Board Games

[emphyrian]

Board games i play with my 10 year old son include:

Camel Cup. A camel race in which you can bet on the outcome but also influence the race by placing tiles to help or hinder the camels

Carcassone as mentioned above.

formula D a 2 - 10 player motor car racing board game. You shift up and down the gears which are represented by different sided dice

Sheriff of Nottingham. A game of deception where you take your wares to market but accidentally stick a few crossbows in your bag too. Everyone gets to be the sheriff twice a game and you get to search peoples bags or let them through at a cost (maybe)

pandemic as mentioned above. we have to play the easier version with only 4 or 5 epidemic cards (7 cards is legendary difficulty)

Last night on earth. a zombie game. one or two players control the zombies other players control the characters. certain goals to be met to win. silly fun and easy to pick up

xwing. although not a board game it is still a tabletop game. one wing and two tie fighters. you work out your moves before revealing them to the others. then move your pieces and hope you haven't really ballsed it all up. you can buy loads of add on fighters for this including the millennium falcon.

also card based games which include:

Star flux and zombie flux. games where the goal, rules and everything else change all the time. you can even add the packs together to end up with zombie star flux.

I've just stared teaching him Magic the Gathering too although if your not familiar it is quite a big game to get your head around to start with.

There are loads of others i have that i can't quite remember as they are in the cupboard surrounded by loads of junk.

 

[T.G]

Dover Patrol was my favourite.....like a cross between battleships and sea chess!!

 

[perseus]

I always enjoyed Risk. Diplomacy may be a little too much for a 12 year old but is a good strategy game.

An improvement on Risk: https://2warpstoneptune.com/2014/03/19/board-games-apocalypse-the-game-of-nuclear-devastation-1980/

 

[Igzilla]

Strozzi, where you are traders in renaissance Italy. Lancaster, where you fight for the King's favour during the Hundred Years war. Seven Wonders too is good fun. Sylla, where you are Roman aristos competing for glory.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

We enjoy some "Balderdash" this time of year ....

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Haunted House or The Fastest Gun

 

[Audax]

Darn, only just seen this thread.

As not been mentioned yet, your first stop for Board Game knowledge should be boardgamegeek.com - great source of info. Second bit of advice: you can often get these games at greatly cut down prices as iPad / Android tablet apps. Many of them turn a great game into pure genius (by taking over all the 'admin' such as complicated scoring).

Few of my favourites, starting with one that I think would have fit the OPs requirements nicely (if it wasn't so late!):

A Brief History of the World (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46007/brief-history-world): I originally met the game as "History of the World", but the latter is out of print AFAIK and the new one feels just as good. One element of it that stands out, especially for youngsters, is that the rules build in a "help last place catch up" feature with each new round but it still requires the player to make smart choices.

Definitely second the recommendations for Carcassonne, Pandemic, Agricola, King of Tokyo (it's a hoot!), and Formula D. Settlers of Catan is a darn good shout as well. As is the lesser-known 2 player card game variant (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/278/catan-card-game). My copy sadly had an encounter with a flooded garage at the in-laws when we moved a few years back, and needs replacing .

They're fantasy minded, and not strictly "board" games, but if you're into deck-building at all then the trio of Ascension (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/69789/ascension-deckbuilding-game), Thunderstone (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/53953/thunderstone), and Dominion (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion) are all ones I have spent copious amounts of time with. Advantage of all three is that each play through can be substantially different from previous ones, and the emergent strategy elements mean the games will grow in depth as your kid grows up. I can't wait for my son to be old enough to introduce to these games. All three also have substantial expansion catalogues now, and Ascension has a jolly good iPad app version. (Note: with Thunderstone, I'd actually suggest starting with the "Thunderstone: Advance" reboot - it tightens a few rules elements up, particularly around the early game).

I haven't got a physical copy (the iPad version is good enough for me currently), but a regular go-to is Ticket to Ride (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride). Few expansions / alternative options for it, my personal favourite being the "TtR: Europe" version.

Would also suggest taking a look at (depending on personal preferences):

* Kingdom Builder (again, there's a good iPad version): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/107529/kingdom-builder
* 7 Wonders: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders
* Puerto Rico: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico
* Race for the Galaxy: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-galaxy
* Keyflower: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122515/keyflower (only played it once, but I played it with strangers met at a board games night in Brighton and it really worked well as both a deep game and a social tool)
* Caylus: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18602/caylus
* Stone Age: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age
* Cosmic Encounter: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39463/cosmic-encounter
* Small World: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world (iPad version is fantastic)
* Egizia: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58421/egizia
* Forbidden Island: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island or Forbidden Desert: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136063/forbidden-desert (both very similar, both cooperative players vs the game)

... and I think that's me gamed out for the time being. I have some others in my collection (and a huge number more in the "extended" collection owned by friends) that I could mention, but I think this post has already over-dosed .

 

[seagurn]

Escape from Colditz was fantastic the one made by Parker ..... You can still get it on ebay.

 

[Bob'n'weave]

Got a load of games this year and picked up a nice cheap chess board as a stocking filler. Guess which got played the most? Had about four games of Chess on crimbo day with my 10 year old son. He loved it.