What board game are you playing - chat thread

(He does play solitaire on mum's tablet but would like a game for 2+ players.)

Also DS has informed me that he really liked playing with the little set of cards he got in a cracker the other day. I've no idea what he was actually playing as I was busy with a jigsaw :o

Any recommendations for a first, very simple card game for DCs 8 and 6 please? :)

I think the length might be a problem. It's my youngest who generally has more staying power, and is more strategic, but perhaps it'd be the kind of game where they'd be on a team with me or DH and then wander off :o thanks for explaining. Will seek something else as the family game.

DSS is coming over tomorrow - mainly for uni revision, but he's sleeping over so we should have time to play a game too. Hopefully Castle Panic!

A 9 year old who is into games yes probably, not sure about 7 (it says 12+ on the box). My 10 yo was very interested in reading the rules and explaining to everyone how to play and he helped my MiL out a bit but wasn't to into playing himself (takes quite a while and too much other stuff going on) - I think he probably will want to play in the future maybe when he has observed a few more games. My 7yo wasn't really interested but then she isn't so into games. Boardgamegeek says 10+ and I think I probably agree with that, you all take turns at being the master builder and setting prices for rooms and it does take a while to play.

Grouching would you say the Castles game would be ok for a 9 and 7yo?

We haven't played Carcassonne for ages since the pieces went missing thanks to the DCs

We got Carcassonne three years ago and still haven't figured out how to play it! Used to play board games when kids were small but just can't get into them these days.
We did enjoy a few rounds of Linkee over Christmas but its not technically a board game as such.

We played a couple of games of Castles of Mad King Ludwig and it's great! I really like it :)

cons: takes a while, quite a bit to learn so can be a bit slow when people are getting to grips with it, you need quite a bit of space to play!
pros: not much nastiness (really don't like games where you have to be very mean to win), different to other games we have and most important great fun even if you don't win! You get to build a cool castle :) And as people have hidden objectives as well as the ones everyone is working towards you don't know who has won until the end :)

Now I hope that I can find some other people who like playing it as much as I do, I think my FiL was quite keen to keep it (he won) and DH wasn't so keen (we did make him play without fully explaining the rules!) but hopefully I can win him over.

We also played Sleeping Queens and Love Letter with my in-laws and they liked both of them, great little filler games.

Pandemic Legacy and it's AMAZING

And yes I agree about the expansions adding a new lease of life :)

So that's an expansion rather than a separate game, how does it work please? :)

Other card games came up on my Amazon recommendations - Parade (seems to be Alice in Wonderland related) and Arboretum. Anyone played?

I have ordered Phantom Society :o

We've got Pandemic legacy to start tomorrow - excited!

Definitely LTB

Your welcome, glad it was enjoyed. Awesome game.

Pipbin some more about Lords of Waterdeep

We have just played it as a family.

DCs big gamers, into D&D, Magic the gathering etc
I love a board game but don't go to game shop to play games on way home from school
DH doesn't really like playing board games but will to spend time with kids

So as I said previously the DC love Lords of Waterdeep. For DH it wasn't the most intuitive game in that you didn't roll a dice . While it's not a complex game, you have to make decisions from the beginning so it's a steep learning curve. Also the theme isn't that obvious from the game mechanics. The kids love the D&D theme but then they love D&D. For DH and me it felt more like repeatedly collecting cubes to earn points.

It is very competitive as you really mess up each others plans by getting in each other's way and giving each other mandatory quests. This may not suit some families/people.

Sooo my kids love it and have played it loads. It is set to be a big favourite with them so thank you to Toffeelatte for the recommendation but DH wouldn't choose to play it again ever

Hmmm. I might have to look deeper into Lords of Waterdeep

Last night we played 221b Baker Street and Star Wars X Wing, which is much better than you might think.

Ohhh I see, thank you French - that sounds useful. DSCs play more often than we do and when we all played together the other day they were quite easily referring to routes by name! So that might make a great little extra present for them next Christmas. :)

I really like the look of all those games like Katamino, there are loads on The Happy Puzzle Company. I've wanted to get something like that for DS, he's 6 and has really good spatial awareness and loves that sort of thing. But DH pointed out that he is more in need of things that he can play while communicating with others rather than being in his own little world, I do see his point TBH. I might get myself something like that though, as I love puzzles and logic games. I often play through my pack of SET cards by myself if I can't sleep (and nobody else plays it with me anyway as they don't 'get it' :(). My worry would be that once you've done all the puzzles there's no point keeping it? Or are there enough puzzles for that not to matter, do you think?

We love Dominion, although I suppose it's technically not a board game!

An absolute favourite is Sequence!

We got Dixit, The Magical Layrinth, Exploding KIttens, and Katamino for Christmas.

So far I like Dixit best, it was a great hit with all the family, although MIL couldn't quite grasp the concept which lead to much hilarity among the younger ones. Just looking at the artwork was entertainment enough for most.

DD aged 10 likes The Magic Labyrinth, she's has a really good memory and enjoys beating everyone else. Easy to understand and easy rules so kids can play by themselves.

Exploding kittens is fun, it took a few games before getting the idea and strategies to develop but think this will be played quite frequently.

Katamino- not quite what I expected as the instruction boo is dire, but quite a challenge- not as easy as it seems- great mooching over while watching TV.

Are the extra route things just boards that you put next to the old board? Or is it a whole different board that you use instead?

I love the Europe version of TTR (although I haven't actually played the other ones) - think some of the features in it are not in the original USA ones, tunnels and stations or something.

I think I'm going to use some of my birthday money to get Phantom Society. It's my turn to choose the big board game at Christmas this year, but I can't choose it then because it doesn't sound like a very child friendly theme!

DC are 17 and 19 and brought up playing games.
All time family favourite is Ticket to Ride. I've just been persuaded to buy the Europe version.
I like bananagrams and Rummikub.
Fluxx is another regular.
We have Smallworld and King of Tokyo but neither has ever been played.