Even without screens, spending time with family is a lot of fun. Board games have been a popular pastime for families for generations. Besides providing entertainment and quality time, it can also improve cognitive skills and promote teamwork and communication. With so many options available, choosing the best board game for your family can be a daunting task. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best family board games that will delight everyone from young children to grandparents.
One of the key considerations for Family Game Night is the theme. Board games for adults can be fun, but they’re not suitable for younger players, like blowing up hordes of undead in Zombicide. Also, some of the best board games for kids may test the patience of older children.The games below are suitable for all ages and combine strategy, luck and fun. It’s perfect for family game nights and get-togethers because it offers
TL;DR: Best Family Board Game
No time to scroll? These are our choices. Read on to learn more about each.
bambooshoot
Takenoko is a game about taking care of a hungry panda. Players take turns watering plots of land to grow bamboo, which the pandas eat. There are many ways to earn points, such as arranging land tiles in a particular pattern or giving a panda a uniquely colored bamboo. With pops of color and tabletop bamboo towers, bamboo shoots are fun to watch as well as play with.
Cascadia
Few games have the broad appeal of Cascadia. For starters, it has a healthy theme of exploring the Pacific Northwest ecosystem. The mechanics are very simple, he chooses one out of his four pairs of animal tokens and terrain hexes to add to the growing map. The objective is to fill a random range of score cards by putting animals into specific patterns. Difficulties range from easy family versions to challenging gamers his level goals. There’s also a fun solo campaign where you’ll be tasked with completing different variations and objectives. If there was ever a game for absolutely everyone, this is it.
King of Tokyo
The best way to describe The King of Tokyo is ‘Yahtzee meets Godzilla’. In this monster mashup, the player controls his one of his stable of blockbuster monsters that came out of his sci-fi past. The goal is to rule Tokyo while fending off other monsters. Attacks and special abilities are performed by rolling the dice, adding a bit of suspense to his massive size boxing matches. Of course, controlling Tokyo makes you a target, and monsters can’t stay in the city for long without taking a lot of damage.It’s up to you to recognize when to retreat and when to launch an attack But be careful: there are other monsters out there, waiting for the perfect moment to attack.
Kingdom Mino
Kingdomino, released in 2017, is the newest game on this list. It also won the coveted German Board Game of the Year, Spiel des Jahres, cementing its position as a go-to family game for years to come. Players take turns requesting tiles to add to their kingdom, but it’s not as simple as picking a tile and moving on. The tiles you choose directly affect the order of the next turn, so care must be taken in making decisions so as not to leave valuable tiles on the table for your opponent. Your Tableau is restricted to his 5 x 5 grid, which also adds a spatial awareness element to the game. With a short playing time and super easy to learn rules, Kingdomino is an ideal choice for your next family game night.
railroad ink
Roll and write games have experienced a renaissance of sorts in the last few years, and Railroad Ink shows why they’re so popular. Roll some dice, drop the displayed track his pieces onto his own whiteboard, and repeat. While it’s important to watch the rail network grow, which is a big part of Railroad Ink, the bottom line is the possibility of breaking previous high scores. Everyone rolls the same dice, so the playing field remains level. It’s also fun to watch how your opponents build their own networks. Solo games are just as fun. There are two versions of him in Railroad Ink to choose from. The red version adds volcanic eruptions and meteors that can destroy railroads, while the blue version includes lakes and rivers as new score features. Whichever version you choose, this fast and fun roll and write is sure to be a hit with your family.
small town
In Tiny Towns, players take on the role of the mayor of a newly developed village, tasked with planning and building the town’s cottages, taverns, factories, and more. On his turn, the active player chooses his one of the available resources, then he takes one cube of resources that all players match and places it in his town. Those cubes stay there, taking up valuable space, until they match the pattern on his one of the building cards. Then place the building in your town to gain its effect. They are usually earned in the form of end game points based on building scoring requirements. There is little to no downtime in Tiny Towns because everyone at the table gets a resource every turn. By keeping players engaged while forcing them to meticulously plan their buildings, this family game is able to burn brains in the best possible way.
Azure
A game as beautiful as it is fun, Azul is a contest of plans and opportunities. You are a 15th or 16th century Portuguese stonemason who was commissioned by King Manuel I to decorate the palace with brightly colored tiles reminiscent of the Alhambra in Spain. On turn, he selects all tiles of a single color from one of his four groups available, and the rest are sent to the common area where they can later be stolen. The selected tiles must be inserted into rows on the player board. When the line is completed, he adds one tile to the walls of the palace. Points are earned by fulfilling different pattern requirements, such as covering all the same colored tiles on a wall or completing an entire row or column. Filling the display is satisfying in a way that some tile-laying games can boast, and play times are generally short enough that multiple plays at night are not uncommon. It’s not hard to see why it won Germany’s Game of the Year award.
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
Trick-taking games like Whist are well known, but The Crew takes the concept to a new level by using it in a cooperative card game. Cooperate in a long series of missions that require you to acquire tricks that fulfill specific objectives. One player may have to win a trick with a blue 5, while another player must not win any of the first 5 tricks. The problem is that you can only talk to your fellow players about her one card in her hand. The rest should be kept secret. This simple concept hides a surprising amount of tactical depth as you try to slash and discard cards to ensure the right players get the right tricks.
down force
In 2017, Restoration Games recreated Wolfgang Kramer’s 1996 classic top race with downforce. This is a racing game where the car is not necessarily the winner once he comes first. A player’s hand is filled with cards representing various combinations of colors and numbers, and playing a card moves the corresponding car forward by that number. Throughout the race, you can bet on which car you think will do the best and get sweet bonuses to your score. The game is over in about 30 minutes and offers a surprisingly satisfying mix of luck and strategy. We also have custom rules for younger players.
cat island
Who doesn’t like adorable cats? Evil Lord Besh, who it is and it’s up to you to get as many crooked cats on the boat as you can before sailing away from him to safety. It’s the excuse for this great game of polyomino arrangements, with gorgeous artwork of sinuous cats filling the form. You must pack your boat as hard as you can while trying to cover rats, fill holds, and meet random scoring conditions. As a bonus, this box includes two game modes: Family 1 and Traps and Tricks that must be purchased and deployed to lure the cat before it can be safely kept on board the ship. It’s a fairly complex and challenging full game.
The quack of Quedlinburg
I could never have imagined that making fake medicine in medieval Germany could be so much fun. Each game has a different set of effects for different ingredients you can add to your snake oil, and it’s up to you to sniff out and brew possible combos. By putting ingredients in bags and pulling them out blindly, the number of dangerous cherry bombs gradually increases. If you draw one too many, you’ll ruin the entire batch in that round. brings both
And if that’s not enough, check out our roundups of the best two-player board games and the best trivia board games.
