Board games are one of my favorite forms of entertainment for the following reasons: they involve using your brain, there’s an element of competition, the atmosphere is conducive to chatting and socializing, it’s a great way to meet new people and it fits in kind of perfectly with the frugal lifestyle. I’m lucky in the city that I live in that there are a couple of active groups that meet up regularly for some gaming and I also like to play with friends at my house or at a coffee shop. Here are some of my favorite ones that I recommend:
1.Settlers Of Catan
: considered the original “German-style” game to make it big around the world, this is kind of the gateway game to bigger and better things (ie: moving beyond Scrabble, Monopoly and Clue). It’s really simple and easy to learn and excellent for groups of up to 6 (with the expansion pack). The regular game is for 4 players. Both can be finished in under an hour with experience players. The negatives of this is that it can get really mean and somewhat nasty if you are playing with overly competitive people.
2.Puerto Rico
I much prefer this game to Settlers of Catan because there’s a lot more strategy and while you’re directly competing, the potential to sabotage another player’s game is much less so people tend to not get so angry. Set-up and teaching time takes quite a while longer than for Settlers, so it’s not exactly an absolute beginner’s game.
3. King of Tokyo
: a super-fun, really easy to learn and strategic game. It’s created by the guy who made the game “Magic.” The only downside to this is that you can be “out” in the first 10-15 minutes and then the game can continue on for another hour without you.
