Since technology is so prevalent nowadays, board games don’t receive as much appreciation as they deserve— from myself included. However, it’s a great activity to unwind with your friends and family, and a nice chance to detach yourself from staring at the computer screen all day. The realm of board games is vast and daunting at times, but I had a great time playing some of these games over Christmas break and I’m here to share some of them with you:
1. Innovation
No. of Players: 2-4
I started this list with the game that is the hardest to explain but my favourite to play: Innovation! It’s a card game where there are 10 decks simulating ten different periods progressing through history (from prehistoric to digital age). One card from each deck is reserved for “dominating”, in which players pay a certain number of influence points (starting from 5 points for prehistoric and increasing by increments of five for each successive age). Each player has two actions per turn, which could be playing a card, drawing a card, activating a card, or dominating one of the ten periods. Each card has a unique effect that can help you “advance” your civilization through the ages with more powerful cards, score influence points, or attack other civilizations. There are numerous ways to win this game, but the standard objective is to obtain a certain number of dominations, depending on the number of players. I love this game because there are so many things to keep track of and no two games will be carried out in the same way. That being said, I can’t cover all of the rules in this small description so it takes a few games to get used to the gameplay. Nevertheless, I highly recommend anyone who likes a highly strategic game involving resource management to try Innovation out when you get the chance!
2. Sushi Go Party
No. of Players: 2-8
A competitive point-acquisition game with adorable pictures of Japanese food? What’s not to like? Sushi Go Party is an expanded version of the card game Sushi G. Players progressively play cards from their hands before HAND-ing over the leftover cards to the player next to them, as they receive a new hand from a different player so they can choose another card to play (“Pick and Pass”). Each food type (such as nigiri, maki rolls, tempura, dumplings, and miso soup) have different ways to award the players points at the end of the round (ex. the player with the most maki rolls earn 6 points after all of the cards have been played). Essentially, you want to play the best sushi combo without giving your opponents too many points! Although Sushi Go Party is more expensive than the original Sushi Go, there are many more types of food cards for slightly different gameplay each round. The artwork makes the game that much better, and now I’m craving Japanese food…
3. Coup
No. of Players: 2-6
If you like playing bluffing games like Cheat, then this game is definitely for you! Coup is a card game where every player receives two character cards from five possible “roles” (Duke, Captain, Contessa, Assassin, and Ambassador) that dictate your turn’s possible actions. Each of these cards is one life, so the objective is to eliminate everybody from the game; there are multiple ways to do this, but one possible option— that cannot be blocked by players — is to acquire 8 coins from the treasury to “coup” a player of your choice. The catch that makes the game interesting is that you can fake your actions as if you had different character cards; however, you don’t want to be called out for cheating, or you lose one of your lives. It’s not as fun with two players but this game is portable and fun to play with friends, as everyone is deceiving everyone else (or you’re like me and you’re incapable of bluffing convincingly)!
4. Dixit
No. of Players: 3-6
Time to put your inner art connoisseur to work! I compare this game to the likes of Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, where each player has to match one of their own cards to the green or black cards. Dixit is similar, only you match an illustration to a potential title for an artistic piece, which is chosen by one player every round. This player, the “storyteller”, picks one of the six cards from their hand, gives it a title, and every other player must select one of their own cards that match that title. Afterwards, the players vote on which card they believe is the storyteller’s card, and you receive points based on the results of the voting; even if you’re not the storyteller but pick a card that fooled the other players, those points are awarded to you. What I love about this game is the amount of effort put in by the game creators to draw the artwork and form a deck of individually unique cards. Each game played with friends is also unique since the players have the freedom to say any title that resonates with them.
5. Hanabi
No. of Players: 2-5
This last game is a little different than the others; it is a cooperative card game with simple rules but a challenging objective. Essentially every player has five cards, but they can only see everyone else’s cards and not their own. The objective is to build piles of cards for each of the 5 colours, in the order from 1 to 5. For their turn, each player has the choice to use a hint token to give information about another person’s card, play a card, or discard a card. If a played card is successful or a card is discarded, then a hint token is replenished. Finally, your team has three “lives”, so one has to be sure they’re playing the right card in the right order. This game is relatively cheap, portable, and engaging— if you like cooperative games, this is great to pull out with friends because strategy is required for hint-giving but the rules are relatively easy to explain.
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