Ready to join The Crew?

We’ve all been pretty disappointed since Pluto was declassified as a planet in our solar system. 

Not that we had any actual travel plans of getting there some day. But when the International Astronomical Union decided to withdraw Pluto’s status as our solar system’s 9th planet in 2006, it caused quite the stir. 

Well, all that’s behind us now. We must look to the future!

And your future may include becoming part of the crew to rediscover the 9th planet in The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine by Kosmos! 

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Stuck inside? Play more family board games!

Being stuck inside for long periods of time can really stink!

Since most of the world is now practicing this new hot term, “social distancing”, it can really get you down.

It’s definitely impacted our lives. And we’re sure it has yours too.

More time at home can mean a lot more family time to do things together. And that means things of every sort.

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Another SaltCon Success

Last weekend wasn’t what I’d expected.

But SaltCon still made me smile.

That’s because every year, I look forward to attending SaltCon — an awesome board game convention in Utah.

As you can see from my anticipatory post last month, SaltCon has tons to offer.

However, this year turned out to be much different for me.

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Calling all creative detectives for Detective Club!

How good are your detective skills?

No, not like CSI skills. But rather, your powers of detecting the bluffer among you?

Detective Club, by Blue Orange Games, gives you a chance to find out!

When I look over the list of board games we’ve reviewed over the last 10 years, Blue Orange Games is second on the list of game publishers in quantity of our game reviews.

And there’s a very good reason for that — Blue Orange Games publishes fantastic board games for families!

We’re happy to report that Detective Club continues with that tradition.

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Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig game review

“The king demands a castle!

You’re a world-renowned master builder who has been asked by Mad King Ludwig to help design his castles. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you’re paired with another master builder to execute your grandiose plans.

Will your planning and collaborative skills be enough to design the most impressive castles in the world?”

Such is the introduction to the tile-laying, family board game, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, a collaborative production from Stonemaier Games and Bézier Games.

And what a fantastic collaborative production it is!

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Harry Potter is at it again

Are you ready for another Harry Potter family board game?

We sure are!

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – Defence Against the Dark Arts may sound like it’s an expansion to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle that we reviewed a few years ago. But it’s not.

It’s a standalone game that’s great on its own merits!

The original game is a cooperative game where players work together to defeat wizarding world villains.

But in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – Defence Against the Dark Arts, rather than working together, 2 players go head-to-head in a dueling battle!

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Lander Board Game Preview

If you crash landed on a foreign planet, what would you do?

The good news is that you survived. And while many of the crew sent to establish a colony perished in the crash, a handful of survivors are there with you.

With that type of a set up, you might think Lander, an upcoming new game by Intrepid Games, would be a cooperative game where you’ll all rally together to establish a flourishing colony.

Lander is actually a competitive game for 2-4 players where each player builds their own crew, manages resources, expands and upgrades their sectors, and completes missions to become the overall leader of this new colony.

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Countdown to SaltCon 2020!

February just rolled around and it’s time to get excited!

Of course, there was a lot of excitement around the Super Bowl last weekend when the Chiefs triumphed over the 49er’s.

And Valentine’s Day is next week — which can be something to get excited about.

Then there’s also President’s Day right after — which brings a day off of work in the U.S. for many companies. So we can see people getting excited for that.

But what I really get excited about when February hits is that SaltCon is only a month away!

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That’s Pretty Clever dice game review

You know you’ve found a hit game when your family plays it over and over and over.

Such is the case with That’s Pretty Clever dice game by Schmidt Spiele and Stronghold Games.

Since we first played it a couple weeks ago, we’ve played it at least once almost every day. And since it’s hard to just play once, we’ve played it back to back many of those days.

So what’s the big draw to this simple dice game?

Read on and we’ll tell you.

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2019 – Year in Review

2019 marked a huge milestone for The Board Game Family. We celebrated 10 years of doing family board game reviews!

With our video reviews hitting 2 million views and our written reviews and articles being read by millions more, it’s been an amazing 10 years.

But today’s not about looking back on all 10 years (we’ve already done that). Instead, we’re just looking back at 2019.

As I’ve done at the start of each year, let’s take a quick look back at the games we’ve enjoyed the most from 2019.

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