Board games for a 12 year old boy

[ontheedgeofwhatever]

I'm trying to get DS to spend less time on his screens - uphill battle please don't judge me.

He keeps asking me to play board games but we don't really have that many. Other than monopoly (please no more monopoly!!) what games are good for 12 year old boys.

We've got quite a few card games and also cluedo, chess and other classic games (ludo, snakes and ladders etc.)

Thank you for any ideas

Bugs in the kitchen is quite popular here.

Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Labyrinth, Cluedo, Exploding Kittens, Flux

Ticket to Ride is very popular here and takes a lot less time than Monopoly

Blokus
Labyrinth
OK Play

Go for broke we played a lot at that age and Game of life.

Scout, catan, century gollum. There's a D&D board game which is quite good.

Can you join a library that has games or go to a games café? You can try out games before buying then

Kids against maturity is our go-to.
Big Money.
Pass the Pigs
Uno - lots of variations now, UNO Flip is good.
Labyrinth
What do you meme
Discover the World - cross between a board game and top trumps.

Splendor or Splendor Duel.
Bullet Heart or Bullet Star are solo games.
Backgammon

12 year old and 14 year old (and 8 year old) and me all currently LOVING Doomlings.

Rumikub - not a board game as such but has always been popular here, ever since ds was about 10, and still so now he's in his 20s.

Mastermind

Risk is so much fun, especially if he likes strategy.

Yep came in to say this!

RISK & rummikub

Dungeon mayhem.
Exploding kittens
Stratego

Excellent list. OP, it all depends on how long you want the game to last, and whether you'd enjoy co-operative games, and also how complicated everyone involved likes their games to be.

Then get "Pandemic Legacy: Season 1" as a present and have an amazing experience spread over weeks. 😀

Thank you so much I will find some time to look all of those up.

I have a feeling I've played Pandemic before and yes I think he'd love it. I dont know Risk but he enjoy strategy so that might be another good ones.

Lots I've never heard of here too

If he (and you) like D&D/fantasy type stuff, you could look into "Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion." It might be a little bit "in at the deep end" compared to family games though! (It's an intro to the full Gloomhaven game but that is in a different league.)

We love Scrabble (only if he likes words!) and Articulate. Junior Trivial Pursuit is good.

Quirkle
Connect4shots
Shaperize
Blokus
Minecraft builders and biomes
Tapple
Rubiks race
Tetris dual
Slingshot arena

Good old fashioned scrabble, battleships or even Pictionary... you can get Pictionary air and Pictionary AI now!

Castle panic
Scotland yard
Also dragonwood and sleeping queens but they're card games in case you don't have them.

If you think he’d enjoy Pandemic, but you don’t do a lot of board gaming at the moment, maybe get Forbidden Island. It’s a slightly simpler and, I think, therefore more fun. The mechanics of Pandemic are a bit much unless playing with adults.

Since this has come up again thank you all for your recommendations.

-I was lucky enough to stumble across Risk in a charity shop for £3 - he loves it - I'm a little less keen as he keeps beating me and DP!! We also got Labyrinth - another hit, Game of Life and Go for Broke both a good bit of fun. We got Flux (card game) which he is also enjoying. Another we got is Stratego which he's also enjoying - quite nice it's a 2 player game.,

Finally I mentioned this to a friend and she has Pandemic and has lent it to us as it was sitting unused in her cupboard. She said if DS really likes it she'll gift it to him but otherwise to return it and she will pass it on to someone else. We've not tried it yet - a job for the weekend I think.

@MerryPoppies He loves chess but sadly I think both date and location would make it difficult for us to get there. He's also a bit out of practise as they closed the school chess club and he's gutted. They've opened one locally but he's too shy to go along which is a shame. He's autistic with coordination difficulties so it's not clear cut

So thank you everyone. He's definitely spending less time on screens so it's working for now.

I'll be coming back to this thread when I make my Christmas lists