Popular Card Game Board Games (Category)

Since my most reliable gaming partner (my 8 year old son) has started to play outside more in the evenings thanks to warmer weather, my latest 5 skews distinctly to solo games at the moment:

5. #Catan This is almost certainly the most-played game in my collection, but most of those plays were when I was at university in 1997 and long before I started logging games in 2017. I've got a bit tired of it over the years, but it's been with me a long time so has nostalgia value, and my kids recently discovered it and have asked to play a few times. This play was a surprise request from my 8 year old, and exemplifies some of the issues people have with the game. He picked his settlements next to a 6 and planned his strategy around that somewhat, and I'm not convinced we rolled a single 6 for the entire game. He was absolutely steamrollered by a combination of that and the robber being stuck on the same tile for most of the game. Still, he said he enjoyed himself regardless.

4. #Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game This is my most-logged game, mostly because I found a solo league and play a minimum of 3 games for it every month. I enjoy it, but it has less novelty value for me now than some other games in my collection and has become a sort of default solo choice for if I'm tired or short of time, as I've had more practice in setting it up and playing. I'm currently in second place in this month's league though, and the scenario setups this time were a good mix of challenges.

3. #7 Wonders Duel This was another game with my 8 year old, after not having played this for a year. I'd forgotten how engaging the game is and had a good time with it, though it was somewhat soured towards the end by my having forgotten to properly remind my son about the Science/Military victory conditions so he didn't block me from my military victory as he might otherwise have done and was a little bit disgruntled. We ended up resetting the game back a few steps and playing on from there, though, so he had a good time in the end.

2. #The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game When I got it last year I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this game. I've read the books and it seemed like an interesting idea so I nabbed a second hand copy and started working through the setup for each book. I thoroughly enjoy the sense of the puzzle you get in a solo game (I haven't actually played it with others, and suspect it may not work as well in fact). The end game can be frustrating at times, because it can come down to just a roll of some dice to see if you succeeded or not, but I appreciate the lead up to it and in this case I won regardless of that final roll.

1. #Thunderbirds Co-operative Board Game I'm a sucker for the IP in this one, but I really enjoy the game too. I've mostly played it solo, but have tried it with others too. Thematically, I think I like the fact that for the most part you're dealing with preventing disasters and saving people rather than competing or fighting. There's a bit of randomness to it, but the game is mostly about trying to work out how to optimise movements, tokens and actions to give yourself the best shot at keeping everything under control. I randomly select characters usually, and this was a very tough match-up that I didn't succeed at, but I came closer than I expected and felt quite satisfied with the result at the end.

If you ask me on another day, I might easily switch around those top two rankings. I enjoy both and I'm keen to get both back to the table. Mind you, I've also just received a delivery of #The Search for Planet X that I ordered 5 months ago, and I'm itching to try that out too...