisation but Rebecca simply couldn't cope with an 8 hour long game. Matt is partial to a 200 page + rule book, so we've already got The Cthulhu, Game of Thrones and LOTR board games.

Zombie dice worked for a while but then Rebecca got bored. Trivia based games don't work too well due to the age gap.

Matt loved Zombiecide for about a month and then hasn't played it since I bought the expansion packs. Similarly with Pandemic which ****es me off as I really enjoyed it. (Would probably put it in my top3 board games - if you haven't played it then I would highly recommend it.)

Any recommendations are appreciated. I'm thinking more about modern co-operative games rather than Risk, Monopoly, Cluedo, UNO, What etc. I know a lot of them are £50 ish which isn't a problem if they actually play them but I don't want to spend that much and then discover they are rubbish. I probably should also dig out Mahjong and Rumikub now that Becca's getting older.

I know there was a Star Wars assault game that came out recently but again it's probably not going to be Rebecca's cup of tea. She simply won't touch any of the fantasy / D&D style board games that Matt gravitates to.

Heard good things about Railway Tycoon but not sure if the theme if girl friendly enough.

Bonus points for any suggestion that doesn't have Anna rolling her eyes.
 
Thanks Guys. I bought Settlers of Catan a while back but haven't played it yet (I know Matt plays it with his mates and I've heard good things about it). I also picked 7 wonders up and gave it to Matt yesterday, so that's on the hit list for later this week. I've also got some Panda related game from my sister to try out but the rule book looks a little intimidating.
 
Anyone played Munkin? I bought it last year but managed to mislay the instructions so need to download them
 
not a board game rather card game but a consideration could be : cards against humanity or superfight.

board game wise: codenames, pandemic legacy, don't panic,king of tokyo
other than that i am of no help
 
Thanks. Heard of "Cards against Humanity". I toyed with buying it but got the impression that it's not really suitable for an 8 year old girl (unless I want her to grow up with a very warped view of life. Hell, who am I kidding I know she will have anyway;)). Am I being too cautious here? Is Superfight more child friendly?

Just checked on Amazon and the Legacy expansion looks good but might still be too hard for Rebecca. She struggled last summer when we were playing the original version.

Don't panic might be good - thanks:thumbs: Never heard of King of Tokyo but it looks fun and has great reviews. Think it's going to go on the wish list.

Thanks again
 
johnwhitfield said:
Thanks. Heard of "Cards against Humanity". I toyed with buying it but got the impression that it's not really suitable for an 8 year old girl (unless I want her to grow up with a very warped view of life. Hell, who am I kidding I know she will have anyway;)). Am I being too cautious here? Is Superfight more child friendly?

Just checked on Amazon and the Legacy expansion looks good but might still be too hard for Rebecca. She struggled last summer when we were playing the original version.

Don't panic might be good - thanks:thumbs: Never heard of King of Tokyo but it looks fun and has great reviews. Think it's going to go on the wish list.

Thanks again
Click to expand...
superfight is family friendly i think and has expansion packs that range from various catagories inc more geek references and items and locations from wide ranges of pop culture and more ,look it up on their website and see for yourself if it is suitible
 
I often have games nights with my mates, despite the fact we all have PC's and play PC games frequently we never play together and for some reason board games seem to be a fantastic way to get together, have a good laugh and enjoy ourselves. We started doing it 2 years ago and we meet roughly 2-3 times a month on the weekends to play. I can certainly suggest a few:

Coup (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indie-Board...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451171982&sr=8-1&keywords=coup): This is a fantastic quick-fire game that is good to get started with, with 4-5 of us playing we can usually knock a round out in 15 minutes or so at most. It basically is a game of bluffing where you have to try to assassinate other players. You can either do this by collecting coins or certain characters can assassinate others, or when someone tries to guess who you are an fail they loose somebody. Really good fun and very quick to play.

Small World (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Days-of-Won...F8&qid=1451172114&sr=8-1&keywords=small+world): This is a lot of fun and revolves around building armies and taking territories, we found it took 3 hours or so to play our first game but after learning the rules an hour and a half to two hours is the most that is needed. Lots of fun and limited to a set amount of turns depending on the amount of players, maximum 10 turns.

Dungeon Quest (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dungeonques...&qid=1451172216&sr=8-1&keywords=dungeon+quest): A sort of "Dungeons and Dragons" lite, you pick a hero and venture into a dungeon you build yourself as you play. Winner is the person with the most gold at the end AND you also have to escape the dungeon (I will never forget the game where a poor friend of mine walked into the dungeon, got smashed in the face about 4 times by a trap door, then walked into an explosive trap and died.). Again a set amount of turns before you are get eaten by the dragon. Good fun if you like a bit of a dungeon crawl.

Ticket to Ride: (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Days-of-Won...qid=1451172330&sr=8-2&keywords=ticket+to+ride): I've linked the Europe one because that is what we play, but there are a number of different versions of this game (North America etc). Basically you build rail routes and connect them up using 'tickets'. You get points for completing routes and having the longest route. Game runs until the last player uses all their pieces, good fun.

Betrayal at House on the Hilll: (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Avalon-Hill...413&sr=8-1&keywords=haunted+house+on+the+hill): Excellent game my mate brought round recently, you all start together exploring an haunted house, then as the game progresses you trigger the 'haunt' and someone in your party because a monster (or not, there are 50 different scenarios when the haunt is triggered) that the rest of the group work together to kill, or they kill you. Good fun and because there is 50 different scenarios for the haunt will keep you occupied for a good while.

Firefly the game: (http://www.amazon.co.uk/GaleForce-N...1451172556&sr=8-1&keywords=firefly+board+game): I'd only really suggest this if you ever watched Firefly or like space trading/missions etc. 5 different scenarios to play, all quite challenging but this is the most complicated game of all the ones I have listed so far, lots of rules to learn but like the rest you can learn this fairly quickly and have a good time playing it.

These are the games we tend to play a LOT, most games take roughly 3 hours or so the first time you play it but then after that and once you know the rules you can cut that time in half. A lot of these games have 'expansions' as well so when you get bored of them, buy an expansion and make it fresh again. Small World probably suffers from this the worst as it is pretty simple once you learn it, but the good news is it has lots of expansions which add new maps, factions and other bits like random events and prices for these vary.

Maybe one of these will suite, hope so! That was a mammoth write, my fingers ache haha. We also play Cards Against Humanity but yeah, absolutely not suitable for an 8 year old!
 
I used to like hero quest as a kid but don't think your girl would.

We used to have a game abit like monopoly but was zoo themed which was cool no idea what it was called tho sadly
 
I'd also recommend Ticket to Ride. Played it 4 times over Christmas with different members of my family and all of them loved it
 
We played a card game called eyetunes you would like but prob not the kids lol. Basically you form teams each card has a cartoon on and you have to guess the band name and song
 
'3rds' for 'Ticket it Ride' - introduced to our family when visiting family friends & enjoyed by all (with two daughters not put off by the railway theme'. A little complex initially, but not too bad.

'The really nasty horse racing game' is another one that's ticked the box with family & friends & we've had some good evenings with - have a look on Amazon (particularly the last review): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Nasty-Horse-Racing-Game/dp/B00GLJD4KM/ref=dp_ob_title_toy

Final suggestion : get yourself a poker set (including one of those cheap fold out tables) and teach all of the kids - one of those important life skills which will benefit them hugely in later life as well as plenty of street cred now(;))
 
John, go retro, old skool. Bust out mouse trap, ghost castle, go for broke, the vampire game!! You'll have a right laugh and you can pick them up at a boot sale for a tenner for all of them!!
 
Thanks guys. I've been going through the recommendations. The kids got several Amazon vouchers for Christmas so I'm about to use those (and give them the cash equivalent).

So far I think the most suitable are King of Tokyo, Ticket to Ride and Coup.

I think Becca would have a fit at Dungeon Quest. I took her to a place called "Dark Sphere" once when she was six to try and get Matt some Warhammer stuff and she walked into the shop and announced "Why does it smell weird in here?" followed by "why are there no girls here?" It was like having a mini version of my wife pointing out the geekiness of it all:oops:

I actually liked the look of eye-tunes but suspect it will be a bit too cryptic for young kids as all the bands are going to be older than they are. Might pick it up for myself though. There was an interesting link to a game where films are depicted in one image that I might try them on, if not I think it will be fun for me.

I'd love to play Hero Quest but it's quite expensive now as it's out of print. I got Matt a copy of the Dungeon & Dragons board game and that was surprisingly good. Far better than the more recent "CastleRavenloft" one.

Betrayal at House on the Hill looks great but probably isn't for Becca. I suspect the boy might get it for his birthday though. I've always been a fan of Avalon Hill games.

Shamefully I've only played Poker a few times, I was talking with Anna about teaching the kids to play bridge but it's not really as "cool" is it?

Thanks again for all the suggestions:thumbs:
 
Thanks for the thought Rudi.
Another game I'd like to track down is Battlecars. For some reason I always assumed that it was an easier UK version of Car wars. Ebay seems to have copies at £75 a throw:eek:
I've also got memories of a game from the 80s with a bank featuring different coloured polar bears. No idea what it was called but I remember enjoying it.
 
Bought mine Pie face and the I'm a celebrity bush tucker trial games, Pie face is fantastic but eating meal worms and crickets on the bush tucker made me think I did not choose wisely on that one. Kids think its fun though.
My bought it for the kids (me really) purchase stocking filler was the Homido vr headset for your mobile phone. Really good fun for a introduction to VR and less than £40.
 
My daughter is enjoying some social gaming at the moment, so I'm also picking up a few modern classics, like Catan, Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride. (Although the bloody relatives keep buying 'old' classics, like Monopoly and Cluedo. She likes those too, but for me, they've been played to death)

Whilst I'm amongst fellow geeks I'll also admit to quite enjoying watching Wil Wheaton's YouTube channel 'TableTop' where they get some of these games and play them.
 
You might want to check out https://boardgamegeek.com/ at some point. Its got loads of reviews of some pretty esoteric games (in my experience most of the best ones comes from Germany) and some indications of where to buy them

Ticket to Ride is excellent (the European version is a little different to the US one, the latter is more plain vanilla). Smallworld is also very good. My kids like playing both. You can get more details of the different variants etc at http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/games/ (they make both of those).

My kids also enjoy playing Citadels - its card game with a fairly familiar format for these more "strategic games" whereby each turn players end up with a different character (builder, king, bishop, assassin) that has different special abilities. Its actually very simple but because of the different combinations of abilities also a lot of fun. Game typically lasts an hour or so (my 8 year old girl loves it)

Another simple card game (but also a lot of fun) is the original Sherlock Holmes card game, which has recently been put back into production.

If you then want to get much more involved then you need to be looking at something like Agricola, but that maybe more for your son than an 8 year old!
 
I'd recommend - Sequence. It's a playing card based game where you place counters on a board trying to get 5 in a row. Very simple to understand but also enough 'strategy' to keep everyone involved. I've played it with my 4 year old niece as well as OAPs, everyone seems to enjoy it.
 
Thanks again for all the recommendations. We've now had our first couple of evenings. It was actually great to have no TV etc for a while and just play with the kids.

Putting in an Amazon order in the next few weeks
 
johnwhitfield said:
Thanks again for all the recommendations. We've now had our first couple of evenings. It was actually great to have no TV etc for a while and just play with the kids.

Putting in an Amazon order in the next few weeks
Click to expand...

So will we be getting weekly updates/reviews on which games were most popular, most gated or caused the most arguments???:):popcorn:
 
Well so far we've got through the following since Christmas day. Quite impressed with how many we've got through in 2 weeks but now I'm feeling pressured to learn a new game for every Tuesday night.

"Gonna get you" a game kind of like Ludo. Frankly it was crap. No real skill involved (I lost:(). OK for killing 20 mins but can't see the kids wanting to go back to it.

"Old Maid" - Surprised how much the kids enjoyed it

Any way back into the cupboard of doom for both of those two

"Munkin"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Jacks...ie=UTF8&qid=1452463045&sr=8-4&keywords=munkin

Worked out really well. Thought Rebecca would dislike it but she was really into the whole backstabbing concepts. Anna can't stand it but that was expected. Humour was right up Matthew's street. Kids are campaigning to play it again soon.

"Scotland yard"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ravensburge...&qid=1452463326&sr=8-1&keywords=scotland+yard
A real surprise. Matt picked it up as a Xmas present. Involves using logic to work out where a criminal mastermind has got to (you get clues as they have to post the mode of transport used so can eliminate different locations and move the chasing detectives to where you think they are moving too. Becca loved it and got the concept really quickly. even Anna enjoyed it which came as a big surprise

"Dungeons & Dragons". Not strictly new to myself and Matt but Becca joined in for the first time.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hasbro-GAMD...=8-5&keywords=dungeons+and+dragons+board+game

Went surprisingly well. No chance of Anna ever joining in though. Think it came out in the late 90s and I picked it up off ebay for £10 or so.


Wrath of Ashardalon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrath-Ashar...ords=dungeons+and+dragons+wrath+of+ashardalon

Surprisingly boring. Might be better with more people. Feels too random to be enjoyable. After spending £45 on it I feel like I need to play it a few more times to try and get some value out of it.

Exploding Kittens.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exploding-K...=1452463983&sr=1-2&keywords=exploding+kittens
Been playing this since Christmas day. Great for tactically shafting other people:clap:

Think "Ticket to Ride" will be the next purchase
 
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