Are you stuck looking for some gift ideas this Christmas and need a little extra help finding a gift for that friend that likes board games but only plays now and then.
Here are our top Christmas Gift Ideas for the Casual Gamer
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to ride is a train placement game that due to its surprising theme will have most casual gamers question why you purchased this game for them but once they have played it they will be hooked for life.
This simple yet highly engaging game centres around players placing trains of the board in an attempt the route cards “Tickets” in there hand failure to complete these results in limited points and the tracks available on the board are also limited so the race is on to complete your tickets before they become physically impossible. While the gameplay is mostly isolated this unintentional style of sabotage from other players is quite enjoyable and overall the game will change your perception of train games in the future
Codenames
Codenames is a riveting party game for people who love intrigue and spycraft. Four or more players on two teams battle to interpret clever but exceedingly bare-bones clues. In each round of the game, players set up a 5×5 grid of plain ID cards with codenames like “Octopus” or “Undertaker.” Teams designate a single player to be the spymaster, who knows which eight or nine randomly selected codenames of the 25 belong to his or her team.
The spymasters take turns cluing in their team by saying just a single word followed by a number of cards associated with the clue. For example, you might say “Suit, two,” if your only remaining codenames in the field of cards are “Chauffeur” and “Card.” (Cards have suits, while chauffeurs wear suits.) Then you get to watch silently as your fumbling team decides your clue must be referencing the codenames “Chauffeur” and… “Watch.” We never promised it would be easy.
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 favour. But your opponents are smart too…
Pandemic
In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.
The game board depicts several major population centers on Earth. On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases’ activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the “normal” spread of the infections.
Taking a unique role within the team, players must plan their strategy to mesh with their specialists’ strengths in order to conquer the diseases. For example, the Operations Expert can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases and which allow for greater mobility between cities; the Scientist needs only four cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal five—but the diseases are spreading quickly and time is running out. If one or more diseases spreads beyond recovery or if too much time elapses, the players all lose. If they cure the four diseases, they all win!
Five Tribes
Video-game reviewer Tom Vasel likens Five Tribes to “Mancala on steroids,” a description that fits perfectly.
Designed by Bruno Cathala, Five Tribes builds on a long tradition of German-style games that feature wooden meeples. Here, in a unique twist on the now-standard worker placement genre, the game begins with the meeples already in place – and players must cleverly maneuver them over the villages, markets, oases, and sacred places tiles that make up Naqala. How, when, and where you dis-place these Five Tribes of Assassins, Elders, Builders, Merchants, and Viziers determine your victory or failure.
As befitting a Days of Wonder game, the rules are straightforward and easy to learn. But devising a winning strategy will take a more calculated approach than our standard fare. You need to carefully consider what moves can score you well and put your opponents at a disadvantage. You need to weigh many different pathways to victory, including the summoning of powerful Djinns that may help your cause as you attempt to control this legendary Sultanate.