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.
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Has a black cat crossed your path lately?
Halloween is in the air, and you never know what’s lurking around the next corner.
Actually, the Cat In The Box game doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween. (It’s just fun review timing.)
Instead, the game refers to Schrödinger’s cat.
Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment devised by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. If you place a cat and something that could kill the cat (a radioactive atom) in a box and seal it, you won’t know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box. Thus, until the box was opened, the cat was both “dead and alive”.
Okay, so maybe a “dead and alive” cat is pretty Halloweenish.
However, rest assured that no cats are harmed in this unique trick-taking, card game by Bezier Games.
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Welcome back to the world of Valeria!
In May, we reviewed the first Valeria game published by Daily Magic Games, Valeria: Card Kingdoms. It’s a fun card and dice game where players build their crew of various citizens to expand their realm and fight monsters.
Since then, Daily Magic Games has published a number of card games in the Valeria universe. Each have unique game mechanics.
Today, we’re excited to share our thoughts on one of the most recent Valeria card games, Thrones of Valeria.
It’s a unique trick-taking card game where the ranks of the different Houses (suits) change constantly. Every card played may alter your plans. We hope you’ve got what it takes to win in Valeria.
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We enjoy playing several trick-taking card games.
Our favorites over the years have been Skull King, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, and Cat in the Box. That’s because they all present some very unique spins on basic trick-taking game play.
We’ve recently played a new trick-taking card game with unique twists that have us thinking in fresh ways yet again.
Sandbag, by Bezier Games, is a fun new spin on trick-taking card games that’s a lot of fun.
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My first encounter with Valeria: Card Kingdoms at SaltCon 2017 was an absolute blast, leaving me eager for more.
It reminded me a lot of Machi Koro, but I liked Valeria’s fantasy theme much better. Plus, I loved that everyone gains resources on anybody’s turn, not just on their own turn.
I added the game to my wish list soon after, but just never pulled the trigger on buying a copy. That is, until two years ago when Daily Magic Games published an updated version!
The new edition not only had upgraded components and streamlined play, but it was also much cheaper!
I’ve since introduced the game to many friends, and everyone has had a great time playing.
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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.
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This time of year, it’s great to gather as family and friends for some light-hearted games.
Similo, by Horrible Guild, fits that very well.
That’s because Similo is a cooperative deduction game where everyone either wins or loses together. It comes in a variety of card sets of 30 cards such as Fables, Myths, Animals, History, and more. All of which have fantastic artwork that add to the enjoyment of the game.
The goal is to make the other players guess one secret character by playing other character cards from your hand as clues, stating whether they’re similar to or different from the secret character.
And because it’s nice and compact, it’s a great game to give as a gift as well.
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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.
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Way back in 2012, we reviewed a hot new card game getting a lot of buzz – 7 Wonders.
While it looked intimidating with so many colors and symbols, it quickly became a family hit – even for mom!
Fast forward a decade and Asmodee released a new standalone iteration on the theme with 7 Wonders Architects.
The game play is quite different while still feeling familiar for those who enjoy the original. It’s a much simpler card game and also includes players physically building their personal wonder in stages.
And because it’s a standalone game, one wonderful thing is that you don’t have to know the original to enjoy 7 Wonders Architects.
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Happy Star Wars Day!
To celebrate, we’re diving into a review of another Star Wars family board game – Star Wars: Unlock!
That’s right, the very cool Unlock! escape-room series of games now has a Star Wars themed game – with 3 distinct game adventures. As far as escape-room games go, the Unlock! series have been our favorite. So I was super excited when Asmodee published a Star Wars version.
After having played through all 3 adventures, I’m happy to report that all of them are super fun to play.
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