Board game for 12 year old

[Noidea2024]

DS loves Board and card games. We have quite a lot already, but particular favourites include Ticket to Ride, Risk, Small World, Catan, Exploding Kittens and Unstable Unicorns. He is less keen on things like Throw, Throw Burrito.

He is getting Carcassone for his birthday, but would love to get something else for Christmas, and perhaps a card type game for his stocking.

Can anyone suggest something we have not yet come across please? TIA

No one's mentioned Organ Attack yet
We love that!

Tetris Speed card game
QWIRKLE

The current favourite of 12 year old DS is Dominion, followed by Catan/ Catan seafarers.
For a quick two person game he loves Schotten Totten (card game) and for 2-4 Dungeon Mayhem is good fun. Each player has a different set of cards and unique abilities and the last player standing wins.

Wits & wagers
Telestrations

Both good quick games (well you can stop easily when you've had enough!) We have a reluctant game player but he's always happy to join in those ones.

I think all our other favorites have been mentioned, other than Rat race, (only available on eBay if you're lucky) - our family heirloom, bought before I was born and likely to cause a fight when I die 😆

@minipie have you got Rumicub? Family favourite here.

Cluedo

Haven't heard of any games mentioned here besides Risk & Cluedo.... Just looked at Ticket to Ride and it's £40 on Amazon! For a board game!

Anyone any suggestions for 2 player games please? Single parent family.

Genius Square is a great game for two. You can also play on your own. Retro but perfect -Battleships.

@ToBePerfectlyHonest Thanks!

A lot of modern games are expensive; if you're going to play them fairly regularly it works out in the "going to the cinema" category of spending to me. (We spent well over £100 on Gloomhaven but it took us over 100 hours to complete the story!) What age is your DC, how complex should the game be, and how long should it last? There are some great 2-player games out there.

So pleased a PP mentioned Betrayal At House On The Hill! Great board game for 12+ though lots to it.

Munchkin (card game) - lots of fun, and lots of themes to choose from.

@PhotoDad She's 9 and autistic which in her case is certainly relevant. She loves Game of Life & Cluedo junior (although she could probably play the regular version) so anything at that level or just above?

I've been looking at Ticket to Ride and can’t decide between the original version or Ticket to Ride London which is quite a bit smaller and is I suppose, their junior version.

As there are some people apart from the OP asking about games in general, and obviously some boardgame fans on the thread, I have to give a shout out to "The King's Dilemma" which is for 3-5 players. The rules are pretty simple but the theme is 15+. It feels a lot more like Game of Thrones than any of the licensed games which can use that title! Takes around 15-20 hours to complete but really, really, isn't replayable after that. We played it over the Christmas holidays a few years ago and it was amazing.

Quite a few popular boardgames have "junior" versions now which is lovely.

At that age my DC loved "Forbidden Island" which has been mentioned before, where the players work together to try to recover treasures before the island sinks. It takes less than an hour to play.

If she likes cute animal stories (Redwall etc) then there's also "My Li'l Everdell."(The full version, "Everdell," is a very enjoyable one-hour-ish family game which we could also add to OP's ever-growing list!)

@PhotoDad Thank you, I'll look those up!

Cluedo

Don't forget Exploding Kittens. I'm sure that'll have been mentioned on this thread by someone already and it's not in the same league as Dominion (which is right up there amongst board game geeks!)

But it's a good little game and there's a version they do for bigger groups too; great for Christmas i think it does 10 players.

Talking of board game geeks - check out their website.

Full of info on latest releases, what's good, what's not.

And, the complex games you can watch them being played which is great for those of us who don't like reading complex instructions.

Zatu is another online site worth signing up to for latest game news and a good site to buy from.

boardgamegeek.com/

OP's already got Exploding Kittens

Ah - Domimion is has to be then!!