The First Game In Your Board Game Collection Should Be…

Starting off in the world of board games is daunting to say the least. Back in the day you could pick up your favourites between Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo and be done with it. Now we live in a board game golden age where there are thousands of games available, something for everyone, whatever theme or game mechanic you can imagine. So where do you start? I asked my fellow bloggers to help you out by recommending one game each and tell you why. So without further ado, let's answer the questions…

The first game in your board game collection should be…

David Ireland

Carcassonne - It's a pioneer and great gateway game for bringing others to the hobby. It never gets old either.

Sam de Smith

Uno - It's the most accessible, maddening, family friendly, ruthless game there is.

Stu West

Heat: Pedal to the Metal - Because it is accessible to new players yet is deep enough for experienced gamers to have fun, can accommodate up to 6 as a base game and can even be played solo using the exceptional a.i. mechanics if you’re all alone.

Panto Pete

The Quest for El Dorado - It's easy to learn, quick to play, interesting decisions to make, infinitely variable and it's fun! What more could you want?

Ross Coulbeck (Me!)

Hive - Quick to learn, quicker to set up and gives you the vibes of playing chess, but you always enjoy yourself win or lose.

Percy Hartshorn

Codenames - A fun way to explore how you and your friends strategise without complicated rules and components.

Imogen Usher

Forbidden Desert - It’s a super innovative design and the cooperative format makes it easy to learn. Whilst it’s a very welcoming game, the variable set-up difficulty means that it grows with you as you become a more experienced gamer.

Neil Parker

Twilight Imperium - Got to have an epic game that will take a day to play but give you lasting memories. It's a grail game, and ideal as a centrepiece in any collection.

Luke Griffiths

King of Tokyo - It is a super fun game that is simple enough even your kids will enjoy playing it. However, it is still complicated enough to have various gaming experiences and replayability. Can be played with 2 to 6 players so it isn't only seeing the board at parties. Finally, and this is important, it isn't overly expensive.

Harvey B

Cascadia - It’s a fun little game that isn’t full of moving parts but really gets players thinking.

Callum Price

Pandemic - It’s the pinnacle of a board game unreliant on dice that uses a deck as its core driver.

Lewis Ralston

Pandemic - Easy to set up, easy to understand and co-operative. It’s one of those games that’s easily replayable too.

David Denton

Horrified - Co-operative, easy to learn, and the difficulty level can be easily changed from easy to rather hard. Plus - Universal Monsters.

Sophie Jones

Ticket to ride - A classic for a reason. Collect cards, place tiny trains and take over the tracks. Easy to teach and fun to play!

Emma Hunt

Courtisans! - Easy to learn and fun to play with beautiful illustrated cards.

Steve Conoboy

Arkham Horror LCG - It'll change your opinion of how games should be. Total immersion. Also, someone has already said Horrified and I second that.

Tora Leslie

Akropolis - It's puzzly, spatial tile laying fun that takes place on multiple levels but never feels overwhelming in terms of the rules or decision space. Plus there is a simple to operate solo mode and all the advanced modules can be turned on or off at will to suit the group!

Harold Cataquet

Decrypto - Play in teams. Easy to get to the table. Not too thinky.

Tim Evans

Veiled fate - Very few rules, versatile at small and large player counts and the hilarity of secret identities, twirling moustaches and not to mention great art style and production values. Something that shows new gamers or people who have only experienced the monopoly and scrabble of their childhood the variety of what this hobby can be, and hopefully leave them wanting more!

Roger B W

Tsuro - It’s a very simple game to learn or to teach: play a tile in front of you, move everyone who can move, take a new tile. It’s elegant: not just for the lovely board design, but the 35 tiles represent all possible combinations of paths. And it’s still fun to play even when you’re an experienced gamer who knocks off Terraforming Mars before breakfast.

There you have it. So many options, many of which they made me want to buy as well! I hope this helped you pick the first game in your collection, and whatever you choose, I hope you have fun playing it.