Which board games to play? Tough choice

This week we’re having a family reunion and I’m in charge of supplying the board games.

Of course, supplying board games to play for the occasion isn’t a big surprise. It’s really something I do anyway whenever we get together with family.

The toughest question is which family board games to take…

Diverse interests

The first thing to consider when choosing which games to take is the diverse interests of everyone that will be there.

Some love strategy board games – others prefer games with a lot of luck. Some love light, party games – others prefer two-player games. Some love short games – others games that play through the night. Some like learning new games – others prefer familiar games. Some are willing to play anything – others don’t really like board games at all.

That being the case, I need to pack an assortment of games to cover a wide spectrum of interests.

Luckily with so many family board games in our closet, selecting a wide variety  of games won’t be a problem.

Time available

The next thing to consider is how much time we’ll actually spend playing games.

There will plenty of activities for us to do where we’ll be staying. We’ll be in time share units at Bear Lake and plan to have fun on the lake, in the pool, in a nearby cave, on the golf course, the mini-golf course, out on the lawn, and at a local raspberry shake joint.

So our board game time will mostly be limited to evenings in the rooms. And even at that, the sun isn’t going down until about 9pm which means games later at night when minds may not be as sharp. 🙂

But, I’m always hopefully and can also foresee a few games being played in the mornings amongst a few while others are still working on getting up and going. Some two-player, shorter games will work great for those moments.

As much as the boys would love another game of Battlestar Galactica with the cousins, it’s most likely not in the cards this time around. But we probably will have time for Pandemic: On the Brink with the bioterrorist wrecking havoc.

Age range

For this particular family reunion, the youngest player will actually be our youngest son, Caleb. And as you can tell from all his video reviews, there isn’t a game he won’t tackle.

So as far as age range goes, I don’t need to plan for games best suited for players younger than 10. Skip the lowest shelf in our game closet – check.

Space restrictions

All that above is well and good – and I could think of a ton of games that would be fantastic to take. However, making sure everything can fit in the car is the major restriction.

So now it’s time to be judicious.

Narrowing it down

With all that in mind, my first step was to physically pull out all the games that I think would best fit the situation and stack them in a pile.

The next step was determining what to pack them in to see what space I really had to work with. I typically use what we’ve designated as our ‘game bag’. It can hold about 4 or 5 board game boxes in the center and a number of card games in the multiple side pockets. (It works great for weekends at the cousins.) But for a whole week, we’ll want more than just what we can get in that bag.

Enter a new twist on packing…

As luck would have it this time, our two oldest boys need to work an extra day before being able to get away. So while we’ll miss them for a day, it also means that they’ll be coming in a 2nd car. And 2nd car = more packing space.

Knowing that, I pulled out the biggest box we had lying around and started organizing.

How could I get the most games to fit well between the bag and box?

It was in that organizing that the final decisions were made. As grand as plans as I had, some games in the stack simply had to be left behind…

The Final Verdict

In the end, these are the 32 games that are packed and ready to go.

• Telestrations Party Pack
• 7 Wonders
• Ticket to Ride: Europe
• Kingdom Builder
• Pandemic & On the Brink
• Memoir ’44
• K2
• Gravwell
• Code 777
• Snake Oil
• Timeline
• Hive
• Martian Dice
• Get Bit
• Gloom
• The Resistance Avalon
• New World: A Carcassonne game
• Ligretto Dice
• City Square Off
• Pirate Fluxx
• Spot It
• Yamslam

The Classics:

• Clue
• Racko
• Mastermind
• Nertz

New games we haven’t played:

• Scotland Yard
• Hanabi
• For Sale
• Oregon
• Ratuki
• Happy Birthday

Should be a fun week!

What games would you take?