Ticket to Ride – Strategic fun
Ticket to Ride is a fantastic family board game that’s great for people of all ages. Players compete to build train routes on the board and earn points based on the length and destinations. We love that it has a good balance of strategy and luck and is simple to learn and play. Learning to plan your route based on your cards and knowing when to block others are the keys to a good strategy. There are different versions to choose from – we like the Europe version the best. But any version is a must-have.
Blokus – Spacial recognition and planning
Blokus is an abstract strategy game with colored Tetris-shaped pieces that players are trying to play onto the board. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board. Blokus is great for developing spacial recognition skills as well as strategic planning. As the game nears the end is when it really gets tricky – and fun.
Settlers of Catan – Resource building
Settlers of Catan (now just known as Catan) has been at the top of the best selling hobby board games for a number of years. And there’s a good reason for it. When it was published in 1995 it established a new type of game experience. What we love about Settlers of Catan is that even when it’s not your turn, you still participate. Any time a player rolls a number that corresponds to where your settlements or cities are located, you get a reward – your spot produces those resources. And you’ll use those resources to build and expand further. The variable layout of the tiles and numbers make it a fresh game every time you play.
Carcassonne – Create your own world
Carcassonne is another good game that has a great balance of strategy and luck and is another hugely popular family board game for good reason. In Carcassonne you build a country side full of cities, farms, and roads. You randomly select a tile and place it so the board and countryside grows over the course of the game. You place your miniature people (Meeples) on the tiles depending on how you want to score points. And that’s where the strategy comes in. Good placement of your meeples will determine your success or failure.
Pandemic or Forbidden Island – Cooperative play
Pandemic is a great cooperative board game. When you’re not really in the head-to-head competitive mode, it’s good to have a board game where you can all work together to defeat the game. In Pandemic diseases are breaking out around the world and your team of experts need to work together to clean up the mess and find cures for the diseases. And Forbidden Island has been described as Pandemic-Lite. In Forbidden Island your team of experts is searching for treasure on a sinking island. It has a variable board set up so the game offers a new challenge every time. And you can also increase the difficulty level if you’re feeling particularly daring.
Mastermind – Deduction
Another 2 Player family board game that we recommend as a must-have in your family board game collection is Mastermind. Mastermind is the classic game of solving a code. One person creates a code and the other takes guesses along the way and receives subtle hints to help them deduce the correct pattern. It’s another great thinking game that can challenge both young and old alike. And if you want a little more of a challenge look for Super Mastermind where the code contains 5 colors instead of 4.
Chess – Every piece has its role
We think everyone should own a chess set and know how to play it. The classic game of chess is a great way to develop thinking abilities. We love that every type of piece (from Pawn to King) has it’s unique way to move, that you have to look forward a few moves to plan your attack, and that you have to anticipate the moves of your opponent. It can be a challenge for younger players to pick up on. But if they start learning young, those thinking capabilities will pay future dividends.
Sequence – Team play
For a great game that’s played in teams and allows for a large number of players to participate we say Sequence is a must-have family board game. Of course, Sequence is really a mix of a board game and a card game, but a lot of board games also require cards, so we’ll include Sequence in this list. It’s a very rare occasion when we don’t play Sequence at a large family gathering. Even when we just want a quick game on our own family night, Sequence hits the table most often. And since we have 6 in our family we can mix it up between 2 teams of 3 and 3 teams of 2 for different dynamics each time.
Chutes and Ladders – Bad things can happen
Yes it’s just a roll and move game and there isn’t any strategy involved. But that’s just what young tikes need. For little kids, this is a must-have board game where they learn a number of critical things. They learn how to take turns, that being behinds doesn’t mean you’ll lose, and that bad things can happen and they’ll be able to deal with it.
Boggle – A competitive word find OR Word on the Street – A tug-of-war of words
Now there may be a few in our family that wouldn’t include Boggle on this list. In fact, if they knew it made the list, they would disavow having any part in this must-have family board game list. And while they will continue to complain, I believe you need to have a word game in your board game collection. So while it’s on the list for now, we’ll leave it up to you to pick your favorite word game. Just make sure that you get at least one word game in your collection. If you don’t like the Boggle “word find” route, then the first one that we’d recommend take it’s place is Word on the Street. Whereas Boggle is a quiet game with everyone staring at the letter dice, Word on the Street is noisy with everyone hollering and grabbing letters.