Boardgames are a great way to spend time with your family. They combine lots of learning, with fun and entertainment. They can encourage play, constructive thinking, and positive interaction with others. Board games are also great at team building, confidence building and imaginative play.
Of course there are the classics, games such as Monopoly, Cluedo and Ghost Castle are played at our house and they’re a great way to get started in building a good board game collection but there’s so much more out there available.
Here’s a list of some of what we play at MGB HQ as a family:
An easy to set up game and you can learn the rules relatively quickly. The rules are simple: collect cards and build railroads across country, the winner is one with the most train carriages. Bonus points for longest continual railroad and whether you reached your destinations or not.
We love this game because of its simplicity, most ages can understand the rules (I wouldn’t recommend this version of the game to smaller children, but they can always help with colours, or placing the carriages on the board). The game itself requires some tactical strategies and you have to be confident in your ability to acquire the railroads you need.
It is a big board with lots of loose cards and game pieces so I would recommend you play this on a dining room table or large gaming table.
If your kids are thinking of starting a D&D campaign or are really into fantasy gaming, this a really good starter game to begin their journey (or Adventure… lol)
You choose your characters and journey along the board to defeat monsters and Big Boss Monsters, the role of the DM (Dungeon Master) is passed onto each player as they have their turn.
This game took a while to understand the rules, so may be more ideal for the older Mini Geeks, but it is a fun way to play some fantasy games.
This is a really good game for if you’re out and about especially if you’re at a restaurant or somewhere that requires your mini geeks to be entertained in a single place. It uses dice and cards; you have to match the dice to the images on the cards and you build up collections.
The first person to reach forty points is the winner. This is a good game to play with smaller geeks, it helps them to match numbers on the dice to the cards and understand groupings of numbers.
My only advice for this game is, if you take it out anywhere, make sure you have somewhere to roll the dice without losing them!
Another card-based game that you can take out with you (think long car or train journeys). As you pick your cards from the deck, you have to make sure you avoid the exploding kitten card or you lose. There are other cards you can collect that avoid that but it’s all about strategy and speed.
We like that it’s fun, a little bit crude and you can try and explode your opponent’s cards. Little ones may not appreciate the tongue in cheek humour.
In this game you play as giant monsters, robots or aliens trying to maintain control of Tokyo. You use dice to determine your actions and can use special cards for extra energy and attacks.
We like this game because it’s bright, colourful and you play as giant monsters smashing your way through a city, what’s not to love?
This is a fast-paced game featuring sushi themed cards. And as it comes in a small tin, is a great one for those trips out or visiting friends and family. You collect and discard cards as you build your ultimate sushi lunch and after a few rounds you tally your groups of cards to find out who’s the winner. Each card has a point, and each group of cards have points. The one with the most points at the end of the round wins.
We like the fast-paced gameplay but don’t forget your paper and pencil to keep track of scores.
Another card-based game and just as fast paced as Sushi Go or Exploding Kittens, this time you are one of four characters, a wizard, paladin, rogue or barbarian and you battle each other with your special skills.
The specialist cards for each character allow for unique play and is a fun game. We love the glorious illustrations and the fast pace of the game. The rules are relatively simple to pick up and you can be battling each other in no time.
Oh look! Another Fantasy game, but this one is really interesting. Depending on which class you choose, depends on the level of difficulty, for example the Wizard, who is capable of casting spells, is a much harder character to play than the Rogue or cleric.
This allows younger or less experienced players to play alongside older or more experienced players. Each character has a certain amount of loot collect and they’re encouraged to visit different levels of rooms around the board, some being more difficult than others.
What games do you play as a family? Do you take games out with you to keep your mini geeks entertained? Let me know!
I hope this list gives you some ideas for new boardgames you can play, thanks for reading!