Can we have a 'what board games are you getting' chat thread please?

[fuzzpig]

Choosing the board games is my favourite part of Christmas shopping! :o

Unfortunately it is DH's turn to choose the main family game this year so I've reluctantly relinquished control - he's chosen Castle Panic, although the new cooperative Thunderbirds game came a close second.

For the DCs I've got that Bounce Off one that is advertised on telly - looks a bit of a five minute wonder, but they both go gooey over it whenever it comes on, and I'm thinking that will be the Santa present (as they know mum would never buy it ).

DSCs (teens/young adult, all live together) are getting a couple as a joint gift - the Batman edition of Love Letter, and the London Game.

DCs always get Top Trumps in their stockings, so DD (8) has Monster High and DS (6) has the retro style Transformers.

Trying to resist the temptation to add more

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

oooh off to look at Quixo now.

I've got Dixit for my friend and we're going to her party next week so I expect she will want to play it. I think she will love it :)

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

I've never had any of those Gigamic wooden games, a lot of them look really lovely. I particularly like the look of Gobblet.

[Wolfcub]

Happy boxing day folks. Santa was very kind to us in the games department. Especially got colt express (played yesterday very good), marvel legendary and an expansion for camel up. Dh got some watchmaker card game thing, legendary predator, one night ultimate werewolf, an expansion for smash up and krakatoa. I got between two cities special edition, smash up and small world expansions, Fleet expansions (numerous) and good cop bad cop (although I accidentally let ds buy me the expansion so now need to buy the original - parenting fail). I also got Jaipur and said to india - this thread has had a significant impact on my Christmas

Especially also got Indigo from my parents but we've left that at their house so he has something to play there

[Wolfcub]

Ds not especially

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

Oooh Indigo is lovely!

I slightly regret giving Tantrix to DD. We tried doing the puzzle (where you add one tile at a time and try to make a loop of a specific colour) and she found it really hard so was quite frustrated (spatial awareness not her strong point, but her little brother is very good with it) but hopefully when we play the proper game she will manage ok.

[frenchfancy]

I bought us Sushi Go, Puerto Rico and the 7 Wonders leaders expansion.

We also got Village, sleeping queens and sussed.

We played a couple of rounds of Sushi Go yesterday - really enjoyed it. DD (9) and I played sleeping queens this morning, it is good for her age but I think will be a little boring for the teens. Planning more games later today

[backinschool]

Thanks for all the recommendations. DDs loved Dobble (much more than Mousetrap and Hungry Hippos which they requested). I managed to convince FIL and DP to play Forbidden Island with me after xmas dinner - they started off humouring me but as they learnt the rules and more of the island flooded they got really into it and admitted it was much more fun than they expected .

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

I can report that Bounce Off definitely does not work on carpet! :o

DH is in charge of clearing the table (aka the dumping ground) tomorrow morning - I can't stand up long enough to do that sort of stuff - so we can play shedloads of games. There'll be 8 of us (6 when the littluns go to bed so we can play more grown up stuff), it's going to be hectic.

Fab that DDs loved Dobble, back! I generally go for 'proper' games like that rather than more gimmicky ones with moving parts that are advertised. I admit it... I'm a game snob. :o

[RaisingSteam]

Thank You for the recommendation of Ticket to Ride - the grown ups loved it yesterday even if we didn't quite work out all the rules first time. Just got to lever the kids away from their Xbox now!

[traviata]

thank you for all the Dixit recommendations - we all loved it. Still to try Pandemic, 7 Wonders and Labyrinth.

yesterday was games-tastic; as well as the 4 I bought, we were given Cranium, Qwirkle, and Dobble.

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

Wow that's a great haul! :o

[HanSolo]

Well, wasn't expecting it, but for Christmas we got Ghost Blitz, Ticket to Ride UK, kids articulate.

Have enjoyed all of them so far.
It's going to take me a while to get my head around the changes to ticket to ride!

[frenchfancy]

Tried Peurto Rico this evening. Took a while to understand the game as it is quite complicated but I think it is going to be really good. We didn't finish the game due to time/boredom constraints but I think once we understand it it will be a winner.

[NotCitrus]

I got Ticket to Ride: Nordic countries, which is designed for 2-3 players so will get played - lovely surprise!

So far we have played the Hobbit game which is quite fun and ds and dn 'cooperated' (swapped scores etc...) which meant ds happily played all through and stopped cheating once he stopped worrying about what happened, and dd helped me until 3/4 through when she got bored. Worked pretty well and ds then started reading the Hobbit graphic novel.

Dd and ds played Peppa Pig snakes and ladders but will give it away ASAP as we have enough games like that. I tried the Line Links solitaire game but was a bit tipsy by then! The dcs have also built structures with dominoes.

Puerto Rico is great for adult gamers with 3-4 hours to spare, which sadly means we are yet to play our copy, but now the kids are getting old enough to butt out for an evening... Cities & Knights of Catan is a family favourite for when we have an extra adult and 2+ hours.

Hope to try Forbidden Island with kids tomorrow, and TtR in the evening. Also have Astronauts which I picked up recently - a good 30-60 min game that kids can enjoy but could also be played viciously by adults! And handy wee box for taking places.

[Chillywhippet]

DS (9) loves Adventure Time Love Letter. Took me a bit of time to get to grips with the cards' powers but we are getting there. He is really good at remembering my card when he gets chance to peek whereas I get distracted so he can beat me.

Reminds me of playing Rat-a-tat cat with his big sister and getting beaten by her too

Cash and Guns turns out to be funny but slightly disconcerting as you have to point foam pistols at your nearest and dearest. Would be a fun game with friends. In each round you pretend the gang have carried out a heist and you split the loot. DH, not a gamer usually, collected lots of paintings and won. So a good start.

Yet to break out Lords of Waterdeep. May wait until DH in work as rest of us happy to spend a while doing practice run through.

[ZeViteVitchofCwismas]

OMG tried ticket to ride, very confusing first time, but seven wonders even harder, so many symbols on the cards and totally different to anything we have ever played! hoping we get the hang of it soon!

[ZeViteVitchofCwismas]

looking forward to trying dixit..

[GrouchingTiggerHiddenSomething]

We've had a good Christmas and have played loads of games over the last three days. Extra bonus surprise we were given was Avalon which we played yesterday, not sure how often we'll get to play it as it needs 5 players or more but it was great fun.

Of the others we got CodeNames has been brilliant, my nephew loved Bugs in the Kitchen, I think Sleeping Queens will be good and Sushi Go, Love Letter is great (but we knew that already). Haven't had a chance to try Jaipur yet as lots of people around, this week is a bit quieter so hopefully I can persuade DH to have a go :) Love hearing how people have got on with their games.

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

Had THE BEST DAY yesterday. DSCs and DSS' GF came round and we played LOADS of games.

Bounce Off - sooo fun with lots of people! We played again this morning before they left.
Sushi Go - went down well with those who hadn't played it before. I love how quick it is to learn.
Big Bang Theory Cluedo - good, we played without the extra powers etc so it was like the original, we want to get the DCs used to the basic game before we add that stuff in.
King of Tokyo - this actually got a few moans which surprised me! It was because the rules are really complicated when you first play. I think we will continue needing the rulebook next to us for a few more plays. I had to keep saying "errrm... hang on let me check"! :o But DSS (who I thought would like it most as he likes battly stuff) won so he was pleased! Some people were eliminated very quickly.

We also played Ticket to Ride, Indigo, Spin Box and Labyrinth which are old favourites.

Unfortunately we didn't get round to playing Castle Panic which is a shame as it says it's best with 4+ - but it's DH's birthday next month so we've booked in a family game night where we'll get everyone together again. We could possibly try with DCs playing by themselves, as it's a cooperative game anyway.

I like Astronauts too, got it for DH's birthday this year as he's space mad. That's another one we haven't actually added all the special cards to yet. We will be starting a space topic in the new year in home ed, so I expect we will be playing it lots then! :)

Going to my mum's tomorrow for a couple more nights. Think I'll take Sleeping Queens and Super Tooth again, they have Uno already (gave them our old set when we got a shiny new one!) and I might have a spare set of Boggle Slam cards too that we can leave there (they love word games). Will be going to my friend's for her birthday and I expect she will want to play Dixit when she opens it, and we'll probably play other stuff too. The day after we are seeing friends (this is literally the most social week we've had in a whole year) and some of them like games so we might take some there too.

Our new year's resolution is to keep the dining table clear it's such a dumping ground. I really want us to keep on top of it from now on, so we can use it for what it's meant for - eating all together, doing our home ed stuff, and most importantly PLAYING GAMES!

Thanks everyone for keeping this thread going. It's making me very happy :o

[frenchfancy]

I've really enjoyed talking to you all about your recommended games, but was afraid you would all go away and hide now Christmas is over, so I've started another thread over in "Gaming" (I wasn't sure where else to put it)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/video_games_chat/2536296-What-board-game-are-you-playing-chat-thread?

Come and join me so I'm not playing with myself :)

[Wolfcub]

Of our new games we've played
Jaipur - love it
Fleet Wharfside - took me a bit to get my head around the rules but once we got going it was great and nothing like Fleet (good to have variety)
Smash Up - blooming brilliant, if you haven't got it buy it
We played camel up with our new supercup expansion- only played one of the four variants but it made the game longer and a bit more unpredictable so that wad good.
We also played Krakatoa - the rules were reasonably straightforward but it took a while to get used to the playing as dice rolls don't count unless you hit a stationary dice on the playing surface and either move it it turn it - a good game for camping hols

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

at 'playing with myself'

I'll come and join you! I lurk on the Christmas boards all year round [festive loon emoticon] but I'm sure not everyone feels the same! :o

[ZeViteVitchofCwismas]

we had a better round of seven wonders last night but still not sure if playing it properly its very complicated.

going to try dixit tonight