BOARD GAMES – 17 Great Family Board Games, Worth Owning, You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.

Not all board games are for kids.  Nor are they all for adults or for families.  The problem is, if you know anything about board games, you’d know there’s hundreds of thousands to choose from. More than you see in major chain stores.

This make finding the right kind of game for the right group of players, difficult.

Jennifer Willits from The Catholic Next Door podcast was in this dilemma. She wanted to look for some family games that she could play with her 6 year old girl and older boys.  She decided to reach out and ask me because she knew I’m a big board game nerd.

I’m assuming she also thought I’d give suggestions beyond the kind of games you’d find at Target or Toys R Us. To this end, I made a list of the funnest, neatest games you can play as a family and include a six year old.

Except, perhaps, for the first three games on this list, you’d probably never heard of these games before. They’re all worth playing and owning.

Below each name I’ve included a board game review, by some board game nerds, so you can see what the games are like. I’ve also included the type of game category this might fall under in brackets. Also, the name and picture of each game is an affiliate link to amazon if you’re interested in getting it and would like to support me as well.  Thanks.

This list is not in any particular order. I wrote them down, mostly as they came to me.

So let’s get started…

Catan

• Strategy game
• 3-4 players
• 90 Minutes

Carcassonne

• Strategy game
• 2 – 5 Players
• 30 to 45 Minutes

Ticket To Ride – Europe

• Strategy game
• 2 – 5 Players
• 30 to 60 Minutes

Terror in Meeple City Board Game

• Dexterity game
• 2 – 4 Players
• 45 Minutes

King of Tokyo

• Dice game
• 2 – 6 Players
• 30 Minutes

Survive Escape From Atlantis

• Strategy game
• 2 – 4 Players
• 60 Minutes

Forbidden Desert Board Game

• Cooperative game
• 2 – 5 Players
• 45 Minutes

Forbidden Island

• Cooperative game
• 2 – 4 Players
• 30 Minutes

Small World

• Strategy game
• 2 – 5 Players
• 40 to 80 Minutes

Stone Age

• Worker placement game
• 2 – 4 Players
• 60 to 90 Minutes

Diamonds

• Trick taking game
• 2 – 6 Players
• 30 Minutes

Tales Of The Arabian Nights

• Storytelling game
• 1 – 6 Players
• 120 Minutes

Can’t Stop

• Dice game, push your luck game
• 2 – 4 Players
• 30 Minutes

Liar’s Dice

• Dice game, bluffing game
• 1 – 6 players
• 15 minutes

Mice and Mystics

• Cooperative game, fantasy adventure game
• 1 – 4 Players
• 120 Minutes

SORRY! Sliders

• Dexterity game
• 1 – 4 Players
• 30 Minutes

Zombie Dice

• Dice game, push your luck game
• 2 – 99 Players
• 10 Minutes

These games run the gamut of categories, from “dexterity games,” “dice games.” “worker placement,” to even “storytelling games.”
If you’re family isn’t into competing against each other Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert are cooperative games and so is Mice and Mystics. This means everyone versus the game.