10 Games to Start Your Board Game Collection

1. Catan

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players build by spending resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) that are depicted by these resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep.

2. Carcassonne

In Carcassonne, players build the area surrounding this impressive city, one tile at a time. They then place a follower on fields, cities, roads or monasteries in order to score as many points as possible. These followers will become knights, monks, farmers and thieves, depending on where they are placed. No matter their function, the player who will most cleverly use their followers will win the game.

3. Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure game where players collect train cards that enable them to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway.

4. Pandemic

As skilled members of a disease-fighting team, you must keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. You and your teammates will travel across the globe, treating infections while finding resources for cures. You must work as a team to succeed. Pandemic is a cooperative game, all players win or lose together. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics fuel the spreading plagues. Can you find all four cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands!

5. Kingdomino

Kingdomino is a 2 to 4 player strategy game that plays like dominoes with a kingdom-building twist. Each turn you will connect a new domino to your existing kingdom, making sure that at least one of its sides connects to a matching element already in play.

Make sure to include dominoes with crowns on them, because at the end of the game you will score points equal to the total number of matching elements multiplied by the number of crowns.

6. Dixit

The pictures are revealed and only one of them is the answer.

Each player at his turn plays the storyteller. He is given a single picture, while the other players get a hand of six pictures.

The storyteller says a sentence or a word connected to his picture, then each player chooses one of his pictures to bet upon. All pictures are showed face up, and every player have to bet upon what picture was the storyteller’s.

7. King of Tokyo

In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens—all of whom are destroying Tokyo and whacking each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo.

At the start of each turn, you roll six dice, which show the following six symbols: 1, 2, or 3 Victory Points, Energy, Heal, and Attack. Over three successive throws, choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to win victory points, gain energy, restore health, or attack other players into understanding that Tokyo is YOUR territory.

The fiercest player will occupy Tokyo, and earn extra victory points, but that player can’t heal and must face all the other monsters alone!

8. Coup

A stand-alone card game set in the universe of The Resistance.
In a future where the government is run for profit, all but a privileged few live lives of poverty and desperation. The Resistance rises out of these oppressed masses in revolt and throws the government into chaos. To take command, you must destroy the influence of your rivals and drive them into exile. Only one can survive.

9. Azul

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

10. Sushi Go Party!

It’s a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame in this expanded version of the best-selling card game. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing a la carte from a menu of more than 20 delectable dishes. What’s more, up to 8 players can join in on the sushi-feast… let the good times roll!