What games have you recently given, received, or played?

[Kareni]

What games have you recently given, received, or played?

Given:

To a twelve year old great-nephew, I passed along a game that my family has owned since it was new (the game, not my family!) in the early seventies. I don't recall us playing this as a turn taking game, rather we spent countless hours trying to solve it as a single player. Incidentally, the picture shown in the link does not show the puzzle solved.

Nitty Gritty 

 

To my adult daughter who is teaching English conversation to adult learners in South Korea, some games she can use with her students.

 

Mad Libs The Game

 

The Game of Things... Expansion/Travel Pack

 

Received:

 

Nothing lately.

 

Played:

 

Over the holidays, my husband and I played

 

WordSpot.

 

The Game

 

And with company, we played

 

Wise and Otherwise (egads! the price!)

 

Five Crowns

 

How about you?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[vonfirmath]

Nitty Gritty looks similar to the game my son got For Christmas -- Rubik's Race.  https://smile.amazon.com/University-Games-01811-Rubiks-Race/dp/B01C5U4PTY/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Rubik's+Race&qid=1577999026&sr=8-2 He's beating the pants off everyone he plays currently!

 

Another game we're really enjoying is Concept: https://smile.amazon.com/Asmodee-CONC01-Concept/dp/B00IDB6J0S/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Concept&qid=1577999060&sr=8-1

We haven't yet played it with points. We are just having fun illustrating the words and trying to guess them!

 

 

[Kareni]

31 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

Nitty Gritty looks similar to the game my son got For Christmas -- Rubik's Race.  https://smile.amazon.com/University-Games-01811-Rubiks-Race/dp/B01C5U4PTY/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Rubik's+Race&qid=1577999026&sr=8-2 He's beating the pants off everyone he plays currently!

That does look like fun! The great-nephew to whom I passed along Nitty Gritty is a whiz at solving the Rubik's cube; I'm really curious to hear what he thinks of it.

31 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

Another game we're really enjoying is Concept: https://smile.amazon.com/Asmodee-CONC01-Concept/dp/B00IDB6J0S/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Concept&qid=1577999060&sr=8-1

We haven't yet played it with points. We are just having fun illustrating the words and trying to guess them!

I've heard excellent things about Concept. You need to come over and bring the game with you....

Regards,

Kareni

[happypamama]

I love that you make these threads! 

 

I got OranguTwang with my 6yo in mind. Cute, hilarious, huge hit. Would recommend. 

 

I got Rock, Paper, Switch for my 8yo. It is a mix of chess and rock, paper, scissors. Also a huge hit. Perfect for him but not babyish. 

 

My 11yo saw LineUp in a catalog and asked for it, so I got it. Also a big hit. It's fairly tricky! 

 

Santorini -- I got because a friend on FB recommended it, and we have liked her other recs. It looks cool, although we haven't tried it yet. 

[Momto6inIN]

Dominion and Forbidden Island were both big hits here

[mmasc]

Over the Christmas break I played Exploding Kittens and Chicken Foot. I’m hoping to get a game of Ticket to Ride in before break is over (which will be soon!). 

[Amy in NH]

I gave my sister Bananagrams for Christmas.  She and her husband are Scrabble fans, and have more than one travel copy.  Brought my Bananagrams along for a visit at the beginning of December, and they really liked it! 

[happypamama]

49 minutes ago, Momto6inIN said:

Dominion and Forbidden Island were both big hits here

We really love Forbidden Island!

We were less thrilled with its sequels, unfortunately, but Forbidden Island is a huge hit. 

[ScoutTN]

Dutch Blitz is the game that we have all loved this year. Dd got an expansion pack so more people can play.

[prairiewindmomma]

We purchased Panedemic as our family game this Christmas. Last year was Dominion. Before that, 7 Wonders.

We have been playing Ticket to Ride more often.

[TCB]

We played a game called The Mind recently with my dd's boyfriend. It was a strange and unusual game but pretty fun.

[Meriwether]

Recently played (I purchased them for the family for Christmas):

Onitama, huge hit. It was played dozens of times.

Potion Explosion, enjoyed by everyone. Two of my kids play very differently and will enjoy playing it separately better.

Quirkle, good for age span. My 5 year old could play with my parents. 

Stomple, everyone liked it. Very satisfying to push the marbles down. LOL

Ice Cool, youngest three couldn't get enough of it this morning.

I'm learning how to play some of the heavier games. I am hoping to play Villainous, Terraforming Mars, and Wingspan this weekend. 

[Storygirl]

SIL and I had each other's names in our family gift exchange.

I saw that SIL had Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra on her wish list, so I jumped on that idea and bought it for her.

She had my name, so she bought me.... Azul. 😂   Evidently at Thanksgiving, she asked DH if I had that game, and he said no, even though he knew we owned it. In his defense, we were hosting Thanksgiving, and DH was probably frazzled with his mind on other things when she brought it up to him. DH is taking care of the return for me 😉.

I haven't decided what to exchange it for. I have a bunch of games in my "save for later" Amazon cart.

We've been enjoying 7 Wonders, which we got awhile ago but have just learned to play over the holidays. I appreciate that it can play up to 7 players, since we have 6 in our family. My kids don't like games as much as I do, though, so we don't usually have a full table.

[mom2scouts]

We played Relative Insanity for Christmas and New Years and laughed and laughed. We even got my mom to play and she never plays games. She looked at one card and started laughing so hard she couldn't talk. If you're not familiar with the game, it's more family friendly than Cards Against Humanity and less family friendly than Apples to Apples. It gives a prompt about a family member and others have to put in a card that finishes the sentence.

We usually play games for New Years and this year we also played Trouble, Ticket to Ride, Here Kitty Kitty, and Labyrinth.

Our public library just bought a bunch of games that patrons can check out. We should try some new games and see if there's any we'd like to own.

[Lori D.]

given/received recently:
- Azul
- Trogdor

played recently:
- Century Golem
- Sagrada
- 7 Wonders
- Five Crowns
- Trumpet -- vintage game
- Love Letter: Batman edition

also played recently -- just for funsies, on New Year's Eve we decided to play a few games that hadn't seen the light of day for years:
- Hey Hey Witch Way -- vintage game
- Mille Bornes
- Fill or Bust
- Won Over -- vintage game
- Sequence Dice

and a few others that were played frequently earlier in this past year:
- Castles of Mad King Ludwig
- Kingdom Builder
- World's Fair 1893
- Five Tribes
- Takenoko
- Alhambra
- Banagrams
- Nertz, a card game using regular decks of cards, which looks like it is now called Racing Demon
- Tish, a trick bidding / trick taking game with 10 hands (10 cards, then 9, then 8, etc.), and a trump suit for each hand

Edited January 3, 2020 by Lori D.

[vonfirmath]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We purchased Panedemic as our family game this Christmas. Last year was Dominion. Before that, 7 Wonders.

We have been playing Ticket to Ride more often.

 

I like all of these games.

Pandemic and Ticket to Ride get played more. Dominion and 7 Wonders less

 

[lovinmyboys]

We have way too many games, so I cut back on buying this year.

DS7 got Chickapig (I wasn’t sure about this one, but we love it), Supertooth (it is just ok, but he likes the Dino theme), and Dragonrealm, which is the sequel? to Dragonwood and we haven’t had a chance to play yet.

The kids each got a game the size of a pack of gum in their stocking. We haven’t played any of them yet.

My mom got me Lost Cities the card game and dh and I have been enjoying that. We also got the gamewright game Punto, and that was surprisingly fun.

Lately we have been playing a lot of Codenames, Werewords, Telestrations, and Dutch Blitz. We have 4 kids, so these are all good 6 player games.

[mom@shiloh]

11 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We purchased Panedemic as our family game this Christmas. Last year was Dominion. Before that, 7 Wonders.

We have been playing Ticket to Ride more often.

Those are all favorites here as well as Settlers of Catan.

Some games we've been enjoying recently are: Azul, Rummikub, and Carcassone. A new one this year was Bang and that was fun as well. It's similar to Mafia. 

[scholastica]

We got Dixit this year and everyone who has played it has enjoyed it.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Outfoxed is still being played every time we do games, and Trekking the National Parks is one of our family's favorite games. We played those on New Year's along with Destruct 3, which my kids love. 

[RootAnn]

Based on a list here, my ds got Forbidden Island. Challenging!

DD#1 received Chronology & we played it several times. She's going to have fun with that one with her suitemates at college, I think. The funniest part is when we think through our choices logically out loud  (which is not part of the rules but just something we started to each do). Cracks us up to hear the kids, "Well, this had to be before world war II because it was in [insert book]." Or "Well, the boys are covering that this year in history so it must be after ..."

DD#1 tongue-in-cheek remarked that DH & I lived through a lot of this (post Civil War)... Leads to lots of giggles. And she won twice in a row yesterday so it isn't like us old fogies are always right...

[Emba]

Gave DD a cribbage board for Christmas.

Played Uno, Ticket to Ride, and Monopoly over the break as a family.

But the big thing everyone (except DH) has been doing is trying to solve the Rubik’s cube DS got from DH’s grandma for Christmas. Which, thanks to YouTube, I did two days ago. It took me three days, probably four hours of trying. My brain is not built for the Rubik’s cube. And yesterday I was able to walk DS through the tutorial so he could solve it, too. 

[LongRamblings]

Received: LCR and we played with nickels so it was a little more “skin in the game”. 
 

My extended family are not gamers so they don’t   give or like receiving games. Boo! i did however have a second copy of Santorini and gave it to a friend that has game night with kids. 
 

played: 

Santorini: well loved by all. We played multiple times and each time had a different winner. 
 

12 Days of Christmas (card game): a simple easy to learn game that is fun for everyone. We look forward to playing this every year. 
 

Finally pulled out Kodama and while it isn’t the most exciting game ever it makes up for it in beauty. It is easy to play and is just strategic enough to keep it interesting. I really enjoyed it and we probably played it 5 times in a span of three days. 
 

oldie but goodie: Bananagrams: everyone loves this game

[theelfqueen]

Gifted:

Lazer Riders, Kingdomino, Hive Pocket, a ton of D&D and Dungeon World books, Imhotep Duel, Pack o Fun games in stockings (DH and I have a couple and thought they'd be fun for the kids- favorite is Orc) 

Played:

Mysterium, Paperback, Ticket to Ride (all on pass and play while travelling) , LCR with inlaws (not our thing but ILs were into it), Tokaido, Lasers and Feelings and I'm not sure what else

Received:

Nothing

 

[Tenaj]

We've been playing a lot of Catan during the holiday break.  That one seems to be the one we all return to often.  It's more fun now that even my youngest can play.

My dil's parents taught us a simple card game they called "Sevens" on Christmas Day.  We've been enjoying it mainly because it's easy to play for all ages (including the 80yo+ crowd that we've been entertaining).  Seems to also go by the name of Spades.  We think the group in Florida they play with must have incorporated some house rules because we can't find their exact version any where but we've enjoyed it anyway!

Edited January 3, 2020 by JanOH

[gaillardia]

Where do you guys find these games??!!

A friend's husband and son are gamers. They get to try out all kinds of new games and leave reviews. They even host a game night at a local eatery with some of the games. 

Recently played Rummy Roots and Quiddler. I can see I need to step up my game. 

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, gaillardia said:

Where do you guys find these games??!!

Love Wil Wheaton's Tabletop shows, on YouTube or Geek & Sundry. He explains a game per show, and then plays the game with 3 friends, so you really can see if it something that clicks for your family or not. (NOTE: some 4-letter exclamations during the excitement of the gaming.)

Also, check out the Board Game Geek website, by category. Or, visit your local gaming store, and they are usually quite knowledgeable to help you narrow down choices, or suggest new releases that might be of interest.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Lori D.

[LostSurprise]

Given: I gave dh Tiny Towns, a game where you collect resources to build buildings on a card grid. It has a great puzzle aspect to it because each of the buildings has special powers you can maximise. We gave dniece Fauxcabulary because she loves it. 

Received: DH gave me Islebound (Ryan Laukat!), Bosk, Terraforming Mars, the Feast of Odin expansion, and Mystery of the Abbey. I guess he got a good deal and didn't think he could otherwise get them in the house. 🤨

Played: We played Bosk. DH described it as a less 'take-that!' version of Photosynthesis. Both are forest games with stand-up trees where you are taking over a forest. Photosynthesis takes over with tree reproduction and is limited by sunlight. Bosk takes over area with tree placement and leaves being moved by the wind. I like them both, although I need to play Bosk a few more times.

We've also played Tiny Towns, which is very puzzley. I love puzzle games where you have to maximize resources and space. 

Friends came over and brought Trekking the National Parks, which I would describe as Ticket to Ride but moving around and collecting national parks.

Over the break we've also played: 

Cottage Garden

Lost Cities

Pyramids

Kung Fu Zoo

Azul

Tash-Kalar

Claim It!

Roam

Fauxcabulary

and half a learning game of Feast of Odin

 

[Kareni]

2 hours ago, gaillardia said:

Where do you guys find these games??!!

As Lori mentioned, threads on games sometimes pop up here on the board (witness this one!). 

 

2 hours ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

I posted here and got suggestions

I remember that thread.

People are generally happy to share their favorites and what works for them. You might start a thread @gaillardia with specifics pertaining to your family (ages of children, games they already like, etcetera).

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

8 hours ago, parent said:

  I do feel somewhat guilty that i only buy things with an educational bent.

Fortunately, there are many games that are both fun and educational.  Here's one I mentioned in the link I just posted above: 

I'll recommend Quarto. There is also a smaller travel Quarto. It is a two player game that we enjoyed at home; it is also a game that my husband (who tutors math) likes to play with his students as it encourages logical thinking.

 "Each piece has four attributes – color, height, shape, and consistency – so each piece is either dark or light, tall or short, square or round, and hollow or solid. The object is to place the fourth piece in a row so that all four pieces have at least one attribute in common. The twist is that your opponent gets to choose the piece you place on the board each turn." 

(The game is wooden which I find attractive.)

Regards,

Kareni

[raptor_dad]

We are hopefully half way through a cross country move. DW and the kids left Minneapolis on December 4 and all our stuff including some wrapped boxed Christmas presents were supposed to arrive in Seattle by December 19 at the latest. After an ugly issue with the 1st mover involving a failure to pickup and a cash settlement, we are likely to get stuff by 1/15 from another mover...The games we've recieved are:

"Before There Were Stars": Which is a fabulous creation myth story telling game,,, DS11, DS13  DW, and I all love it. We've played 3 times and its fun and flexible.

"Betrayal At The House On The Hill": This game involves building a haunted house by drawing cards. It is very mood building. For us it is a very divisive game. DW and DS11 really like it. DS13 and I really dislike it. I *think* the problem is that the mood building is strong while the game mechanics are weak... so how much you like it depends on your willing suspension of disbelief,

The other fun discovery for us has been "Keyforge". We went to a new player event for this at a LGS before Christmas and got comp'ed a few decks and picked up a starter pack with all the other necessary bibs and bobs from another LGS today. It is a vaguely Magic like game with fixed deck instead of trading and some different play dynamics. I think it might be a good option for DW, DS11, and myself... All of whom have less of an interest in the collectible, deck building aspects of Magic than DS13.

[hshibley]

I love board games ❤️❤️

I gave Settlers of Catan to my sister and brother’s families. 

As a family we received 

Sushi Go Party edition

Kingdomino

Azul

I chose games that my 7yo could play since we were short on games for the younger crowd. We all enjoy the new games and they are short enough for my 7yo. Now that she’s ready to join the fold we can go back to a regular family game night. 

[J-rap]

A family member received the game The Chameleon this year, so we ended up playing a lot of that.  This was a houseful of rather picky young adults and everyone enjoyed it!

[Dainty]

DS13 got Uno Flip.  I recommend.

Does it matter what version of Onitama?

[BlsdMama]

Given:

Dutch Blitz

ZenTangle

Wingspan

Azul

 

Received:

1901 - Not sure if this counts. Technically I got it for DH last year, but we only recently sat down and learned it. We’ve played it about 15-20 times this past month - huge hit!

Played recently:

Pepper is a spin on Euchre and it’s a long time family favorite. We generally play it with extended family at the holidays. Dutch Blitz - new for us and a big hit. Carcassonne Junior - love the adult game, hate the kid version, but the 6yo likes it. Duel - we play this several times per week. 1901 - we played three games yesterday, lol. Axial - learned this week and I don’t love it yet. I often need to play a game several times to appreciate the complexities.

Most eager to learn:

Wingspan!

 

[Acorn]

I’m enjoying the artwork of Wingspan and Parks. Both of those games have gorgeous illustrations. Wingspan can be frustrating if you just draw cards that don’t led to engine building. Then if your opponents have cool and multiplying reward cards, you are just left bored and losing.

Other new games that I haven’t played yet Century- Silk Road, Tiny Towns, and  Minecraft board game.

[historically accurate]

My kids got Sushi Go, Pandemic, and Bananagrams for Christmas. We played them all a little over break. 

[Condessa]

We got the new European expansion of Wingspan, and are loving it.  

My son recieved Azul and the kids got Dust in the Wings.  We all love Azul; dh and I are a little disappointed in Dust in the Wings, but my nine and ten year old girls love it.

Dh got Teotihuacan.  It looks really intimidating, but gameplay is surprisingly easy to learn and quite fun.

[BarbecueMom]

We gave DS10 the new Minecraft: Builders and Biomes board game for Christmas, and we are surprised at how much we all enjoy playing it.  It's great quality (Ravensburger), and doesn't require you to know anything about Minecraft in order to play.  It incorporates a lot of familiar strategy gameplay devices (three actions per turn like Forbidden Island, collecting resource types like Catan, connecting land/biome types like Kingdom Builder), but with a Minecraft theme.

[Meriwether]

We played Everdell last night. Such a beautiful game. Today we played Terraforming Mars. It wasn't a good day to try it. One Ds had a very long day yesterday and he was tired. The other Ds had a back that was hurting. It was too long (learning a game that is longer anyhow) for them today. I wished I'd waited to get it out, because while they thought it was okay they didn't fully enjoy it. It may take some convincing to get them to try again. It is too bad, because it is a great fit for one of them.

[newhsmom]

My kids love games of all kinds. For Christmas this year, they got Fluxx, Catan, Exploding Kittens, and Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. One of my favorite things about the Christmas break is all the time they have to play and just enjoy being together.

I love the blog My Little Poppies for suggestions on gamschooling. https://my-little-poppies.com/gameschooling/

[BlsdMama]

On 1/5/2020 at 9:05 AM, Acorn said:

I’m enjoying the artwork of Wingspan and Parks. Both of those games have gorgeous illustrations. Wingspan can be frustrating if you just draw cards that don’t led to engine building. Then if your opponents have cool and multiplying reward cards, you are just left bored and losing.

Other new games that I haven’t played yet Century- Silk Road, Tiny Towns, and  Minecraft board game.

 

We sat down and played Wingspan for the first time last night. I was tired and not playing my cards to full effect. We’ll play again tomorrow and teach DH. I tend to like games after I’ve played them at least three times. It is a beautiful game, but I can’t tell if I’m disappointed yet. 

On 1/5/2020 at 6:55 PM, Meriwether said:

We played Everdell last night. Such a beautiful game. Today we played Terraforming Mars. It wasn't a good day to try it. One Ds had a very long day yesterday and he was tired. The other Ds had a back that was hurting. It was too long (learning a game that is longer anyhow) for them today. I wished I'd waited to get it out, because while they thought it was okay they didn't fully enjoy it. It may take some convincing to get them to try again. It is too bad, because it is a great fit for one of them.

 

Everdell - thoughts on this one? I forgot DD got this one. 

[Meriwether]

10 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

Everdell - thoughts on this one? I forgot DD got this one. 

Besides being beautiful (and it really it!), is has nice play. It is a worker placement game, and you get progressively more meeples each season. The cards have enough interplay to make it interesting. There are also enough ways to get points that you aren't just going to be stuck (not that we truly utilized most of them playing the first game) if you can't get certain cards. I like the theme - building a city of forest people. Dh and I played it at a game convention and I bought it that weekend, but saved it until Christmas. So, he had played before, but it takes him longer to get comfortable with a game. We were also playing with my Dd16, who figures out things tremendously fast, and my Dd9, who has only played Dinosaur Island a couple of times (her first experience with worker placement). She did not pick up the intricacies of the game the first time, although I think she will learn it in a few plays. Since Dd16 figured out what she wanted to do early, she always had several turns mapped out. That made her turns very fast. Dh and Dd9 took a lot longer, which was kind of frustrating for Dd16. Since you only do one action per turn, the turns could be very fast. Somewhat like Ticket to Ride. If people know what they are going to do, it can be your turn again in a minute. Dd16 and I can play a full game of TTR in about 20 minutes. LOL I like games that have quicker turns, because it is easy to stay engaged. I enjoyed everything about the game, but it will be more enjoyable when everyone playing knows what they are doing. There are two negatives that I could mention. The tree, once put together, won't fit in the box. I think it would be damaging to keep taking it apart, so I will find shelf space for it. And, people can go through seasons at different paces. This means that some will finish the game faster than others.

[Lady Marmalade]

Over the last few months some new-to-us games that we've played and enjoyed Century:Golem Edition, Wingspan, Euphoria and Architects of the West Kingdom.  I personally really enjoyed Architects but Euphoria got high marks too and I would love to give it another go now that I know what I'm doing.  Wingspan was better the second time we played it.  Century got better the more we played it.

Oh, I almost forgot the new cooperative we learned, Rail Pass.  It was super cute and way more fun than I was expecting.   I think it was easy enough that you could teach non-board gamers to play and everyone would have a good time.  

Old favorites that we keep coming back to are Dinosaur Island, The Reckoners and Viticulture, though I have a hard time convincing people (meaning my teens) to play Viticulture with me.  🙂  We're looking forward to seeing the expansion for The Reckoners making it to kickstarter this year.