Board Game Favorites

Over the past couple of years, I've made a point of purchasing a new tabletop game for the family to enjoy at Christmas time. They range from short, 2-player games, to longer, multiplayer (4 or more) games. We play a wide range of types - from adventures and strategy, to thinkers and puzzle games. Below is a short list of some of our favorites. I am happy to say that ToysRUs.com has an excellent selection - much more than they have in the retail stores! Others are available at Amazon (use our links to get you right there!)

This one pretty much started the board game craze for us: The Settlers of Catan Board Game. It's a great mix of strategy, resource management, and empire building. It's not too complex and the design provides an extremely high replay value. Check out my Catan links for more information on all Catan games. If you are already a Catan fan, you might enjoy a more challenging version - Cities & Knights of Catan. We've also thoroughly enjoyed the space version, which focuses a little more on exploration. It's called Starfarers of Catan! All of them are board game classics! Over a year ago, I wrote a full review of the basic games!

The next two series are for those long, winter nights where it's just too cold to go out! Even if you don't live in colder areas, they are perfect for a night of family gaming.

Our first love in this arena is easily the Lord of The Rings Board Game. It's a very interesting game of cooperation. Up to five people take the role of the hobbits and try to make it to Mount Doom to destroy the ring! Two expansions came out for this one and both are excellent. My son's favorite is the Sauron expansion, where one player takes the role of Sauron and attempts to defeat the Fellowship! The other is called Friends and Foes. This one works in conjunction with the other two and adds more help for both sides (good and evil).

The second game could be considered as "D&D Lite". It's called Descent: Journeys in the Dark. It's a giant dungeon crawler where people play the heroes and someone plays the Dungeon Master, who controls all of the creators in the dungeon! The basic game comes with a ton of plastic monsters and a lot of board pieces, and a good set of scenarios and quests to get you started. Advanced players can create their own adventures! Heroes level up as they complete quests. Both dice and cards are used to supplement the quality game design.

This last one is an older game, but it's a classic. It's called
Acquire and it's available at KBtoys.com. It's an excellent mix of strategy, empire building, and smart trading. This one's been a crowd pleaser for many years. It's definitely on our top ten of all time! Acquire is one of those "easy to learn, difficult to master" types.

There are certainly many more out there, and many more than we own. Check out these and we'll be back with more suggestions tomorrow!