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I can think of nothing better than enjoying a good game, except for introducing games to other people. Sometimes it can be daunting for someone who has never played board games (other than Monopoly etc.) before to see what looks like a complicated and rule heavy game.
Every Christmas when things quiet down I love to play a new game, I love the feeling that it brings us all together for some fun family time. Here are my top 10 gateway games that will be fun for anyone this Christmas.
Dixit
Dixit is a great card-based game for 3-6 players and is super easy to teach anyone who doesn’t play games how to play. Each person has six cards, one person will secretly choose one of their cards and will tell everyone a word or phrase to describe the card. Everyone else will secretly choose a card from there hand that they think fits the word of phrase and place it on the table.
The cards will be shuffled and placed face-up and everyone will try to guess the person who said the phrase card. This is a nice simple game that can play up to six people, you could even teach game to children and its sure to get a few laughs all round.
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a tile-based game for 2-5 players. Each turn you will pick a tile, place it down and, if you want, place a meeple. You are trying to make roads and castles to score points as you go. This game is great for kids and adults, I have played this with my kids (seven and four) and both of them had no problem playing it and understanding what you do.
There are also a few expansions for Carcassonne if you decided to make it a little more complex.
Fluxx
There are many different variants of Fluxx, from Monty Python, Batman or Firefly. Fluxx is a clever card game that will change as you play, adding rules and discarding rules. Each turn you will pick up how many cards it says and play how many cards but with every card played the rules can change.
As there are many different themed versions there will be one that appeals to everyone. This game is a 2-6 player and is fun for all the family.
Super Rhino
This is a great game for the whole family. Essentially you are building a tower out of cards. You will place the wall cards in the way that the previous player's card pictates then place a card from your hand on top, the next player will have to try completing the card without knocking the tower over, you may have an added complication of having to also move the rhino.
It is a fantastic, easy game for 2-5 players and it is easily picked up by small children.
Escape the Curse of the Temple
This is a super fun tile-based game with worker placement and dice rolling. The aim of the game is easy, escape the temple. Everyone will have to reveal new tiles and collect gems until someone finds the exit. One thing that makes this game so fun is everyone does this at the same time and as quickly as they can.
You will have to help your fellow players so all of you can escape the temple together. This is a 1-5 player and plays in around 10 minutes.
Machi Koro
This is a great card game where you are buying properties to gain money, in order to allow you to construct your four landmarks. Each turn you will roll a dice and if you or the other players have that number each of you will gain the amount of money it tells you on the cards.
There are cards that everyone will collect money when you roll the dice, other cards only you will receive money on your roll and some that let other played take money from you. This is a 2-4 player game.
Camel Up
This is a fun bidding game. You and your fellow players will have to bid on which camel you think will win the race. The earlier you make your bid the better, but camel racing can be a bit messy as some end up stacked on top of other camels and get boosted forward.
It is the luck of the draw when each camel will be moved as all the camel dice are held in a dice pyramid that when pushed one dice will fall out telling you which camel is to be moved. This is an easy and fun game to play for 2-8 players.
Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice
This is a great, easy game, where your game board is a 3D wrestling ring. You pick a character and your dice. You roll the dice in the ring at the same time as your opponent and hope that they stay in the ring as any that fall of or are knocked of are not used, you want to try to knock you opponent's life down to zero for a knockout before they do the same to you.
Each side of the dice will tell you what it does to your opponent, hit, block,counter, pin and miss. This is a two-player game, but it can be a four-player game by using the tag team variant.
Codenames
This is a guessing card game. Cards are laid out and each team picks a player to be the spymaster. The spymaster will have to say one word that will help there team guess the correct card. The two teams will have to guess all there cards before the other team, but you will have to be car
I can think of nothing better than enjoying a good game, except for introducing games to other people. Sometimes it can be daunting for someone who has never played board games (other than Monopoly etc.) before to see what looks like a complicated and rule heavy game. Every Christmas when things quiet down I love to play a new game, I love the feeling that it brings us all together for some fun family time. Here are my top 10 gateway games that will be fun for anyone this Christmas.
Coup
This is a great bluffing card game. Each player will have two random character cards, with each character allowing you to do a special ability. As you keep your cards a secret, you can bluff and pretend you have a different character, but beware the other players can challenge you and if you don't have the card you said you will have to discard a card.
If you lose both cards you are out of the game. Everything you need to know is on the character cards and on your small info card which makes this a great game for new players. It is a 2-6 player game.