Hi everyone! I'm back! My apologies for the delay – it's been a busy set of weeks. To compensate, though, I'm back with a big list of games to get for that board game fan in your life. I've picked games that should be widely available, choosing recent games or games that are so popular that they're still likely to pop up in your local stores. I've picked a number one game for a number of the categories on this website. Let's get cracking!
Tile-Laying Game - Scarabya
Because the first game on this site was a tile-laying game, I thought I should stay on brand and begin this list with a great tile-laying game to get for your friends and family. I've mentioned Scarabya on the site before when talking about Karuba (which you can read about here), because both games have minimal downtime, which is to say that all players play at the same time, rather than playing turn by turn.
Before playing a game of Scarabya, one player assembles their player board, composed of four large square pieces, and arranges those pieces in any way they like, placing the mountains in the holes in each piece. The other players then match that setup. Each turn, one player will flip the top card of the deck, which is printed with a tile of a particular shape. All players have the same set of tiles, but every player can play each one wherever they choose. In doing so, they are trying to surround small scarab icons. The scarabs can be surrounded in dig sites which are a maximum of four spaces large, and tiles and mountains can be used to surround them. Once it has been enclosed, each scarab in a given dig site will score a number of points equal to the number of squares in the dig site.
An image of Scarabya from Blue Orange's (the publisher's) website. At the bottom center of the image is a player board complete with the tiles you'll be laying out over the course of the game. From Blue Orange's site on Scarabya,
found here.
This game is very easy to learn, but is strategically very satisfying. Every turn, you must make a tricky decision: do you enclose one or more scarabs in a small dig site just to keep points rolling in, or wait and form a three- or four-square dig site that will really score big? The game only takes about fifteen minutes to play, and can be played by up to four players. Although it's very easy to learn, because of the decision-making involved, I would recommend that it be played with kids 8 and up. This is a highly repayable game, and I've played it with kids and adults.
Word Game - A Little Wordy
The next game on this list is the first word game on this site. It's a very intriguing two-player game by Exploding Kittens, in which players secretly make words using a set of seven consonants and four vowels dealt to both of them at random. They create those words behind screens, then give the other player their tiles, and take the other player's. Both players are racing to guess the other person's word first. To do so, they choose one of a variety of clues on the table, which each allow them to learn something different about the other player's word. For instance, they might choose Relative Word length, or Manatweet. This allows them to build a word using what had been their opponent's tiles, and their opponent must tell them whether their word is actually shorter or longer than the word formed.
These are the game's components. The screens behind which players can build their words can be written on with a dry erase marker to record clues and write down their own secret word. From Exploding Kittens' Site on A Little Wordy, found here.
The winner isn't simply the first player to guess the other player's word, though. Instead, you win by having the most berries at the end of the game, which arrives when both players have guessed each others' words, or when the person still guessing can't win, because they've given their opponent too many berries. Clues cost berries, and players have to pay them to their opponent. The better the clue, the more berries it costs, making for an interesting trade-off between very useful clues and less useful ones that don't give the opponent as many berries. This is a great game which makes its way to my table all the time, but it's best suited for adults, unless you institute a house rule that more easily guessable words be used. If you use that approach, you can play this game with kids 10 and older. You can also play on teams, and have players think together about the best word and clues to use.
Two-Player Game - Royal Visit
This beautiful game was designed by the widely respected game designer Reiner Knizia. He has designed more than 700 games over the course of his career (!), and he is a real expert at creating games which are easy to learn and make use of intriguing game mechanics. This game was released in 2021 and is a re-implementation of a game he published earlier in his career. It's beautifully illustrated, and the mechanic it uses was entirely new to me. The game is a tug of war, with both players' goal being to lure the king to their chateau. To do so, players play cards which match each of the game's five characters: two guards, the king, the jester and the wizard. Each card is printed with the number of spaces a character can move. The jester, the king, and the wizard are a little bit different than the guards, though – they can make use either of their cards or, in the case of the wizard, a special power used instead of playing cards that turn, to alter the characters' positions.
This is the bottom of the game's box, showcasing some of the lovely art and the game's attractive wooden pieces.
This photo was taken by Camille Iello and can be found here on Board Game Geek.
If either the king or the wooden crown marker enters your chateau, you win! The tricky thing, though, is that the king can't move past his guards, so you've got to move them first – but your opponent might shift them in their direction, so that you can't make any progress with the king! Add the fact that the jester can use his cards as wild cards, and the wizard's ability to summon the king or a guard to his space, plus the fact that the king can summon the two guards to the spaces on either side of him, and you have a very interesting game. The wooden crown marker moves when any character ends their turn in your chateau. The game can be played within twenty minutes, and although it may take you a round before you understand what each character can do, the goal of the game is quite easy to learn and it's highly strategic and repayable. This one is best suited for kids ten and up, because it involves a great deal of complex decision-making, but it's a real delight to play!
Card Game - Point Salad
Point Salad was nominated for Spiel Des Jahres, the German game of the year award, in 2021, and once you've played a round, you'll see why. Point Salad is a set collection game, which is to say that you score points for having a collection of cards of one or more types. To set up, players lay out three decks face down and set out two cards face up below each. On a turn, a player can either take a face down card, which has a scoring condition printed on it, or they can take two face up cards with vegetables printed on them. Then, if they choose to, they can turn over any one face down card they've taken up to that point to reveal the veggie underneath. They know what vegetable they'll get if they do that, because the vegetable on the underside is printed in the top left and bottom right on the card.
Here's a photo from AEG games' site on Point Salad (which you can find here),
showing the setup at the beginning of a turn.
What makes this game so interesting is that you actually determine how you are going to score as you go by taking face down cards. For instance, if a face down card says "score eight points for three tomatoes", as in the image above, then for each set of three tomatoes you take over the course of the game, you'll score eight points. This is a very easy game to learn, but is full of strategy, and features some fun take-that elements as players notice what veggies their opponents are looking for and snatch them up from under their noses. This one can be played with kids eight and up, and is enjoyable for all ages.
Party Game - Starlink
This is another Blue Orange game, and like Scarabya, it's very easy to learn but is delightfully tricky. In Starlink, players are competing to get other players to guess as many of their secret words as possible by drawing them on the communal board. However, they can only do so by connecting the stars which make up the night sky of the board, drawing no curves. Players can jump in with guesses whenever they like, and as soon as the word is guessed, the guesser and the artist both get the number of points indicated on the card. However, the game also includes a telescope which players place over each constellation. If it fits, the word is worth an additional point for both players, so the game rewards players for simplifying their drawings and making them as abstract as possible.
Starlink can be played within half an hour, because a timer is flipped every time an artist begins drawing, and the game ends when the deck runs out. That happens quickly, because cards are handed out to indicate points. Every time players guess a word, they label it with the name of their new constellation, and so by the end of the game, the group has formed a full night sky. The person with the most points wins! This is a great game, and will appeal to all of the artists and creative board game fans you know. You can play it with kids seven and up, but all ages will enjoy the creativity and competition in this game.
Roll and Write Game - Railroad Ink
The last game on this list belongs to a very popular genre that I haven't yet covered on this site – the roll and write game. Railroad Ink is a great game, and like Scarabya, players play simultaneously rather than taking turns, so there is little downtime. On a turn, one player is chosen to roll four dice. The dice are printed with either highways or railroad tracks, and players must draw those road or track segments onto their dry erase player boards, rotating or flipping the segments however they like. The players' goal is to create unbroken routes that lead into and out of the board, and they get extra points for taking routes all the way to the center. Three times over the course of the game's six turns, they may use one of six bonus track or highway segments to expand their route. The catch, though, is that dead ends subtract one point each, so players have to be careful, and make sure that they can lead each fork in their paths to an exit.
This image is from the publisher's site, and can be found here. It shows a player drawing out a route, although they are doing it in a way that won't score them any points, because they're connecting a highway segment and a piece of railroad track.
This is a truly unique game, and no two rounds are alike, since the dice faces rolled will always be different. There are four different versions of the game available, and each includes two pairs of expansion dice that add various types of routes to the game. The blue box, for instance, adds rivers and lakes, which give you the opportunity to score additional points, and although you roll them alongside the regular four dice every turn, you may choose whether to use them or not. This game can be played in twenty minutes and is quick to learn but is full of planning and strategy. For that reason, I'd recommend that it be played with kids 10 and up.
And there you have it! I hope this list will be useful to you as we get closer to the holiday season. You can try Target for many of these games, and your local game shop is likely to carry most of them. Let me know what kinds of games you'd like to see! Would you like to see more word and roll and write games, or more kids' and tile-laying games?
Thanks everyone, and happy board gaming!
Starlink is Pictionary-flavored, but less divisive!