11 Board Games You Need To Add To Your Collection STAT

Last updated on 19 January 2024

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You should definitely check out these board games.

Over the summer I managed to score myself six new games, thanks to both Christmas and birthday gifts from friends and family (they know me so well! Okay, so I gave them a list of things that they could consider…and it paid off!). Some of them I had heard of before and were excited to play, and a few were brand new to me. Sparred on my newly acquired games and ever-growing collection which is now bursting from the cupboard, I thought it was high time I did another games post. If you can remember my last one, I chatted about Five Board Games I Love, and while, looking back, that is a great list, it’s grown a lot since then.

If any of these take your fancy, check out the Board Gamer if you’re in New Zealand.

Above and Below (2-4 players)

A new favourite of mine, this is an adventure sort of game with storytelling element, as wells resource collecting, village building, worker hiring, and building your new home above and below ground. It’s such a fun game and I highly recommend it, especially if you like storytelling (or have played D&D).

Raiders of the North Sea (2-4 players)

These Vikings are my people. Okay, obviously not really, but I am nearly a 1/5th Norwegian so I like to claim a little Viking every now and then. In Raiders of the North Sea (which is actually a part of a series of games), you move little workers around aboard, collecting silver, and provisions, and hiring Vikings to go on raids to pillage villages and steal resources, which you then take to the Chieftain to get points. It’s a Victory Point collecting game and it’s a lot of fun.

Castle Panic (1-6 players)

I had never heard of this game until I saw it on YouTube, but it’s a fun-but-stressful game where you place tiles on the board, killed off trolls, goblins and orcs, protect your castle walls, and ultimately work together to get rid of all the monsters before they get rid of you. This game also has a solo mode, so you don’t even have to play with others!

Takenoko (2-4 players)

The cutest wee game you ever did see! The Emperor of China has gifted the Emperor of Japan a giant panda, and the Emperor of Japan has popped it in a garden where bamboo grows. You have three jobs in Takenoko: grow bamboo as the gardener, feed the panda the bamboo you’ve grown, and expand the garden to grow yet more bamboo. It’s an adorable game that uses cards, bamboo shoots that you stack on each other to grow towers, hexagonal tiles (like Settlers of Catan), and little figurines that you move around the board you create by placing said tiles.

Tokaido (2-5 players)

Another Japanese-themed game, you are travellers on the road between olden day Tokyo and Kyoto, and you must pick up touristy things along the way; snapshots of Mt Fuji, clothing and accessories, try all the good food and reach the end with the most points. This has to be one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen.

Unstable Unicorns (2-8 players)

If you like card games and unicorns, then this game is for you. Even you don’t like unicorns (gasp! Monster!) then this is still a really fun game. You collect cards to fill your stable with unicorns, who have magical powers and can cause mischief on other players and their stables. Does kinda random, I know. But I promise it’s good fun and the pictures are wonderful. There are also a few expansion packs, one of which I have: the Dragon pack. Hello. That’s right. Dragons!

Update, 2020: There is now also a variation on the game, Llamas Unleashed. It’s essentially the same game … but with llamas.

Exploding Kittens (2-5 players, up to 9 with expansions)

Surely you’ve heard of this one before, right? Exploding Kittens is another card game, but instead of collecting cards, it’s a fast-paced game where you could literally explode and lose at any moment. There are attack cards so you can catch your friends out, avoidance cards so you can avoid getting attacked by them, and eventually there’s a strategy as to how to be last person standing. There’s also an Imploding Kittens expansion pack and an additional Streaking Kittens pack which gives you 15 more playing cards.

Citadels Deluxe Version (2-8 players)

There’s also the standard version of Citadels available, but the Deluxe version is so much better. In Citadels, you are trying to build a city using cards, which you pay for using coins. Your character determines both when you have your turn and what you can do each round, but here’s the catch: your character will change at the end of every round. It’s a strategy game, but with the deluxe edition giving you more characters to choose from; it can be a friendly city-building game, a cut-throat murdery game, or a money-heavy game. Whatever configuration of characters you put together for a game determines how it might play out.

Santorini (2-4 players)

You’ve finally made it; you’re a Greek god/goddess. Well done. Using your powers to control the mortals down below, you build the Greek island city of Santorini. Whichever god/goddess you are gives you a certain power which allows you to build faster, climb higher, or cut the other players down. It’s definitely a strategy game, and you have to really think about each move, but it’s a fun building game too, with different city parts to create the town.

Bohnanza (2-7 players)

Or as my friends and I like to call it: Beans. Bohnanza is a card game in which you are a gardener planting beans in your fields. The beans are depicted on cards which are placed in front of you in different piles to indicate which types of beans you’re currently growing. You gain coins for the beans you grow, swap bean types with other players, and ultimately want to have to most coins by the time you get through the central pile of bean cards three times, and the game ends. It takes a little practice to figure out what moves are best, but when you get the hang of it it’s a really great game. There are also some fun expansions but start with the base/original game first.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (1-4 players)

This has got to be one of my favourite board games of all time. Play Harry, Ron, Hermione or Neville (or Luna in the Monsters Box of Monsters expansion) and use your character abilities to gain coins to buy spells, magical items, and enlist the help of other characters (via cards, not your other players). All of these cards are then used against a seemingly never-ending attack of villains. Progress through the school Years as you go, eventually defeating Voldemort at the end and saving Hogwarts! It is a cooperative deck-building game, and it’s bloody brilliant, as Ron would say. Update: There is now also a Charms and Potions expansion pack which looks very cool!

How many of these games have you played? Have any suggestions for me?