Top 10 Best Board Games – Caleb

Caleb is our “go to” board game player. If you’re ever in the mood to play a board game or a card game, you’ll find an eager player in Caleb. Mention playing a game and he’ll be right there. In fact, if you delay even a bit after mentioning playing a game, chances are good that he’s already got a game out, set up, cards dealt out and ready to play.

And if others are playing a game, he’ll sniff it out and quickly be pegged to the table asking to join in or challenging the winner to the next game.

But even with how much he loves playing all types of games, he also has his favorites.

After playing hundreds of games, here’s the list of board games that Caleb (currently age 9) thinks are the best. (Don’t be surprised when you see half of them also on Jaden’s list. When brothers love the same games, I call that a success.)

Top 10 Best Board Games – CALEB’s choice

Thunderstone

Caleb liked Thunderstone right from the start. I’m pretty sure the fantastic artwork has a lot to do with it. Great graphics have a way of pulling players into the theme and spirit of a game. And the art in Thunderstone definitely does it’s job well. Add to that the fact that you get to recruit and level-up cool heroes, equip them with awesome weapons and send them off to battle a wide variety of monsters in the dungeon and you’ve got a young boy thoroughly wrapped up in the game. He doesn’t care that the box says ages 12+, he loves Thunderstone. This was an easy pick for Caleb.
See our full review of Thunderstone.

Small World

Like his older brothers, I knew that Small World would be on Caleb’s list. With the random combinations of races and abilities every time you play, it’s no surprise they all love Small World. Of course, it goes without saying that they also like attacking each other. They also like trying to get everyone to gang up on someone other than themselves. They can plead their case pretty convincingly as they try to expand without hindrance. I can’t imagine a game of Small World ever being turned down by any of them. This board game will be easily accessible on the game shelf for a very long time.
See our full review of Small World.

Fastrack

Caleb loves to challenge Jaden playing Fastrack. Since Jaden has crowned himself the “King of Fastrack”, Caleb feels the constant need to seek to de-thrown him. Occasionally he gets a win in. And when he does, you’ll hear the hootin’ and hollerin’ throughout the house. Aren’t brotherly challenges grand?
Of course, Caleb’s quick finger flicking can beat most others on a regular basis, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see this quick-playing game on his list.
See our full review of Fastrack.

Dominion

Though similar to Thunderstone, Dominion doesn’t have the dripping theme of heroes and monsters. But that doesn’t stop Caleb from loving Dominion as well. Dominion is the first of the deck-building games published and is still the king. Many games have come after trying to copy the success of Dominion. But the simplicity of the original is hard to beat. It’s also so addicting and hugely expandable that it’s hard to get tired of it. And Caleb’s a very formidable opponent in Dominion so don’t be thrown off by his age, he knows what he’s doing.
See our full review of Dominion.

Yinsh

I was surprised to see Yinsh on Caleb’s Top 10 list. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy it, but he hasn’t hit his stride with it yet. He does love looking ahead a few moves to plan out how he’s going to get 5 in a row. But he hasn’t quite understood the need to adjust his strategy as the game progresses and the other player sets up their own move. But I think with every play he’s beginning to watch out a little more. It’s great to see his thought process develop as he plays this great 2-player abstract strategy game.
See our full review of Yinsh.

Ninja Versus Ninja

It’s time to depart from some of the games on Jaden’s favorites list and get to one of the games Caleb uniquely loves. Ninja Versus Ninja is another 2-player board game that matches players in a head-to-head battle. The playing pieces are fantastic and it’s hard to find cooler dice in a kids board game. Players try to sneak into their opponent’s dojo and get safely back. The deeper they go into the dojo and make it out again, the more points they’ll get. Of course, players can also win by eliminating all their opposing ninja – which is perhaps Caleb’s favorite way of winning.
See our full review of Ninja Versus Ninja.

Pirate Versus Pirate

Remember what I said about it being hard to find cooler dice in a kids board game. Well, Pirate Versus Pirate is right on par with Ninja Versus Ninja. The difference being a bone sticking through the dice (if you can call them dice) rather than a sword. The two games are similar but different enough to present their own challenges. Pirate Versus Pirate is a 3-player game and best played with exactly that. The board is also split into triangle spaces which makes moving around and landing on the other player pieces to eliminate them a bit tougher. It also has the unique 3-player dynamics of either targeting one player or two people battling while the 3rd sneaks away with the treasure almost uncontested. Makes for some good strategy with a bunch of luck in the dice rolls.
See our full review of Pirate Versus Pirate.

Knock Your Blocks Off

It’s easy to see why Caleb loves Knock Your Blocks Off – he gets to destroy things. When given a game that has a main objective of destroying an opponent’s structure, you can be sure to count him in. The twist on the destruction portion of the game is that players roll a die to see how they get to attempt the destruction. But destroying isn’t the only part of the game. Players have to first build something as quickly as they can. If they’re the first to build their structure, they also get a point. And Caleb’s pretty quick.
See our full review of Knock Your Blocks Off.

7 Wonders

7 Wonders is another game where the suggested age on the box is no match for Caleb. With all the different card types and symbols and the various paths to score victory points, there’s a lot to keep track of in the game. Perhaps that’s why he likes it so much – it keeps his mind moving the whole time thinking through his strategy and deciding which cards to choose each turn. He’s also good at keeping an eye on his neighbors, their goods, and their military might so he knows when to strike and when to keep a card from passing on. No going easy on him.
See our full review of 7 Wonders.

The Big Fat Tomato Game

The Big Fat Tomato Game is a relatively new entry into our board game collection, yet has won over Caleb enough to put it in his Top 10 list. It’s a very straight forward game about harvesting tomatoes while defending your patch from a garden variety of intruders like weeds, varmints, and even the tomato zombie. There’s a wide variety of cards in the game that either help you gather tomatoes, protect your stash of tomatoes, or attack the other players. And the tomatoes in the game are little fuzzy balls that you smash into your basket. This may be one of the draws of the game for Caleb, but I think he loves it mostly because he gets to cause havoc on the other players.

With young kids, their favorites are often dictated by what they’re doing at the moment. If you ask them what their favorite food is while eating corn dogs, they’ll probably says it’s corn dogs.

So with Caleb’s list, I made sure to question him well on it in order to eliminate this type of bias. I also let the list simmer a bit and went back to it with him a few days later to make sure. And with all that, these are his definite Top 10 Best Board Games and Card Games (at least for this year).

What board games and card games do your boys love to play?

See the what everyone else has as their Top Board Games:
Dad – Top 14 Board Games
Mom – Top 12 Board Games
Trevor – Top 8 Board Games
Jaden – Top 11 Board Games
Brooke – Top 10 Board Games