Dominion – I love Dominion it might be my favorite board game of them all. It is a must for any collection and a great intro to the hobby.
Players take turn buying new cards and adding them to your deck, each new card makes your deck better and allows you to do more on your turn.
Each game is always a little different because the supply of cards to buy changes with each game. This mechanic I think is what really makes Dominion great, because it requires you to change your tactics and try new things based on the cards available.
No board game collection is complete without a copy of this one on the shelf.
Pandemic – I know in 2021 the word pandemic might cause a long exhausted sigh.
However, the game pandemic is a great co-op that can be played with friends as you try to stop the spread of infectious diseases.
Like most co-op games you will lose more than you win, but you will always want to play one more to end on a win. If the theme of trying to stop a pandemic is something that doesn’t appeal to you right now, consider the world we live in.
There are a few re-skins of the game that change the theme such as Pandemic Rising Tides which is a great game too.
Carcassonne – Is a tile laying game where players take turns, you guessed it laying tiles to create a landscape.
It is easy to teach and even easier to play, and one of the first games I introduce new players too.
Each turn players lay a tile on a part of the board that has a matching tile, they can also if they choose a meeple to place on the board with hopes it will lead to points.
This game is fun, simple and addictive, there is nothing better than pulling the perfect tile that will finally complete the mega city you have been working on for the whole game and scoring all those points.
I think Carcassonne might be the first boardgame I played years ago that started my love of boardgames. It is a great game whether you are a seasoned board gamer or just getting into the hobby.
New York 1901 – In New York 1901 you are tasked with building sky scrapers in the New York skyline. You do this by drafting cards that allow you to build in certain locations on the map.
The map itself almost has a Tetris feel to it, where you try to make every building fit neatly in the spaces.
What makes this game fun is the building of the sky scrapers, do I build here because it fits perfectly with what I’ve done or do I build over there and stop my opponent from owning an entire city block.
It is simple, fun and just enough conflict with other players that your decisions have impact on the whole game.
Photosynthesis – It’s a beautiful game where players try to grow trees in a forest.
The trees themselves are beautifully colored cardboard cutouts of trees, which as your trees grow you swap out for even taller trees.
Trees grow in the game in relation to where the sun is on the board, during the game the sun rotates causing trees to grow or not.
The taller the tree the bigger it shadows which means any small tree in it’s shadow doesn’t get the sunlight it needs to grow.
Photosynthesis is a fun, easy game to pick and learn and is a must game for any boardgame collection.
