Classic games like chess, Jenga and Twister are still one of the best board games for kids. However, in this article, we will recommend some of the more unique and yet fun board games for you to explore with your kids. Most of them are family-oriented whereby some of the games take less than half an hour to play, while others may take longer time to unfold. Note that the following board games are arranged in an age-suitability order starting from the younger kids. Just scroll all the way down if your kids are older.
For similarly interesting and fun card games, do read our sequel article “Card Games to Play with your Kids & Teens“.
3) Dream Home
Verdict: Let your child learn home responsibility through this exciting board game. Starting with an empty house, players need to furnish and decorate to build the best home throughout the game. Players are scored based on rooms, decor, home functionality and roofing. Dream Home is definitely educational, and yet fun to play with your kids! You may even make it more interesting by asking your child to design their “house” according to your current home.
Game play: Dream Home is played over 12 rounds and during each round, players take turn to take a pair of cards from a column ( 1 room card and 1 resource card). Players must then immediately place the room card onto their “house” board and this card cannot be moved unless you get a specific tool or helper card that tells you to. You do not have to play the rooms in specific order but you have to ensure that there is no empty space directly below the room card, any normal or unique room cards must be placed on the top two floors, and only basement cards can go to the basement spaces. After the 12th round, everyone should have 12 rooms in their home and the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Age Suitability: Age 7 and above
Number of Players: 2 to 4
Game Time: 30 minutes
4) Ticket to Ride
Verdict: A rather quick game, Ticket to Ride is the very definition of a family board game and it can be learned in under 15 minutes. The game play is simple and yet it requires intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn. Players may earn quick points or save up for higher points. A small suggestion if you have younger players in the game, you can remove the Destination Tickets to lower the complexity.
Game play: Each players only can make one out of 3 possible moves each turn. You can only either draw train cards, claim a route, or draw destination tickets. Train cards are used to claim routes in the game. The goal is to score the most points through building route between two adjacent cities on the map, completing routes from the Destination Tickets, or building the longest continuous route.
Age Suitability: Age 8 and above
Number of Players: 2 to 5
Game Time: 45 minutes
5) Camel Up!
Verdict: You and your family will have a good laugh playing Camel Up! It’s like horse bet. Players are to bet on five racing camels at any point of your turn, trying to suss out which one will place first and last in the race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the higher points you score. Only if you guess correctly of course, you will get your points deducted if the bet is wrong. Watch your kids and family scream and laugh as you unveil the winner in this unpredictable game. You’ll never know how the race ends and that’s the fun part!
Game play: Each player will have 5 betting cards (one for each camel), some tokens and a double-sided desert tile. At every turn, the player can only choose to take one out of four actions. You can either:
- Move a camel by rolling the dice and earn 1 token
- Place a desert tile with the option to either allow a camel landing on that tile to move forward or backwards. You will also earn 1 token anytime a camel lands on your desert tile.
- Bet on either the winner or loser. You may bet all 5 camels if you want to, but do note that you will also get tokens deducted for wrong bets.
- Take a betting tile. Take a betting tile for a camel that you think will come in first or second for that round. The earlier you bet, the higher tokens you will earn at the end of the round
The round ends when all five dices are used and you may collect your tokens for bets during that round. Restart and repeat the round again until the winner emerge to the finishing line. The fun part about Camel Up! is that camels don’t run neatly. They will end up landing on top of other camels and the dice will determine who runs. If the bottom camel runs to the finish line, all the camels on top will follow through the finishing line. In this case, the camel at the top is the winner.
Age Suitability: Age 8 and above
Number of Players: 2 to 8
Game Time: 20 to 30 minutes
6) Cluedo
Verdict: If you and your kids love CSI or crime solving, Cluedo is definitely the board game for you. Taking on the role as a detective, players need to solve a murder by determining who is the murderer, murder weapon and location. As you make suggestions in the game, you will eliminate possibilities and slowly get closer to the truth. Cluedo has been around for a long time and it is the favorite board game of many for many generations.
Game play: Your objective is to move to different rooms in the mansion to investigate. During your turn, move your token by rolling the dice or use a Secret Passage when you are in a corner room. You may only move horizontally or vertically and you are not allowed to enter the space twice or if it is occupied by another player. While moving forward, you may also want to block doors to prevent your opponent from entering or trap them in a room; and vice versa. Once you are in a room, make a hypothesis by naming a suspect, murder weapon and the room you just entered.
All opponents, starting from your left must try to prove that your suggestion is false by showing you one card that matches your suggestion. The answer to the murder is kept inside an envelope, which means your hypothesis will be correct if no one holds the card. If you know the answer, you may make an accusation at the end of your turn. Then, you must secretly check your answer in the envelope. If you are correct, you win the game. However, if otherwise, you lose and must leave the game. The game will continue with the remaining players until the murder is solved.
Age Suitability: Age 8 and above
Number of Players: 3 to 6
Game Time: 10 to 60 minutes
7) Sagrada
Verdict: Sagrada is a great game for children and adults which trains our strategy planning and problem solving skills . The game may seem easy, but it will require your kids to think properly how they should arrange the dice and plan strategies they can use to score higher points to win the game.
Game play: Players are required to complete a stained glass window with grid of dice accordingly. Some of the tiles on the board have restrictions on which colour or value of dice that can only be placed there. The catch is that the dice of the same color or value cannot be placed next to each other (diagonally & vertically). Each player will take turn to take the lead to pull a specific number of dices, depending on the number of player out of the Dice Bag at random and rolls them. The lead player will then pick a dice of their choice, followed by the next player. Special tools can be used to help bend the rules by spending skill tokens. At the end of the 10th around, the highest scoring window artisan wins the game!
Age Suitability: Age 9 and above
Number of Players: 1 to 4
Game Time: 30 minutes
8) The Settlers of Catan
Verdict: Catan is surely one of the most popular strategy board games. The game play is pretty simple and easy to learn. Even for those who has little experience in board game has high chance to win. There is definitely a lot of strategic depth involved in this game, but a healthy amount of luck is also needed to win the game. One of the plus point for Catan is that your kids will learn negotiation and interaction skills through trading resources, on top of critical thinking.
Game play: Players have to gather resources to build settlements, cities and road. Each settlement will earn you 1 victory point while each city is worth 2 victory points. In order to build new settlements, you need to build roads from your original position. At each of a player’s turn, the player has to roll the dice to get resources, trade resources, build roads, settlements or cities, buy development card and use it at any time of your turn. You get one resource if you have a settlement at the space where the number equals to the dice roll (at any player’s turn). If you have a city, you get two of the resources. Having the longest road by the end of the game will earn you 2 victory points. Another way to earn points is to build a certain development card. The first player that gets 10 victory points wins the game.
Age Suitability: Age 10 and above
Number of Players: 3 to 4 (5-6 players with extension pack)
Game Time: 30 – 90 minutes
9) Isla Dorada
Verdict: While all players are brave explorers on an expedition for treasures, this board game can be pretty competitive. Depending on your respective expedition quests, you will see some interesting teamwork going on. You may have 2 players going against 2 players, or you may even have 3 players going against 1 player. As the game is solely played by bidding and negoating, your kids will learn trading skills as well as interaction skills. The game play and rules are really simple, which makes this game suitable for parties and family gatherings.
Game play: Your main objective is to score points by completing expedition quests and collecting treasures, while avoiding cursed destination. At the same time, you will want to try blocking other player’s objectives. The flow of a single turn is simple. The starting player will have to make a bid on a destination they wish the team travel to. In clockwise order, players must make higher bid for their desired destination until there are no higher bets. Do note that players can only bid the amount if they have the necessary Adventure cards to pay for the bid. After each round, all players can choose to take one face-up card in the centre or to draw a random card from the draw pile into their hands. The player who wins the bid for that round will start bidding the next round. These steps are repeated until the expedition end at the 16th round. Points are then calculated and the player with the highest points wins the game!
Age Suitability: Age 10 and above
Number of Players: 3 to 6
Game Time: 60 to 90 minutes
10) Pandemic
Verdict: This worldwide best seller board game is a truly cooperative game where it is either all of you win or lose. All the players in the game are mainly a team of specialists in various fields and your task is to find cures for several deadly disease before mankind is wiped out. Every character has their strengths, hence, it requires a lot of teamwork in planning a strategy to cure the diseases. With loads of expansion packs, this game never gets old!
Game play: The game starts with dealing role cards to each player. Taking unique role within the team, players must strategise to mesh their strengths to cure diseases. On each turn, a player can perform up to 4 actions – travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure or build a research station. Once you are done, you have to draw 2 cards from the draw pile. If a player draws any epidemic cards, diseases’ activity will be accelerated and intensified. You and your team wins the game when you have cured all the diseases. Note that you do not need to eradicate the diseases to win. However, it there are 8 outbreaks or all the diseases cubes are used and you needed one, you then lose the game.
Age Suitability: Age 13 and above
Number of Players: 2 to 4
Game Time: 45 minutes
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There you have it! Our recommended board games to play with your kids and teens. Which are your favourites? Let us know your picks in the comments below! If you love these games, you will you’ll also be interested to explore “Card Games to Play with your Kids & Teens” and “Fun Activities to do with your Kids at Home“.
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