The Board Game Thread

[radiator]

I'd actually thought about that one - that might be a good shout, I've heard good things about it.

Ideally I'd want something that her parents will enjoy too!

[Colin YNWA]

Anyone have any recommendations for board games for kids? I have a 4.5 year old niece to buy a Christmas present for.

I got her My First Carcassonne for her birthday earlier this year, but suspect that it'll probably be a little while before she has the attention span to really get into it.

So ideally I'm looking for something a bit lighter, perhaps more gimmicky/luck-based?

Something like Dobble (entirely picture-based, matching up symbols on circular cards)?

My son just got that for his birthday and its great fun (and I'm embarrassed to admit surprisingly challenging at times!)

[Colin YNWA]

So the kids got Labyrinth for X-mas and they are obsessed by it - even rejecting telly at times to demand to play it. Luckily IO'm finding it mighty good fun as well!

[The Amstor Computer]

Anyone have any recommendations for board games for kids? I have a 4.5 year old niece to buy a Christmas present for.

I got her My First Carcassonne for her birthday earlier this year, but suspect that it'll probably be a little while before she has the attention span to really get into it.

So ideally I'm looking for something a bit lighter, perhaps more gimmicky/luck-based?

Late now, but Haba make a decent range of kid-friendly stuff. My daughters got Unicorns in the Clouds, Animal Upon Animal and Mix & Match Robbers from their catalogue for Christmas and they're all fun little titles, a mix of luck-based and dexterity-heavy gameplay with fun, simple aesthetics.

[TordelBack]

Two new games this year, Exploding Kittens and King of Tokyo.  The former is an Oatmeal-themed cardgame and great simple fun, with a tense endgame and some rapid strategising, but I'm not sure my younger ones are that keen on it. With some stylish monster standees KoT is more visually satisfying for them, and a surprisingly varied experience depending on the order cards come into play, ​but I do have to question the claim on the box that it's for 2-6 players: the game doesn't work at all with two players, it just turns into a brief slugging match decided by a half- dozen handfuls of dice, with no reason to do anything but stay put and keep swinging.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Just spent two hours playing Pass the Pigs. Oldest player was 69, youngest was 6.9.

[TordelBack]

Heh, after an evening playing games with friends and family, I have to upgrade my verdict on Exploding Kittens: far quicker than Munchkin, more accessible for wee ones than Fluxx, and deeper than Love Letter, I think this could be our new default casual card game. A riotous time was had by all, the sustained tension of the second half is a work of genius.

[JamesC]

The thing that puts me off Exploding Kittens is the fact it's called exploding kittens, which suggests some sort of childish sense of humour which I don't find funny.
That's not to say childishness in general is bad. I've been playing the super-quick kids action game Shark Mania which is brilliant!

[Dandontdare]

I bought exploding kittens a while ago but haven't yet persuaded anyone to play with me  None of my mates are into games.

Played Settlers of Catan with my brother and nephew over Xmas though - we only had time for the "first-time player" set-up, but I'd like to see what sort of differences a random set-up makes to game-play & tactics.

[Theblazeuk]

It can lead to a severe resource shortage which makes Catan take far too long (but some of that is people refusing to understand it's fine if we go around three times without anyone placing a card. Keep it moving everyone!)

I got Zombie Fluxx, which sounds like an undead bowel disorder but is actually a variant of the above mentioned card game. Never really been one for cards but I'll give it a go with my DnD group I think.

[TordelBack]

Fluxx (all variants) is a great easy-entry game, unless you have an aversion to seeing all your lovingly crafted plans evaporate at least once a round! Personally I love it, groans of uttermost frustration being pleasing to me.

Been enjoying King of Tokyo over the last few days, but my misgivings about the 2-player game now extend into the multi-player endgame, where because it is quite easy for players to get knocked out early on, it can again devolve into a protracted punching match between the last two players. 20 VPs can be a long time coming if the survivors have been keeping out of Tokyo to that point.  Am I missing something?

[TordelBack]

The thing that puts me off Exploding Kittens is the fact it's called exploding kittens, which suggests some sort of childish sense of humour which I don't find funny.

There are quite a few fart gags, this I cannot deny, but if it's the implied animal cruelty of the title, there's little of that: it's more a matter of diverting the curiosity-driven kittens from pressing that big red button or chewing on dynamite by using laser pointers, catnip, psychotherapy etc.

All done in the Oatmeal style, which tickles my particular tummy.

[Satanist]

Been enjoying King of Tokyo over the last few days, but my misgivings about the 2-player game now extend into the multi-player endgame, where because it is quite easy for players to get knocked out early on, it can again devolve into a protracted punching match between the last two players. 20 VPs can be a long time coming if the survivors have been keeping out of Tokyo to that point.  Am I missing something?

The end game should come quite quick if only 2 are left as whoever is in Tokyo keeps racking up the points for every round they stay in there. Also we rig the cards at the start of the game as there are quite a lot of rubbish ones.

At Xmas we received the following...

Mission Red Planet (wife)
Dead of Winter (me)
Pandemic Legacy (all)
Bloodborne card game (the boy)
Bloodbowl (the other boy)
Tsuro (the boys)

Only played Tsuro and Mission Red Planet so far. Played Tsuro before but played with some family over xmas and all enjoyed it.

Played Mission Red Planet last night and although it looks pretty complex out the box its pretty simple to set up and play. Steampunk mining of Mars is the gist of it and can be played in about an hour once everyone knows what they are doing. I like the way every round theres a countdown to see who goes where.

We also just realised that we were missing a pretty important rule for Lords of Waterdeep these past few months so looking forward to getting back into that.

[Proudhuff]

You should get a telly...

[Satanist]

This isn't really the place for you to flog your shoplifting!



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