I'm board.orgidentifying great board games and activities, so you don't have to
I'm board.org
I highlight three board games I most frequently brought to the table in 2024 and explain just why I find them so darned moreish.
This has been out for some years now (published in 2014!) but I’ve only owned for a year or so but what a game. Colt has everything you could want from a board game – great theme implementation, beautifully illustrated components, shortish game length (30-45mins), fast to play, easy to teach, cool game mechanics, and lots of chaotic hi jinx.
The ‘board’ is a refreshingly unconventional cardboard Wild West era locomotive complete with several carriages and packed with cardboard money bags and gem counters.
Players assume a variety of bandit personalities performing a train heist. Each has differing abilities and must punch, shoot, and move their way through (or across the roof of) the train carriages, collecting loot whilst avoiding being riddled with lead from rivals or the Sheriff.
Turns are performed programmatically by publicly submitting an action card (move, punch, shoot, steal) from their hand to build up a collective deck of player actions across 4 or 5 turns. Once the action cards for the final turn are submitted the deck is turned over and then the actions are enacted in turn moving the bandit avatars on the cardboard train. This mechanic of programming future actions creates a chaotic fun series of near misses, opportune conflicts and foiled plans.
Colt Express has been my go-to favourite game all year. Thoroughly recommend.
It’s such fun and the randomness and foiled action planning is a refreshing skill leveller. There’s no real skill advantage if you’ve played 100 times more than your opponents. Love it. Yeehaw!
Review forthcoming – sorry I really want to spend the time on this one to do it justice
Owned Ok Play for several years now but we only bought OK Duel this summer, which broadens the tile bunfight by allowing a fifth or sixth player to join the base game’s four. We frequently played Ok Play already but having another player or two really takes this to another level of brain jam.
Players have 15 tiles in their chosen colour that are placed in turn, with the sole objective to be the first to get 5 of their tiles horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in a line.
In my opinion OK Play is seriously underrated and should be in more people’s game cupboards. I love its simplicity, speed of play and subtle layers of strategy. It’s the perfect short time filler game (typical game lasts 20 mins) and can be speedily taught to all age groups. Spectacularly robust and weatherproof chunky components too – great game for travel, poolside, at the beach or to take camping.
Wonderfully compelling, compact, strategy-light freeform 5 in a row.
This is the natural successor to perudo/liar dice and involves a very similar bluffing mechanic but plays faster and without dice.
Players take turns placing one from a hand of four beer mats (3x flower designs and 1xskull ) face down in front of them.
Mats continue to be placed face down until someone starts bidding how many mats they can turn over without revealing a skull. Players must now bid a higher number or pass. Whomever bids the highest must demonstrate their mettle by confidently flipping over the staked number of mats. Revealing a skull means they lose a random mat from their hand (so play with a diminished 3 mats next round). If they flip sufficient mats to fulfil their bid without uncovering a skull they win the round. First to win two rounds wins the game.
Super simple, but super addictive. Plays fast (3-5 mins per round), you can play this one virtually anywhere. You could of course make your own home-made version (although you try finding a pub that still uses beer mats!) but the sturdy card designs in the set are simply gorgeous.
Moderate
3-6
30 mins
Easy