The list is a group of 12 games that my son and I both enjoy to play together. This is not necessarily a list of my favorite games or his favorite games, but a list of the games we most enjoy playing together. In fact, half of the games on this list wouldn’t even be in our Top choices if we made up separate lists – it is kind of funny how this works out isn’t it - and I thought it might be a good idea to document these games now, so in a year or two we can look back and see what has changed.
A little background, my son (Brandon) is 13 years old, and his gaming experience comes from my ownership of a gaming store when he was about 8 – 11 years old, he was playing games like Warhammer, Necromunda and 40k before he was even a teenager, and he was good at it too! He has a great mind for tactics and strategy as well.
My background in gaming started in the early 1980’s and has continued since then, I have been playing board games and role playing games for nearly 30 years now... I’d love to hear any comments from people who have children and what their experiences are (please add to this list with your parent/child favorite games as well and let me know the ages), I might get some great ideas for games I haven't checked out yet...
I know that playing the board games gives us a chance to spend some quality time together, keeps him mind sharp and also keeps us both out of trouble! Haha. We normally play at least 1 game a week.
Runebound
I initially got Runebound thinking I'd play with my local gaming group, but the interest wasn't as strong there as I had hoped (my local group is made up of two main crowds - the strategy board gamers who like Axis and Allies type games and the miniature gamers playing games like Warhammer - The strategy board gamers want to play more historical games and the mini gamers dont want to 'take a step back' and go from their professionally painted minis to a game like this).
So this game sat on my shelf for a long time - a LONG time. Until one day Brandon and I decided to give it a try. We loved it! He had a great time and I had a great time... We have since bought all of the card and box expansions...
Memoir '44
This is a great game and was a 'stepping stone' for me to get him to try games like Axis and Allies. I didn't think I'd have as much fun with this game as I actually did. We started on Scenario #1 and have slowly been working our way through all of the scenarios for the last several months. He has been playing the Axis and I have been playing the Allies in each game, we keep score of the games each time and have an ongoing point system we made up ourselves. He is slightly winning as it stands now, but not by much... a few more games and the Allies might take the lead...
Axis and Allies: D-Day
I like Axis and Allies and have big games every few months with gaming group buddies, Brandon likes to play as well, but I think the killer on the other Axis and Allies games is the downtime between moves. When this game came out I heard a lot of negative comments from players I knew, but when I tried it out with Brandon is went great!
The turns were fast and action packed, the system is unique and games usually dont take us more than an hour to play now. Downtime between turns isn't even long enough to get up for a drink, so this one has become a great game to play on a regular basis...
This Memorial Day weekend we are going to visit my parents, Brandon and I are going to do our best to get my father to play this one with us and see if we can hook him on games too! When I was a kid my Dad worked a lot and I didn't see him much, so I am hoping maybe he'll enjoy this and I can get some memoires of playing games with my Dad (It's never too late!)
Risk 2210 A.D.
Ok, this is NOT one of my favorite games, I like the Risk type game for a light wargame, but this 2210 game is just a little too out there for me... but then again, I really like the Risk Godstorm game and people I play with give it horrible reviews, so what do I know? haha...
This game was a lot of fun playing with my son and he really likes it. I think that when he really likes a game the game is that much better for me too, even if it isn't one of my favorites.
I remember a gaming group meeting about 9 months ago or so, I was playing with Ricky, John and Wil (and my son Brandon of course) - total of 5 players... Ricky and Wil had this long time dispute going back and forth because Wil is a hard core strategy gamer. I remember when we were setting it up I made a comment to my son "With Wil and Ricky here, I bet I dont even get my turn before someone calls the game..."
Well, sure enough, on turn 1 Wil did something (I cant remember what exactly), but it involved a lot of dice rolling and a lot of Ricky's guys dying... Ricky got up and yelled "I quit! Thats it! Game Over!".
My son laughed and said "Dad, you're right... you didn't even get your first turn!"
(Incase you are wondering, Wil is in his early 30's, and Ricky is 18), but when Ricky is around he causes everyone around him to act like they are 10-year-olds.
Battlelore
Battlelore... ah yes... the game that cost half the car payment (haha)... Seriously, I had wanted to get this game since I heard about it because of the fun I had with my son playing Memoir '44, and one day while in Orlando, Florida at Sci-Fi City I decided to put down the cash and buy a copy... From what the clerk told me, the creator (Richard Borg) plays this game there every weekend. We were there on a Saturday and didn't see him, it would have been nice to say hello to him because of the fun we have with Memoir '44.
In anycase, we have only played this game a couple of times now (We both want to press onward with Memoir '44 before going into this game too deep), but we really liked it a lot and have had a lot of fun with it. I bought the two exclusive guys off of ebay a couple of weeks back so when we did get into this game full speed we would have them.
Carcassonne
This is a game that was made popular in our gaming group a few years ago. I think the reason it became so popular was thanks to Ricky and Wil again... We played a few games and Wil and I were always very much trying to win, we didn't realize it right away, but when Ricky would realize he was going to lose, he changed his strategy from trying to win, to placing tiles down in such a way that Wil and I would get screwed, it started a lot of problems until one day Wil and I realized what Ricky was doing.
All things aside we always had a lot of fun. My son Brandon decided to get in on a few games with us, and he also liked it... While this game is not a game we pull out to play on a regular basis, we always have a great time and a lot of fun playing it.
War of the Ring
I bought this game to use in our gaming group about 2 years ago. My son was only 11 or so at the time but he was (is still) a huge Lord of the Rings fan. He watched the first game played (It was me against two of my gaming group members - Wil and Jason).
I had a headache that day and didn't have an enjoyable time getting my butt kicked by those two. If I had to rate the game then I'd give it a 1 out of 10... I kept getting the pieces confused, couldnt see the dividers between territories, the text on the cards was tiny - a horrible gaming day and one of the only few times I can recall not having a good time.
But Brandon watched us play and in doing so learned how to play pretty well, a few months later he talked me in to taking this game out. I really didnt want to at first, but I knew what a Lord of the Rings fan he was and I took it out and we set it up, read through the rules and played a game - we had a blast, it was a much more enjoyable experience. I havn't tried this game with the gaming group again, but have played it a few times with my son. I have no idea if the experience will be good or bad with the gaming group (or if it was a 3 player game was not as good as a 2 player - or if it was just the simple fact that my son loves LOTR that made it enjoyable)...
Britannia
Who would have thought this would be on there? This game is long and has no minis, so why it was something my son Brandon wanted to play I have no idea... but he did and we did and it was great. If I remember correctly we played a 5 player game the first time (Wil, Ricky, John, Brandon and myself), but it was a looonnggg time ago, so that might not be correct.
I remember when the game started we were playing it more like an Axis and Allies type game (attack the enemy when you could), it was our first game, and we were not very experienced at it, and I remember about half way through we took a break, my son was doing really well and we were talking and I asked him how he was doing so well and he said he was just attacking things that he was supposed to at that point in 'history'...
Where as the rest of us were attacking who we could where we could, he was attacking what the card was telling him to, sometimes passing on an easy victory if it was not on his card as a bonus for that round. I told Wil about it, and in gaming group spirit we filled in everyone except Ricky who ended up losing very bady and getting all worked up... Once again, great memories.
World of Warcraft: The Boardgame
Ok, this is a pretty good game but dear lord - the setup time is a killer. I dont know if it is just us, or if it is like that for everyone, but it just seems like half the time is spent unpacking, sorting, setting up, etc... and it takes up so much room!
All those thigns aside though, it is a great game... Brandon and I also both play the WoW game online, so it is fun to play this from time to time... while this would not be on my personal top 10 list, it is a lot of fun and we have a great time playing it together.
Stargate SG-1
Ok, the basic game blows - bad... I got this because my son and I are both SG1 fans, he has been watching it with me just about since he was in diapers, so when this game came out a few years back it was a no brainer to purchase.
Big mistake... it was almost like a poorly setup game of Risk, we played one game and it sat on the shelf for a good 2 years or more... Then one night while cleaning my game room, I came across it and opened it up... Man, it has a ton of minis, there has to be something to do with this game...
I rewrote the rules, borrowing ideas from other games such as Axis and Allies. I changed it to a 2-3 player, using both colors of the duplicate pieces for each player (so the humans have 2 colored minis, etc.), I also added the token feature like in A&A to designate how many units were in one spot, added some more rules and boom - Kick @$$ game now!
We have a lot of fun playing this and it is very strategic, but it is only fun using our new rules, not the ones that Fleet Games put out (Sorry Fleet games if you read this. I give you an A for effort with the plastic minis, but the game itself is waaayyy to simple for any real gamers to play - which may have been your intent trying to cash in on casual gamers who were fans of the show).
Conquest of the Empire
This game is a favorite in our gaming group... I mentioned not being able to get the gamers to play many fantasy games (Runebound) since they want them to be more historical, but they all love this... I guess it is historical enough, who knows...
In any case, I havent played this one on one with my son, but he really enjoys this game when we take it out with the gaming group, and I do too... We have played this game more than most other games in the group, and a good time is always had by all...
Wizard Kings
We only got this one recently, and I have played a few solo games to get the rules down. Brandon has only skimmed the rule book and messed around with the pieces, but... it looks like this is going to be a good one for us, we both seem to like the system and have a lot of interest in it...
Time will tell, but for now this is my #12 game because it looks like we have a winner here with it...
