Family Game Night (board games)

Joined
Nov 24, 2003
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Middle of Iowa
Hey BITOG!

We struggle to find family games we can all enjoy. I am an engineer and despise luck games...my wife doesn't like trivia...our 19 year old daughter, well she is 19...and our 8 year old son is bright, but the game can't be too complex.

On the suggestion from a family at our church we found "Ticket to Ride" - wow, we ALL loved it last night! So much fun. Simple enough for my son to catch on quickly, yet there is enough strategy that it was interesting for me (I lost by the way).

So...what other games have you found interesting lately?
 
Still a Monopoly fan. Easy enough to understand the rules. Luck plays a role, so that allows everyone to have decent odds of winning. Lots of family memories playing with my dad, brother and sister when we were younger.
 
We've got a whole game closet. Settlers of Cataan, and Ticket To Ride have been favorites for the whole gang together. The kids fight a lot and argue, so they have a bunch of cooperative games to help the parents stay sane. Castle Panic, and Forbidden Island have been very popular with them. And for a short, two person game the favorite is still Cathedral. First played it at Scout camp 30 years ago or so, and just fell in love with it.
 
I second Settlers of Catan. Enormously fun game that my family loves to play. Ticket to Ride is a good one, as you've learned. If you want a cooperative game, Pandemic is a fun one (and appropriate in this climate). Carcassonne is a really good game, and a good 3-4 player game is Blokus (should one of your family members opt out of playing. We've played it with 2 before, but 3 or 4 is 10x better). Not really a board game, but Catch Phrase is a really fun game that gets everyone involved and doesn't require a ton of time to learn or play.

A good strategy game (sounds like that might be up your alley) is Acquire. It doesn't sound like your family would enjoy it much, but you can try it out at acquire.tlstyer.com. I love playing that game and getting a group of family or friends together who like to play it in person is even better.

Hope some of these ideas help!
 
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We've just never got into games--have a closet full, and have intentions to play more as a family, but it just never happens. Telestrations is probably the most favorite.

I did try to teach the kids poker, in an attempt to win back some of their allowance, but that only served to increase their allowance, so I had to quit that.
 
Kill Doctor Lucky
It is a more expensive game from the maker "Cheapass Games." They make unique and interesting games.
It seems complex when you start out reading the instructions, but the concepts are quite simple maybe on par with "Sorry"
 
I enjoy board games. My wife's family usually wants to play card games when we're over which I don't really care for.

The board games we usually play are Monopoly, Risk and Wits and Wagers. It's usually the two of us and our 8 year old daughter playing. She really enjoys Monopoly.
 
Thank you all...got some suggestions to look into. We do have Monopoly, Blockus, Settlers, Catch Phrase, and several others listed...but for sure some new ones to look into! Thank you!
 
Originally Posted by DriveHard
Thank you all...got some suggestions to look into. We do have Monopoly, Blockus, Settlers, Catch Phrase, and several others listed...but for sure some new ones to look into! Thank you!



Love Blockus, play it a lot when visiting mom and stepdad
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by DriveHard
Thank you all...got some suggestions to look into. We do have Monopoly, Blockus, Settlers, Catch Phrase, and several others listed...but for sure some new ones to look into! Thank you!


Well there's the old games too like chess. Regular games can be pretty long but 5 minute games can be fun or do 10 minutes. Used to play bughouse when there were 4 people, pretty crazy games when you would just demand a piece from your teammate and they'd take a piece that would normally make no sense but help you in your game.
 
Originally Posted by DriveHard
Hey BITOG!

We struggle to find family games we can all enjoy. I am an engineer and despise luck games...my wife doesn't like trivia...our 19 year old daughter, well she is 19...and our 8 year old son is bright, but the game can't be too complex.

On the suggestion from a family at our church we found "Ticket to Ride" - wow, we ALL loved it last night! So much fun. Simple enough for my son to catch on quickly, yet there is enough strategy that it was interesting for me (I lost by the way).

So...what other games have you found interesting lately?


Dave Megarry's Dungeon!

https://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Coast-A78490000-Dungeon-Fantasy/dp/078696555X

[Linked Image from m.media-amazon.com]
 
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