Me and my kids (2 boys 4y and 6y) play every day at least one of these:
- Catan Jr
- Carcassonne Jr
- UNO
- Smart Games (a lot of them)
Santa is bringing them Karak 
…and I always have at least 2 next games ready to be purchased 
Ticket to Ride players - would you recommend it for teenagers? Any other recommendations? Thanks!
‘Last Night On Earth’ is a zombie survival game w/ one player controlling the zombies and the rest fighting against them. It’s a kick in the pants but can sometimes result in a one-sided game and, when our teens played, rage quitting.
The one we keep coming back to over and over at family gatherings is ‘The Farming Game’ with a rule modification allowing one or two dice to be rolled at the player’s discretion. Think ‘Monopoly’ but shorter and more fun with several different viable strategies to win.
I think TTR is appropriate for teenagers.
Here are Dice Tower 12 games of Christmas (Family Games)
https://www.dicetower.com/game-video/12-games-christmas-family-games-2
Wingspan is more complicated than TTR, but ok for older teens IMHO
Brian
We played Mysterium last night. Clue meets Jungian dream analysis.
Ticket to Ride is absolutely a good game for teens. It’s one of those magical game designs where the rules are straight-forward enough that even a bright pre-teen shouldn’t have trouble with it, but the emergent strategies are complex enough that it’s challenging for even experienced adult hobby gamers.
One of my personal favorite “light weight” board games is King of Tokyo. It’s bright and fun and colorful and fast playing, and again, the basic rules are straightforward enough that a bright pre-teen can quickly pick them up. It offers less strategic depth than a game like Ticket to Ride, but it also plays much quicker. Plus, I mean, giant monsters fighting each other! (Although some families might shy away from the violent themes).
Agreed. In fact we just yesterday introduced TTR to our 6 year-old. Of course he had a lot of help, and played with his cards face up (and therefore we didn’t block his routes), but he really enjoyed it. Probably helped that he annihilated us on the scoreboard. But it’s not a kid’s game, it’s for all ages, as explained above.
Personally, I’m a big fan of Concordia and Suburbia.
My husband just brought home “Its a Wonderful World” - it is a good game.
We’ve been playing Exit - which may not be what you are looking for since they are single use games, but we can actually get our son to play along (which he doesn’t do with most games) https://www.kosmosgames.co.uk/the-games/exit-games/
We had out Arabian Nights yesterday (which I think is now out of print) - its the youngest’s favorite. Tales of the Arabian Nights | Z-MAN Games
I’m generally a solo gamer, but I like Castles and Suburbia (by the same person and with similar mechanics) more PvP because it’s interesting to try to analyze what the other people will think the other buildings/rooms are worth.
I like worker placement games, and I didn’t mind Lords of Waterdeep, it seemed weird to play a game where you slowly had more workers to place every so often but no mechanism to actually increase them. everyone getting more by the same schedule.
I liked Scythe the one time I played it but I could see how it could get irritating if there is a player who notices that one player is about to win and tries to get everyone to gang up on them, all the time building up to sneak in a win themselves, which used to happen all the time in Catan.
Thank you again for the recommendations and advice. I have Ticket to Ride ordered and on the way.
Not technically a “board” game but the latest Monopoly app has been taking a lot of my time away. $3.99!
- Pandemic (of course)
- Fury of Dracula
- Secret Hitler
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Flashpoint
I got Heaven and Ale, which we played before at a convention, as a gift…really looking forward to playing that.
A bunch of electronic versions of games went on sale over the last week, and my wife and I have been playing Patchwork pass and play with the iOS app. Fun.
Depends on the kid. [humblebrag]My 11yo is a killer at the game and wins about 2/3 of the time. If I can’t build a really solid combo (like, tuck a card to gain a wheat/pay a wheat to tuck two cards, like I did tonight), she’s going to kick my butt.[/humblebrag]
Any opinions on Dialect?
We got Catan for Christmas. My kids are evil! It’s a lot of fun.
We played three games at Christmas: Mysterium, Wingspan, and Cards Against Humanity. I liked Mysterium’s conceptual framework, found Wingspan most interesting from a strategy perspective, and thought there were too many obscene vs. actually clever cards in CAH.
I’ve gone ahead and requested Dialect from my lovely wife. It requires more players than we have on hand, but since there’s no game master, we can explore it and become familiar with the rules in hopes of a future family gathering (after 2 weeks of strict isolation).
My wife and I have been playing:
- Cribbage: Going to call that a board game because it literally is built with a wooden board.
- Chess: We both suck
- Quoridor: Just got it and it seemed simple at first but we both keep coming up with new strategies
- Stratego: Classic
- Backgammon: Our favorite for quick games. Luck and strategy. Helps equalize someone with superior skills.