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7 Wonders has won a huge number of awards since it was released in 2010.

It can be played by 2-7 players but probably best avoided if there are only two of you.  Games take about half an hour. 

Like most board games, the rules are a little complicated to explain in a few sentences. It's only by playing the game do you really get to understand it.

At the start of the game, you get one of the Seven Wonders of the World and seven cards. You then pass six of the cards to your neighbour.  The one you choose to keep back could be used for several purposes: for resources, to build your Wonder and to strengthen your military might. Of the six cards you receive from your neighbour, you choose one and pass the remaining ones on. It goes on like that until the initial cards are all used and that's the end of the first round or Age 1.  There are two further Ages each a little more complex.à At the end of Age 3, you tot up the points you will have received for your efforts to decide the winner.

Here is a short explanatory video:

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Abalone is like chess played with marbles but thankfully the rules are more simple and straightforward.  It is two-person game that bright seven year olds will be able to play.  There's even an Abalone world championship.

You have a hexagonal board with 14 white marbles set up against your opponent's 14 black ones. When it's your turn, you move one of your marbles, or a row of two or three marbles, one step in any direction. When your marbles meet your opponents, on your next move you can push them backwards, forwards or sideways.  The aim is to push your opponent's marbles off the board and into the gutter that surrounds it but your column of marbles has to bigger than theirs.  So you need two of your marbles to push one of their marbles, three of yours to push two of theirs. The winner is the first to push off 6 marbles.  For most people, the game will last about 20 minutes.

Here's a video explaining it:

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Colourful wooden board with four wooden counters and a dice.

28 cm across

Age suitability: 3 years +

BJ788

Wooden board marked with the numbers 1 to 90.

90 wooden number discs.

48 cards

28 cm across

Age suitability: 3 years +

BJ788

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Camel Up features a camel race and you have to bet on the winners and losers.  Throwing the dice determines which camel moves forward and how far but it's not quite so simple.

Each game takes about half an hour.

3-8 players

Age suitability: 8+

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This is one of my son's favourite games, not least because he always beats me.

Always voted as being in the top ten family board games, Cluedo is a bit of a classic. Millionaire Samuel Black has been murdered.  One of his disfunctional guests did it so who was it, how did they do it and where?  As you move round the house and ask questions of your competitors, can you pice together the truth?  Was it Mrs Peacock, the Rev. Green or the new character, the mysterious Dr Orchid and what weapon did they use and where?

2-6 players

Age suitability: 8+

Here is an American video showing how to play (it's called Clue over there):

 

Colt Express is a fun board game in which you are one of a group of bandits trying to rob a train.  The board itself is a 3D train that you assemble out of cardboard before you play the game the first time. 

Each round of the game has two stages.  In the first stage, the Schemin' Phase, the players try to plan how their character will move around the train in the second stage and what it will do as it moves. So players take it in turn to lay down an activity card.  You will decide, for example, whether it moves from carriage to carriage, climbs onto the roof, robs the passengers, shoots or punches another character or moves the sheriff.  After everyone has laid down there four cards, the second stage, the Stealin' Phase, begins.  The bandits are moved around the train in the way that the cards instruct.  Some bandits may pick up the money and gems, others may be unlucky and meet the sheriff.

The game lasts for 5 rounds which should take about 40 minutes.

2-6 players (better and more chaotic with 4+)

Age suitability: 10+

 

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