Games and Puzzles

Ticket to Ride features in so many people's top 10 lists of board games and is often recommended to people new to the board game scene.  It is a stategy game in which you compete to connect cities by claiming train routes before your competitors can.

It comes in various formats.  The original one is based on North America.  This, the European one, has routes all over the continent from Edinburgh to Ankara which, unlike the original version, involves tunnels and ferries. 

2-5 players

Age suitability: 8 (bright 8) to adult

Here's an excellent video from 'Watch It Played' on Youtube:

Dixit is a light-hearted party game that works brilliantly when played by a group of 5 or 6 creative people.  It does not work so well with competitive, analytical types.  Yes, there is scoring and a winner but this is a game where the spirit in which you play the game is more important than who won it.

The rules are quite straightforward.  You are dealt a hand of 6 cards.  The artwork on these cards is wonderful, somewhat whimsical, almost surreal.  One of the players is nominated to be the 'Story Teller'.  That person then chooses one of his cards and thinks up a clue about it.  That clue can be anything, a single word, a sentence, a short story, even just a sound.  The other players then look at their own cards and pick one for which the clue might also apply.  The Story Teller then takes each player's chosen card, shuffles them up with his own and then lays them all down face up. Players then have to guess which card is the Story Teller's.  This is where the skill of the Story Teller comes in.  If the clue is too obvious, everyone will guess correctly and the Story Teller gets no points.  If the clue is too obtuse and no one guesses correctly, again the Story Teller gets no points.  After each round, there is inevitably a post-mortem discussion and then a new round begins with a different story teller.

Games take about 30 minutes.

3 - 6 players (up to 12 with one of the expansions)

Age suitability: 8 - adult

Pandemic is the best-known of all the co-operative board games and deservedly so.

You and your co-players travel around the world fighting to contain and find a cure for a deadly disease that is spreading rapidly.  Each player has different roles with specific abilities to contribute to the team.

2-4 players

Age suitability: 8 (bright 8) to adult

Here's a youtube video from 'Watch It Played':

Wooden board marked with the numbers 1 to 90.

90 wooden number discs.

48 cards

28 cm across

Age suitability: 3 years +

BJ788