Opening a new board game makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. What about you?
Brian and I are excited because Christmas came early at our house. We often choose to purchase new games as gifts for us this time of year to cover both Christmas and our birthdays in January.
We took advantage of fantastic deals at our local board game store and on Amazon for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to get several tabletop games that have been on our wishlist for awhile. We wanted to share with you why we got these because they make great presents too.
Holiday Board Game Haul: 10 New Games We're Excited to Play
Here are the list of games we talk about in the video along with convenient shopping links (we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you):
Fantastic Park is a tile placement game by Blue Orange Games. We love Kingdomino, which is by the same publisher, so we grabbed this when we saw it on clearance at our local game store. It's a fun twist on dominoes, but does not play the same as Kingdomino.
You are trying to make a large group of one or two animals that match one of the tiles in your hand. It's interesting because you can place a tile on top of other tiles too. It's played over several rounds.
Villainous by Wonderforge allows you to play as a villain. There are six villains included in this game: Maleficent (Darcy's favorite), Ursula, Queen of Hearts, Prince John, Captain Hook, and Jafar. Each villain has their own deck of cards, a mini figure, and game board.
You need to complete your villain's objective first in order to win. Other players can use the fate action to play heroes on your board, wreaking havoc on your evil plans.
Betrayal at House on the Hill by Avalon Hill is a cooperative game for 3-6 players. It's suspenseful and there will be someone who becomes the traitor. We're looking forward to playing this one. We've heard so many good things about this game and want to play this before getting Betrayal Legacy.
Tea Dragon Society by Renegade Game Studios is a family-friendly card drafting game. The illustrations are absolutely adorable. The game is based on a graphic novel of the same name. We had hoped to try this game while at Origins Game Fair this summer, but they sold out too fast.
Ticket to Ride Europe by Days of Wonder needed to join our collection. Up until now, we haven't had a full Ticket to Ride board game to call our own.
Ticket to Ride First Journey and Ticket to Ride New York have gotten plenty of table love though. It was hard to pass up the incredible deal we saw for this game.
Hero Realms: Ruin of Thandar by White Wizard Games is a campaign deck expansion for Hero Realms – one of our favorite games. They recently had a Kickstarter for a new campaign deck. This one has been on our wish list since June.
It is a cooperative game for 1-5 players against the campaign deck. You do need character packs in order to play it.
Adventure Land by HABA was on sale at our local game store. It looks like a great intro to RPGs for older kids. The box says 10+, but we plan to play it with our 8 year old. There are a few different scenarios you can play and it looks like a fun strategy game.
Qwixx by Gamewright Games is a fast roll and write dice game. It makes the perfect family travel game and is quick and easy to play. We enjoy a lot of games from Gamewright and figured we would love this one too.
Pandemic Iberia is a twist on the classic Pandemic cooperative game by Z-Man Games. The setting is in the mid-19th Century so you do not have access to the same medical and technological advances.
In fact, you cannot cure diseases in this game – only research them. Travel is a bit different as well. This one was recommended to us by our optometrist!
Brian and I have been wanting to play a legacy game for awhile and decided this should be our first one. We've been waiting to get it and couldn't pass up the Black Friday sale for this one.
We're up for a new challenge though we are not sure how much of this one we can share with you along the way.
We hope this our holiday board game haul has helped you with deciding what to gift yourself from your board game wish list! Find even more of our family game suggestions in our Amazon shop.
More gaming gift ideas:
Out of This World Family Game Night Box
10 Board Games to Play at Family Holidays
10 Family Games You Can Play in 20 Minutes
Best Father's Day Gifts for Gamer Dads
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