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Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2012-12-13 06:32 pm
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Board games for 10-12 year olds

 I'm looking for a suitable board/card game for my nephews.  'Forbidden Island' was a great hit for last birthday.  'Ticket to Ride' and 'Settlers of Catan' are already owned.

Any good suggestions?
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[personal profile] cdybedahl 2012-12-13 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Have you seen Wil Wheaton's vidcast "Tabletop"? It's great for learning about new games. http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/
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[personal profile] kerravonsen 2012-12-13 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Usually you're the one I go to asking about games!
(ponders if there are any games I have that you don't already know about)

Snatch is a good quick word game. You have tiles like scrabble tiles, but instead of making words on a grid, you just make them like melds on the table. The twist in the game is that someone can steal your word if they can make another, unrelated word with it and the free titles on the table. Best played with players who have a similar level of skill.

Another one I like that I'm not sure you have is Blokus Trigon. It's the triangular version of Blokus, and I prefer it to the square version, because it's more flexible. What is Blokus? It's a strategy board game where players place pieces on the board according to strict rules, and the winner is the one who gets rid of all their pieces. The pieces themselves are attractive transparent in four different colours, a permutation of all the shapes that one can make out of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 triangles.

[identity profile] wibble-puppy.livejournal.com 2012-12-13 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Cluedo every time - have played this hundreds and hundreds of times, both with my brothers when we were growing up, and with my young nephews more recently. The "super" version is not as good as the original version.

Scrabble is fab, if they are interested in words and able to sustain a fair attention span.

My favourite ever board game is Cathedral - expensive, but beautiful and endlessly fascinating. Has the huge added benefit that each game is relatively short - five to fifteen minutes. Teaches tesselation and space awareness as well as tactics.

I hope you find something you are keen to give and they are delighted to receive :)
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 11:22 am (UTC)(link)
The catch with Cluedo is that once you realise how to win (by recording all the cards that people DON'T have), all the players reach the answer at the same time.

I think they have it, but I don't play it with them so I don't spoil it for them...

I love Scrabble and may give it to them in a few years. Right now, older nephew (who is a bad winner because he gloats) would trash younger nephew.

[identity profile] birdsedge.livejournal.com 2012-12-13 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Risk has been the absolute family favourite since our children were that age and we still play it now when everyone gets together at Christmas. Also the old standby of Monopoly always worked well. Last year I was introduced to Bananagram but it depends on the literacy of the children involved as it's a word game (think speed-Scrabble with everyone making word grids at the same time - against the clock and against each other).
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 11:24 am (UTC)(link)
I love Monopoly. They've got that game and we play it together.

Banagram might be worth it in a year or two when the younger nephew can spell a bit better. (his brother would have too big an advantage)

[identity profile] birdsedge.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, Bananagram is definitely a game for people who can spell.

[identity profile] temeres.livejournal.com 2012-12-13 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Our Saturday night group has recently been having some serious quality fun with Robo Rally, though the games might be a bit long for 10-12 year olds.

[identity profile] rockwell-666.livejournal.com 2012-12-13 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I've recently picked up Discworld - Ankh Morpork and the Doctor Who card game both of which would be suitable for that age range (and older players :-) )

They both play for about an hour and if they're fans of either genre they should love them.

[identity profile] undyingking.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 08:44 am (UTC)(link)
My nephews of that sort of age love Totemo (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72285/totemo) and also Incan Gold (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37759/incan-gold). And Guillotine (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/116/guillotine) of course, if you can still get that.
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 11:32 am (UTC)(link)
Totemo is a thought. I hadn't considered that. We've got Guillotine and they enjoy that when they visit.

[identity profile] eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com 2012-12-14 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
Braggart is a fun card game, which takes about 30 minutes to play. Even my Mum liked it at family Christmas gathering last year.

Carcassonne board game is also very good with lots of replay potential. That one lasts about an hour.

Is there a minimum or maximum number of players the game needs to cater for?
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