Best Family Board Games? Need Recommendations

[abdulbasit]

Hi all,

I am searching for some best 4 or more player board games to play with my family. A friend recommended me a list but I'm still confused about which one should I get. Please recommend me the best one.

[J-H]

There are a lot of good games out there. What kind are you looking for, and what age range?

Cooperative problem-solving: Pandemic
Competitive economy-building: Settlers of Catan
Competitive plan-ahead racing with hijinks: Robo Rally

Boardgamegeek is probably a better place to look for more info. I've played a number of other really good games, but don't recall their names.

[Glimbur]

We got Isle of Cats for Christmas and it is pretty neat. There is a Family mode where you are mostly just playing Tetris putting cat shapes onto your boat with a few rules for scoring. Our 6.5 year old played and understood it. There is also the full game which adds resource management (fish) and lets you buy more goals mid game and has you draft cards and... more involved and I found it also interesting.

But I agree with the previous question, we need to know ages and preferred game type to give good advice. My 3.5 year old loves Sleeping Queens but your 15 year old would find it very dull.

[Requizen]

I recently played Mysterium with my family (parents, wife, sister and her husband). It was a really good time, it's more complicated than they usually play but simple enough that everyone got on board pretty fast. I've been trying to find stuff that non-gamers will enjoy, rather than just watching a movie or doing a puzzle.

[Imbalance]

Check out Wingspan, Catan, or good old Monopoly.

[Burley]

I have a game called Stuffed Fables, which is sorta geared toward families with younger kids. The different scenarios that you play out, as sentient stuffed animals, explore childhood issues like sleeping with the lights off, wetting the bed, new siblings, etc. There's lots of narration opportunities, too, to strengthen reading skills, though the rules on each page can sometimes be obtuse or confusing, so, you (the adult) will want to read the page a bit to understand the mechanics (good 5-10 minute bio/snack break).

The gameplay is grid-based tactical combat with miniatures, where you draw colored dice from a bag to determine what actions you may have and roll the dice to see how successful you are at that action.

It's not a perfect game, but a competent adult can see their family through it.

[Saintheart]

I hear good things about Root.

Settlers of Catan is good, though. Relatively simple for what it does and has enough replayability to make it worth opening more than once.

I'd like to play Pandemic, but I don't want to tempt fate :D

[druid91]

Oath, Empire and Exiles is good.

As is Scythe.

[Spore]

Competitive economy-building: Settlers of Catan


I am really not a great board gamer, but Settlers of Catan is easy enough to get into and have early fun. Many games have their first play session being bogged down by not understanding basic strategies, but Settlers has depth while being easy to learn.

Also unashamed promoting a German board game.

[tomandtish]

Dixit is a lot of fun.

If they like trick bidding card games, then I suggest Wizards and The Crew. The Crew is a COOPERATIVE trick taking game.

Guillotine is simple and fairly quick.

A lot depends on your family though. What type of games do they like?

[Psyren]

One option a lot of folks don't consider are Jackbox games. They're fantastic for big parties or game nights because usually everyone has a phone, and for most of them the rules are easy to pick up. Plus no packing a bunch of pieces away after!


I recently played Mysterium with my family (parents, wife, sister and her husband). It was a really good time, it's more complicated than they usually play but simple enough that everyone got on board pretty fast. I've been trying to find stuff that non-gamers will enjoy, rather than just watching a movie or doing a puzzle.

I loooooove Mysterium, especially around Halloween :smallsmile:

[Lentrax]

My kids love Alhambra and Carcasonne.

[Destro_Yersul]

Ticket to Ride - Great starter game, get the Europe edition if you want slightly more complex rules with a couple extras compared to the original.
Sushi Go - simple, fast, easy to learn. Card drafting game.

there's more. Splendor, Carcassone and Catan are all pretty solid.

[Rydiro]

I am really not a great board gamer, but Settlers of Catan is easy enough to get into and have early fun. Many games have their first play session being bogged down by not understanding basic strategies, but Settlers has depth while being easy to learn.

Also unashamed promoting a German board game.If you can get a hold of it, I prefer the Catan in space version.
It is less reliant on starting luck and has one or two more avenues to win.

[Psyren]

For those who like Catan I recommend Terra Mystica. It's a bit more complex, but also relies on the some familiar principles like building the longest roads, placing settlements or trading resources. It also has multiple routes to victory and factions with different powers.

[Wookieetank]

Cartographers - think tetris meets map drawing. Each turn you get a shape (everyone is using the same shape) you have to fit into your map, and placement of various features determines points scored. There's a fair bit of variety in the scoring rules, so each game will have different goals drawn from a pool.

[Manga Shoggoth]

My family used to play a game called "Careers" - essentially you pick a life goal (a combination fame, happiness or money) and then attempt to achieve it.

Gameplay consists of a board with an outer ring, with the eponymous careers as inner paths from it. Each square on the board is either the entrance of a career, some sort of life event or the payday square. It's reasonably good fun. and has a bit of variety in the gameplay due to the differeing life goals.