Articles Archives - The Board Game Family

17 Games Mini Reviews – Played at SaltCon Spring 2025

I had a great time last weekend playing a bunch of new games with friends at SaltCon Spring 2025.

This year I was able to get in a few games after work Thursday night, a bunch of games for a full Friday, followed by a handful of games for half a day on Saturday.

Most of the games I played were new to me. Some game were hits that I’d love to play again. While other games fell flat and I was happy to move on.

If you’d like to know more about the SaltCon event itself, check out my post from last month covering the many things that happen at SaltCon. This post will focus on mini-reviews of the 17 games I played – in the order in which I played them.

March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 Trent 0 Comments board game, card game, cooperative game, dice game, drafting, luck, SaltCon, strategy, tile-laying

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games

SaltCon Spring 2025 one month away

It’s odd to think of Spring being in the air when we just rolled into February.

But I can’t help look forward to Spring when I think about the SaltCon Spring event coming up in one month!

Regular followers of our family board game reviews will be familiar with us sharing about the SaltCon game convention each year.

With the popularity of board games skyrocketing over the past decade, board game conventions have likewise grown in popularity. Chances are you can find one near you with a quick online search.

And SaltCon Spring is the board game convention I attend every year in Layton, UT. It’s local and it’s a lot of fun.

February 2, 2025 Trent 1 Comment SaltCon

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Party Games

Games we played over the holidays

Happy New Year!!

We hope you all had a fantastic year-end with many holidays to celebrate with family and friends.

In our family, we celebrate Christmas. And we had a wonderful couple of weeks with plenty of gatherings where we could all be together. We visited a lot, had plenty of laughs, and watched a couple of fun movies. We also enjoyed time with extended family eating lots of food and catching up on all the goings-on.

And among the celebrations, we were able to play a handful of games.

January 7, 2025 Trent 2 Comments board, card, dice, family board games, holiday

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games Top 10 Lists

Board Game Gift Guide 2024!

Our 14th year of Board Game Gift Guides is here!

For each of the past 13 years, we’ve recommended around 40 games to get your friends and family as gifts.

We know that’s a lot to look through, so we’ve dialed it back a bit this year to 25 great games!

Below, you’ll find a few games in each of the following categories to get your juices flowing about what game gifts you can give this year.

November 11, 2024November 11, 2024 Trent 0 Comments Best Board Games, board game, card game, children, cooperative, dice game, friends, game gift guide, gift guide, gifts, party, solo

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games

16 Board and Card Games Played at SaltCon 2024

The first weekend of March, I spent a couple of days playing a bunch of fun games at SaltCon Spring 2024.

SaltCon Spring is a 4-day event held on the first weekend of March. This year, I arrived Thursday night after work and stayed through Saturday afternoon (taking Friday off work so I could play all day).

Even though SaltCon now hosts game events a few times each year, the spring gathering is the biggest of the bunch and one I look forward to every year.

This year, the attendance hit 2,400!

Read on to get a quick recap of the 16 different games I played and my thoughts on each.

March 16, 2024March 16, 2024 Trent 2 Comments bluffing, Board Games, deduction, Family Games, luck, party, SaltCon, space, strategy, theme

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games Top 10 Lists

Board Game Gift Guide 2023 – 45 Favorites!

We’ve posted a Board Game Gift Guide for the past 12 years. And each year we’ve recommended around 40 games to get your friends and family as gifts.

Which means that through our annual gift guides, we’ve shared close to 500 game ideas!

Well, rather than give another list of new games to check out, we’ve decide to roll back through our 12 years of game gift guides and pick out our very favorites to recommend for 2023.

So, without further ado, here’s our recommended favorites in each category.

November 8, 2023November 10, 2024 Trent 3 Comments 2-player, abstract, board game gifts, card, deduction, dice, family, game gift guide, luck, party, Star Wars, strategy, theme

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games

15 Games Played at SaltCon 2023

SaltCon Spring just keeps getting bigger and better every year!

This year over 2,000 people enjoyed playing board games, card games, dice games, party games, and more for 4 days straight as part of SaltCon Spring 2023.

And with that many people, there’s a broad range of gaming interests. That’s why there are also areas in the convention center set aside for RPGs, miniatures painting, dexterity games, play-to-win games, competitions, and an Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.

But even as the event itself keeps getting bigger, this year the game playing for me was much more intimate.

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 Trent 0 Comments SaltCon

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SaltCon Coming in 2 weeks!

The SaltCon Math Trade has just finished and I’m super excited because it means the big, local board game convention is only 2 weeks away!

What is SaltCon? And what is the SaltCon Math Trade?

Well, I’m more than happy to tell you.

February 18, 2023 Trent 4 Comments

Articles Board Games Card Games Cooperative Games Dice Games Family Games Game Reviews Kid Games Party Games Top 10 Lists

15 Stocking Stuffer Games for 2022

Time is ticking down and there are only a few more shopping days left until Christmas Day.

If that puts you in a frantic rush for finding game gifts for your friends and family this year, we can help with that!

For starters, jump over to our 2022 Board Game Gift Guide and you’ll find a bunch of great games to choose from as gifts.

If you already have what you need with those game gifts and just need a few smaller games to pack a Christmas stocking with game goodies, then this list of 15 recommended games is for you.

December 21, 2022December 20, 2023 Trent 2 Comments card, dice, luck, party, Star Wars, top 10

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TimpCon 2022 Recap

Last weekend I had another fun gaming weekend at a local board game convention – TimpCon!

It was the first time I’d been to TimpCon which is a relatively new board game convention and it’s super close to where I live.

The big board game convention in Utah is SaltCon which I’ve loved going to for more than a decade. But with an organized board game event even closer now, I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to TimpCon.

November 13, 2022 Trent 1 Comment convention, TimpCon

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