Family Game Recommendations

Bison · July 23, 2015, 07:43:40 AM

OK. I need some help deciding on a couple of family games. Looking at games that are good for age range from 8-just over the hill. Here's some options I've been looking at and I'm pretty sure I made the FLGS guy scratch his head as I spent 2 hours yesterday looking at the boxes, sitting and looking at my phone, back to the boxes, back to the phone....I have played none of these games, but I need some family games that are a step up from Chutes and Ladders and can help get me out of playing Monopoly. Maybe you guys have some other recommendations?

Carcassonne
Ticket to Ride
Smallworld
King of Tokyo
Takenoko
Mice and Mystics

BanzaiCat · July 23, 2015, 08:14:20 AM

Ticket to Ride is a great family game. Easy to learn, quick to play, but always changing and different. Very random, if you're not into that, but I enjoy it much.

Formula De (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173/formula-de) is another good one, if you like racing games. I love the system with gear shifting, which is really easy...you start by rolling a 4-sided die to move, then shift up to a 6-sided, up again to an 8-sided, and so on, all the way up to a 30-sided die. But you have to manage your speed because if you go too fast through a turn, you're hosed.

The original Munchkin (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1927/munchkin) from 2001 is a fun co-op type game, but also with backstabby elements. Might be too much for an 8-year-old but maybe not; they'd probably delight in making mom or dad squirm. Essentially it's a dungeon crawl, and you can help the other players or make their lives difficult.

The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98315/adventurers-pyramid-horus) is a fun game that Brant recommended. Kids will like it a lot - my daughter has always liked this game. It's a treasure run with danger increasing every turn; the best part is that a piece of the ceiling falls every turn, potentially sealing off the tomb and trapping players left inside.

I might think of some more, but those are our top go-to games right now.

EDIT: oops, forgot about Forbidden Island (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island). Great game where an island is falling apart around you and players are cooperating to gather artefacts before they disappear. Each player controls a character with a special ability, and the more the merrier, because everyone helps each other in this one.

I honestly enjoy co-op games much more than competitive ones.

Bison · July 23, 2015, 08:41:46 AM

I did look at both Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. I also think the idea of a co-op game is appealing for family fun too.

Nefaro · July 23, 2015, 08:47:21 AM

Quote from: Bison on July 23, 2015, 08:41:46 AM
I did look at both Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. I also think the idea of a co-op game is appealing for family fun too.

I picked up Forbidden Island on a scratch & dent sale for almost nothing. Haven't played yet, but there isn't much to it.

From what I've gathered Ticket To Ride is probably the most popular one for family and introducing people who think boardgames are all monopoly 'n shit to the good stuff.

Bison · July 23, 2015, 08:49:57 AM

I suffer from Monopoly anxiety. I cannot think of many other games I dread more to hear requested to be played than Monopoly, which is a lie because 99.9% of "party games" fall into realm of dread too.

bayonetbrant · July 23, 2015, 08:57:08 AM

Forbidden Island first, Forbidden Desert later, as it adds some new mechanics

For the Carcassonne series, start with My First Carcassonne (aka Kids of Carcassonne) and then work your way into either the basic Carc with no expansions, or Hunters & Gatherers, before you start adding expansions to Carc.

Ditto Ticket to Ride - the base game is fantastic as a starter for new players. Don't start jumping in with Europe / Switzerland / Asia at first.
My recommendation is start with the base game, then get the Swiss game next b/c it plays well with a small number

I'd steer clear of Smallworld, the Adventurers games, and M&M to start with until they've got a better grounding in the other games. Adventurers in particular has about 4 different game mechanics on a single board that make for a fun adventure, but can be a lot to learn for a first foray into euro-style gaming.

Bison · July 23, 2015, 09:06:43 AM

The adventures games?

But, but Smallworld looks and sounds so awesome!

BanzaiCat · July 23, 2015, 09:19:18 AM

Quote from: Bison on July 23, 2015, 09:06:43 AM
The adventures games?

He's referring to "The Adventurers" game I mentioned. I'd still recommend it - it's not that difficult to get into.

Bison · July 23, 2015, 09:26:30 AM

Oh I see. Clearly I need to read more carefully. :)

Bison · July 23, 2015, 03:14:04 PM

Well the flgs had a 25% of deal on games today. Must have been my lucky day. Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Smallworld all now waiting to be broken out and played.

Arctic Blast · July 24, 2015, 01:04:46 AM

Takenoko is actually pretty good, and kids will love the Panda mini.

Depending on how cool the kids are with competition of a more vicious variety, maybe check out Survive : Escape From Atlantis. You assemble an island in the center of the board out of tiles, then populate it with the survivors of the players. On each player's turn, they get 3 movement points, with the goal being getting the most survivors to the islands in the 4 corners of the board. After that, you take one of the board tiles and flip it, starting with the beach tiles, then the jungle ones, and finally the mountains (they grow in thickness, so the island gets kind of a 3D effect once it's built). Those tiles will put sharks and whales on the board to join the sea monsters that begin the game in place, as well as empty boats and whirlpools. Some allow a player to keep them to use on a later turn, getting extra movement or defense against a shark or whale. Finally, the player rolls the creature die. If a whale comes up, any whale on the board can be moved up to 1-3 spaces...if they move into a space with a boat that has passengers, they smash the boat and cast the people into the water. If a shark comes up, any shark on the board moves 1-2 spaces...if they move into a space with swimmers, they eat them. If a sea monster comes up, any sea monster can move 1 space, annihilating anything they encounter. One of the mountain tiles has a picture of a volcano on the back. When it's flipped, the game ends. Count up the point values everyone's survivors who reached corner island have on their bases...highest total wins (or you can just go with the person who saved the most of their people).

That's literally every rule of the game. There are also a few mini-expansions that expand it to 5-6 players, add dolphins and dive dice that totally randomize creature movement, or add giant squid to the game. I've played this with friends, with my nieces and nephews, and with other family, and everyone loves it. It might be my single favorite board game ever.

Bison · July 24, 2015, 08:42:34 AM

Quote from: Arctic Blast on July 24, 2015, 01:04:46 AM
Takenoko is actually pretty good, and kids will love the Panda mini.

This one is on the short list. I watched some how to play it videos on youtube and it seems like something that they'd enjoy.

Bison · August 02, 2015, 04:56:04 PM

Well I've been instructed to put the following material on the shortlist of next family game purchases.

Ticket to Ride 1910 expansion
Small World Be Not Afraid and Grand Dames. Apparently there are just not enough girl races to beat me down with in the game.
King of Tokyo

I'm also putting Marco Polo and Castles of Burgundy on the list.

Nefaro · August 02, 2015, 05:42:00 PM

When I was investigating Ticket To Ride, the saw the 1910 expansion repeatedly recommended with the original game purchase.

GJK · August 02, 2015, 08:23:23 PM

My other half (whatever her relation is to me at the moment) just will not play "strategy" games but she likes card games (Uno, hearts, spades, etc) so the challenge was to find something that she would play, my 16yr old would play and that I wouldn't be absolutely bored with. I can't do too much luck and their *must* be some strategy involved.

We tried Catan. Bored us all to tears.
Tried Carcassone. I was ok with it, but the son and Tanya didn't care for it.
Tried Pandemic and I thought it was ok. My 16yr old really dug it. Tanya was "meh".
Might try Ticket to Ride as I think that would be something she'd like but I'm looking for a decently priced used copy I think first just to be sure because it may bore me to tears.

Also, not a Eurogame/Ameritrash game by any stretch and it's also not Monopoly but we all do enjoy Rummikub which a set is dirt cheap. FWIW.