5 Board Game Favorites From A Board Game Enthusiast

5 Board Game Favorites From A Board Game Enthusiast was written by Board Game Halv of https://boardgamehalv.com, a board game enthusiast and lover of life. Go check out the site for all things board games and to generally brighten your day.

Hello all, I am a big fan of board games. It has not always been this way. One game on the below list got me into it and I was hooked. It was such a great way to sit back with friends, eat, drink and talk, without having to go out to a club or restaurant. And I don’t do anything halfway, I do things at a 1 or a 10. When I say I was hooked I sank a small fortune into games, spent hours of my life playing, and watching every youtube video out there. Shout Out to Rodney Smith, Points Girl and the Dice Tower crew on the video front.

In what List Monster is calling “5 Board Game Favorites From A Board Game Enthusiast” I am going to be letting you know my personal favorites. Remember this is just me, not the best. I personally love deep strategy games without getting too heavy, but I appreciate games in all sorts of categories and tried to make a good mix.

---

#05 Terraforming Mars

If you like games where you have one thousand decisions to make and many different roads to victory, then Terraforming Mars is for you. Oh man engine-building, that is where you need to build something up to make it stronger to get bigger and better things. You are a corporation fighting with other players to be the first to make money off of making Mars habitable. You have to manage production on resources like mega credits, steel, titanium, plants, energy and heat. This lets you build on mars, as well as, move the global win conditions forward like raising oxygen and temperature levels. This is a deep game, meaning pay attention and saddle up for about 1.5 – 2 hours per game. You can play 1 – 5 players and the solo version is actually pretty entertaining.

Terraforming Mars Page | How To Play Terraforming Mars | Terraforming Mars Review | Games Like Terraforming Mars | Buy Terraforming Mars

---

#04 Ganz Schon Clever aka That’s Pretty Clever

I went back and forth between the roll and writes because I also love this other game Welcome To but this edged it out. I just love playing this one over and over again, even on the app version for solo. If you are not familiar with roll and write, think Yahtzee. It is where everyone gets their own sheet, every round something happens and everyone has to mark down a decision on their individual sheet. In this one, you roll numbered dice but they are used in a different way. They are color-coded and each color has a different kind of action you need to fill up. The different colors interact in a way that is for lack of a better word “clever”. You fight to get the highest score after a 15 or so minute game. For any number of players, any.

Twice As Clever Page | How To Play Twice As Clever | Twice As Clever Review | Games Like Twice As Clever | Buy Game Via Amazon

---

---

#03 Codenames: Pictures

If I was picking my absolute favorites, this would probably be swapped with a different strategy game, but being cognizant of giving you a sexy list to run out to the store with, I had to throw in a party game. This is my absolute favorite in that category, Codenames and specifically the “pictures” version (Just like the title implies, more fun and helps with the language barrier). A big group (6 – 20 people) split into a blue and red team.

Each team sends a representative to be a clue giver and then everyone else on the team is the clue receiver. You are all battling spy agencies and you need to pull your operatives from the field before the other team does. The way you do this is by giving one-word clues that relate to a grid of funny images everyone is working off of. The hook is that you need to say something that applies to multiple pictures of yours but not on your opponent. This is a fun communication deduction game that is very fun with a group.

Codenames Page | How To Play Codenames Pictures | Codenames Pictures Review | Games Like Codenames Pictures | Buy Codenames Pictures

---

#02 Dominion

Dominion launched the deck-building board game genre. You may right now be thinking games like “Magic the Gathering” but that is not the case. Deck-building is where over the course of the game you build up a deck from scratch based on what is available to you. You have to make very long term decisions about what you want to buy for your deck so you can eventually use it later. You may see a theme on this list that I like engine-building games, this one is no different. In dominion, you are using gold to buy medieval-themed things like knights to build up your gold and actions to ultimately get you big victory estates and ultimate victory. I love this game in particular because there are like nine amazing expansions and the world of card options is never-ending. For 2 – 4 players and games take about 40 minutes each.

Dominion Page | How To Play Dominion | Dominion Review | Games Like Dominion | Buy Dominion

---

#01 Settlers of Catan

This is the game that I alluded too earlier that got me started on this track. I went to some random work function where this game was played, fell in love and I was gifted my very own copy. I would go to show that game to a good fifteen people that went on and started their obsessions. It is the gateway into board gaming if anything ever was.

On a hexagon grid random tiles are placed that generate five resources (sheep, wheat, iron, clay, wood) and on them are a random number 2 – 12. Each turn the dice are rolled and whoever is touching the hex with the number that comes up gets that resource. The way you touch a hex is by building roads, settlements and cities. Everything gives you points and the first one to a certain amount wins. Pure, mind-bending strategy goodness for 3 or 4 players (5 or 6 with expansion) in 50 minutes or less. I played this hundreds of times before even thinking about another game and still to this day it holds a special place in my heart.

Settlers of Catan Page | How To Play Settlers of Catan | Settlers of Catan Review | Games Like Settlers of Catan | Buy Settlers of Catan

Please let me know what you think about my list of “Board Game Favorites From A Board Game Enthusiast”, as well as, your list at https://boardgamehalv.com or via my facebook @boardgamehalv. And since we are plugging things, check out my board game photography on Instagram.