The days of board games being a last-resort wintry-day activity have long-since passed. Whether you’re in need of a kid-distracting family game or looking to spend a long, dark evening in the company of friends, you should consider these cardboard treats …
Dodo
(2-4 players/10 mins/age 6+)
A colourful, cooperative race against time pitched at younger children but enjoyable for anyone. After setting up a 3D cardboard mountain with the titular extinct bird’s nest at the peak, players must work together, frantically rolling a die and uncovering hidden tokens to build bridges and safely deliver the dodo’s slow-rolling, wobbly egg to their ship.
Sea Salt & Paper
(2-4 players/30 mins/age 8+)
This quick-to-learn, eminently replayable card game features gorgeous origami sea life on each of its cards. But it is in its gameplay that it really comes alive, as you hurry to score points before another player hits the required seven-point minimum, shouts “stop!” and ends the round … Or takes a risk, shows their hand and allows each other player an extra turn, earning a major bonus if their gamble pays off.
Cascadia
(1-4 players/30-45 mins/age 10+)
The winner of this year’s coveted Spiel des Jahres (game of the year) award, and with good reason. Cascadia is lightweight enough for casual players and deep enough for those who crave strategy. Each turn, you pick a hexagonal habitat tile to build up your own north-west Pacific landscape; plus an animal token to place on a suitable habitat, aiming to form point-earning patterns in a pleasing puzzle of a game.
Long Shot: The Dice Game
(1-8 players/25 mins/14+)
Taking up to eight players, this push-your-luck game of 1930s horse racing is perfect for larger gatherings, especially as everybody does something on every turn. After dice are rolled to decide which horse moves forward, you can bet on that horse, buy it, influence its jockey or even mess with the race itself, slowing down horses that other players have bet on, or speeding up your own.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
(1-5 players/60 mins/age 14+)
The groundbreaking 2008 cooperative game Pandemic (defeat global disease through teamwork!), has been adapted for different settings, from ancient Rome to World of Warcraft. This latest implementation neatly transplants Pandemic to the popular Star Wars animated spinoff TV show, but it feels like a game in its own right, as players each choose a hero with their own unique abilities and tackle one of four different villains across that galaxy far, far away.
Undaunted: Stalingrad
(2 players/45-60 mins/age 14+)
Reliving the second world war’s bloodiest battle, this two-player deck building game is utterly compelling. It is simple – play cards to engage your soldiers on the tile-formed battleground – but ingenious, developing as you play over a series of games, during which the tiles change as a result of your warfaring actions, and cards (ie soldiers) are upgraded, or permanently lost.
Crescent Moon
(4-5 players/150-180 mins/14+)
Set in the Abbasid Caliphate, and giving each player – Sultan, Caliph, Murshid, Warlord or Nomad – their own distinct rule set, this is the most complex game here. But it is slickly intuitive, and it won’t be long before you’re doing deals with (and/or backstabbing) other players to edge your way to dominance.
