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David Ireland:
What better way to spend time with loved ones over the festive period, than bringing out a board game. I have so many fond memories of playing games with the family over the holidays. It’s a very social thing to do that brings out a lot of laughter, which is exactly what you want at this time.
Formula D (which is only a few £ above 30!) ticks all those categories above perfectly. A game for 2 to 10 players that is action packed from start to finish, and for me, the best racing game on the market. You don’t need to be a fan of Formula One (I’m not) to appreciate and enjoy this one and there is plenty of depth to it.
The concept is simple, unsurprisingly, the first player to cross the finish line is the winner. Players choose their cars and get a dashboard. Roll the event die to determine grid placement. Then let the green lights come on and racing commence.
Cars are made up of 6 gears, each gear is a different die. First gear is a small D2 with a 1 or 2 only. Up to 6th gear and the mega D30 die with 21-30 printed on it. You are flying if you get to roll this one.
The race track is made up of squares, generally 3 lanes. You utilise the dice to move along these squares. Turn order is determined by the leading player and working back. This allows for turn order to change every turn as players over take and the lead changes. You can go up one gear a turn, potentially crash down more if needed, but will take damage in doing so. There are critical rules for cornering and other other risky elements along the way which include collisions and weather. It is immense.
I love this game and highly recommend it for the holidays.
Luke Griffiths:
Looking for a slightly larger Christmas gift. I will presume that you would like a game that is fun, unique and impresses everyone that plays it? Then the game you want to buy is Red Dragon Inn. As I type, a £30 investment on Zatu can buy you Red Dragon Inn 2, 3, 4 and 8. I have the first edition that is priced slightly above £30 but all play in the same way.
Each “expansion” is sold as stand-alone, insofar as you can play the as a game without prior editions; though some introduce new rules.
For those unfamiliar to playing Red Dragon Inn, in the game each player controls an adventurer. The game takes place after a day’s successful adventuring with the crew celebrating in the pub. Players buy each other drinks, hurt one another accidentally on purpose and gamble people out of their coins.
Players have unique decks that give each character a unique feel. Each expansion brings different playable characters. Some are good at drinking, others at healing physical harm and some can cheat all the gold away from other players in gambling rounds. The aim of the game is to be the last player not to have passed out, have your health and drunkenness meet, or run out of money, run out of coin counters.
I have played Red Dragon Inn with a wide variety of people. Students and staff at the school where I teach and also with other game enthusiasts at my local game store. The one thing that I can vouch for is its universal popularity. Indeed, the parents of one student shared that it had revolutionised their family time because the whole household enjoyed it so much. I myself ordered it immediately following my first experiences playing it.
Seriously, you would struggle to identify a better game to gift people and at this price bracket, it is an absolute bargain.
Steven Gibney:
If you’re looking for a gift under £30 that you can be confident will provide heaps of entertainment then it’s worth considering Carcassonne. This is a game many people already own (a testament to its “modern classic” status). But if you know that the person you’re buying for doesn’t already own it, because they’ve just started collecting or happen to have a gap in their collection, then this tile-placement game should be top of your gift list.
Each turn, players add tiles to a growing landscape, placing medieval cities, roads, and fields. Players can then deploy their “meeples” to claim areas and earn points. Straightforward setup paired with surprisingly tactical gameplay provides a high degree of replayability. This replayability only increases when you consider the number of expansions that are available in the Carcassonne collection, each of which has new elements like rivers, inns, and traders. These expansions significantly change gameplay, and once you’ve given someone the base game you can continue getting them the expansions, giving you options for future gift ideas.
Carcassonne consistently delivers engaging, satisfying gameplay. After owning this game for years it remains one of my all time favorites and over that time it hasn’t lost any of its charm. For gift-givers, this makes it a great choice to give a new player a solid starting point, or to surprise a seasoned gamer with a game or expansion they don’t yet have for under £30!
Harvey Brewer:
There are, of course, many amazing games to be found on Zatu for £30 or less, and I spent longer than I’d like to admit trying to decide which one to write about. In the end, I decided that simplicity was the best way forward, and the title I have chosen to cover here is definitely in that vein.
Zensu is a little game that really packs a punch. While it may not seem like much at first glance, it is a fresh alternative to the multitude of heavier, more complicated titles that dominate the board game market (not that that’s a problem!), and as such, it is appealing to all types of players. A modern take on more classic genres, it combines easy and simple rules with a dimension of elegant strategy that is as addictive as it is challenging. Replay-able, engaging, and, of course, mountains of fun; Zensu is the perfect game for anyone’s collection.
The premise is very simple – you play on a rectangular board comprised of rows of 6 squares. At either end are two rows of six tiles (12 for each player). On one row are tiles which can move forward by 2 spaces, backwards by 4, left by 1, and right by three. On the second row are tiles which can move forward by 1, back by 3… you get the idea! The row closest is your ‘home row’, and your aim is to get one of your tiles into your opponent’s home before they can get one of theirs into yours. You do this by advancing your own tiles, and taking the tiles of your opponent by jumping over or landing on them. As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless, and you’ll often find games taking a completely different direction to what you expected!
In summary, Zensu is a solid game for under £30 that seasoned gamers and new players alike are bound to enjoy.
Stefano Paravisi:
The first option that comes to mind when I am thinking of a boardgame to buy as a present for under £30, is the card game “Doomlings”. The name of the game refers to a species of super cute and funny creatures that are in a very precarious situation. In fact, their home planet is destined to suffer a series of Catastrophes before a Cataclysm will put an end to all the Doomlings. The role of the players is to develop their own species of Doomlings in order to give them the best chances to survive till the end of their world. In terms of gameplay this will obviously mean scoring more points at the end of the game.
The key component of the game is a deck with more than 100 cards, each depicting a “trait” you can add to your species every turn. Every trait will either score a fixed amount of points at the end of the game but some of them will score only in combinations with other factors. For example, some traits will provide you as many points as the traits of a certain colour you played while other will grant you as many points as the cards you have in hand. Together with scoring points, some traits will have an effect that can be used immediately on play or at the end of the game. In both cases, these effects can impact the game massively, enhancing your strategy or breaking your opponent one. For example, you may steal a trait that your opponent has just played or give them one with a negative scoring value from your hand or from the traits you played. Last but not least, each of the Doomlings on the cards have a funny flavour text that can make everyone laugh when read out loud.
The two main aspects that I love in Doomlings are how easy is to learn it and its high replayability. The rule of the games are in fact quite straightforward and overall very well balanced. The rulebook also provides a few good examples and clarifications that make the game extremely easy to pick-up no matter how much experience you have with boardgames. In addition, the game scale-up easily from 2 to 6 players creating a great experience no matter how many players enjoy it. The considerable amount of cards that comes in the base game is also instrumental to make the game very enjoyable as no two games will be the same. And if you like this game, you may consider to invest in any of the expansions available to broaden your decks and scoring strategies even further.
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