Nephew 14, Niece 12, Niece 9, Nephew 5.
The nieces are the game players, but they keep playing games with very little strategy, like War or Candy Land--which drives me crazy, because they're super smart. They do play Uno and Go Fish and stuff.
I'm thinking of Settlers of Catan for the 12 year old, and maybe Exploding Kittens for the 9 year old.
Any other fun games for kids?
Tally Ho! is a fun 2-player game, about bears & hunters lost in a woods. It's a trifle random each time, but has a subtle level of strategy beneath it. (I's a touch like Stratego)
Mow A very simple card game, but no less fun for that. There can be elements of strategy & holding cards for later... but it's quick simple and very fun.
Bang! Dice is a trifle more adversarial, with 3-8 players. It's a very fun game, but maybe not perfect for a mix of 5-14 siblings.
What about co-op games? What sort of length (1-2 hours?) And what sort of complexity, since something like Formula-D is great but not too strategic.
I'm looking something that will primarily be played by me, my dad, my 2 nieces, and maybe my sister and/or nephew.
Probably something with relatively short matches (half an hour or so) that can be repeated multiple times per 2 or 3 hours (as players drop in and out).
Ideally, it would also feature cute animals, Chewbacca, ballerinas, classic cars, baseball, and spies that are also princesses. :-P
Can you make a Super Spy Princess in "No Thank You Evil?"
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I think the monsters in King of Tokyo are pretty cute.
It's also plays in about 30 minutes, has a level of strategy, is a really good gateway game to the hobby and is also just really good fun!
Also, Tocket to Ride is just a classic family boardgame.
I went with Settlers of Catan and Star Wars Clue.
But now my nephew is turning 5... So I need some game ideas for him! :-D
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I'm really not sure for someone that young, I"m sorry, all the kids in my extended family are all now 7+
Although I did get Loopin' Chewie for my niece when she was 5. But honestly, she's so crazy for Star Wars I could have got her an R2D2 cookie jar without any cookies and she'd have loved it.
Hanabi is a fantastic card game probably for slightly older kids because it's all about communication.
My 9 year old niece played Chewie AND Han when we played Star Wars Clue so Chewie wouldn't get lonely.
She also tried to horde all the Sheep in Settlers of Catan because they were so cute!
Coup. They're never too young to learn to bluff and scheme in order to claw their way to the top of a pile of the bloody corpses of their enemies. For added fun, throw the Reformation expansion in, and teach them the joys of using their authority to interfere with their opponents (via use of the Inquisitor character) and demonstrate the essential truth of alliances, that all are temporary and will eventually fail or fall to infighting.
In all seriousness though, it's a great game. Might be a bit tricky for the 5 year old, but I've played with a mix of adults and kids as young as 8, and they've all loved it. It's fast, easy to learn, and teaches you to read people as well as helping develop your own poker face. We've played with up to 10 players, which is when the allegiance system in the expansion gets really fun. You can usually get through a round in 15 minutes at most, depending on how many people are playing and how aggressively people call bluffs.
Other good ones... I like Entropy, it's a pretty simple one, based around trying rebuild a shattered dimension. Each player shares 4 abilities and has one unique one. The trick that each ability has a priority, and if any other player plays an ability that shares your priority, they cancel each other out, so you need to try and guess what they're going to play (and as each round goes on, also figure out what people have already played so you can avoid clashing).
Those sound like fun for my nieces, but my nephew is a little young for those.... :-D
He just got Yeti in My Spaghetti for Xmas, which is around his speed.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
I just don't want him trapped in "pre-destined" games like War or Candy Land where once the cards are shuffled, the winner has been selected.
It's that time of year again!
We played a bunch of Catan during Thanksgiving. My one niece controlled Sheep Port and built 3 cities around a Sheep-producing hex of high probability (6, 8, 5, or 9, I forget), and just racked up the wool.
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Its not a board game exactly but Cardinal Train Dominoes is a fun holiday family game. You can get a set of double 12 from Target.com for like 15 bucks. Plays 8 people.
Thanks Pan! We already have a ton of those! :-D
It's not remotely a strategy game, but our kids loved the children's version (7+) of Apples to Apples. (And it's still fun for adults; the content is very similar, just without all those celebrities you're expected to know anything about.) Depending on the 5-year-old's reading level, he may be able to enjoy it, too.
The Great Dalmuti is rated ages 8+, but my kids (who are a bit precocious, too) were playing it well before that age. That game teaches some strategy, because you have to learn how to time your good plays. (It also teaches some good lessons about life not being fair, and being a good sport about it.)
I'll second the suggestion of Ticket to Ride (8+).
Battleship is ages 7+, but I'm pretty sure I learned it much younger than that.
My kids recently tried to teach Bugs in the Kitchen to a family friend's child who is 4. He had some trouble following the rules, but I think he just needs to be exposed to it a bit more to learn it. He definitely liked the hexbug, though!
Thanks!
I think they have the Disney Apples to Apples (do not take one from an old witchy woman!). My little nephew loves trains, so maybe by his next birthday he can handle Ticket to Ride with help.
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Carcassonne is simply one of the best strategy based games I have ever played. It might prove inaccessible to your younest nephew, though.
That seems fun! Maybe I'll get it for them next year. It seems like a good game as a sub-system for Kingmaker or similar "tame the wilderness" campaigns.
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I have really gotten a kick out of the resurgence of Aggravation. The wood boards are great, albeit expensive, check it out.
Tokaido might be a really good one. Dracula's Feast is a good Resistance style clone that doesn't rely heavily on your personal lieing ability, instead relying more on collecting information of what other people are.