221B is ancient, but still a decent little game. I’ve fond memories of playing it back in my student days.

Ours is a re-box from 2006 according to the (C) date on the board. 70 cases IIRC. The kids like it, but my wife has won every game so far.

My daughter got us a game called “Forbidden Island” which we are quite taken with. You play as individuals but have to work together to complete the game successfully. The first few times we played it we were struggling to believe it could be achieved but with good planning, cooperation and a bit of good fortune it can be done.
Also recently got “Go” the ancient Chinese game which has black and white pieces and a simple grid board, simple right? Good grief, it makes chess seem like childs-play. The big boys and girls play on the full board of 18×18 squares, kids play in the middle using 13×13 and we use a quarter corner of 9×9. Great game, it’s amazing how such a seemingly simple game can be so involving.

Ours is a re-box from 2006 according to the (C) date on the board. 70 cases IIRC.

2014 on mine, just checked.

According to BGG it was originally released in 1975!

My daughter got us a game called “Forbidden Island” which we are quite taken with.

If you like that, have a look at Pandemic.

Azul
Parfum
Century Golem edition
La Flamme Rouge (you lot on a bike forum haven’t done this one yet?! 😛 )
Patchwork
Tak
Qwirkle – really good this
Lords of Waterdeep – excellent
Istanbul – bit like Lords of Waterdeep, but excellent too!
Space Park
Sea of clouds
Wingspan
Dungeon mayhem – very quick card game, mate’s sons love it
Professor Treasure’s Secret Sky Castle – again quick but pretty good

Edit, oops forgot

Odin’s Ravens
Ticket to Ride (natch)
Forbidden Desert
Pandemic (though it can be long-winded)

Seeing as card based games are admissible….I bring you Dobble and specifically Harry Potter version. Simple, fast and infuriating game all at the same time. Maddening get beaten by my teenagers all the time and for the nerdy….the mathematically formula that means every card shares a symbol with every other card…

Update.

We’ve been playing Port Royal solidly all weekend. At least 5 x four player games, 2 x three player games and my missus and lad played nine times yesterday afternoon.

I need to rethink my tactics, as pretty much every time I’ve got over the line only to be beaten by one or two Victory Points. Grrr.

My daughter is an absolute Kamikaze and gets 5 ships or busts and my lad is too cautious. My wife buys a Governor and Jester and cleans up. I’m yet to win.

£13 well spent! Thanks for the recommendation Pete.

Any other recommendations along the same lines? Preferably something portable as we take games on holiday.

I’m not quick enough to play Dobble with my 8 year old. I swear that she has the reflexes of a fly.

^^ kingdomino

Another card game…Schotten Totten, 2 player only and quite a bit deeper than it seems on first play. Our son, a big board game player bought it for us to get us playing more board games. At the opposite end of the game spectrum he also gave us Concordia, a big tactical Eurogame, which we’ve barely scratched the surface of yet but seems pretty good and involving, but slightly unusual as it can be hard to tell who’s won until you finish and score.

Two card games, first one is Fluxx many different variations depending on what you like we’ve got the firefly variation. it is both annoying and brilliant in that the cards can change the rules of play as you go along. The other is Sets a match the symbols game, you either get the hang off it or hate it.

If you like Exploding Kittens, they’ve got anther card game, Throw Throw Burrito, which is very simple, very fast, very stupid and turns into a game of dodge ball at random intervals as you try to hunt down the other players with a foam burrito. Instant hit in my house, including people who don’t like playing board/card games. Put anything breakable away before playing…

My cousin has been running board gaming sessions at a convention he puts on and at local game stores for a few years now. Based on their experiences they’ve spent the last year developing and prototyping a gaming system, and  have just launched a Kickstarter to try and fund their first boxed game.

Link is below, please take a look – it’s an interesting and fun little game :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasticbooks/the-gorgons-loch-defeat-the-gorgon-queen/description

(Mods – not sure if this is naughty or not. Would add that I have no professional or financial interest in this project)

Personally, I think that’s a relevant post and you don’t have an immediate vested interest so it’s fine. Other mods may disagree.

Back in stock, ace 2p game, bargain price, get it bought.

All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box

We like ‘The Chameleon’, in short a group of you take turns to describe one word from a selection in a grid but one of you doesn’t actually know what the word is. The guesser then has to nominate who the liar is. Simple but increasingly devious.
Surprised no one has mentioned Rummikub yet.

Check out Just One. I wrote about it on the previous page, I think you’ll like it.

That looks good, I might give it a whirl.

It’s more fun than it has any right to be, and it’s been a hit with every group I’ve brought it to including absolute non-gamers.

Card game, but played on the table, spreading out the cards as far as the table will allow:

Maponimoes, very tactical, with just enough luck.

https://www.mapominoes.com/

You will learn a lot about which countries or counties join up to others.

We got Pirate Fluxx last year, worth it just to hear what people think pirates talk like.

Our recent game of choice has been Cosmic Encounter.

Plays well with 4 and I think it will be really good with 5 but we haven’t managed to get enough people together. There’s so much variation each time you play and options to simplify for kids by removing more complex rules.

We also played Pandemic the other night. Seemed appropriate…….

Grauniad article today:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/mar/16/from-jenga-to-taboo-the-20-best-family-friendly-board-games

Gotta say, it’s a better list than I was expecting from the headline.

Port Royal and Banangrams are getting hammered.

Is Kingdomino worth a punt?

Kingdomino and Queendomino are both well regarded, though I’ve not played either personally. Queendomino is more complex of the two, whether that’s a positive or a negative to you I couldn’t say.

I think you can combine the two to make one mega-game too.

Kingdomino and Queendomino are really good – we’ve had both over a year and play often with family.

If your into board games (and I couldn’t see it mentioned above on a quick search), try http://www.boardgamearena.com. Nice and easy to sign up, easy to use and you can play several of those games listed above. Great for current situation as you can play family. Ive run games nights using it – Zoom or Skype call to speak and then use the website to play a game.

Finding some old simple games on there as well is very useful.

Kingdomino has been a massive hit!

Carcassonne ordered just now.

Apart from all of the death, economic meltdown and Lloyd Bloody Webber I’m really enjoying this disaster.

Lockdown purchases so far

Port Royal
Bananagrams
Kingdomino
Tamiya RC car

All excellent.

What a game Carcassonne is!

Been playing it as a family for three days. Last night when the kids had been packed off to bed me and my good lady wife carried on playing with a bottle of wine. I won.

Thinking of getting some expansion packs.

We got drunk last weekend and started building a willy shaped city that ended up rather deformed. Good times.

Do any of you guys play Magic? Trying to get started and would appreciate some playthroughs. Finished Arena tutorial so have a very basic grasp.

My good lady wife has bought 17 ( I think) expansions for Carcassonne. First three arrived yesterday (The King, The Robber and The Cult) and so far I’m unbeaten.

Has anyone tried combining two sets of the base tiles to make a ‘Mega Set”?

Do any of you guys play Magic? Trying to get started and would appreciate some playthroughs. Finished Arena tutorial so have a very basic grasp.

Bought it at Xmas with the expectation it would be simple to pick up and play. How wrong was I? Watched loads of video tutorials and gameplays but still couldn’t grasp it as too many attack/defense elements are vague.

That said, it’s massively popular so I and jnr must be missing something obvious.

triominoes – like Dominoes but with three sides. Works for all ages.Adults have to take shot every time the say “It’s the wrong way round”. That will make sense to anyone who has played it

Bought it at Xmas with the expectation it would be simple to pick up and play. How wrong was I? Watched loads of video tutorials and gameplays but still couldn’t grasp it as too many attack/defense elements are vague.

That said, it’s massively popular so I and jnr must be missing something obvious.

Pretty much the same story but we got handed 2 decks by the local board crack dealer. Playing Arena seems to habe clarified a bit but its still far from clear.

My good lady wife has bought 17 ( I think) expansions for Carcassonne.

First expansion Inns and Cathedrals is essential. Second expansion Traders and Builders is the next best expansion. Beyond that it’s variable.

All of the sets are compatible (beyond differences in first / second edition art) so you can hoy tiles and expansions in and out as you like.

Family Carcassonne spend is now somewhere north of £150 and we have 17 expansions!

This is fantastic value. Base set and 11 expansions for £41.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Giochi-Uniti-gu572-Carcassonne-2017/dp/B0747YDC56/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YSHC7YNU8TED&dchild=1&keywords=carcassonne+big+box&qid=1592755782&sprefix=carcassonne+%2Caps%2C259&sr=8-1

You can download the English instructions for nowt. We got a Czech version a few weeks back.

We’ve got Carcassonne arriving today at some point so will see how that goes, I’ve played it briefly before but not sure how the other half will take to it.

Has anyone played Scythe? That was nearly purchased its place but thought we’d go for the more ‘traditional’ option first.

Update:

Carcassonne has been absolutely hammered in our house over lockdown, but less now since evening and weekend activities have been coming back. I think it will be relegated to the Wet Sunday Afternoon slot.

The kids got Ticket To Ride (Europe) over the weekend and we had our first go of it last night. Once the initial bickering and not listening to the rules bit was out of the way we had a good game. I was surprised how fast the turns were once we got moving, with only my daughter employing her “ponder tactics” designed specifically to wind everyone else up.

I won.

Recommended.

Lowering the tone a bit (I do occasionally play Catan) Monopoly Empires is great for playing with kids aged 7-12. All the fun of Monopoly and none of the boredom or uncertainty about how long it’ll last – 15 minutes ‘warm up’, 15 minutes of fury and then a winner. Compact enough that we’ll often play a couple of rounds, simple enough that the rules are never consulted, and opportunity for basic strategy and plenty of tactics.

The kids got Ticket To Ride (Europe) over the weekend and we had our first go of it last night. Once the initial bickering and not listening to the rules bit was out of the way we had a good game.

TTR is great.

You’ll find there’s two ways of playing it, either “gentlemanly” and not intentionally blocking opponents, or cutthroat where you casually drop a two-train link into the middle of someone else’s coast-to-coaster. It’s best to agree ahead of a game which way you’ll all be playing or there will be blood spilled.

All the fun of Monopoly and none of the boredom

Monopoly is a bit of a running joke within board game communities, but its single biggest problem is that everyone thinks they know how to play when in actual fact someone read the rules once back in 1927 and it’s been handed down by word-of-mouth ever since. Not playing by the actual rules is one of the reasons a game can last for a week.

Agree with Cougars comment on monopoly, every family has their own special rules!

We dusted off Forbidden Island on Sunday, it was great and I am now waiting for Ghost Stories to turn up ready for the next wet weekend.

Has anyone played Villagers?