Best board games for grown ups
Anyone for a game of something? Entertainment guaranteed.
Did you play board games when you were a child? Maybe you enjoyed them with your own children as they were growing up. And I wonder how many of you still play them, either with friends or with your older/adult family? If you do, you are very definitely not alone. Because board games - for every age, adults very much included - are enjoying a huge resurgence.
We were a big game-playing family when I was growing up and I loved continuing that tradition with my girls. Clearly the game-playing gene has been well and truly passed on because even, or maybe I should say particularly, now they’re both in their 30s, they and their husbands love having friends round and playing a raucous board game or two.
My mum….the game-playing liar
Just recently, when we were all away for the weekend with my mum, we sat down together and played a hilariously noisy board game that involved a fair bit of negotiation and a lot more bare-faced lying. Which my 86 year old mother turned out to be a master of!
As for my siblings - well, my soon-to-be 51 year old brother has just asked for new board games as presents for his up-coming birthday, and my younger sister regularly has friends round for game-playing evenings. Once a board game lover, always a board game lover so it seems.
The classics
Whilst the classics will always have a place in our board playing hearts - as testified by the battered state of the Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Trivial Pursuit boxes in my games cupboard (yes I have one of those, doesn’t everyone?).
The more recent favourites
And whilst more recent (bear in mind I’m talking years when I say ‘recent’) favourites like Scattergories, Articulate and Linkee still get pulled out from time to time, that aforementioned resurgence in the popularity of board gaming has led to a flood of new games coming on to the market.
The newcomers
Working out which ones deliver the desired entertainment value can be a tricky, so I’ve selfelessly taken on the task of researching the best of the bunch for you. OK, I admit that has basically involved asking some devoted game players what their recommendations are. And alright, I concede that those devotees are….er, my family. But for the reasons I’ve explained, they’re well placed to be your game selection guides.
Here, then, in absolutely no order of preference, are their current favourites. I haven’t described each one, but they’re linked to a brilliant website called the BoardGameGeek where you can read more about them (and any of the other games I’ve mentioned so far if they’re not familiar to you.) It’s a US site so the purchase links aren’t relevant, but I’m working on the assumption you can figure out where to buy any that take your fancy.
From my brother: Big Taboo and the Logo game
My sister’s current fave: Sequence
My mum loved the game we all played together which was called Sheriff of Nottingham
My older daughter’s recommendations: Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne and Pandemic
And from my younger daughter - not technically a board game, but the one she’s enjoying the most at the moment: Sushi Go!
As for me, I’m a belated but enthusiastic convert to Cards Against Humanity (though probably not one to play with my mum, or anyone else’s mother for that matter, it gets VERY rude and inappropriate!)
What games - board or otherwise - do you love and that you would recommend to the rest of us?
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