My top 5 favorite board games
I love board games (which is why I created Basketball Chess), and while I'm not a hardcore Board Gamer (I haven't played Root, TF4, or even Wingspan), I will always join in a game when I have the time. Here are some of my favorite board games!
Chess
I have poured the most amount of gaming hours into this all-time classic board game. I would play against my siblings and friends, adults after church, at holiday gatherings, and chess clubs. I would read all the strategy guides I could get a hold of from the library and conventions, and solve Chess Puzzles… I used to be really competitive into playing Chess, but when I went to college, I stopped playing as much.
This quote by Paul Morphy really stuck with me as I know play chess sociably: The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." I am always down for a competitive game, but due to the fact that I am not (nor plan to be) a professional chess player, I won't be doing as much research and preparation for a match as I did during my adolescence.
For players new to the game, there are so many ways to learn (YouTube, books, websites, even Duolingo!), but
Lego Chess on PC is the best way to learn Chess in my opinion, and the “campaign mode” is great with all the Lego Charm. (They should make a remaster of old Lego games like (Lego Island 2 and Lego Racers) A strategy game for old and young minds, it is the most popular game of all time.
Monopoly
Going to the 2nd most popular game of all time, Monopoly is another one of my favorite games. From the dice rolls, house and hotel placement, chance and community chest cards, Monopoly is the game that you think of when someone says a board game. After candy land, Monopoly was the game I learned, and I really enjoyed the banking aspect as well as negotiating property trades. It's getting harder and harder to find people who actually want to play Monopoly, but in all actuality a game can be completed in under an hour.
Carcassonne
Carcassonne reminds me of a competitive puzzle game where even if you aren’t winning, you’re having lots of fun watching the world grow tile by tile. You need to build roads and cities, and you get points by completing locations where your “meeples” are standing in. For a wedding gift, a friend gifted my wife and I a Carcassonne big box edition with various add-ons and variations such as inns and cathedrals, rivers and lakes, and gold and trading pieces to collect for bonus points. Definitely the most expensive board game I own (I think it retails between $75-$90), and it’s a great game for all ages, my great grandma who likes puzzles has enjoyed playing this game even in her 90s!
Ticket to Ride
I think of Ticket to Ride as a gateway game before getting into super detailed and more involved boardgames. Essentially, you are creating railroad tracks to go to different destinations on a map, and you have to get your railroads down before someone else takes your route. It's a fun a simple management when you gather different color cards to correlate with the different color routes you can go on. I have only played the North American, European, and the Rails and Sails board games, and I think that the North American version is the most fun.
Basketball Chess
Definitely a biased pick, but I kind of have to choose the game I designed and created. Don't know many other basketball themed board games, so I must say the Basketball Chess is the closest thing you can get to a simulation of basketball. I like running different offensive sets to get open shots as well as trying to double-team other players and force turnovers on the board, similar to a real basketball game!
There's my list! Let me know what your favorite games are! Soon I will make a list of board games on my wishlist.
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