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We play a lot of games. When we were first married, we would gather with other newlyweds and play Settlers of Catan – the first game we owned.
Over the years, our collection of games has expanded considerably. Friends and family have introduced games to us and many have become favorites.
Here are some current favorite games that are pulled out to play more than the others.
Coloretto – This is a quick card game even the kids can play with us. You can play with up to 5 people – although we’ve never played with more than 4. We’ve also played this with friends in teams as couples, it’s fun to listen to couples strategize together. You work to collect colored chameleon cards – your three largest piles add to your score – the rest of the cards deduct from your score. This is a game that you can talk and discuss and have a good time while still playing the game.
Reverse Charades – This is a great party game. Kids or no kids – you can’t help but laugh and have a good time. As the name of the game suggests – this is just like charades, except you have one person sitting in a chair with a card on the forehead and the rest of the team is acting it out trying to get the person in the chair to guess. Every age enjoys this game.
Machi Koro – I purchased this game off of some good reviews and then never opened it. My brother was so excited to teach us a new game over spring break and it happened to be Machi Koro. This game is for 2-4 players where each player works to develop their city on their own terms in order to complete the construction of certain landmarks faster than everyone else. This game takes some time to generate a strategy that works, but every game you could have a new strategy. We learned to play this game with the expansion harbor pack which I hear is a must.
Ticket to Ride – We were first introduced to this game back in college. Again in Milwaukee we had friends who loved it and we often played with them. It wasn’t until recently that this game made it’s way into our game closet and Hallie and Hunter have picked it up and enjoy playing it with us. In this game you work to complete railway routes with train cars – sometimes your routes are complete, other times your opponents block your attempt. There are different versions – we chose the original United States board which helps when kids are learning because they’re a little more familiar with basic US geography.
Wits and Wagers – A great party game for all sizes. A question is read – all teams write their best answer (you in now way need to know the actual answer to the completely random question). You then place bidding chips on the answer you believe to be the most correct answer. You win points accordingly. We’ve played this game for couples game night with 6 people, we’ve played it on New Years Eve with the Pothiers with over 40 people playing. Kids can play along as well because they can be part of the discussion as to what the correct answer should be.
Acquire – This game is a little bit more time consuming and less social of a game. It originally came out in 1962 and has floated around to different game companies since then. There are many versions of this game, but they vary a little. You work as a real estate tycoon developing hotel chains – buying, trading and selling stock in each hotel. You work to be the majority share holder and then hope to have your hotel chain acquired. This is not a game I like to start late in the night – too much thinking and strategy – at other times I love it – it’s a challenge.
Splendor – We learned this last summer and it became and instant favorite. It is a game of chip-collecting and card development – working to buy gems and earn points. It was a fast learning game – and we can play it there times in a row and still enjoy it. A couple months back, Steve taught Hallie and Hunter to play and I was surprised how quickly they were able to pick it up and even more impressed how quickly they learned strategies enabling them to win the game. We’ve taught many friends the joy of Splendor.
Tic Stac Toe – Our friend from Milwaukee was over toy purchases for Kohls and he brought this game for us during one of his visits. It is a 3d version of tic tac toe or even connect four in either a 3×3 or 4×4 game. Kids can play this without any adult supervision and the pieces are large so they’re not easily lost.
