This is the best game and the worst game to play with your friends! If you have strategic friends, who won’t mind a game that can be cut throat at times, this is your game! This game is a low floor, high ceiling game. It’s easy to learn but it takes time to master. It’s the very reason it’s so addicting! If you have more social, light hearted friends you may want to avoid this one.

The picture of Catan is our actual game and if you notice the frayed and taped edges, you can tell we have gotten a lot of use out of this game!

Ticket to Ride may be the best introductory board game. It has strategy while not having that cut throat feel (at first). It’s also a pretty straightforward, easy to learn game. Catan and Ticket to Ride have many expansions you can delve into. Catan and Ticket to Ride also have kid friendly options too. I think most 8 year olds can handle the normal versions of these games.

King of Tokyo maybe one of the best introductory strategy games. I always leave this game having had fun even if I lose. That can be really hard to say for a strategy game. This game is a little more weird than games like Catan and Ticket to Ride, so you will have to gauge your audience. While it is weird everything is PG.

Dominion is a deck building game. The set-up of this game can vary quite a bit and depending on the beginning set-up so can the strategy. Dominion offers MANY expansions. I wouldn’t say this is a very difficult game to master, but if you haven’t played a deck building game before it may not be the best place to start.

Have you ever thought, “Boy, it would be fun to be a bamboo gardener who was struggling to make a beautiful garden against hungry panda bears?” Well if you have this is the game for you! This game feels a little silly, but it has great game play and is a lot of fun.

Carcassone is one of those games I never remember how to play it when I go back to it. It’s also one of those games when I get done, I want to play it one more time because I didn’t get the strategy the first time. You make a map and you get different points for meeting different criteria. It’s a fun spatial game and has a truly unique feel.

This game is a dice building game. You start out with 2 basic dice and through rolling them you gain the ability to upgrade the faces of the die by replacing them. It’s a fun, unique game with great strategy.

In this game you build a castle. The castle has all sorts of weird rules where certain rooms can only go by other rooms. There are dungeons, gardens and everything a castle should have. It’s a little tricky to learn and the strategy is not linear. However, it is a game that even if you lose can still be a lot of fun!

Power Grid can be a bit long and it can feel like a game that is a little mathematical at times. Just a little. However, it is very fun figuring out how to power cities and upgrading your eletrical production. This is like an RPG for power plants. The other fun part of this game is the auction rounds for new power plants. It creates a fun psychological component.