Board game for a nine year old

[oscarandelliesdad]

My ds is turning nine and his gran wants to buy him a new game. He loves history and geography and LOTR. He plays Risk with support and other - (less soul destroying) games such as One night Werewolf, Exploding kittens, monsters vs babies. Dm is looking at getting him the LOTR game. Would it be suitable (we can support as with things like Catan, betrayal at house on the hill etc) or is it boring? Any other recommendations would be amazing as well. Thanks guys

If you go to boardgamegeek and write lord of the rings in search engine it will show you dozens of game. There you can see how heavy the game is and is it suitable for your child and reviews for a game.

For instance this one is medium weight and although it says it is from age 10+ from my experience most of the nine year old will have zero problems playing it boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823/lord-rings.

We have loads of great board games. These are two that are history/geography based:

Forbidden island
Ticket to ride

Thanks for the recommendations @Toomuchleopard and @kavalkada. Recently discovered Ticket to ride and love it. Off to research the others

Lord of the rings risk is pretty good, I think.

Carcassonne is fab.

Photosynthesis.

Definitely ticket to ride though

I came on this thread to say forbidden island as well.

I recommend labyrinth. The adult version not the kids one. My 9 year old loves it.

I know you have discovered Ticket to Ride but the different versions are well worth exploring as they require very different strategies. DH has the Europe one for Father's Day so looking forward to trying that one.

Oooh, we have forbidden desert and love Labrynth. Off to research different Ticket to ride options now. Older ds really liked betrayal at house on the hill. Thanks all, love us a board game

My DDs favourites from the last year have been...
Harry Potter Cluedo (it's got some extra bits in over normal Cluedo. Unfortunately, it needs 3 players so we can't play that often. Her sister doesn't quite 'get' Cluedo yet)
Labyrinth
Planet
Scotland Yard (full version)
London Game
Harry Potter Magical Beasts
Harry Potter Year at Hogwarts (I don't like this one! )
Chess
Creationary (Lego game)

As you might have guessed, she likes Harry Potter
We do have HP Labyrinth, but I prefer the original version. It's easy to see which symbol is which on the board.

My similarly aged son is playing Splendor with us (which I really like). He also likes Survive! Escape From Atlantis - which is fun/light and nice in that he can completely play by himself.

I highly recommend Tiny Towns which is fun, easy to learn, easy to play but challenging to win for kids and adults alike - so it has some depth to keep you coming back.

Other suggestions:
Castle Panic
Pandemic
Luxor
King of Tokyo

Mine likes Ticket to ride but doesn't love it. He's always loved Catan and Carcassone.
He also love this odd game called the farmer game and pretty much every type of monopoly

Pandemic. It’s based on a global map, it’s collaborative but it’s exciting.

He's the perfect age for the Minecraft Board game, if he likes Minecraft. My sons aged 11 and 8 love it!

My ds loves risk and catan, have you seen allies Vs axis game?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_%26_Allies

We have Ticket to Ride Europe, and now Japan/Italy which are fab. The London one is much smaller and quicker.

Not a board game, but Maponimoes is great. You can get different continents and a UK and US version. Really educational as well as fun to play.

My 10 year old loves Labyrinth. It's strategy and a bit of luck no real advantage to an adult playing a child. And the pictures are kind of LOTR ish with goblins, trolls, snakes etc.

Mostly already mentioned, but we like
Carcassonne
Kingdomino
Splendor
Pandemic
All as enjoyable for adults as kids.

Agree with Ticket to Ride, we've got Europe but want to collect the others, and Pandemic my DD is 9 and loves history and they're her favourite games. She also enjoys the family edition of trivial pursuit with the kids cards. Not a board game but she also enjoys the Brain box history game and we all play it as a memory game. We've got the original Lord of the Rings game but as adults have never won it and my DD is easily frustrated so we haven't tried it with her. Pandemic is similar type of game but there are wins along the way as you collect the cures so less frustrating to lose. Chess is also good if you want something 2 player, 9 is a good age to get into it.

Loads of deals in Prime Days on Amazon. It's worth checking the Zatu website as they're usually cheaper for most things, but eg Ravensburger's Labyrinth is v cheap on Amazon today.

The Snakes and Ladders board game is a fun way to play with kids, family, and friends. It is suitable for kids aged above four years.

Play game: playerzpot.com/snake-and-ladder-app-download?utm_source=game&utm_medium=forum

We like the LoTR board game, but it's hard to win! Take a look at Isle of Skye.
Second boardgamegeek.com and Zatu.

Munchkin. "Kill the monsters. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddies."

Easy to learn, fun to play, not too expensive. Doesn't get a high score on boardgamegeek , but I wouldn't let that put you off. Just don't get the expansion decks. We got the first then took the cards out after a while as they made the game much less balanced.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is a good one if he likes Harry Potter. It's a cooperative game, so at least if he loses, it's with everyone else (sometimes you get absolutely stuffed while playing it).

There is a Hobbit game as well ...