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Steven Gibney:
For me there are a few criteria that turn a game into a “go-to” that will have me picking it up every game night; easy to explain to new players, enjoyable for all experience levels and, importantly, a high degree of replayability. Three games in my collection comfortably fit this description.
First Sushi Go, where players draft cards to create sushi-based combos to score the most points. Simple rules, adorable artwork and surprisingly strategic gameplay make this a semi-permanent feature in my game nights. I’ve played it with every member of my family and it has always been a massive hit, both with those who play games regularly and those who don’t.
My next option is Splendor, where players act as merchants acquiring gem tokens and cards in the hope of enough prestige points to beat their competitors. Initially the rules can seem a little complicated, but once you grasp the card buying mechanics it becomes a brilliant game. Despite being terrible at it (my wife has won almost every game we’ve ever played) I classify it as a safe bet when we want a balance of luck and strategy, and when you add in the expansions there is an incredibly high level of replayability.
My final go-to game is the modern classic Codenames, a word game where players split into teams, each with a spymaster who provides a one-word clue to help their teammates identify secret agents among a grid of words. I always have it on hand for two reasons, it is a great choice for large groups but also scales well for smaller gatherings and, in my house at least, it provides a high level of entertainment. No matter how many times we play there will always be a disagreement about how obvious the clues we give are.
Abigail Bradish:
Ahhhh. One Night Ultimate Werewolf. A game bought on a whim that has now been firmly cemented into our games nights. This game, while not the main event at a games night, is requested nearly every time we host and is guaranteed to bring the stragglers back to the table.
One night ultimate werewolf is a social deduction game, where the majority of the players are trying to unmask a werewolf to ensure their little village doesn’t get ravaged come full moon. Of course if you’re a werewolf you’ll be doing everything you can to throw suspicion away from you and any fellow lycanthropes in the mix. Every player will start knowing for sure which character they are and where your allegiance lies, but come the midnight hour when you close your eyes, some villagers are restless and things get moved around. After all character movements have been performed it’s time to open your eyes and try and figure out who the werewolf is, or indeed if you are now the wanted creature.
The great thing about one night werewolf is, it caters for a high number of players, up to 10 in fact and has a pretty quick game time and we normally end up with two or three games of it played. You can also choose which characters to include, so you can stick to your favourites or mix it up each time. With various roles such as the troublemaker - who swaps characters, the minion - who is actually on the werewolves side or the tanner - who is so depressed he's trying to get you to kill him, things get pretty confusing and hilarious!
Top tip: Don’t be too quick to disclose who your character was to your fellow villagers until you’ve figured out for definite whose side you’ve ended up on.
Hannah Blacknell
It’s board game night and most likely there will be one game waiting in the wings for me to get to the table, and that is Root. This is my husband’s favourite game, but it simply does not shine at two players. So whenever we have our board game night he is always champing at the bit to play it. It’s a heavy game, as in a complex game to play so we only have a few friends that we can play this one with.
Root is a complete asymmetric factional woodland warfare game. It has amazing art by Kyle Ferrin and is a wonderclass in beautiful components and graphics from Leder Games. During Root, you take on the role of woodland creatures ready to battle and annihilate each other for ultimate domination of the woodland world. Each faction plays really differently, and although there are overarching rules regarding battle, movement and rule of a clearing, but you will need to know what each other player is doing to keep abreast of the game.
In the base game there are the cats, the birds, the mice and the vagabond who is a lore unto himself. These all play differently, the cats are quite linear in how they build and dominate the woodland map with animeeples. The birds are played as more of a programming game, you add cards to your decree and then must carry out actions in the areas decreed. If at any point this is not possible, then you go into turmoil and must rebuild your engine again. The woodland alliance mice go round spreading sympathy and then burning everything to the ground in vicious revolts. The vagabond just runs around stealing things and doing their own thing really. All are in a bid to get to 30 points and win first. If you’re in the market for a well made, complex and very replayable asymmetric game then take a look at Root.
Kate Alexander:
My boardgame night group likes to play a long game and at least one short game for our biweekly game nights, this gives a nice balance to the evenings.
Some of our go-to longer games include Lords of Waterdeep, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Dinosaur Island. These became our regular picks as everyone in my group has them as some of their favourite games, as well as the fact that we are all usually evenly matched in them there's no guarantee who will win. Plus they are adaptable to 5 players either included in the base game or via expansions meaning that when our further afield 5th player can make it to an evening we know these are games he can join in on.
As for shorter games, we lean in favour of take that and silly games, though that is not always the case. Some of our go-to's for these would be Muffin Time (I say short but we are a group that doesn’t like to let each other win so a 2-hour game has happened before), Unstable Unicorns, Exploding Kittens, and Selfish. These are easy to teach easy to set up games that we all can sit down and start playing in minutes and usually end in fits of laughter.
Ella Jones:
I have played a demo of this game at a games night and it was a pretty wonderful game.
Appealing to the popular wanderlust for stunning, breath-taking Japan (I mean, my beautiful childhood friend got engaged there, is all I’m gonna say), this game captures a top tier bucket list destination. (here I actually paused typing up this post to search the area of Himeji it is inspired by, finding a decent hotel there for £51 and mentally hiding my bank card from sight).
Complete with bridges (DICE that MATCH the colour of each bridge), exclusive tokens and beautiful scenery, this game has captured many hearts. It can be played solo, a sign of a high quality game, but it also can accommodate as many as 4 players- a little party of happy tabletop gamer people!
3 is the number of the day here! So here we go: 3 key pros: yes, it may be quite complicated, but it is arguably worth it because…
-it is so, so, aesthetically appealing: a true visual treat.
-it offers fantastic components- unboxing this game will make you very happy
-gameplay itself features worker placement tactics, so is likely to appeal to Everdell and/or Agricola fans
I played this at another game night where selected games were pre-set by the host. It is not the type of game I would usually choose out of a library of games on first impressions, but I was pleasantly surprised and it did not disappoint.
It features a central fictional map- the board- and fantasy beings- the cards, and is fairly easy to understand for most.
The 3 pros of the game:
-colourful, tactile scoring counters
-healthy sense of competitive interaction between players
-pretty re-playable
Keeping it simple is always a fantastic way to end any evening game marathon, a nice little cool down for the neurons and the grey matter itself. Calling all my fellow random girlies, guys and theys!
A very visual, playful, delightfully silly game where players compete to match a picture card to a (often majorly vague and/or random!) description. POV: your opponent has put down a card depicting a dice, where dark wiggles sprout from the dots on the ‘5’ side- very abstract- but interestingly it wins the round?! A chance to be creative, funny, weird and all those magical things. And to top it all off, the game is scored using different coloured bunnies who hop across toadstools and pebbles
(dependent on whether you play an old school copy or a newer one), what could be better?!
3 pros:
-great for kids- colourful, engaging simplicity
-versatile
-universal for players who speak any language (could also be easily adapted for game-lovers who are non-verbal too, with the use of pen and paper).
Public Service Announcement: If you like Dixit original, why not try Disney Dixit?! (especially if you are a Lorcana or Villianous fan)!
Keep smiling and gaming, Ella x
