Sometimes finding board games for 6 players can be difficult and almost frustrating.

We have all been there as you are throwing together an afternoon with a few other couples and think to yourself that a board game would be the perfect way to end this lovely evening only to realise that all your favourite games have a 4 or 5 person player count.

Just to stop for a moment 5 is the strangest number for a player count and very few times I have found myself with 5 players at my board game table *RANT OVER*

Well after being asked the question what board games should I play with 6 players again today I have put together this list of my top 21 board game or board game expansions to cater for that elusive 6th player.

Sheriff of Nottingham & The Merry Men Expansion

Sheriff of Nottingham

In Sheriff of Nottingham, players will not only be able to experience Nottingham as a merchant of the city, but each turn one player will step into the shoes of the Sheriff himself. Players declare goods they wish to bring into the city, goods that are secretly stored in their burlap sack. The Sheriff must then determine who gets into the city with their goods, who gets inspected, and who may have their goods confiscated!

Do you have what it takes to be seen as an honest merchant? Will you make a deal with the Sheriff to let you in? Or will you persuade the Sheriff to target another player while you quietly slip by the gate? Declare your goods, negotiate deals, and be on the lookout for the Sheriff of Nottingham!

The Merry Men Expansion

This will add five modules that can be added to the base game, as well as the option of including a sixth player. The five modules are:

Deputies: In six player games, you may use two Deputies instead of a single Sheriff. Here, both deputies must decide to search bags or let people pass, and they will share the punishments and rewards. If a deputy disagrees with the other and searches a bag, they will receive the punishment or reward by themselves.

Merry Men: Adds new illegal goods in the form of ‘merry men’ characters. If they are successfully smuggled in, players will reveal it and activate its special ability.

Black Market: Adds three sets of bonus cards that display illegal goods. The first player who successfully smuggles in the indicated goods receives the bonus cards and a large reward.

Laws: Sheriffs must draw three law cards and choose two to keep. The chosen laws are in play for the entire round.

Special Orders: Special order cards indicate combinations of one legal and one illegal good. If players can smuggle both of those items in the same bag, they get that card, which provides them with bonus gold.

Mysterium

Mysterium – Board Game

A horrible crime has been committed on the grounds of Warwick Manor and it’s up to the psychic investigators to get to the bottom of it.

In Mysterium, one player takes on the role of the ghost and over the course of a week, tries to lead the investigators to their culprit. Each night the team will be met with visions, but what is the ghost trying to tell you? Can the psychics determine the weapon, location and killer or will a violent criminal pull off the perfect murder?

Contents:

For the psychics

• 54 psychic cards
• 6 intuition tokens
• 6 sleeves
• 36 clairvoyance tokens
• 6 clairvoyance level markers
• 1 clairvoyance track
• 4 progress boards
• 1 clock board

For the ghost

• 1 game screen
• 84 vision cards
• 54 ghost cards
• 6 ghost tokens
• 6 culprit tokens
• 3 crow markers
• 1 sand timer

• Players: 2–7
• Play time: 45 Minutes

Suitable for ages 10 & up

In the 1920s, Mr. MacDowell, a gifted astrologist, immediately detected a supernatural being upon entering his new house in Scotland. He gathered eminent mediums of his time for an extraordinary séance, and they have seven hours to contact the ghost and investigate any clues that it can provide to unlock an old mystery.

Unable to talk, the amnesic ghost communicates with the mediums through visions, which are represented in the game by illustrated cards. The mediums must decipher the images to help the ghost remember how he was murdered: Who did the crime? Where did it take place? Which weapon caused the death? The more the mediums cooperate and guess well, the easier it is to catch the right culprit.

7 Wonders

Create the greatest civilization the Ancient World has ever known!

In 7 Wonders, you lead an ancient civilization as it rises from its barbaric roots to become a world power. Lead your troops to a military victory or create a nation of artisans and philosophers. Establish a powerful merchant state or master the mysteries of science and technology. Build an architectural wonder that will fascinate for eons to come, and rule the most powerful civilization on Earth!

Every turn, you will have a chance to choose one card to further your goals for ascendancy. Will you gather resources and bide your time, or strike fast and grab what you can? Decide wisely, because when you finish, you’ll pass the rest of your cards to the next player, who may profit from your indecision. As the ages advance, you’ll choose from progressively more magnificent developments, so prepare your civilization for tomorrow or be left choking on the dust of your failing nation.

Features:

• With beautiful art, fourteen different wonders and a dizzying array of strategic options
• 7 Wonders is a simple and addictive game the whole family can enjoy.
• In just half an hour you can raise your civilization to the mightiest heights
• Build the greatest wonders of the world!

Catan with 5 – 6 Player Expansion

Catan

Catan Board Game (5th edition) – Winner of “Game of the Century” award!

Picture yourself in the era of discoveries: after a long voyage of great deprivation, your ships have finally reached the coast of an uncharted island. Its name shall be Catan! But you are not the only discoverer. Other fearless seafarers have also landed on the shores of Catan: the race to settle the island has begun!

• 3–4 Players, 60 minute playing time
• Tons of replay value
• New graphics, board and cards
• Expanded Rule Book

Catan (aka The Settlers of Catan) has been awarded with “Game of the Year,” “Hall of Fame,” and even “Game of the Century” honors in Germany, the United States, and a host of other countries worldwide. An international favorite, it’s been called the “Perfect Social Game.”

The women and men of your expedition build the first two settlements. Fortunately, the land is rich in natural resources. You build roads and new settlements that eventually become cities. Will you succeed in gaining supremacy on Catan? Barter trade dominates the scene. Some resources you have in abundance, other resources are scarce. Ore for wool, brick for lumber – you trade according to what is needed for your current building projects. Proceed strategically! If you found your settlements in the right places and cleverly trade your resources, then the odds will be in your favor. But your opponents are smart too…

5 – 6 Player Expansion

You can settle Catan with up to 6 players.

If you want to play the Catan base game with 5 or 6 players, just add this base game extension.

Welcome to…

As an architect in Welcome To…, you want to build the best new town in the United States of the 1950’s by adding resources to a pool, hiring employees, and more.

Welcome To… plays like a roll-and-write dice game in which you mark results on a score-sheet…but without dice. Instead you flip cards from 3 piles to make 3 different action sets everyone chooses from. Because of the communal actions, game play is simultaneous and thus supports large groups of players. With many varying strategies and completely randomised action sets, no two games will feel the same!

Features:

• Player’s will get to choose a house number and a corresponding action. You use the number to fill in a house on your street in numerical order.
• Then you take the action to increase the point value of estates you’re building or score points at the end for building parks and pools.
• Players also have the option of taking actions to alter or duplicate their house numbers. And everyone is racing to be the first to complete public goals.
• There’s lots to do and many paths to becoming the best suburban architect in Welcome To!

Dixit

One player is the storyteller for the turn. He looks at the 6 images in his hand. From one of these, he makes up a sentence and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players).

The other players select amongst their 6 images the one that best matches the sentence made up by the storyteller.

Then, each of them gives their selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to the others. The storyteller shuffles his card with all the received cards. All pictures are shown face up, randomly, and every player has to bet upon what picture was the storyteller’s.

If nobody or everybody finds the correct picture, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer scores 3. Players score 1 point for every vote gotten by their own picture.

The game ends when the deck is empty. The greatest total wins the game.

Railroad Ink

Deep Blue Edition

New lands have opened up and the race is on to create the best network of rail and road lines through it

In Railroad Ink, players roll the Route dice and must then draw the subsequent results on their individual Route boards. Players score points for having long interconnected Routes, as well as connecting the entry points to their board, plus having Routes through the center of their boards. But beware, they’ll lose points for leaving unfinished lines. It’s a challenge to keep their roads and rails from getting destroyed, and having to repair them when they are. Or, players can combine the two for epic, 12-player games!

The Deep Blue Edition brings Rivers and Lakes to the board, giving players more ways to create Routes and score points.

Game Contents:

• 4 Route Dice
• 6 Boards
• 6 Markers
• Rulebook
• 2 River Dice
• 2 Lake Dice

Blazing Red Edition

New lands have opened up and the race is on to create the best network of rail and road lines through it.

In Railroad Ink, players roll the Route dice and must then draw the subsequent results on their individual Route boards. Players score points for having long interconnected Routes, as well as connecting the entry points to their board, plus having Routes through the center of their boards. But beware, they’ll lose points for leaving unfinished lines. It’s a challenge to keep their roads and rails from getting destroyed, and having to repair them when they are. Or, players can combine the two for epic, 12-player games!

The Blazing Red Edition challenges players with falling Meteors and erupting Volcanoes. Can players keep their Routes together amid all the carnage?

Game Contents:

• 4 Route Dice
• 6 Boards
• 6 Markers
• Rulebook
• 2 Lava Dice
• 2 Meteor Dice

Disney Villainous

In Villainous, each player takes control of one of six Disney characters, each one a villain in a different Disney movie. Each player has their own villain deck, fate deck, player board, and 3D character.

On a turn, the active player moves their character to a different location on their player board, takes one or more of the actions visible on that space (often by playing cards from their hand), then refills their hand to four cards. Cards are allies, items, effects, conditions, and (for some characters) curses. You need to use your cards to fulfill your unique win condition.

One of the actions allows you to choose another player, draw two cards from that player’s fate deck, then play one of them on that player’s board, covering two of the four action spaces on one of that player’s locations. The fate deck contains heroes, items, and effects from that villain’s movie, and these cards allow other players to mess with that particular villain.

Game Contents:

• 6 Boards
• 6 Villain Movers
• 180 Villain Cards
• 90 Fate Cards
• 84 Tokens
• 6 Reference Cards
• 6 Villain Guides
• Instructions

Citadels Deluxe

In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects their seventh building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

The Deluxe edition of Citadels includes twenty-seven characters – eight from the original Citadels, ten from the Dark City expansion, and nine new ones – along with thirty unique building districts, and the rulebook includes six preset lists of characters and districts beyond the starter list, each crafted to encourage a different style and intensity of gameplay.

• 2–8 Players
• 45 minutes playing time
• Ages 10 to adult

Euphoria

You find yourself in a dystopian cityscape with a few workers at your disposal to make your mark on the world. Like most people in dystopian fiction, your workers are oblivious to their situation. This world is all they’ve ever known, and you may use them at your whim.

The world as we know it has ended, and in its place the city of Euphoria has risen. Believing that a new world order is needed to prevent another apocalypse, the Euphorian elite erect high walls around their golden city and promote intellectual equality above all else. Gone are personal freedoms; gone is knowledge of the past. All that matters is the future.

The Euphorians aren’t alone. Outside the city are those who experienced the apocalypse firsthand—they have the memories and scars to prove it. These Wastelanders have cobbled together a society of historians and farmers among the forgotten scrap yards of the past.

There is more to the world than the surface of the earth. Deep underground lies the hidden city of Subterra, occupied by miners, mechanics, and revolutionaries. By keeping their workers in the dark, they’ve patched together a network of pipes and sewers, of steam and gears, of hidden passages and secret stairways.

In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas.

Euphoria is a worker-placement game in which dice are your workers. The number on each die represents a worker’s knowledge—that is, his level of awareness that he’s in a dystopia. Worker knowledge enables various bonuses and impacts player interaction. If the collective knowledge of all of your available workers gets too high, one of them might desert you. You also have two elite recruit cards at your disposal; one has pledged allegiance to you, but the other needs some convincing. You can reveal and use the reticent recruit by reaching certain milestones in the game… or by letting other players unwittingly reach those milestones for you.

Specifics:

Players: 2 – 6
Play Time: 60 – 90 Min

Suitable for ages 13 & up

Mission: Red Planet

In Mission: Red Planet, you head a mining corporation financing an ultra-secret project: the exploration of the Marian underground. Spaceships are ready for take off. You have recruited the best specialists in all areas of expertise: recruiters, scientists, and even saboteurs. Everybody knows that this will be a difficult venture: you will need to lay down the best strategy and rely on the finest intelligence. Watch out for meteorite fields, mining incidents, radioactive rocks and your competitors…

Mission: RED PLANET is a majority control game, a character selection games, and an exploration game, with a balanced mix of bluffing and strategy.

In order to charter shuttles to Mars and take control of the regions where the most interesting minerals will be found, you’ll have to make the best use of your nine characters’ powers.

The Recruiter is hiring new space adventurers by allowing the recycling of the characters you already play,
The Explorer allow you to move up to 3 of your astronaut on Mars,
The Scientist can make mysterious discoveries,
The Secret Agent can force the launch of a rocket,
The Saboteur can blow a rocket up before it leaves the launch pad,
The Femme Fatale can replace an enemy astronaut with one of yours anywhere you already have at least one,
The Travel Agent allow you to place 3 astronauts in a rocket,
The Soldier can kill an enemy astronaut on Mars,
The Pilot can change a shuttle’s destination.

Bang Dice Game

In the U.S. wild west, the eternal battle between the law and the outlaws keeps heating up. Suddenly, a rain of arrows darken the sky: It’s an Indian attack! Are you bold enough to keep up with the Indians? Do you have the courage to challenge your fate? Can you expose and defeat the ruthless gunmen around you?

Bang! The Dice Game keeps the core of the Bang! card game in place. At the start of the game, players each take a role card that secretly places them on a team: the Sheriff and deputies, outlaws, and renegades. The Sheriff and deputies need to kill the outlaws, the outlaws win by killing the Sheriff, and the renegades want to be the last players alive in the game.

Each player also receives a character card which grants him a special power in the game. The Sheriff reveals his role card and takes the first turn of the game. On a turn, a player can roll the five dice up to three times, using the results of the dice to shoot neighboring players, increase the range of his shots, heal his (or anyone else’s) life points, or put him in range of the Indians, which are represented by nine tokens in the center of the table. Each time a player rolls an arrow, he takes one of these tokens; when the final token is taken, each player loses one life point for each token he holds, then the tokens are returned to the center of the table.

If a player collects a trio of Gatling symbols on the dice, he fires one shot at everyone else and rids himself of Indian tokens. Who’ll get his shot off first? Play continues until one team meets its winning condition – and death won’t necessarily keep you from winning as long as your teammates pull through!

Game of Thrones – The Board Game

Game of Thrones: The Board Game – Second Edition

Based on the best-selling novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition lets 3–6 players take control of the great houses of Westeros in an epic struggle to claim the Iron Throne.

The updated second edition brings a host of enhancements to your A Game of Thrones experience. It incorporates elements from previous expansions, including ports, garrisons, Wildling cards, and Siege engines, while introducing welcome new innovations. Convenient player screens will hide your underhanded dealings from prying eyes, while new Tides of Battle cards convey the uncertainty of war. This, along with updated graphics and a clarified ruleset, means the time has never been better to claim the Iron Throne.

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition includes:

• 1 Rulebook and 1 Game Board
• 138 Plastic Units
• 105 Cards
• 6 Player Screens
• 266 Tokens and Overlays

Nefarious

Your genius could have been such a boon to humanity. Your death ray had wonderful pest control applications, and your volcano activator was perfect for fighting global warming. But the fools at the institute, they wouldn’t listen. They called you mad!

You built a monster to rend them limb from limb, which your minions assured you was the very worst way to be rended. When it became clear that the only hope for the world was your own benign leadership, you took control of TV to announce this fact. But your broadcast was interrupted by someone else taking control of TV and announcing his own plan for world domination – and then that broadcast was interrupted by yet another interloper. So. Competition. Well, the world will never be as scared of these upstarts as it will be of you. Archimedes once said, “Give me a long enough lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world.” You will be the most terrifying lever the world has ever seen.

Nefarious is a quick-playing game in which the players race to build inventions like a freeze ray, cloaking device, or robotic pet before their opponents can do the same. (Interesting side note: Eighteen different artists contributed to the artwork on the different inventions in the game.)

Specifics:

Players: 2 – 6
Play Time: 30 – 45 Min

Suitable for ages 8 & up

Flick’em Up

A gunslinger of your talent never misses his mark. A good thing, too. You’ve only got one bullet left, but that’s all you need to end Ol’ Cooper’s reign of terror once and for all.

Welcome to the exciting world of Flick ’em Up! – a game whose immersive scenarios and exceptional components will transform your kitchen table into a rugged, ruthless town of the wild west. Load your Colt, take cover, and return fire. You’re a darn fool if you think your enemies are about to show you any mercy.

Whether you choose to terrorize the countryside with the likes of the Cooper Clan or stand by the Sheriff as he enforces the law and defends the innocent, Flick ’em Up! offers an exciting journey through the wild west that you won’t soon forget!

• Players: 2–10
• Play Time: 30 Minutes

Suitable for ages 7 & up

Captain Sonar

Captain Sonar is an innovative real-time game that challenges two teams to take their submarines head-to-head in a thrilling battle. Your ultimate goal is to find and destroy your opponent’s sub­marine, but this task is far more difficult that it may first appear. Your entire crew must work together to chart a course, charge systems, locate the enemy, and keep your own submarine fully operational. Communication and teamwork can lead you to victory, but if you fail to cooperate, you’ll be sunk to the bottom of the ocean!

• 2–8 players
• Ages 12 to adult
• 60 minutes playing time

Unstable Unicorns

Build a Unicorn Army. Betray your friends. Unicorns are your friends now.

There are over 20 Magical Unicorns to collect, and each has a special power. Build your Unicorn Army as fast as you can, or be destroyed by one of your so-called friends! Seek revenge or protect your stable using your Magic! Sound easy? Not so fast. Someone could have a Neigh Card (Get it? Neigh?) and send the game into MADNESS! The first person to complete their Unicorn Army shall hereafter be known as The Righteous Ruler of All Things Magical… at least until the next game. Good luck.

Features:

• Unstable Unicorns is a strategic card game about everyone’s two favorite things: Destruction and Unicorns!
• Learn how unstable your friendships really are.
• You start with a Baby Unicorn in your Stable. SO CUTE!
• But don’t get too attached, because even Baby Unicorns aren’t safe in this game!

Specifics:

• Players 2 – 8
• Play Time: 30 – 45min

Suitable for ages 14 & up

Secret Hitler

The year is 1932. The place is pre-WWII Germany. In Secret Hitler, players are German politicians attempting to hold a fragile Liberal government together and stem the rising tide of Fascism. Watch out though—there are secret Fascists among you, and one player is Secret Hitler.

Secret Hitler is a social deduction game for 5–10 people about finding and stopping the Secret Hitler. Players are secretly divided into two teams: the liberals, who have a majority, and the fascists, who are hidden to everyone but each other. If the liberals can learn to trust each other, they have enough votes to control the elections and save the day. But the fascists will say whatever it takes to get elected, advance their agenda, and win the game.

Features:

• Material, art paper+wooden components.
• Hidden roles and secret envelopes for five to ten players
• The liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late
• Players must try to figure out if they were betrayed or simply unlucky.
• It’s a Perfect Gift for Birthday Party, Holiday, Christmas

Game Contents:

• 17 Policy tiles (6 Liberal, 11 Fascist)
• 10 Secret Role cards
• 10 Party Membership cards
• 10 Card envelopes
• 10 Ja! Ballot cards
• 10 Nein Ballot cards
• 1 Election Tracker marker
• 1 Draw pile card
• 1 Discard pile card
• 3 Liberal/Fascist boards
• 1 President placard
• 1 Chancellor placard

Fluxx 5.0

The latest and greatest version of the card game with ever changing rules! Easier than ever with just the four classic card types that fans the world over have come to know and love. It starts out simple: draw one card and play one card – but New Rule cards quickly make things chaotic.

Even the object of the game will often change as you play, as players swap out one Goal card for another. Can you achieve World Peace before someone changes the goal to Bread and Chocolate?

It all begins with one basic rule: Draw one card, Play one card. You start with a hand of three cards… add the card you drew to your hand, and then choose one card to play, following the directions written on your chosen card. As cards are drawn and played from the deck, the rules of the game change from how many cards are drawn, played or even how many cards you can hold at the end of your turn.

King of Tokyo: 2nd Edition

King of Tokyo – 2nd Edition

King of Tokyo is a game from Richard Garfield for 2 to 6 players in which you will be able to play mutant monsters gigantic robots and other aliens all of whom are happily whacking each other in a joyous atmosphere in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo.

Play a GigaMonster on a rampage and destroying everything in his way! Lets roll the dice to get the best combinations to heal yourself, to attack, to buy special cards or to gain Victory Points. It’s up to you to choose the best tactic to become King of Tokyo just in time to get ride of all your opponents in on devastating attack… The first to gain 20 victory points… or the last Monster standing… wins the game.

Players: 2 – 6
Play Time: 30 – 45 Minutes

Suitable for ages 8 & up

Do you have any games you think should be on this list

Leave your suggestions in the comments below