intellectual board games that 3 can play please?

[Clumsymum]

Here is a challenge. Can anyone point me towards a boardgame that will interest DS age 12, that can be played by only 3?

His (and our) favourite games are Articulate and Pictionary. But as he is an only child, these are difficult to play without 4 people (any variants you've discovered for 3 players eagerly accepted). We sometimes play when friends come round, but we're not hugely sociable folk - so that doesn't happen often- and some kids seem to find it wierd to play a boardgame these days :(

We do play scrabble, trivial pursuit - in 3 different variants-, and monopoly (which goes on too long), but I'd like to find something new this christmas.

Callisto. It comes with 3 different bases so you can play either as 2,3 or 4.

Jenga? (not really a board game but can be played by any age).
Game of life?

Pandemic, it is co-operative and on first run seems complicated, but it is addictive. If you don't want co-operative, perhaps Carcassone?

I second Pandemic, also try Ticket to Ride, Gang of Four, or my personal favorite Settlers of Catan.

I'd second Carcassonne and although it's card based and not strictly a board game Dominion is good.

We have just discovered a board game called telestrations. It is a cross between pictionary and chinese whispers and is great fun. We got ours on ebay.

Ingenious is very good!

Another vote for Pandemic (My favourite). Shootin Ladders, Little Italy and Formula D are popular ones that my eldest likes to play when his friends are over, too.

Pandemic, Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan. Have a look at Boardgame Geek.Com. I am married to someone who likes board games! These are Euro games. Easy to learn but really good (and I'm not really keen on board games). Also they don't last as long as Monopoly!

Agree absolutely with boardgamegeek recommendation.

We are also a 3 person family (dd is 9), we like Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Settlers, Stone Age, San Juan, Carcassonne (well dd & dh do, I like it less as I always get hammered ), Bohnanza (cards not board though). All of these apart from Bohnanza also play well with two)

If you want some thing 'stand out' for a christmas present, have a look at Galaxy Trucker. Its a wee bit hard still for dd, but would be absolutely fine for a 12 year old. It has fab bits (sucker for cool bits, me) - little spacemen, aliens, etc etc. The theme definitely works with the game play, and its a bit 'different' to your standard Euro-game. There's a nice review here at Infinity games. I think any 12 year old boy would have to be distressingly non-geeky not to like it.

Having said that, if you want a game that will stand a lot of replaying, you probably can't go wrong with Dominion. It slightly annoys me in that it is a bit of a 'bolt on' theme, but its a favourite with most game players I know.

Talisman is good fun - especially if any of you are into fantasy/lord of the rings type things. Its pricey but very well made.

We are also a family of three and love board games - had to laugh at your comment about friends thinking it is 'wierd' to play board games - one of DS's friends said 'I like coming to your house, it's so lovely and old fashioned' - I took that as a compliment !

Do you play Rummikub ? - not exactly intellectual but a good mathmatical challenge.

About Time - history board game - good fun and learning stuff too.

About Time - history board game - good fun and learning stuff too - and everyone plays each turn so you don't have to do that waiting around thing.

oops! so good i posted twice...

I like qwirkle cubes as well as the ones mentioned already.

I'm disappointed by the thread though, I misread the title and thought you were asking for intellectual games for a 3 year old!

What about Apples to Apples?

Can anyone tell me how many of these games are good for only two ? I'm a single mum with an only DS of 7

Mexican Train