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In my day job, I’m involved in youth work. Recently we were awarded some money to buy equipment for a youth space we run for young people aged 11-16 years old. Of course, being as I wrote the funding application, I put in for a bit of money to buy some board games!
Following the pandemic lockdown, there has been a resurgence in board gaming. It’s a great way to bring people together. When we re-opened our youth services, we found a copy of the classic Cluedo kicking around, and to my surprise the young people loved it.
Well, I thought, this is something to build on. If you love Cluedo I’m pretty sure I can find games that will blow your socks off! So, armed with a budget of £150 and a desire to buy the coolest board games for young people I could find I headed to the Zatu Games website to draw up a wish list.
Then I thought that this might be a subject that people found interesting, so decided to write a post on my shortlist and why the games made it on there. As you know Zatu not only have a great selection of games but also a great selection of reviews for the games. So, while some are familiar favourites to me others are a shot in the dark.
Catan (2015 Refresh)
How can a collection of board games for young people begin without a copy of Catan? For those of you not familiar with Catan it is probably the epitome of modern board game evolution. It is often credited with being the first ‘Euro’ game and widely touted as a great ‘gateway’ game.
You take the role of settlers on an island. You collect resources and expand your territory using your resources. Doing this earns you victory points and the first to 10 points wins. You can also trade resources with other players, which adds a more cooperative and strategic element. Of course, there are plenty of opportunities to scupper your opponent’s plans along the way. I haven’t played Catan for years, but I remember it to be great fun, easy to learn and quick to play and so gets first place in the list.
Carcassonne (2015)
Second on the list is another game that I haven’t played for years! But also, another of which I have very fond memories. Carcassonne is a resource management/worker placement game and has a similar vibe to Catan in many ways.
This time we see players in Medieval France expanding their territories by drawing cards and placing meeples. Players have decisions to make on how to allocate their resources to gain victory points. Once again Carcassonne is another easy to learn and quick to play the game. Hopefully, it will go down well.
Ticket To Ride Europe
One of my favourites! The Ticket to Ride series features many different locations from the classic U.S.A. to fast-paced Switzerland. But I have chosen the Europe map to introduce the young people to.
Ticket to Ride Europe is another resource management game this time based on railways. Players draw cards each turn. When they have enough cards of a certain colour, they swap the cards and place their train carriages on a route of the same colour. The aim is to connect the cities on the map that you have on your cards that you draw at the beginning of the game. This scores you points. You also get bonus points things such as having the longest route. The person with the most points wins.
But I can’t wait to see the faces of the young people when someone steals one of their well thought out routes by placing their own trains there!
Exploding Kittens
A completely new one to me. But who’s not going to like a game called Exploding Kittens?
To be honest it sounds hilarious. Players draw cards trying to avoid the Exploding Kitten. Obviously, in practice, it’s not going to be as simple as this and there is a selection of other cards that allow you to manipulate the game in certain ways. It sounds like it is going to be a great, fast-paced and hilarious game to play.
Quacks Of Quedlinburg
Another new one to me, but one that gets great reviews. Quacks of Quedlinburg sees you take the role of doctors cooking up crazy potions to get victory points. It sounds again like a resource management game with an element of ‘push your luck’. I’ve read it can involve exploding cauldrons. Who doesn’t like the sound of that?
The components look of great quality, and the style looks very cool. It sounds slightly more complicated than my other selections to date, but we shall see.
Cash ‘N’ Guns (2nd Edition)
I’m so glad they reprinted Cash ‘N’ Guns. I first played a friend’s copy of this some years ago and loved it. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to find a copy anywhere. So, it’s a great time to snap up a copy of the 2nd Edition.
Cash ‘N’ Guns is a gangster movie in a game. Very practical and hands-on and involves lots of double-crossing and pointing foam guns at other players!
I can’t really add much that the Zatu review doesn’t cover. But it’s a fast, fun, and hilarious game that I think the young people will love.
So that’s my selection of board games for young people. The whole lot comes in at just over £140 with the 5% Zatu discount for buying more than 5 items and they will hopefully provide hours of fun.
All being well I’ll be able to post an update of how the young people got on with them and which their favourites were in a couple of months. Unless I get shot with a foam gun of course!