The tile-laying classic where the landscape is different every single game Carcassonne is a tile-laying game for 2 to 5 players in 35 to 45 minutes. Each turn you draw a tile and place it to extend the medieval landscape, then optionally place a meeple on a road, city, monastery, or farm to claim it. … Read more
Pandemic is the game that introduced many people, including me, to cooperative board games. The premise is simple: you and your team are disease control specialists trying to stop four contagions from spreading across the world before you can find cures. Everything is working against you. Most games end in defeat. It is absolutely wonderful. … Read more
The word game where giving a clue your team understands is only half the problem What Is Decrypto? Decrypto is the Decrypto board game review I keep coming back to when someone asks which word game to play with a group who already knows Codenames. It is the same broad category: two teams, clue-giving, deduction. … Read more
TThe card-drafting game that fits in a tin and teaches in two minutes What Is Sushi Go!? Sushi Go! is the card-drafting game I bring to absolutely every social gathering. It teaches in two minutes, plays in fifteen, fits in a tin the size of a phone, and somehow manages to produce interesting decisions despite … Read more
Fluxx divides opinion more sharply than almost any game I own. Half the people I have played it with love the controlled chaos. The other half find the constantly shifting rules actively aggravating. Both responses are completely valid, and knowing which camp your group falls into is the only real question before buying. What Is … Read more
Cyclades is an area control game for 2 to 5 players where bidding for divine favour replaces standard action selection. Each round, the five Greek gods go up for auction. Win Ares and you can fight. Win Poseidon and you can sail. Win neither and you spend a round generating income and hoping everyone else … Read more
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a social deduction game for 3 to 10 players in around 10 minutes. Everyone has a secret role. Eyes close, the night phase happens, roles take actions. Then everyone argues for a few minutes and simultaneously votes to eliminate someone. No one sits out. No one is eliminated mid-game. The … Read more
The bluffing game that needs no luck, no strategy, and still manages to end friendships What Is Skull? Skull is a bluffing game for 3 to 6 players that plays in around 15 to 45 minutes and teaches in under two minutes. I bought it on the way to a pub, opened it at the … Read more
Tsuro is one of those games you can explain in thirty seconds and play for years. On your turn, you place a tile, follow the path it creates, and try not to fall off the edge of the board. That is genuinely it. And yet, at a table of six, it produces some of the … Read more
The Ultimate Game of Deception and Bluffing? Coup is a 10-minute bluffing card game for 2 to 6 players. You have two face-down character cards and three coins. You claim any character’s ability you want on your turn — whether or not you actually hold that character. Other players can challenge you. Lose both cards … Read more
