For us the whole new Christmas and New Year thing works well if you get adults and children both playing stuff together as well as the usual chat/drinking/eating etc. So, give us your recommendations for games that worked for you. Top with us this year was a card game called Loup Garou (Werewolf in English although I don’t know if the game exists as that). I’d never seen it before but almost every child/teen was playing it at school at the moment. The cards look like this for anyone hunting it down

The rules can be learned by adults in 3 mins after several drinks so it’s a winner. There is a bit of skill involved but as a general rule the children were easily as good as the adults

Cluedo – first time in nearly 30 years (on the same board).

Cue the brother-in-law spaffing “I know this, I know that, I know why you did that, I see your thinking, Oh WHY did you ask THAT?!?!”.

I won. Sit down, nob head.

+1 for Cluedo, the simpsons version. After 5 rounds of guesses, Granny says so I’ve got to guess who stole the necklace? Oh Christmas joy…..

Tri-ominos. Followed by monoply wars.

Spent all week playing Super Hero Top Trumps with my 7 year old.

I would not recommend this. 😕

Batman – Best at fighting
Superman – Strongest
Lex Luthor – Most intelligent
The Flash – Most agile
Martian Whotsit – Tallest
Lois Lane – Shit at everything

🙂 at Lois

Ticket to ride and king of tokyo were this year’s favourites plus Cash n Guns is always good.

Yep. He’d be down to his last card and you think that you can end it after an hour… and you turn over Lois.

And it continues.

Forever.

Tension – simple game. But being an adult gives no advantage

cards against humanity

Dragon Chase just to hear my youngest giggle but got a very different reason I remember giggling after dragons and chases.

Played a new one called 5 second rule with the oulaws and kids. That was good, lots of shouting and good natured arguing then the MiL went from 1st to last place right at the end.

Daughter got Monopoly Empire…basically Monopoly with companies. Faster game than standard Monopoly. Good fun…plenty of arguing but that was mostly me 😳

Shadows Over camelot. My first try and a more serious board game. It was lucky that a mate owned and explained it because it needs some explaining

But it was really clever. We were all one side trying to save Camelot. Possibly one traitor revealed half way through

Being on one side meant that other we often needed to talk each other to help us co-operate

Never played a better game for not having that board I’m waiting for my go feeling

My daughter had an app called heads up on her phone. Its a kind of charades thing, but the person with the phone holds it against there forehead whilst everyone else acts out a word on the screen. Its timed so you have to guess as many words as you can in a minute, shaking the phone when you guess correctly to move on.

The best bit is it films it all so you can watch all the stupid acting after each round! Had us in stitches 😆

+ 1 Cards Against Humanity – Played it last night with a few like minded individuals after polishing off a bottle of Tequila. I seriously cant remember the last time I laughed so hard. Brilliantly simple and completely wrong 😀

Original Monopoly and Game of Life

My kids introduced me to cards against humanity a while back. Some awkwardly adult themes when playing with a 14 yr old 😳

Better with adults after beer though!

Dobble.
Frustratingly addictive.

Do like monopoly empire and dear daughter got a game called labyrinth which was quite good.

We ended up playing family Pointless on christmas day. Didn’t go particularily well, it turns out you can win most of the rounds and still lose the game. Pretty slow and overcomplex and far too many sport questions (we flicked through, something like 40% of the questions were sport) Give me trivial pursuit any day (but then, last year’s family trivial pursuit almost led to murders)

What’s good for 6 players? I keep nearly buying settlers of catan and the expansion, they’d be into that. Ticket To Ride with teams is terrible…

Bike trumps

Bought as a stocking filler same as top trumps but as cycling bikes on a unbeaten winning streak…..

Pro cycling top trumps has been a top hit in the house this Christmas. Both my boys have loved them!

chess

bohnanza. Awesome and works well for 2-7 players + fun trading.

Only played Game Of Life and Twister.

Twister resulted in a sprained finger for my daughter. Game of Life is so dull, can’t understand the positive reviews (better check the rules as must be doing something wrong !). Still have Uno to try.

Just remembered Top Trumps (Frozen version)…sad to say but that this has been the best game ! (Spongebob TopTrumps was previously good but gone AWOL)

pro cycling top trumps looks great. Asked my daughter about Cards Against Humanity but she went quiet so must be something there to check up on..

Maybe we need an STW top trumps pack. What are the categories: Big hitter, troll, entertainment, authority?

I was introduced to cards against humanity last night. An old uni mate felt that I’d enjoy any game where having an utterly fetid sense of humour gave you a competitive advantage… He was entirely correct.

Q: how did I lose my virginity?
A: BATMAN!

Played CaH recently and laughed pretty hard for a good hour or two.

What’s good for 6 players?

Formula D might tick your boxes. It’s never really ‘clicked’ with me but it’s a game which only really works when the board is rammed with players’ cars, so the more the merrier.

Humbugs, pictionary and articulate.. We were gonna do the werewolf thing but couldn’t find our cards

Q: how did I lose my virginity?
A: BATMAN

i think i now understand my daughter’s reaction 🙂

I may have to look it up

Cards against humanity- great game and I could imagine a lot of single track hand wringers having an attack of the vapours about finding comedy answers with a coat hanger abortion

Articulate always goes down well with us. Also the really nasty racing game

My 10yo daughter is a Dobble ninja….. adults just don’t stand a chance!

Happy families while pissed. Nearly turned into unhappy families with accusations of cheating involving Mr Gusty the miller.

+1 on Monopoly Empire…still got the fun of the original with some twists but doesn’t take a whole day to play!!

Dobble is looking great as well. I suspect I’m too traumatised by the tedium of monopoly from an early age to wasn’t to risk it but I might be wrong

ampthill > check out Pandemic if you liked that, similar co-op play but you’re scrambling to eradicate diseases. Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island are from the same guy, similar mechanic but simpler – good for quicker games or with younger kids.

Northwind > Carcassonne works great for 6 players, plus if you’re playing with kids (or just pissed adults) the rules can be made far simpler (no farmers, for one) and it plays nice and quick. Lots of expansions if you get bored. 7 Wonders is great for 4-7 people too, the card swapping is between neighbours so it doesn’t bog down as many games can with more people.

I taught my parents Ticket to Ride and we had a couple of decent games of that. My dad had picked up “Where is Moldova?” which we played once – it’s terrible.

Hmm, I think I could get away with 7 wonders (I’d forgotten about it, last couple of times I played was with the expansions and it kinda sucked- but it’s great with the vanilla game)

Didn’t play it at all over christmas, but London is bleedin brilliant, definitely recommended.