A Few of My Favorite Things: Board Games
Today we’re doing something a little different at Whiskers on Kittens. Today we have the honor of a guest post. Through these unique times we find ourselves in, there’s a reversion to old fashioned tried and true forms of entertainment. Board games are one such form. My dear friend and fabulously talented editor Heather Talty has vast knowledge where board games are concerned. So, I invited her to share a few of her favorite ones. Please, give her a warm welcome:
A Few of My Favorite Things: Board Games
Board games sure seem to be having a moment right now. It’s no surprise - board games are a perennially popular activity. With people home across the country, they’re a no brainer way to entertain a family staying home together, and online versions allow family and friends who can’t be together physically to connect socially. Board games have always been an activity of choice for my fiance and myself, whether we’re playing strategy games one on one, having game nights with my mom, or bringing out party games and multi-player war games for big gatherings. When Eirene asked me to share a few of my favorites, I was happy to do so. Here are a few I really like, plus ways to play them virtually.
Please note, we won’t be discussing Monopoly here because I don’t need to be causing divorces, broken families, or laptops smashed in frustration. If you must play, do yourself a favor and make your non-partisan cat the banker before he loses interest in the game and wanders off to sleep in a sunny spot.
Hear me out here - while I haven’t personally been able to play this one myself recently, I’ve heard from others that winning it right now is an especially affirming experience. That said, it’s totally fine if you can’t do it. Pandemic is a classic cooperative game, in which players work together to squash epidemics of four different diseases before they pop around the world. It’s fast paced and exciting, and the collaborative environment removes the competitiveness that can sometimes arise when playing games, plus the sore feelings when someone loses.
This quick card game for multiple players has you collecting noble heads from the Guillotine line during the French Revolution. Every head is worth a point, and every turn you can play cards allowing you to manipulate the line of nobles awaiting justice to your benefit. Watch out though, because some on the line have tricks of their own. Several years ago, when I was between jobs, my fiance and I played this sometimes several times a day every day, and lately it’s a game I play with my mom virtually. It’s fast, fun, and the cards themselves are great sources of entertainment.
This one is on the longer side. Players assemble castles at the behest of mad King Ludwig, aiming to meet pre-set goals in terms of types of rooms included, number of rooms included, and a variety of other factors. The game is complex and competitive, but also focuses on independent strategy building. Plus, one of the best parts is looking at your completed castle at the end of the game and explaining it to others. The castle of a wizard who loves cheese? A military palace? There are so many possibilities.
This one’s a classic. Build settlements, cities and roads in unexplored territories by collecting resources like wood, brick, stone, wheat, and of course, sheep. If you get tired of the original, there are nearly endless expansions taking the game out to sea, among others. There’s even a Game of Thrones edition.
Players work together to slowly explore a creepy haunted house one tile at a time. As you play, every turn counts down to the haunting, when players must thwart the houses’s attempts to destroy them. It’s cooperative, except one player may turn traitor when the haunting begins, and work against the others. With hundreds of scenarios, it’s a different game every time you play. Not only is it really fun to explore the house as the game goes on, but the challenge of the traitor keeps everyone on their toes.
Another classic. Collect cards of different colors to build trains across the country. This one has plenty of expansions too, from the original USA to Europe to specific time period. They even have one specially made for the younger ones in your family: Ticket to Ride: First Journey.
There are so many versions of this party game, which basically boils down to one or more of the players acting as some kind of killer - Werewolf, Mafia, Murderer, the list goes on, and the rest of the players trying to figure out who among them did it. It can be played with nothing more than playing cards, but more elaborate setups with additional roles make the game more fun. Some in my circle hate this game, but it’s more often than not a fun way to bring a group together and get a game night started. (FYI: You can make your own cards which provide endless possibilities of how far you can take this game. Just grab some index cards and get creative… mafia, murderer, etc…)
All of these games, and way more. can be played online through Tabletop Simulator, available for purchase on Steam. It allows you to play just about any board game online. While it comes with a few classics, like checkers and backgammon, the workshop feature allows users to recreate games piece by piece, and then makes those games available to anyone who can download them.
While this one sounds like a clear in-person game, there is a virtual option in Town of Salem, a multi-player online version with more possible roles for players than most physical party games could manage. It’s worth checking out for the theme song alone.
Scrabble is certainly not a little known game - most people are familiar with the word game, challenging players to create words for points using only the letters assigned to you. I mention it here because it’s one of the easiest games to play with others online. Eirene and I have recently been playing through the Scrabble app (She usually wins, wordsmith she is, but I hold my own!), which feels very much like the once popular Words with Friends.
Even as I write these up, I’m aware that I’m leaving out many games and many ways to find and play them virtually. What are some of your favorite games? Found anything new in an attempt to spend time differently with others? We’d love to hear your picks!
