On the previous page, you saw my 5 favorite "gateway" games for those making their first foray into tabletop gaming. However, I could not stop at that list. I love all my games and wanted to share them all with you. So, ready or not, here are some more games in my collection (in no particular order)!
Find one (or ten) that sound appealing to you!
PORT ROYAL: A push-your-luck game where you accumulate coins, powers, and victory points. How far are you willing to go to get the best cards? (2-5 players, playing time: 20-40 minutes)
WINGSPAN: Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game (2-5 players, playing time: 70 minutes)
SUSHI GO!: Strategically collect the sushi combination that accumulates the most points. (2-5 players, playing time: 15 minutes)
CASCADIA: Create the most harmonious ecosystem as you puzzle together habitats and wildlife. (2-4 players, playing time: 45 minutes)
AZUL: While tile-laying may not sound like a very exciting endeavor, I consider Azul a cutthroat puzzle game. While your are working on perfecting your own masterpiece, you're simultaneously finding ways to keep your opponent away from the pieces that they want. (2-4 players, playing time: 30 minutes)
DOWNFORCE: Racers, start your engines! Experience the thrill of maneuvering Formula One cars around the track in this racing board game. Do you have the skills to drive your cars to victory? (1-6 players, playing time: 40 minutes)
BLOKUS: Who can most efficiently place their own shapes as well as block their opponent’s efforts? (2-4 players, playing time: 30 minutes)
ONE NIGHT ULTIMATE WEREWOLF: There are two werewolves and a group of villagers. Werewolves try to keep their identity a secret while villagers try to figure out who are the werewolves amongst them. This game requires quick thinking and bluffing on everybody's part. Super fun party game for groups of 5 or more! (3-10 players, 10 minutes)
SETTLERS OF CATAN: Your adventurous settlers seek to tame the remote but rich isle of Catan. Guide your settlers to victory by clever trading and cunning development. 1995 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (3-4 players, playing time: 45+ minutes)
NO THANKS: Super simple yet exciting game of pushing your luck. Think playing chicken while thinking about probability... (3-5 players, playing time: 15 minutes)
SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS: Race to escape the sinking island of Atlantis with the treasure that you've found. To survive, you must elude sea serpents, whales, and sharks. Who in the world wouldn't like a game where they get to eat their opponent's meeples with sharks? (2-4 players, 45 minutes)
BLINK: Race your opponent to see whose brain can most quickly categorize objects. (2 players, playing time: 10 minutes)
PRIME CLIMB: Ingeniously designed game where you’re using math operations in a race to 101. (2-4 players, playing time: 10 minutes per number of players)
CENTURY SPICE ROAD: Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. (2-5 players, 45 minutes)
STOCKPILE: Buy low! Sell high! Use your insider stock tips wisely! Fantastic stock market game that is simple to learn and has a number of extremely interesting features. Suspenseful, exhilarating, satisfying... I love this game! (2-5 players, playing time: 40 minutes)
STRATEGO: A battlefield game where you are trying to defeat your opponent’s army through cunning and deceit. (2 players, playing time: 35 minutes+)
BOHNANZA: You’re a bean farmer trying to get the best possible deal in a furiously frantic trading game. Despite the fact that this game has caused many marital conflicts, it remains one of my all-time favorite games. (3-7 players, playing time: 45+ minutes)
CARCASSONNE: Who can most efficiently develop their roads, cities, and field (or thwart your opponent’s progress)? 2001 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-5 players, playing time: 30 minutes)
CASH N GUNS, SECOND EDITION: The big heist may have been a success, but it all goes wrong when every crook wants a bigger cut. Players try to intimidate their opponents into letting them have the largest share. (4-8 players, 30 minutes)
CODENAMES: A social word game with a simple premise and challenging game play. Stretch your brain to find creative ways to make connections between words. 2016 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-8+ players, 15 minutes)
DIMENSIONS: A fast-paced 3 dimensional puzzle game where players try to position their spheres to earn as many points as possible. (1-4 players, 30 minutes)
ISLE OF SKYE: You are the chieftain of one of five famous clans and you are trying to build your little kingdom to earn as many points as possible. Point scoring criteria change every round, requiring strategic planning as you design your kingdom. 2016 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-5 players, 45 minutes)
JAIPUR: Go head-to-head with your opponent in this two player game to find the best deals so you can become the official merchant of the Maharaja. (2 players, 30 minutes)
LOST CITIES: Two explorers embark on research journeys to remote corners of the world. The explorer with the highest score after three rounds of expeditions wins. (2 players, 20 minutes)
QWIRKLE: Qwirkle is the perfect game to hone player's tactical maneuvers, strategical planning, and forward thinking. The rules of the game are basic: simply build lines by matching tiles based on either color or shape, and score points for doing so. 2011 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner.
(2-4 players, 30 minutes)
THE RESISTANCE: A social deduction game where you must figure out who the spies are before they sabotage the team's mission. How good are your bluffing and deduction skills? (5-10 players, 30 minutes)
TIMELINE: How good is your knowledge/sense/intuition on historical dates? Your task is simple: take a historic event and place it in the correct place on timeline. (2-8 players, 15 minutes)
UBONGO: Race to rotate, slide, and flip the Tetris-like pieces until the fit together properly. How good are your spatial visualization skills??? (1-4 players, 25 minutes)
LAS VEGAS: Test your luck at the tables in Vegas! You start off your turn by rolling a die, but how you play the die is actually more important than what you roll. Will you beat the odds? 2012 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) nominee. ( 2-5 players, 30 minutes)
FUGITIVE: One player is the marshal, the other player is the fugitive. In this tense, two player game of deduction, the marshal attempts to track down the fugitive while the fugitive is desperately trying to make his getaway. (2 players, 20 minutes)
HANABI: In this challenging cooperative game, players hold their cards so that only the other players can see them. Players must give each other vital information in order to determine what cards to play in an attempt to win the game. 2013 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner.
SABOTEUR: Friend or foe? That's what you must try to figure out as you and your team of dwarves try to find the hidden gold. Is the person next to you trying to help achieve the goal or are they trying to sabotage the mission? The dwarves must find the gold before time runs out while the secret saboteurs try to thwart them.
FORBIDDEN ISLAND: The natives have triggered the island to start sinking as you and your team attempt to steal the four treasures off the island. Can you work together well enough to capture the traits'm treasures or will you be doomed to sinking into the ocean?