I’ve been playing a lot of board games recently.
I mean, I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently, and when I get the chance, I like to unwind with some dice, some meeples, and a score track of some kind. Here are some of the better ones that have made the table, and I recommend you seek them out and play them immediately.
Suburbia
This city building tile laying game by Ted Alspach is by far my most favourite thing at the moment, and I don’t know why, other than it’s really good fun to expand your suburb, watch others keep an eye on the shared goals, and try and guess what their secret private goals are. There’s even a really great app version of it too.
Drum Roll
One of the prettiest and best worker placement games I’ve played in a while, it looks awesome on the table, and the theme is excellent (you build a CIRCUS). I find myself smiling whenever I play it, and underneath it all there’s a tight, taut, strategy game to be found.
Love Letter
This micro game features only a handful of cards, but it’s endlessly playable, and an excellent filler for two or more players whenever you have a short gap to fill between more meaty affairs.
Qwirkle
I wanted something I could play with the family, and this is one of the better ones I’ve found. It’s like Scrabble, but with coloured tiles and symbols, and provides a lot of fun, and looks great as you play it. Very little downtime between turns too.
Wits & Wagers: Family Edition
Trivia games always run the risk of alienating people who feel they don;t have the requisite knowledge to play them, so the Wits & Wagers series side steps this, and makes the competition about guessing (edumacated or otherwise).
Simple to play, fun and often funny.
Puerto Rico
This one’s been on my wishlist for a long time now, and I finally got hold of a copy (thanks to a lovely present), and I wasn’t disappointed. I tried to explain the game play to everyone, and failed, putting them off, and so we came back to it later, and I did a better job, and I ended up really enjoying the role-taking, and how quickly it moved surprised me.
Pagoda
And beautiful and elegant game this one, as two players compete to build pagodas in the middle of the table. Easy to teach, it’s surprisingly tactical, and what’s more, watching the pagodas grow is delightful.
Mai Star
From the same designer as Love Letter comes this oddly themes card game, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Another quick playing, but surprisingly deep one this.
A Fool’s Fortune
I’m going to give this one a few more plays before I make up my mind, because it feels like it could be a really excellent game this, and I want it to be. It just has a steep learning curve, mitigated brilliantly by the stages of play built in to the rules, but it’s still a lot to get your head round in the meantime.
